Fantastic pictures, Derek!
I had a very busy weekend that necessitated re-arranging my running schedule. So I ran on Friday to make room for a quick weekend trip on Saturday.
Friday's 10-mile run went very well... for the first 6 miles. Then I started slowing, though I wasn't feeling tired or anything. I drank some water and ate some energy gels during the 6th mile, so I figured I was in good shape to finish the run. But just before the 9 mile mark I bonked pretty hard and struggled to finish the last mile. My pace dropped to a mere 4 mph (barely faster than walking) and my legs felt like dead wood.
Annoyingly, within 15-20 minutes of making it back to my car I felt fine again. It's possible that I simply didn't consume a sufficient number of calories while on the run and I ran into a glucose-debt wall. Next time I run more than 8 miles I'll eat more before the run and then more during the run as well.
So then the interesting part of the weekend... we got up early on Saturday morning and hopped on a bus to Vancouver, British Columbia. Once in Vancouver we boarded a cruise ship that was headed back to Seattle. All the food we could eat, party and dancing all night, breakfast the next morning, and then we were home again! The 1-night cruise is something that Holland America Line does twice a year when they reposition ships from the Caribbean to Alaska (and vice versa) and is needed due to US laws that prohibit foreign flagged ships from carrying passengers between US ports unless they stop at a "far and distant" foreign destination in between. So when the ships leave Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, sail through the Panama Canal (stopping on Lake Gatun to satisfy the foreign destination requirement), and then disembark in San Diego, California, they are left with some sailing to do and no way to conveniently include passengers on the trip. So they do a short 3-day cruise with no stops from San Diego to Vancouver, then another one overnight from Vancouver to Seattle. The bus tickets and assorted taxis cost more than the cruise!
We were pretty beat today so spent most of the day recovering.
I'm back to running on schedule starting tomorrow morning!
- and it is definitely a camera trick 
...as I am heading to the Yorkshire Dales to attempt this. 
- the last time I was up there I saw a sheep that had gone over the edge in the same place - it's head was caved in, neck broken. It had landed with such force that it was doing a head-stand with all its legs in the air and a dead lamb hanging out its rear end. Not a pretty sight!
