I've never ever lived close enough to a body of water that i could see from my home. Not even a swimming pool. Now, I live two blocks from Puget Sound, which is where the Port of Seattle is. This is where a lot of the stuff we get from Japan (like cars) comes in. And of course there are all the cruise ships. So now, for the first time in my life, I actually see ships of all shapes and sizes coming and going. I've gotten very good at recognizing the ferries and cruise ships, which are a multiple daily occurance. But the tankers.... when i get to see one of those go by, it is very exciting because they are bigger than anything I've ever seen in the water. They take over my entire camera view finder. Since Sunday, the same tanker has been hanging out right in front of my building in the middle of the Sound. The thing is, almost every morning i wake up to see it facing a different direction. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the heck it is doing. The only thing i can come up with is that it is practicing "parallel docking."

Getting much more proficient with the tripod: