What are your jeans doing today?

[robbie]

The Mrs will kill me for posting this one, but I feel like it serves as a testament to how good this stuff was.

I mean just look at these onion rings! We ended up getting a double order of fries and onion rings FREE. We didn't eat them all too busy saving room for PIE!

Seriously, look at the gorgeous meringue!

Another testament to not only how awesome this food was... but also that I am a bit of a lard-ass.

[zissou]

Another cross post from the RoyxCone contest:

I've been making a concerted effort to tell myself that my real office is the outdoors, not the nicely furnished basement room where my computer sits. I also realized I hadn't taken my Golf TDI for a proper spin other than around town. Soooo, I decided to spent part of the afternoon up Logan Canyon, which is just a mile or two from my house. It was a day to give thanks for owning a turbocharged manual car.

I had just last night watched the original Italian Job with Michael Caine, which inspired me to downshift sooner and race those corners. After about a half hour of fast driving, I arrived at my destination- my favorite little campground.

Here's what I came to see: the lodgepole pines. Exciting, huh? They're actually not that common in Utah, and I needed some good photos for my class. As you probably guessed, they get their name because they grow so tall and straight that they were ideal for building tepees and lodges. I had been confused for a long time about why their scientific name is Pinus contorta, until I realized it was the needles that were all twisted.

I also needed some cones to help the students identify the tree.

Mission accomplished! I drove a little further up the road to the overlook at Bear Lake, otherwise known as 'The Caribbean of the West'. It is particularly clear water, and one of the very few natural freshwater lakes that we have in Utah (and is worth swimming in).

I made a few stops on my way back down to take some more photos. Here's one of a characteristic 'aspen dome'. Quaking aspen reproduce primarily from shoots that pop up from lateral roots. So, the taller, older stems are in the middle, and the shorter, younger stems are around the periphery.

Here's a shot of Sink Hollow. There are a lot of 'sinks' in the area that trap cold air. They rarely go more than three or four days without frost, and nearby Peter Sinks is the second coldest recorded temperature in the contiguous US at -69.3F (-56.3C).

I wandered around for a while, only to have something shiny catch my eye in the shrubs. Why, it was a very old Triumph hubcap! With a little cleaning, this would be a great addition to my garage art collection.

Until next time!

[snozepp147]

and a pocket full o' shells...

[saintkeat]

So the final leg of my tour ended in Vienna, Austria.

To be honest I expected more beauty from Vienna, but sadly, the only thing I did take from it was the friendly conversation I had with some Serbians in the Hotel bar while having their smokes.

Hundertwasser Apartments. Every apartment is unique and very arty. Costs much more than 3 arms and a leg.

Fine Art Museum. Directly opposite sits the Natural History Museum that looks exactly the same.

City sights.

[beatle]

went to see james Blunt last night..really good concert, plus Wakey Wakey as foreplay was cool

[Kwaker]

Porky-pig on a spit ... you guys camp in style!

Can I join in on the next one?

From recent camping trip this weekend.

[HoustonChris]

went to see James Blunt last night..really good concert

Gotta respect anyone who got his pilot's license at 16, drove a tank in Kosovo and lives on Ibiza. Blunt just might be my hero.

[rockon99]

Took my newly (crudely) patched samurais out with a friend for tacos from El Pinche Taco in Eugene

2 lengua, 1 asada

[ThinFinn]

x-posting...

#36

here`s what i did/do today and all week long, besides working in the office.

checking out construction-site.

and as always, the devil joined me

[Obbigood]

Nice updates from everyone

Right, celebrated the French National Day yesterday (July 14).

Went for a dinner and prepared to take some pictures of the fireworks, but f**k! Forgotten to insert the memory card....

Took some with mobile phone anyway, and certainly are bad pics, but I guess the jeans celebrating with France important day is what it counts

Watch on

With sound

Around 10:30pm, crowds coming from nearby cities, arriving at Arcachon for fireworks display.

With the Samurai

Found a good spot and waited for about 30 mins for the start.

The beach was filled with families, lovers, youngsters and children. All anxiously waiting for the fireworks.

[Obbigood]

Show start!

It was pitch dark for the firework display, but when exploded, the whole beach was lighted up and it was quite a scene!

[hollowsleather]

Last week I hiked Mount Elbert

[snozepp147]

well my others have poison ivy...

so my new ones are being constructed...

[FabGeek]

Staying inside mostly since it's 105 outside. So we got a sweet tooth and I made some cookies.

I had to fight my Son off while I snapped some pics lol

[robbie]

^YUM!

And I hear you on the hot front. Mother nature is trying to kill me.

(From yesterday)

Spent most of the afternoon inside with our cat Opal.

[CrashTestBrummie]

I want cookies now...

Been spending the past few days staying with relatives in Ireland, over in County Limerick in this beautiful farmhouse...

The neighbours are a docile bunch:

Took a decent long walk yesterday along the cliffs of Ballycotton, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean/Irish Sea:

And on the way back home today, discovered the best Eton Mess ever, courtesy of The Corn House on Corn Market Street, Cork City:

[Maynard Friedman]

Limerick to Cork City - that certainly is a long walk!

[CrashTestBrummie]

Limerick to Cork City - that certainly is a long walk!

SbyAZQ45uww

[FabGeek]

nice scenery. I miss the UK

went to shoot a birthday party

get that damn camera outta my face!

monster theme

all in all pretty fun but now I have a killer headache..it was so dang hot in there with all the people!

[zissou]

Another RoyxCone crosspost:

Day #3 of the class took us up Big Cottonwood Canyon where we hiked through aspen and Douglas-fir forests. Wildflowers were peaking around 7500 ft in elevation, but were still very behind just 1000 ft higher. What a beautiful day!

Our trail for the day...

I love hiking through Douglas-fir forests. There were red squirrels running everywhere. They love to sit in the trees and tear apart the cones for the seeds inside. The huge piles of cone scales enrich the soil, which helps fungi to grow, which helps the trees to grow and also provides mushrooms for the squirrels, which cache the mushrooms, dispersing the spores and helping the mushrooms to grow. It's one big happy ecosystem.

I shared a new tree with everyone- the Pondersoa pine. Needles in bundles of three, seven inches long.

Sadly, like many conifers in the west, they have been hit hard with bark beetle outbreaks and fungi.

We hiked through what was quite possibly the most beautiful aspen grove I've ever seen.

And finished off the day on a wildlife hike up at Silver Lake, about 8600 ft in elevation.

Happy trails!

[FabGeek]

looks like fun! I bet the guy with the big ole canon lens got alot of sweet shots I can imagine how fresh this place must smell.

[kayodic]

Last night i was attending Tenue de Nîmes party for launching The Indigo dyed Chuck Taylor All star. Tenue de Nîmes officially presented 50 limited pairs of indigo Chuck Taylor All Star shoes dyed in natural indigo by the famous Manabe family from Okayama (a.k.a Momotaro).

[ThisSunday]

Not today

[ThisSunday]

Roy X Cone Contest x post

These are from yesterday

Then walked thru Central Park

[ThisSunday]

Another x post

Took an old man nap in the park

Then on to the Met

[Obbigood]

Spain, San Sebastian

A coastal city North-west of spain, beach and city all in one!

[riff]

^ Great updates everyone!

Xpost from RxC....

Weekend roundup… We're having a stream of family & friends visiting all summer, so we're always looking for interesting places to check out.

This weekend, a bunch of us headed out to the Welland Canal. The Welland Canal runs between Port Weller on Lake Ontario and Port Colborne on Lake Erie, enabling ships to ascend/descend the Niagara escarpment, bypassing Niagara Falls.

The total altitude differential is about 100 meters over 42 km, and the canal has 8 locks. It was quite the engineering feat, built over a period of 20 or so years.

We arrived when a freighter was just in the process of heading back to Lake Erie. They are monsters!

Here's a view from the bottom of the lock - I did it up in B&W for an "old world" feel!

The kids all thought it looked like a watery version of the gates of Mordor!

Here's the view looking out towards lake Ontario: you can see the Queen Elizabeth Way in the background, and the older lift bridge in the front. We picked a great day to visit, as there was a steady stream of ships coming through.

These guys were most likely out of the Timmins area, and had dropped off their loads of ore at Hamilton to be smelted. Hamilton Harbour : passing by at night, you get the impression of some bleak & hellish industrial landscape

The area around the lock was really beautiful. The pups had plenty to explore too..

[riff]

There are about 50km of biking trails here, and even more mountain biking trails. For years, my wife & I used to do a mountain bike race, called "The Great Lake to Lake Classic". 50km of get-wrenching singletrack, that runs from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. We did it for it's first three years, but then it became such a cattle call, with thousands of cyclists, that we moved on to other events.

What I was wearing for most of the weekend….

Then we all headed over to another friend's place. She has a huge condo on Bloor Street, pretty prime real estate for Toronto. The kids had a great time cooling off in the pool

And we enjoyed drinks & views from the pool patio.

The old & the new - the addition to the Royal Ontario Museum (which caused quite a controversy)

Patio dining for a hot summer day

Wanna shop? No problem!

We finished up at one of our usual haunts, where I had my usual meal

Not sure how much the other guests enjoyed our huge group, but we all had a great time!

[ThinFinn]

^lovely update there riff.

and i really love the colors of your pics...feels like looking out the open window...just awesome! must spread...

[lowrider]

sup folks! been a while... riff - amazing as always...

it was a crazy long sunday yesterday...

led canyon runs up and down palomar's tight side (over 7 miles, over 50 turns, around 3,500' of elevation change) around 6:45am:

*photos above from a friend

rest of the day was just mucking about watching the motogp race until around 3pm when i had a long ass drive to lancaster to pick up a little sister for sachi. here's kumo!!

no shots of the sexfhxrr as i recently posted up evo pics...