St. John River 2011

 Night one: Nice, in-control fire. This is at the starting gate of our trip at Baker Lake.

 Day one: Matt, Seth, Myles. Third week of May the water remains pretty chilly.

 Day two: Sam stabilizing the canoe as the team almost takes water over the gunnel. Seth and I went swimming.

 Day two: Evolution of the fire. Rotted out pith and heartwood of the trunk makes for good fire.

 Day two a few hours later: In-control fire?

Day Three: Seth and Seeka

Day Four: Shementicook: Heading down Shementicook where we would could finally get a chance to swim in freezing cold class three rapids. (Photo courtesy of Dave Martinelli)
And that concludes a highly condensed three or four day trip down the St. John river.

Great Blue Heron

The head of a great blue heron peaks over the dock during a foggy morning on Cobbossee.

Screw Auger Falls

Screw Auger Falls is found in Grafton Notch State Park. Amazing what melting glacier water carrying sand and rock can do to granite.

Bald Eagle and the Fox

 A bald eagle takes flight from a pine tree near Cobbossee lake.

A fox wakes up from a nap in this dilapidated barn in Readfield.

Parrilla

In Buenos Aires, cooking over an open fire is a must. The gauchos of the pampas developed this method of Argentine barbeque.  Parrillas can be found all over the city. Some are more vigorously kept local than others. We arrived at one in particular that would not have served me if they heard my bad Spanish dialect. The result of standing back and having someone give the order was a perfect harmony of meat and bread. This particular picture comes from a much more upscale restaurant. It is closer to the 'a la vara' cooking method, which keeps the ingredients from making direct contact with the flames of the fire.

Seal

Portland harbor is home to this seal. And apparently this seal usually is accompanied by another seal (which i didin't see). A man walking by saw me taking pictures of the seal and told me that the seals visit every day around high tide. They have been doing so for about two years.  He said that they come in because this is one of the sewer discharge areas.

Shrimp Cocktail

Augusta Country Club serves up some shrimp cocktail over the holidays.

Gabbi

Gabbi, the Hopkins Flowers mascot and spokeskitty.She is a Pisces and loves to sleep in boxes. Go and see Gabbi. She is the worlds friendliest cat. I just wish her and Tonka didn't get off on the wrong foot.

Snow Falls

I was at Snow Falls last year hoping to get a nice shot of the falls, which has carved its way through rock making a really interesting gorge.  But then the sun came bursting out of the clouds and suddenly, it was the brightest day in history. Anywho, I was walking along and found this scene which I thought was really interesting. I ended up losing my tripod screw that day.

Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay

Colonia del Sacremento is the oldest city in Uruguay. It is a wonderful historical city located right on the Rio de la Plata. Consequently, it is very much a tourist attraction. La pescado en Uruguay es muy bien. Me gusta la comida mucho. In 2009 when I was there the exchange was 6-1 peso to dollar. But prices still remained relatively expensive in this city.

Sunrise at Cutler

Cutler is amazing. It has to be some of the most rugged coastline in Maine. We camped out on the rocks the night before this picture was taken and listened to waves smash against the wall of rock all around. It was great to watch the sunrise from one of the eastern most points in the U.S.

Cayman Islands

Another day in the Cayman Islands. Gin and Tonic, made special every morning.

Blue Christmas Wreath

Gary Hopkins of Hopkins Flowers and Gifts decorates a balsam fir Christmas wreath with silver glitter Well done, sir. I particularly like the blue. It's different.

Cobbossee Lighthouse and Cormorants

Cobbossee Lighthouse found on Ladies Delight Island is believed to be the only active inland waters lighthouse in Maine. The lighthouse was built in 1908.

Cayman Islands

Petunias found on the beach on Grand Cayman Island.

Portland Headlight

Portland headlight was built between 1790-91 back when Portland was one of the busiest ports in America.

Loon and chic

Loon and chic on Maranacook lake.

Miss Kelly

Beautiful Kelly with martini in hand.

Water Displacement

It took Norm Larsen 40 tries to get it right.

Thank you Trey

The security guys were nice enough to let me take some pictures.

Grey Jay

Ahh, the Grey Jay.  What an overly friendly bird. These birds are well known amongst anyone who has spent time in the woods as food bandits. They will literally come around when they smell a camp fire and land on one's head or hand providing they get food. This particular bird and its partner did not seem to want food however, unless dive bombing at high rates of speed were their act to earn a days worth of bread. Oh, and if you haven't seen Dead River rough cut, you should. Especially if you are considering coming to Maine as a tourist.

Christmas

Christmas time, is here. We still have a fake tree and no snow.

Regatta- Rio de la Plata, Buenos Aires

Sailing on the beautiful waters of the Rio de la Plata, one of the largest rivers in the world. It was called the river of silver not because of its infectiously vibrant brown colored water but because European settlers were anticipating finding large sums of the mineral. However, they did not find large sums of silver.
We came in 4th place in the regatta.

Gomero Tree

Here is the Gomero Tree, or rubber tree, found outside of Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. These trees have expansive canopies and can be found in parks both gated and non-gated throughout the city. They are all quite incredible.

Tonka and Gia

Sorry Tonka, I had to post this picture of you.

Vaughn Woods