summer days and summer nights are gone

I wanted to finally put a few of the pictures I took over the summer up here. I didn't take very many, partly because Anna was taking lots and partly because my digital camera batteries run out really quickly and when you're camping there isn't really any place to plug them in. But here is a brief collection of things I did deem worthy of pictures, for whatever reasons.

This is Anna at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, which in truth only contains one natural bridge (the others have long since collapsed).

















This is from "The Trees of Mystery" in northern California. My parents actually told me about this and suggested we stop, and later my mom told me that my grandmother had also seen this as a young girl. So basically, we're in the third generation for seeing this cheesy but hysterical tourist trap. The Paul Bunyan statue has a loudspeaker hooked up to a microphone inside it and a guy sits in a room somewhere and makes the statue talk to people who are approaching the entrance, asking them where they're from and such. Anna also noted that the ox has a huge ballsack, but you unfortunately can't see it in this picture.
















And speaking of tourist traps, this is the world's largest frying pan in Long Beach, WA. There is also a creepy "free museum" (gift store) across the street with a creepy little mummified "alligator man" named, for some reason, Jake.




















This is the world's bluest lake, Lake Kluane. I believe it's in the Yukon, but it might have been upper British Columbia. We got stopped for construction here, but it wasn't such a hardship because the lake was so just amazingly beautiful.
















I'll post some Denali and Yellowstone pictures, maybe tomorrow. This is fun, it's reminding me of all the amazing things we did this summer. I just wish I had personally documented the trip better. I really neglected the whole first part pretty badly.