Often when you see macro images of insects they have either been chilled or frozen or gassed. This keeps them from moving during setup and exposure. I am no big fan of bugs but do not feel any creature should be harmed for the sake of a photograph. While doing a little routine maintenance on the kayaks this evening, I noticed a motionless wasp on the driveway. Upon further investigation, I determined it had recently died and decided it would make for an interesting subject. As I was setting up my shot, Jeanine came in from her garden with a live white caterpillar. When she set the little fur puff down it remained quite still. I thought posing the two insects together would make for a more interesting image and was pleased that the caterpillar was so cooperative.

Massachusetts driver’s licenses are oriented vertically until age 21 after which they are oriented horizontally to help ensure alcohol is not served to minors. Kyle has been using his passport to prove his age for the last few weeks and was pleased when his new license arrived in the mail today. This tiny document identifies the owner as a true adult. Even though my memories of Kyle as a child remain vivid, and as much as I want to hold on to that image of my little “Champino”, I too see an adult before me these days. I must say that I like the man he has become.

When I look out my second floor office window there are certain things I generally do not expect to see. A man in a yellow hard hat safely falls into this category. The window seals of our building are in need of maintenance which prompted this most surprising visit. Hard to describe the response I had to this floating head as it ascended into view.

Formerly the Bromfield School, built in 1877, this building is now home to the Town of Harvard’s Public Library. When I arrived early to pick Maya up from a soccer evaluation (she is considering playing for a club team next spring) I opted to look for a nice photographic opportunity rather than wait in the parking lot. When I spotted this library, the sun was already setting which lit up the clouds nicely. I looked for a shooting angle that would isolate the building from others in the background and reveal only the historic portions of the structure. I settled on this perspective and am quite happy with the result.

This female Common Yellowthroat has one mighty headache after trying to fly through one of the glass windows on our sun porch. He rested for ten minutes, mostly with his eyes closed, before flying away. When I saw him in the same place on the deck for more than 5 minutes I realized what had happened and grabbed my camera. I got a quick soccer practice in this morning and spent the balance of the day in my woodshop.
I completed the top for a table I am making for the deck and deconstructed the 20-foot long pallet on which the deck boards were delivered. Some of the wood will be used for projects the remainder will be added to the fireplace pile.

When his friends invited Nico to go for a hike up Devil’s Staircase with their dogs, he decided he would bring Nala with him even though she hates riding in cars. If not for the fact that he can lift her with one arm, there would be no other way to get her into the car. I was so surprised that he actually got her to sit in the front seat that I quickly grabbed my camera to document this rare occurrence. In the evening we belatedly celebrated Kyle’s 21st birthday (August 5th). His cake featured 4 tiny shot glasses filled with liquor acknowledging his right to legally consume alcohol now, not that legal concerns have ever stood in his way.

Maya asked for and received permission to sample one of the shots. Rarely does a photograph tell the entire story but the one below comes pretty close.

Maya attended the Slocum Soccer Camp all week with several of her friends to get tuned up for the fall season as a high school freshman. This year her 4v4 and 11v11 teams both won their respective all-camp tournaments, the latter of which Jeanine and I were able to witness this afternoon. Her play is looking very strong. She shut down the offense while playing sweeper and contributed a beautiful assist after being moved up to a wing midfielder position. The soccer-themed cake she prepared with fellow campers Fiona and Sarinnagh did not fare so well in the baking competition but she was nonetheless pleased with her two awards for athletic competition.

Normally teenagers do not respond well to 6:30am wake up calls. My niece Rachel, however, was up and at’em in anticipation of our early morning kayak outing on the Sudbury River. We covered a good four miles and saw as many herons and dozens of swallows during our one hour paddle which started with a light fog hovering over the water. I taught Rachel to paddle the last time she visited and she needed no additional instruction this time looking like an old pro. We were quiet on the water but I had a nice chance to check in with her on the car ride to and from the put in.

It is not often when my iRobot duties include taking small children out for ice cream but this evening that is exactly what I did. As a result of the decision to consolidate our California offices in Pasadena we have two families visiting Bedford to explore the area and look at potential housing options should they elect to relocate here. I decided that plying their children with ice cream and bumper boats at Kimball Farm could only enhance the chances that they look favorably on a move to the Boston area. I enjoyed meeting both spouses and hope I will be seeing them again.

My nephew John is a frequent visitor and has spent part of the summer living with us. Far more rare is a visit from his sister Rachel who is two years older than Maya and her closest cousin in age. Needless to say, we are thrilled to have her with us and it was very nice to have all our kids plus two cousins around the table for dinner this evening.

Our vacation has come to an end and it is time to return to Boston. The return flight offered an opportunity to review all my photographs and to reflect on our time spent together. The quality of any couples vacation can be maximized by correctly solving for SHE (the Spousal Happiness Equation). This multi-variable measure of contentment is difficult to express quantitatively but easy to measure photographically. I think I can safely say that this vacation yielded an extremely high SHE index and I submit the following photos as evidence. The entirely different but highly correlated HE index is directly proportional to the SHE index although photographic corroboration would not be suitable for this blog.

The entire reason for our Northwest vacation was so that we could attend the wedding of my friend Nora Micheva. I was her Gordon Engineering Leadership mentor while she attended MIT and I have enjoyed watching her grow academically, professionally, and personally. When she moved to Seattle with Simon, her fiance, to take a job with Microsoft, I introduced them to Cindy and Rob (who launched his career at Microsoft). I was able to spend a few minutes with Nora to wish her well and am happy to have this photo of us together which Cindy took with my camera. The intimate wedding was held on the grounds of the DeLille Cellars winery in Woodinville.

Our pace today is decidedly more relaxed than yesterday as we make our way from Lake Wenatchee to Seattle where we will be staying at the home of Jeanine’s close friend Tess Robins and her boyfriend. Along the way we stopped for numerous landscape photo opportunities and to pick up lunch in the small town of Leavenworth, population ~2000. The city struggled until 1962, when business owners cooperated to form a mock Bavarian village, inspired by the California town of Solvang which I visited several times while working out of Sonos’ Santa Barbara office.

Jeanine and Tess have been friends for half their lives. They met while working together at a restaurant in Indianapolis shortly before Jeanine and I were introduced and have remained close since.

After dinner Jeanine left with Tess while I lingered for a few tourist shots of Pike Place Market at sunset.

The timing of our visit to Lake Wenatchee could not have been more ideal. The weather has been spectacular and the lake was opened to Sockeye Salmon fishing last week because the natural spawning escapement goal of 23,000 fish had been exceeded by 7,000. Jeanine has long wanted to fish for salmon and she was up bright and early with a twinkle in her eye. Rob, an expert fisherman, positioned our boat and set the depth of the lure (~80 feet) perfectly. In less than two minutes we had a strike and Jeanine was on the pole to reel in what turned out to be the biggest fish of the day and dinner for this evening.

Less than thirty minutes after starting, we reached our four fish limit and returned to shore where Rob cleaned and filleted our catch before we were treated to a gourmet breakfast.

Next on the agenda was a hike to Minotaur Lake (5,550 feet) and Labyrinth Mountain (6,376 feet). Short and steep, the trail to Minotaur Lake ascends through hemlock forests into a sub-alpine region of heather and huckleberries before reaching this emerald lake filling a cirque below Labyrinth Mountain.

Another 100 feet further and a great view of Theseus Lake opens up. Jeanine and Cindy opt to pause for lunch at Minotaur Lake while Rob, Ann and I continue on to Labyrinth Mountain for an exceptional 360 degree view of the Cascades.