I’m trying to use the kite/camera rig to get the perfect “how the heck did you take that?” picture of the Boise river / capital building /foothills, and hopefully a few people floating down the river too.   So yesterday I went over to Barber Park and played around with the camera/kite combo for about half an hour.

• If I’d angled the camera about 30 degrees to the left I would have gotten a great picture of table rock and the river – much closer to the “perfect picture” I was after. But I think this looks cool anyway.
  
  
• Apparently they’re growing something on the roof of this building.
  
  
• I really need to put together a suspension system so the pictures aren’t so blurry all the time.

Last weekend Ben’s sister Beth came to visit.  We decided to take a road trip to Northern Idaho, an area that Ben and I hadn’t yet explored.  There’s a popular destination called Coeur d’Alene which is on a lake in a mountainous area.  Also we heard about a cool rails-to-trails bike trail that we were really excited to try out.

We drove 7-hours Friday night and Saturday morning to get to Coeur d’Alene.  The drive was long, but really pretty – windy mountain roads, rivers and canyons, golden-colored wheat fields, and small towns.  After arriving, we had the afternoon in Coeur d’Alene, so we took out the kite to take some photos… you can see a few of those in Ben’s last post.  Here’s another good one, and also a photo of our reward after a long day of driving and kite-flying.

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• Location: Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho
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Last weekend we went to Minnesota for the commitment ceremony of my friends Becky and Jenna.  Here’s a few photos leading up to the wedding:

We all met at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis for some photos.  It’s a really beautiful location – I can’t wait to see the professional photographer’s photos.

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• New kite: the Sutton FlowForm 8.  The 8 is for 8 sq ft of material.  Serious Aerial photographers use the FlowForm 30, an 8′ Rokkaku, a Powersled 81, or some other enormous kite.
  
  
  
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Ben and I met 7 years ago in Colorado.  At one point during our giddy ‘get to know each other’ phase, we had an e-mail conversation about things that made us happy.  Here’s our lists, feel free to join in.

Things that make Alonna happy (Summer 2001)

• pickles
• spotting wild life
• babies
• someone tickling my feet
• wildflowers
• being right
• helping people
• diet coke
• holding hands
• Ben writing me poems
• digital cameras
• watching Friends and That 70’s Show
• piano in rock music
• showing off a big bruise
• Colorado clouds
• playing cards with my grandparents
• fishing with my dad
• shopping with my mom
• seeing my family on holidays
• the Canadian Rockies
• the smell of mountain air

Things that make Ben happy (Summer 2001)

• mountain biking
• pizza
• driving fast on winding roads in the mountains
• Cherry Coke
• snowboarding
• the Winter Park condo
• standing on top of a mountain
• sunsets
• hanging out with my brother
• hanging out with my sisters
• hanging out with my mom
• making people laugh
• roasting marshmallows
• carrot cake
• fire flies (lightening bugs)
• getting e-mail from Alonna
• listening to covers by my favorite bands
• making analogies
• when people remember analogies that I make (“it’s kind of like what you said…”)
• giving poems to Alonna
• trying new things
• Saying howdy to friendly strangers
• hearing good classical music live (Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, not the sissy stuff)
• Goofy t-shirts
• This game.

Happy Anniversary Ben, I love you!

• The basic setup – an eye-hook bolt tied to a $20 kite. I set the camera to take a picture every 2 seconds
  
  
  
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My best friend Becky and partner Jenna are tying the knot!  To help them celebrate, we had a BBQ bash with the girls on Saturday night and a shower with friends and family on Sunday.  Here’s a few photos from the shower.

• Red Badge(s) of Courage:
  
  
• This happened in one of the easiest sections of the Rock Garden at Table Rock.
• The biggest danger in mountain biking is going too slow.  Or too fast.
• (I prefer Red Raspberry of Courage, but calling it that assumes everyone has heard of the book the Red Badge of Courage – or at least the term itself – and no one has.  Plot summary – Civil War boy soldier is wounded in a cowardly fashion, everyone thinks he must be very brave because of his injury and this shames him into actually becoming very courageous)

• Day 1: Fisher Creek and Ladd’s Fajitas and horseshoes
• Day 2: Elk Meadows and aluminum foil sculpture-food and more horseshoes
• Day 3: Scones and packing up
• Pictures…

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