Little Ice-Bat has been so excited as his Chicago Blackhawks made the Stanley Cup Finals, so he drummed up some extra support to watch tonights game 2 with in the form of his big cousin.
Half way through the 3rd and final period and the hawks are up 2 to 1, but Icy knows not to rule out the Flyers early as they certainly don't want to go down two games to zip.
Monday 31 May 2010
Uglyworld #588 - Stanley Cup Finals Time
Uglyworld #587 - Mireille's New MP3 Player (152-365)
Project 365 - Image 152/365
Babo came with me today to Fry's Electronic store in the neighbouring city of Wilsonville to try and find a new MP3 player to take home for Mireille, Babo decided upon this one as being his favourite as he said from the start, "1Gb is just way to small for all those good musics, and 2Gb is only two times that amount, so 4Gb or more is the target".
This little MP3 player has 4Gb of onboard storage capacity with a Micro SD slot to expand it further and comes with a cool full 2.4" colour navigation screen can play video as well as audio.
Of course Babo was sure to first call Mireille to let her know that he was opening it up once back in the hotel to make sure it worked ok, so he's been sitting with music blaring for the last hour or so.
I tried to tell him he already proved it works, but he said it needs an extended text to "really really prove it!". He can be such a funny little guy at times!
Uglyworld #586 - A Salute For Memorial Day (151-365)
Project 365 - Image 151/365
With today being Memorial Day Cinko and Turtle wanted to do a salute in front of the American Flag (which actually came all the way from a clothes shop in Aachen).
Originally Trunko had planned for us to drive up to Mount St Helens to explore the lava tubes and then Northwards to Spirit Lake, but the entire morning so far has been a washout with heavy rain.
Babo discovered that the American TV channel AMC is showing war films back to back all day and has taken up his position in the bed to lie and watch as many as he can all day.
Uglyworld #585 - Turtle at Winter Falls
The final waterfall of our hike around Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, USA was Winter Falls and since Turtle had been snapped at the first waterfall of the day it seemed only fair to let him be the one that closed out the days fun too.
InTurtle's own words, "Today has been a day that only a Turtle could fully appreciate, it is a perfect days activities which will be forever recorded in Turtle Time magazine, along with some images of the day too!".
I really hope that the little guy is able to get us a copy of the magazine showing his stories and pictures, as yet all we've heard or seen is what he's told us himself.
Uglyworld #584 - Icy at Double Falls
Ice-Bat said that visiting single waterfalls was for kids, and that the only waterfall he was really interested in seeing was Double Falls which is the largest of the waterfalls in the Silver Falls state park thanks to it having a small waterfall on top of a larger waterfall which when combined are 178ft tall (a whopping foot or 12 inches more than South Falls which boasts 177ft in one single waterfall).
He did his best to fly up to the top but he had to give up as he said the spray was too dense.
Wedgehead asked, "Does you mean the water is stupids?" when he heard Icy say it was dense - sometimes I wonder if Wedgie has been taking "stupido" lessons from Jeero.
Uglyworld #583 - Wedgehead at Lower North Falls
Wedgehead was amazed that the sun had come out when we had finally reached Lower North Falls. He stopped several other people who were out hiking to explain to them that the golden ball in the sky was out, which he said, "The golden ball being outs in Oregon is even more specials than the waterfalls, as alls it has dones here since we arrives is rain, rain and more rains".
Uglyworld #582 - Babo at Lower South Falls
Having already been soaked at South Falls waterfall, Babo made full use of the hood on Cinko's jacket as he walked around the back of Lower South Falls waterfall where the spray was quite intense.
Babo explained, "There is so much waters here at the moments, as we is just at the end of springs, which means that alls of the snows on the mountains is meltings and makings the rivers flow more waters to these waterfalls".
He's as smart as ever, even after the horrible jetlag he suffered on his way to America.
Uglyworld #581 - I'm So Glad I Borrowed Cinko's Jacket
The cool thing about most of the large waterfalls which reside inside Silver Falls state park is that you can walk behind the waterfall and experience it's raw energy up close and personal.
By the time Babo had walked round behind he was soaking wet but after a quick shake off he was ready to pose for his obligatory picture in which he said, "I is going to shows everyone the size of the waterfall with my hands".
So there you have it, it's BIG!
Uglyworld #580 - Turtle at South Falls
South Falls waterfall was the first stop on our hike through the forest of the Silver Falls State Park - at 177ft tall South Falls is the second largest waterfall in the park.
Sunday 30 May 2010
Uglyworld #579 - Ralf Wants To Play In Crescent Lake
Our daytrip to the Olympia State Park ended as we passed along the South shore of Crescent Lake (so close to Canada that we could make out it's silhouette as we passed through Port Angeles a few miles before).
Ralf was adamant that the last shot of the day should include him, so here you have Ralf barking his goodbye's to Crescent Lake and Olympia State Park which provided some great sights and plenty of fun for everyone.
(Stories for the other shots will be online tonight once I return from todays daytrip to Silver Falls).
Uglyworld #578 - Turtle at Crescent Lake
Turtle's final appearance for the day in front of the camera took place on the shores of Crescent Lake in Northern Washington State, where the sun decided to come out for the first time in around 400 miles of driving up until this point.
Turtle explained that he would be spending the next 170 or so miles writing more of his travel stories for Turtle Time magazine, but in reality he was snoozing in the back seat within a few miles of us leaving Crescent Lake.
Uglyworld #577 - We Must Goes This Way
After us managing to take a wrong turn somewhere near Lake Pleasant Cinko helped us out by pointing out the way we wanted to go to get back onto the main road.
Sometimes he's more handy than having all the info supplied from an in-car navigation system.
Uglyworld #576 - Cinko and the Old Army Digger
Sometimes a wrong turn can supply an interesting surprise, in this case Cinko was amazed to find an old army digger encapsulated in trees, bushes and other shrubbery - so he promptly hopped up onto the seat and tried to start it up before exclaiming, "I thinksed they forgets where they parks it many yearses ago".
Uglyworld #575 - Cinko at Lake Pleasant
As the daytrip was slowly winding us Northwards up the West coast of Washington State we reached the shore of Lake Pleasant where we were greeted with more rain, so only Cinko was brave enough (all thanks to his jacket) to get out of the car for a quick photograph to show the rest of the Uglies back home in Aachen.
While I was lining up the shot he kept blowing raspberries to get some of the rain off of his face...
Uglyworld #574 - Looks, A Stone Inside A Stone
Cinko was shouting at me to come and look at what he found on Ruby Beach, "Is awesomes isn't it's? I never see'd a stone insides another stone befores" he told me when I finally came to see what all of the fuss was about.
Uglyworld #573 - Cinko Finds a Cool Stone
While exploring Ruby Beach Cinko found himself what he referred to as "my newest friend, the talking stone!". He said that the stone could talk to him, but when I asked the stone a few questions it didn't move at all or supply even a squeak.
I just hope this isn't the start of Cinko having imaginary friends...
Uglyworld #572 - Turtle On Ruby Beach
The life of a travelling turtle is almost non-stop, the little guy has been spending so much time writing tales of his travels for Turtle Time magazine that he's only being found taking a break when he jumps in front of the camera for a shot of him at his next exciting location - in this case here he is at the picturesque Ruby Beach.
Uglyworld #571 - Ralf on Ruby Beach
Ralf decided to give his quest for the perfect stick a rest for a while and helped me scour the stones on the beach for some cool examples to take back for both Mireille and my mum - unfortunately the little guy doesn't have any real concept of weight and would always find some huge stones that have no chance of accompanying me back to Aachen at the end of next week.
Uglyworld #570 - Flipper Up For Sea Stacks
Cinko had never seen sea stacks until his recent trip to the beach at Talisker Bay on the Isle of Skye, so today when he wandered down to Ruby Beach he was greeted with more sea stacks than he knew what to do with - so he took the time to explain to the other guys he found on the beach that he was a "seas stacks experto".
Uglyworld #569 - Turtle at Big Tree
While Trunko was around the other side of the huge tree spouting all kinds of rhyme's in an attempt to conjour some magic, Turtle was using the time wisely to explore the cool shapes the tree had to offer and also checking out the many holes in and around the tree which seemed to lead off into the underworld due to their size.
Uglyworld #568 - Trunko at the Magic Tree
Trunko hadn't been too interested in visiting the World's largest Cedar tree earlier in the day, as he said there was another huge tree to come later on.
He instructed us to turn off of the main road and along a well beaten road which led to what he referred to as "the magic tree".
What makes it magic I've no idea, and no magic beings were visible or harmed in the making of this image.
Uglyworld #567 - Turtle at Kalaloch Beach
After driving around 250 miles Turtle called for us to pull over for lunch as we drove through the village of Kalaloch.
He said that their Black Angus burgers were some of the best rated on the Pacific Coast and he had to score them himself - they managed a 9 out of 10 on the Turtle Scale, after which a wander around the beach and bay area got everyone ready for the next stage of our daytrip.
Uglyworld #566 - Trunko at The Pacific Ocean
Since we arrived in Oregon Trunko has been busy making travel plans for us all to use while out here. Circled in red ink at the top of his "wish list" was the Pacific Ocean, and he was over the moon to finally stand on the shore near Kalaloch on the West Coast of Washington.
Uglyworld #565 - Ralf at Quinault Indian Reserve Beach
If it wasn't enough to have a car full of excitement with Ralf after visiting the world's largest Cedar tree on the shores of Lake Quinault we then continued North West to the Pacific Ocean and Quinault Indian Reserve Beach, where Ralf found the beach absolutely covered with tree trunks.
Ralf didn't know where to start with this many sticks to try and entice people into playing fetch with him...
Uglyworld #564 - Cinko Loves The Huge Cedar Tree
While Ralf was running around the trunk of the huge Cedar tree Cinko was moving further and further back from it to see how far he would need to back up in order to be able to see the whole tree.
He soon discovered that it took walking back quite some distance to check out the world's largest Cedar tree in all it's glory!
Uglyworld #563 - Ralf at World's Largest Cedar Tree
Ralf was staring out of the car window in excitement as we approached Quinault Lake as Babo had told him that he would find one of the biggest "sticks" in the world, in this case the world's biggest Cedar Tree.
Even though Ralf was dissappointed at not being able to snag it in his mouth and run over to Babo he was still mightily impressed with the size of the Cedar tree.
Uglyworld #562 - Turtle At Quinault Lake Recreation Area
After leaving Aberdeen Lake the next stop on our list was Fallon Lake to the North West of Aberdeen, but upon arriving there Turtle said there was no way he would step out of the car due to how deep the mud was along the access road and carpark.
So Turtle may have missed out on his photo opportunity at Fallon Lake, but he wasn't about to let a little rain stop him posing for the camera at Quinault Lake Recreation Area.
Uglyworld #561 - Turtle At Aberdeen Lake
The first stop of our daytrip to the Olympia State Park in Washington State, USA was the cool little Lake just on the outskirts of the city of Aberdeen.
Turtle was really impressed with how clear the water was and while I was setting up this shot he was distracted by a little boy a few metres away who had just caught his first fish of the day.
Uglyworld #560 - Travel Buddies (150-365)
Project 365 - Image 150/365
Cinko and Turtle have become great travel buddies in the last month or so, first off with them both travelling to Scotland together and then accompanying me to Oregon in the USA.
Today the pair of them were full of conversation from start to finish during the 500+ mile round trip from our hotel up to Aberdeen, then up 101 North which runs up the West Coast of Washington, East along the North Coast and then back South via the East side of the Olympia State Park.
More pics to follow once we all get some sleep after such a long day travelling around exploring, and tomorrow we're all off to Silver Falls State Park to check out it's awesome waterfalls.
Saturday 29 May 2010
Uglyworld #559 - Surfing At Night (149-365)
Project 365 - Image 149/365
With all the Mountain Dew that Trunko has been drinking over here in America he's been completely wired (he keeps telling me he's using WiFi when I say this, as he doesn't get what I mean).
He was up all last night making travels plans that turtle asked him to for this weekend (Memorial Day Weekend), so this morning I awoke to find out that we're heading North to the Olympia Mountains in Washington today, then South to Silver Falls tomorrow and finally skirting the South and East sides of Mount St Helens on Monday.
Thankfully I packed my walking shoes and have a full tank of go-go juice in the car.
Friday 28 May 2010
Uglyworld #558 - Hello My Name Is (148-365)
Project 365 - Image 148/365
Ever since Cinko saw the original set of pictures I did with his little cousins using alphabet letters to spell out their names he's been on my case about getting a pic of his own done too.
This is easier said than done as this particular sweet has become rarer and rarer over the years (back in the 80's you could find them in nearly every sweet counter).
Finally I managed to track some down, so here you have Cinko, who while I shot this pic was repeating, "Hello, my name is" and then feverish pointing to the letters in front of him ensued.
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Uglyworld #557 - Babo's Favourite Burger (147-365)
Project 365 - Image 147/365
Now that we've been out in Oregon for a week and a half Babo decided that he wanted to share his favourite burger with everyone.
He's visited the Helvetia Tavern twice now and can't get enough of their Jumbo Cheese Burger, so tonight he asked if I would take a photo of him with his favourite burger.
Uglyworld #556 - Flying First Class (146-365)
Project 365 - Image 146/365
I was awakened this morning by the sound of a hairdrier on full power coming from the bathroom.
On further investigation I found Cinko in control of the hairdrier and Ice-Bat flying in the hot air stream being produced by the hairdrier.
Why didn't I just walk away before asking my next question, "What the hell are you guys doing?", to which Cinko replied "Icy's flyings First Class, looks!!!"
Life certainly is never dull around these guys ;)
Monday 24 May 2010
Uglyworld #555 - Cookie Time!!! (145-365)
Project 365 - Image 145/365
Wage and Babo had been trying to find their one of their long lost cousins for nearly 6 months now, he was always being referred to as American Ice-Bat.
As well as working long hours every day I've been doing everything I could to track their missing cousin down, even as far as trying to contact Wedgie's hero Jack Bauer, but unfortunately he was too busy trying to save the world from threats as always.
Thankfully Jack put us on to some of his covert ops contacts who were fully aprised of the situation and low and behold tonight Ice-Bat arrived at my hotel, hungry for food but alive and well.
Babo immediately called home to Wage in Aachen, and between them they devised an awesome plan to make their cousin feel like part of the family - COOKIE TIME!!!
He's already munched his way through about 20 cookies and shows no signs of slowing down, I'm going to have to be quick to get one of the final 3 before he scoffs them too!
Sunday 23 May 2010
Uglyworld #554 - Cinko at Columbia River (144/365)
Project 365 - Image 144/365
The final stop of our daytrip around Mount Hood saw us stopping off on our way along the South bank of the Columbia River.
Cinko was once again glad that he brought his jacket along as the rain was falling quite heavily as he stood looking along the shore of the river towards Rooster Rock.
Uglyworld #553 - Wedgehead at Mount Hood
As we continued our drive Northwwards in the direction of the Columbia River Gorge and the many vinyards which line the sides of the road there came a loud shout from Wedgie who was sitting in the back of the car.
"I can see's Mount Hood's peak, stops the car rights now!!!". I brought the car to a standstill and immediately saw that Wedgehead was correct - there was indeed the first chance of the day to see the peak of Mount Hood as we looked Southward.
Uglyworld #552 - Turtle in Mount Hood Wilderness
While Cinko was voicing his dissappointment at not being able to drive to the end of Cloud Cap Road, Turtle was already off wandering into the pathway which leads into the Mount Hood Wilderness.
Uglyworld #551 - Why Did They Close Cloud Cap Road
Cinko had been looking forward to the view which Cloud Cap Road has to offer of Mount Hood, unfortunately with the weather still being very wintery the road is still closed.
He wasn't too pleased at not being able to continue up the road any further than where I shot this photograph.
Uglyworld #550 - Turtle at Lookout Mountain
Turtle found himself a good vantage point from which to look West towards Mount Hood while exploring Lookout Mountain in the Cascade mountain range.
He was a little disappointed at how much cloud and snow was blocking out the top section of Mount Hood today, but he has promised to revisit it again during the summer when he hopes to get a better view of this iconic Oregon Mountain.
Uglyworld #549 - Wedgehead at Lookout Mountain
After leaving Hiyu Mountain we drove through pouring rain and heavy sleet around Lake Trillian and then Northwards to Lookout Mountain which sits to the East of Mount Hood.
Wedgehead was amazed at how much of the forest had been completely destroyed by what nature had thrown at it at this altitude.
Uglyworld #548 - Turtle at Zig Zag River Waterfall
Turtle had opted to stay a little further down the mountain to admire more of the waterfalls that Hiyu Mountain had to offer, this one brought the water down the mountain to Zig Zag River.
Uglyworld #547 - Why Does It Only Snow There
As we made out way back down the winding road on Hiyu Mountain Cinko asked if we could explain why there was a distinct change in the weather around the 1100 meter mark, with rain suddenly changing to snow within ony a few meters of road.
Uglyworld #546 - Snow on Hiyu Mountain
As we continued on our way up the road which winds it's way up Hiyu Mountain we broke through the 1100 meter marker and all of a sudden the snow came down in bucketloads, so much snow that it soon became too dangerous to continue.
Before we turned the car around Cinko asked if he could go outside and play in the snow for a little while.
Uglyworld #545 - Cinko at Hiyu Mountain Waterfall
As we started our daytrip to the Mount Hood area of Oregon Cinko asked if we could visit Hiyu Mountain as he heard that there were plenty of cool waterfalls to be found on the way up the mountain.
He loved this one in particular as someone had placed a small angel in the rocks behind the waterfall.
Uglyworld #544 - Icy At Claudia's Bar In Portland
For dinner and a few beers in Portland we decided to stop in at Claudia's bar for a tasty pizza and some of the various beers on tap from the many, many micro-breweries which are located around the Portland area.
Icy loved the bar as they had around 15 big screens showing all kinds of sports, and in the back he discovered pool and poker tables.
Saturday 22 May 2010
Uglyworld #543 - Icy Ready For A Trip Into Portland
Icy was already outside the hotel waiting on the rest of us this evening, as he was totally excited at the prospect of visiting the city of Portland in Oregon, USA for the first time (he didn't class his arrival at the Portland International airport last Monday night as a proper visit).
Uglyworld #542 - To The Bat Motel, Lets Go! (143-365)
Project 365 - Image 143/365
After spending all of Saturday working I arrived back to the hotel looking to do nothing but lie on the bed, relax and watch some TV.
However I should have known better, as whenever I want to try and relax there's always some evil forces working against me doing so!
In this case the forces come in the form of "Long Time Ago" Ice-Bat who appears to have moved into my room since I left this morning, he immediately went mental at me for coming into "HIS" room and proceeded to call the reception to have me removed by force if necessary.
I'm uploading this photo from the hotel parking lot as they've now kicked me out.
Friday 21 May 2010
Uglyworld #541 - New Towels (142-365)
Project 365 - Image 142/365
This evening the little guys discovered that all of the towels had been used, so Babo called down to the reception for some new towels.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and when I opened it I was amazed to see that Kaiju Wage was working in the hotel, in this case delivering us some new towels.
He finished work an hour or so ago now, and is downstairs in the restaurant chatting away to Babo and Trunko (who supplied some Mountain Dew for the chin-wag).
This evening the little guys discovered that all of the towels had been used, so Babo called down to the reception for some new towels.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and when I opened it I was amazed to see that Kaiju Wage was working in the hotel, in this case delivering us some new towels.
He finished work an hour or so ago now, and is downstairs in the restaurant chatting away to Babo and Trunko (who supplied some Mountain Dew for the chin-wag).
Thursday 20 May 2010
Uglyworld #540 - Trunko's Favourite Drink (141-365)
Project 365 - Image 141/365
It turns out that Trunko is a massive fan of Mountain Dew.
I found this out tonight when I returned to my hotel room to find the fridge stacked full of the stuff!!!
Good job I like it too ;)
It turns out that Trunko is a massive fan of Mountain Dew.
I found this out tonight when I returned to my hotel room to find the fridge stacked full of the stuff!!!
Good job I like it too ;)
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Uglyworld #539 - It's Super Duper Choco Chipo Cookie Time (140-365)
Uglyworld #539 - It's Super Duper Choco Chipo Cookie Time (140-365), originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.
Project 365 - Image 140/365
Today Babo went out on a hunt for "super duper choco chipo cookies", and he said he wouldn't be coming home until he found some.
By the time he returned to the hotel this evening he was completely exhausted, but he did have a single cookie with him, unfortunately for Babo however Ralf also has his eye on the cookie.
Will Babo get to eat the cookie he painstakingly hunted down or will Ralf snaffle it from under his nose - my money's on Babo :)
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