Twin City Photos

That’s what some of the signs say posted on some beaches at the Olympic National Park in Washington. At first you think it’s some sort of joke, but it only takes one close call to realize they’re not kidding. These logs are what’s left of trees that get washed out into the ocean from the many rivers emptying into the ocean. On the journeys down the rivers, they get scrubbed of branches and bark, and eventually end up piled on top of each other when storms wash them back ashore.

Many of them are quite large, and people end up walking, i.e. balancing on them. It’s seems like fun. Except some logs ocassionally roll off whatever they’re balanced on. Log rollers end up in the water when they fall. Here you may end up under the log, with potentially serious injuries, if not worse.

During our ice sculpture shoot, I noticed this young lady standing next to us either taking photos or being photographed. Don’t recall specifically because I was staring at those bare feet in -15F (-26C) windchill. Asked if I could take a photo of her feet and she said ‘sure’. In fact she didn’t mind me taking several shots, patiently waiting as my camera was set up for long exposures, on the order of a few seconds, hence the blurriness of the dress. Amazing the amount of cold exposure one can endure when excited as she appeared to be, with her friends, on her way to something. Emily braved our cold weather a while back, but I think she’s beat on this one.

Wife’s Christmas Village, collected throughout the years.