Categories
Giveaways

Where Have You Wandered This Summer?

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It’s Labor Day. The annual end-of-summer holiday. I can’t believe that soon we will be feeling the crisp autumn air, eating pumpkin pie, and getting ready for Halloween.

Our travels have motivated us to ‘wander’ in the places we visit. We wander to parks, visitor centers, forests, and towns just because there is something interesting there. Our current wandering habits have helped us realize how much we missed out in the places we lived, simply because we didn’t wander enough! We lived in Lehi, UT for about 5 years, and somehow didn’t make it up to visit the Timpanogos Caves, just a few miles from where we lived! Upon our return to sell the house, we rectified that situation and got ourselves up there, and we had a great time.

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Part of our motivation for blogging and sharing the stories of our own exploring and wandering was to encourage and motivate others. We don’t expect everybody to take off in an Airstream, but we DO hope that our adventures have encouraged you to explore, wander, and enjoy life just a little more.

Is there a local adventure that you have managed to miss out on? Is there some place that you are waiting to visit? GO! Live your Dream! Then share it with us.

Seriously, we’d love to hear about your adventures. Where did you wander this summer? Was it full of lazy days spent by the pool? Did you finally take that amazing family vacation? Where did you wander to?

Please share a bit of your adventure with us. If you blog, instagram, or facebook, share us a link of stuff already posted. Or email us directly (samandjesscurrenATgmailDOTcom) with some pictures and your story. We would like to periodically share the stories of others and further promote wandering awesomeness.

We hope your fall is just as amazing as your summer!

Categories
Video WanderLog

Grants Pass, Medford & Video of Hiking Wizard Island at Crater Lake NP

Travel Dates: August 23-29, 2014

Every week when I do these posts I think, “Holy crap. We get a whole lot done in one week. We’re nuts.” Every. Single. Week.

This Week on Instagram Aug 23-29 2014

Ashland, Medford, and Valley of the Rogue Oregon State Park hit a chord with me. The area is beautiful – towering mountains, golden hills, interesting people, fun outdoor things to do, and some culture. Oh – and a Costco. That always ranks a city high on my list.

We celebrated Andrew’s 7th birthday with a day at the pool, the kids and I visited the Science Center in Ashland, we got a ton of work and errands run, Sam and I attended temple sessions (separately), and we even made it on a DATE. This is epic you guys. A friend’s parents babysit our kids for 6 hours so we could take a jetboat tour up Hellsgate Canyon. It was awesome. Both the tour and being sans kiddos.

We ended the week with a gorgeous drive through southern Oregon up to Crater Lake National Park. This park has pretty much hit the top of my favorites list. I loved everything about it. We loved exploring some of the trails and scenery off the rim, as well as a boat tour of the lake and a hike up to the top of Wizard Island (such a cool name btw). It was a great week!!

Here is our most recent Wandering Update taken from the top of Wizard Island (sound warning – it was windy and he took this with his cell phone):

 

Categories
Tow Vehicle

New Brakes – A worthy purchase

As we traveled north of Crescent City and across the border into southern Oregon, I began to notice some odd sounds from the front brakes. I knew the brakes were probably due for replacement, and I arranged for some work in Grants Pass, OR.

Finding a place for vehicle repairs is something I do very different on the road. At home, I had a regular mechanic, whom I trusted and did great work. If I needed specific work, he was able to refer me to someone he trusted. On the road, I have tended to visit and use larger chain suppliers for routine work. They are much easier to find, and I can return to any location for any warranty issues. My choice for the brakes was Les Schwab. As usual, the minor signs of wear belied the damage done, and the I needed new rotors in addition to the usual replacement parts. All told, I was just under $900 out the door for the work.

Did I overpay? Probably. But hunting down a mechanic or comparison shopping would have cost me time that I would have otherwise spent working. As I have no end to my current list of my projects, time spent working is worth preserving, even at a little cost.

Mostly, I’m grateful.

Brake problems are very serious when your rig weighs 15 thousand pounds, and we have driven our share of hills recently. Sometimes I catch a brief glimpse of the protection sent from on high to guide us and protect us in our travels, and this is definitely one of those times.

I’m sure that the increased hilliness of our travel accelerated the wear on the brakes, and I was unprepared and not careful enough to watch them. In particular, the wear on the front and rear brakes was about even, no doubt to the additional load on the truck while towing the Airstream. Regular vehicles usually need the front brakes replaced twice as often as the rear, but I suspect towing we will see more even wear.

In the future, I’ll be more careful and more watchful of my brakes.

Categories
Homeschool

Hack Schooling

“Much of education is oriented, for better or worse, towards making a living rather than making a life.”

My thoughts about public education are seemingly on a roller coaster. Some days I want to hand off the education of my children to someone else, some days I’m ready to keep them by my side forever, and some I’m lukewarm indifferent. Really, a lot depends on how difficult my children were being that day, or what I’ve read recently about different home school philosophies (not that I read much), or other non-related influences currently in my life.

Recently, however, I happened upon a Ted Talk by 13 year old  Logan LaPlante who talks about his idea of “hackschooling” and how its helped him in his education. In summary, what he wants to be when he grows up is “happy” and having the freedom to study what he is interested in outside a classroom does just that.

I’ve always said that I have no desire to homeschool my children past the traveling phase of our lives, but every once in awhile I get that twitch. The “what if” twitch that says, maybe there really is a different and better way.

Take a look and let me know what you think:

Categories
Night Photography

Night Photography Beginner Basics: Dark Composure

Night Photography Beginner Basics! We explain how to get the best compusure even when its pitch black outside!

We’ve gone over basic gear and camera settings, and now its time to start talking about what you are shooting.

Composure in night photography is made more difficult by the darkness of it all. Your foreground is made up mostly of silhouettes (unless you are light painting, more on that in a future post), which means you are using the ‘shadows’ of earthly elements  to provide interest in the picture. These elements are commonly trees and rocks, depending on your environment.

Choosing your composure is often best done during the day, or using a bright flashlight at night. Your lens selection will matter here, as you can include a larger slice of the sky with a wide angle lens, or a smaller with a longer lens.  Your lens will typically be pointed high in the sky. Moving the tripod around on the ground will allow you to place your foreground silhouettes in your frame, leaving the sky open for your celestial capture.

Celestial Objects

Shooting any portion of the sky can return great results particularly with an interesting foreground. If you want to add a little sizzle, try including the Milky Way or Polaris (the North Star) in your image. The North Star will only have interest in a time-lapse or a long exposure, where you can see the rotation of the stars in a circle.

The Milky Way

The Milky Way is a great subject in the sky, and can add beauty to nearly any foreground. Capturing the Milky Way will constrain your shooting time, as you will have to shoot when it is in the right position. Old-school star charts or new-fangled apps can help with this, allowing you to see when during the night it will be in position. When you find your ideal time, make sure you show up 45 minutes or an hour ahead of time. Start shooting immediately, and by the time the position is right, you will be all set up and getting great images.

Try It Again

Undoubtedly, your first attempt will have some issues. You may want to fix composure, exposure length, or subject. Plan (if you can) a few hours or nights in a row to shoot. Time-lapse projects are very time consuming, so save those for later. Many still shots of the night sky have an exposure of under a minute, so you have plenty of time for adjustments and new shots. Change your angle, move your camera, and adjust exposure settings, and then hit it again. If you have multiple nights, you have a great opportunity to spend some daytime editing and evaluating the work of the previous night. Evaluate your images, and plan your adjustments for your next night.

Night photography can definitely be photos of just the stars, but adding in some interesting foreground objects as silhouettes or highlighting some obvious star patterns can help the photo be much more dynamic!