How do you buy a Canon EOS 450 in one hour in LA anyway?

Well... You don't. Instead, when you realize that you have no time what so ever to explore the town before you will be loaded into a plane heading for Montana, you rush off to the local radio shack (thanks for the pointer, Kat) and buy a pink little Samsung. It was Susan who suggested it to be a pink one, and who am I to argue with that? (And apart from that I actually like the color, it was the cheap option - and still so much better than the one I left at home.)

So, I have traveled through Yellowstone, Green River and Catalina with this little pinkie, filling up a 2GB memory card. I'm rather pleased with the pictures, and even if I'm still a bit grumpy about not having anything more cool with me to the hot springs, it might actually be for the best - I would have spent way too much time playing with the camera and too little time with the real course stuff otherwise.

But now I have ordered it, and unless the postal service of the island decide to let me wait for the next boat - tomorrow I will receive my new, shiny Canon EOS XSi!!!

Talking about cameras. I got myself a disposable underwater camera in Two Harbor to have with me in the kajak (I will have at least one good picture of those seals before I leave this place). Yesterday I did some snorkling with it and got a pretty good shot of kelp in morning light. Today I went out looking for seals. The cove where I found them a few days ago was deserted, but I spent some time playing tag with a swimming seal. I paddled towards him, he dived and showed up a few tens of meter away in the other direction. I turned around and went that way, and he dived again and so on. When we grew tired of that I spent some time watching herons, and put the camera away in my pocket (I thought). When I got the shore - no camera. The seal must have taken it. Or possibly the herons. I spent some time looking for it (it floats, after all), but nothing. I had given up and just asked Ben to get myself another camera when he went to town for some provisions - but lo and behold, on the beach, washed up together with seaweed and kelp - was my camera.

Now, in a well told story, this would be the time when I lowered my voice, gave you a conspiratorial wink and added that when I picked up the camera, I saw that since I lost it three pictures had been exposed, and I would find something strange and mysterious (and possibly related to seals) on them.

No picture's were taken. But I'm glad to have my camera back.

I'm uploading a new bunch of pictures. As you see I try to put them approximately in the order they were taken.