Vacations and other musing

Last post of 2011... Happy New Year everyone!

2011-12-31T15:17:00.001-05:00

I had grandiose plans to do a year in review post BEFORE Christmas and send an email to friends and family so they could connect here to see what the highlights of 2011 were in my corner of the world as well as my travels that took me here and there. Those of you who only want to view the images may do so by clicking on the first one to get a window that blows it up larger and allows you to step through the images. Friends and family who might want to know what else has happened in my life besides what is represented by the these images are encouraged to read to the very end where I'll share some news of a personal note not included along with the images.

I am currently sitting in a cozy B&B in Red Lodge, Montana looking at last night's snowfall as it has settled on the pine tree outside the window... and I'm thinking I should motivate to go outdoors and take some more pictures... BUT I'm so far behind on the ones I've taken over this past year that I decided to try to post a few here in the next hour or so before heading out to lunch! Here's wishing you and yours the best of everything in 2012!

Cardinal images from my back yard during January snow storms.

One of several collages from images taken on a February photo outing with cousin Jane and friend Susie... we went from Bethesda, MD to Shepherdstown, WV for lunch and wandering around to take photos... then we were off to my potter's home and studio near Sharpsburg, MD before heading back to Bethesda. These images are of a church on one of the back roads we took to get to Shepherdstown, a view (upper left) from the scenic lookout on 270 before you get to Frederick, MD and sunset from Boonsboro, MD.

In March, I glanced out the window when I noticed the birds were chirping excitedly but none were at the feeders... what a treat to see this Sharp-shinned Hawk so fascinated with the birds hiding in the rose brambles that he wasn't the LEAST bit interested in me as I crept closer and closer to get some marvelous images... here are two!

Squirrel antics in April at a newly purchased "squirrel proof" feeder... of course they soon figured it out and it no longer keeps the rascally thieves from stealing the bird feed.

Floral images from a May Greenspring Garden macro workshop with Blue Ridge Workshops. Digitalis, Columbine, Lavender and phlox look alike whose name I cannot recall.

Trying to choose just one collage of images from our June trip to Sweden is quite impossible since we packed so much into the trip. We visited family in Göteborg and Vägsele and saw many sights in between visiting with family. Here we are on the road from Vägsele to Tärnaby with cousins Sture and Inger. We stopped alongside the Blue Highway, a most scenic route, to have a morning coffee and snack break. (the two church photos are not at the roadside stop; they are of Stensele Kyrka) Seated at the picnic table from the lower left is myself, my sister, my brother and in the right rear coming forward is our cousin Sture, my brother's partner and Sture's wife Inger. If you want to know more about our trip to Sweden, Start with this post and work your way forward through newer posts... I STILL have not finished this trip diary!

Going along with the theme of not finishing the Sweden trip diary... here is a collage from Iceland where my brother, his partner and myself spent three days in July en route home from Sweden. I've barely begun sorting through the scenic photos from Iceland but have managed to put together one collage of bird images from our boat trip to see the Puffins who have established large colonies on two islands in Reykjavik Harbor.

August seems to have been a month for staying indoors due to the heat and attempting to catch up with SOME of my image processing and blogging... So no photo to represent August!

September found me spending 11 days in Montana and 10 days in Colorado which spilled over into October. The time in Montana was spent in and around Red Lodge, as usual, staying at my vacation home and spending time doing some fix-up chores as well as spending time with friends I see once a year (or more, depending). I never tire of Montana scenery but am going to share an image of Clouded Sulphur butterflies on Spotted Knapweed (taken near Red Lodge, MT, at the West Fork of Rock Creek near the Silver Run parking lot) to represent the month of September.

With apologies to those of you who have seen this already, For October I am again sharing a collage of Hipstamatic (iPhone camera app) images since one of the best things I've discovered recently thanks to John Barclay and Dan Sniffin and their MARVELOUS Colorado Photo tour is iPhoneography!

This image of sunrise at the 59th Street pier in Ocean City, NJ is from another workshop with John Barclay, this time in partnership with George Brown. We spent a mid-November weekend at Cape May, NJ with an early morning trip to Ocean City to photograph this fabulous sunrise! One of the reasons that it has taken me so long to sort through images this year is that I've taken quite a few workshops... and done a fair bit of travel as well! I've certainly learned a LOT about how to improve my photographic skills, both in the field and afterwards with post-processing.

December finds me in Montana although I'm not staying at my house over the first of the year because it's rented! I'm staying at the Irish Rose B&B which is a lovely place to stay. It has snowed at least part of every day since my arrival a few days ago and this makes the skiers very happy. I'm not skiing but have been out and about getting a few lovely wintry scenes while here. The first of the two images above was taken on the road from Laurel to Red Lodge and the second was taken at the bridge over the West Fork of Rock Creek at the entrance to the Silver Run parking area.

And now, for some personal notes... in addition to the many highlights represented by the images above, 2011 had some notes of sadness as well. Our half-brother Robin passed away in April after a valiant battle with cancer. Many of us were with him at the end and we celebrated his life with many people in the town of Easton, PA where he had lived since retiring from the phone company around 24 years ago. He was very highly thought of in the town of Easton on the Delaware River and will be missed by many.

In 2011, there were three new additions to my family... Nephew Dan (brother Larry's son) and his wife Wendy added a sister for Elliott (who is now 3) in July when their adorable daughter Holly was born on July 3rd. Nephew Michael (sister Val's middle son) and his wife Dawn welcomed their son, Ethan, on August 24th, making Val a grandmother for the first time. And my niece Lauren (brother Larry's daughter) and her husband Justus welcomed daughter Cora Jane on November 25th making Larry and his wife Chris grandparents for the third time. All are healthy, happy babies... I can't wait to meet them!

And last, but not least, I requested that my significant other of nearly 20 years move out of my house in Bethesda, which he did in November. We were not married but had been together for a long time so, in that respect, there is some sadness at the loss of such a long-term relationship. However, I am very happy and am feeling so much better these days! I look forward to a new year filled with more adventures in photography, more travel and greater peace of mind. Best wishes to all who make it this far for a wonderful 2012!

Images from Cape May, NJ - Photography Workshop

2011-11-20T18:51:00.003-05:00

I am SO FAR behind with this blog... I will possibly never catch up. I've recently been on another marvelous photography workshop... this one led by John Barclay and George Brown to Cape May, NJ. Cape May is at the southernmost part of New Jersey and has the Delaware Bay to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east... making for beautiful sunrises and sunsets this time of year. Although I'm not really a morning person, I think you will agree that some of the images that can be had when one rises EARLY in the morning are truly spectacular! Without spending TOO much time on captions... I'm just going to post a few and give you a link at the end to a slide show in case you want to see more. Enjoy... Larger images are available by clicking on the smaller ones... look for the X in the upper right corner of your browser to close the large image and get back to the blog (took me awhile to find it on my 24" iMac screen).

Golden glow of early morning light on waves...

Early morning light on the horizon as waves break over pilings and the shore...

Fall colors of Crepe Myrtle... bokeh from color reflected in metal siding on the wall behind the tree.

A six shot HDR image of the old fire engine in the Cape May Firehouse Museum.

Sunset at Cape May with a distant view of the lighthouse across the way.

Sunrise at the 59th Street Pier in Ocean City... cannot believe I had to get up at 4:10 AM to participate in this photo shoot! This is just one of many images from that morning and is a 30 second exposure while using a VND (Variable Neutral Density) filter.

Another view of the sunrise with the color tweaked to give it a different feel.

Another picture of early morning sunlight on the water... lost count of how many similar images I took!

If you want to view more from the workshop, there is a slide show available that also includes some additional images that I will be posting later on this week if I find the time. Images in the sideshow that were taken with my iPhone start with the image titled "Moon in the sky during sunrise..." and end with the series of images demonstrating a post processing technique I'll talk more about when I post the rest of the images here (or in my other blog).

I do so admire those of you who manage to post regularly. I honestly have no clue how you manage it... probably by being more focused and disciplined about it than I am! One of the reasons I've been missing for the past month or so has to do with having had quite a bit of upheaval in my personal life. Without going into great gory detail, I will just tell you that I'm finally free of a burdensome relationship and am feeling MUCH lighter as a result. Sometimes things just do not work out and that was the case with myself and the guy who has been living with me for the past (almost) 14 years. He has moved out and I am moving on and enjoying myself quite a bit these days.

Linking to The Creative Exchange which I recently discovered by browsing someone's blog.

Something new and different... iPhone images from Colorado!

2011-10-16T19:45:00.000-04:00

Regular followers may have been waiting for me to continue posting about my Sweden and Iceland trip of June/July. However, I ran out of time to finish those posts before taking another trip... this one to Montana (more about that eventually) and Colorado. The main reason I went to Colorado was to take a Photo Tour of Colorado with John Barclay and Dan Sniffin, two marvelous photographers who have been leading such tours for many years.

The tour was not only terrific fun... I learned an incredible amount of tricks, tips and techniques for post processing. Improved post processing of my images has already resulted in increased attention to my posts on both Flickr and Facebook.

Some of the MOST fun was discovering iPhoneography... thanks to John and Dan, I've spent a few dollars on more applications (hereafter referred to as apps) for my iPhone, learned a few tricks to improve my ability to take pictures with it and had LOADS of fun with both taking pictures and processing the images after capturing them.

This collage has images from several different locations all over the area between Ouray, Silverton, Durango, South Fork, Creede and Fairplay, Colorado. All were taken with the Hipstamatic app set for Kodot film using the John S lens.

The center image is of a barn seen near Bayfield, CO (more on that later in this post); the phone booth was on the side of the Silver Thread highway not too far outside South Fork (you all do know what a phone booth is, right?). ;-) The cute house in the lower left was just as cute inside (the tenant moving in that day invited me in to see it when she saw me taking a picture of the outside), the Coca Cola cooler and assorted relics of bygone days were on the porch of the general store (closed on Sunday) in Creede, the Aspens were everywhere so I'm not at all sure where I took those two photos and the Shaft Restaurant is one of the two places in South Fork where I had dinner while staying at the Arbor House B&B there for two nights... I HIGHLY recommend staying at the Arbor House if you ever find yourself in South Fork. The rest of the images were all taken at the South Park Museum in Fairplay, Colorado, an open air museum set up to show how people lived in that area in the late 1800s. It was a fascinating place and I could have spent more time there if only I didn't have to drive to Denver to catch a plane home that day!

The next two collages show the steps in taking the red barn image from the original (taken with the Apple supplied iPhone Camera app set to take an HDR image) to a finished product through several steps.

The left image is the original, the right is after retouching (Retouch app) to remove the overhead wires and pole. (note that the entire image isn't visible in this collage but you will see it at the end)

The image on the left is the original image after processing with the AutoPainter app using the Benson effect (I may never pick up a paintbrush again); the center image is the result of blending the original (after retouching) with the AutoPainter image (50% opacity) using Iris; the image on the right is after cropping slightly, still in Iris.

The finished image after further cropping and a bit more tweaking in Iris.

PS - If you want to see another scenic image (taken with my Nikon D90) from Colorado and some more iPhone photos, visit the two most recent posts on my photography blog.

A Day of Fun with Sture and Inger... Tärnaby and nearby, Sweden

2011-09-02T18:33:00.000-04:00

Our day started with a lovely breakfast followed by a quick stop in Tärnaby for a couple of items to supplement our picnic lunch. Afterward, we drove to Laisaliden where we parked the car and headed out to walk a bit on the Drottningleden hiking trail. After a short climb at the beginning of the trail, we were treated to lovely views on all sides as we hiked along a high plateau. The image below is a panorama of five images of just some of our lovely views on this hike... stitched together in Photoshop.

The two images flanking the wildflowers in the top half of the collage below are of the rushing mountain stream running alongside the start of the trail. The yellow wildflower is Small Cow wheat (Melampyrum silvaticum, the dark purple flower is Bartsia alpina L.; its common name in Sweden is Svarthö which translates to Bartsia! The image on the lower left is the first of five images that were used to make the panoramic image at the top of this post... even the ground was beautiful on our hike as seen in the gorgeous stones and greenery in the image in the lower right. In the middle is cousin Sture, carrying most of the provisions for our lunch and coffee making and brother-in-law Tom on top of the world in spite of the gloomy weather!

Below you have the gateway to the hiking trail and Sture preparing to make the all-important coffee to go with our picnic lunch after we had hiked up to the plateau. The hardest part of finding a lunch spot was finding a place that was sheltered enough from the wind to allow Sture to light the flame for making the coffee. We certainly didn't lack for beautiful scenery!

Images below include several from our hike along the plateau, brother Lukas and brother-in-law Tom (back to camera) hunkered down and enjoying lunch and Sture finally joining us in the meal after making sure we all had coffee. The image in the lower right is an HDR from 3 images taken of the stream that runs alongside the start of the trail. As we returned to the parking lot at the end of our hike, the sky had become quite dark except for the light patch in the distance and light rain was falling.

I debated about including the collage below... the church looks crooked to me in BOTH of the images. SIGH... must do a better job of post processing when making collages which tend to exaggerate any "off kilter" bits! This is the church in Tärnaby (Tarna kyrka) and is the church where Inger's parents were married.

Interior views of the church in Tärnaby include the high pulpit, a view of the painting over the altar and one of the stairwells leading up to the choir balcony where the organ, last image, is located. This church was beautiful in its simplicity and not nearly as elaborately decorated in the interior as many we saw.

After our stop in Tärnaby on the way home from our hike, we made a couple more stops along the way to have a look at some family homes formerly belonging to Inger's family. The house on the top left below was the home of Inger's grandparents until they became quite elderly at which point it was given to one of the sons as is the custom in Sweden in the old days (and still seems to be fairly common to this day). The home in the lower right is where Inger's grandparents lived in their "old age" and is on the same property as their other house. The thermometer measuring the temperature at nearly 9 PM was on the outside of Sture and Inger's home and the interior door is in their house. That door came from the old house that they bought to provide building materials for portions of their home. Sture was in the process of stripping all the old paint when Inger suggested that he should leave it as you see it now because it was beautiful that way. I quite agree!

The last collage has an image of the home in which Inger lived until age 4 when her family moved from Tärnaby to Lycksele, a lovely little wildflower, Moneses uniflora (known as Ögonljus in Sweden), and a pleasant scene near the family property.

From Lycksele to Tärnaby - Sweden, 2011

2011-08-30T14:31:00.000-04:00

The Blue Highway is 1700km (1020 miles) of "sheer adventure" and goes from "the island of Traena on the Atlantic coast in Norway, by way of Umeå, across Kvarken to Vasa in Finland, and eventually to Petrozavodsk in the Russian Republic of Karelia" according to the sign seen at a roadside stop on our day of travel to Tärnaby. This scenic highway passes through urban (represented by Umeå), rural (represented by Lycksele), forest (represented by Vägsele) and alpine (represented by Tärnaby) zones. We stayed for two nights in Lycksele while visiting with Sture and Inger in Vägsele and one night in Umeå en route to Lycksele from the High Coast. We stayed two nights at the "summer home" of cousins Sture and Inger in Tärnaby. So we saw all four zones during our travels on just the Swedish portion of the Blue Highway, or Blå Vägen, as it is called in Swedish. Come along for the ride...

Before leaving Lycksele, I took a photo of the Hotell Duvan where we stayed two nights in Lycksele and several interior views of Lycksele kyrka (across the street and in the collage below).

Built of wood from 1795-1799, the interior of Lycksele kyrka was painted to resemble marble (lower left) and ceiling paintings were added in the 1950s during a restoration. The fabulous organ was added in 1977 during a more recent renovation. The front altar painting by CG Sjöstrand (lower right) depicts the resurrection of Christ and was added in 1842. The fabulously gilded high pulpit is one of many such high pulpits present in churches all over Sweden. While researching Lycksele kyrka on the internet, I found an interesting Google translation from the Swedish Wikipedia article on Lycksele kyrka: "The church is built of sleeping hours and consists of nave with cows in the east and the west tower." I have NO IDEA what that means but think I'd prefer my church without cows! I can relate to "sleeping hours" in church though… ;-)

En route to Tärnaby from Lycksele, we were treated to a stop at a roadside picnic area alongside the Umeälven, Ume River, marked by the red dot on the map shown between the two river views. Seated on the left of the picnic table from front to back are myself, my sister Valerie and my brother Lukas; on the right (same order), cousin-in-law Inger, my brother's partner Tom and cousin Sture. As usual, we were treated to a fine snack and freshly brewed coffee! The wooden "box" houses trash cans and keeps the four-legged critters from the garbage. The church is Stensele kyrka... anxious to reach Tärnaby, we did not stop to explore this largest wooden church in Sweden. (we did make a short side trip to visit this church two days later)

First order of business on arrival... light a fire to dispel the chill from the air... it's cool even in summer in the mountains! As soon as the cars were unpacked we set the table and Inger began preparing food for our afternoon meal... Another lovely meal with appetizers of herring two ways (one in cream sauce with egg and onions and one pickled), more potatoes, some riced to have with the main meal and some whole as an option to have with the herring. The main meal was moose with chanterelles and gravy (absolutely delicious), riced potatoes, rye toast, lingonberry jam and salad followed by a dessert of homemade rhubarb pie warm from the oven served with a vanilla cream sauce.The downstairs rooms have dual purpose "couches" that doubled as sleeping space for Sture and Inger during our stay. They insisted we sleep in the upstairs rooms.

Upstairs, the smaller of the two bedrooms is colorfully decorated and furnished with two twin beds, the larger of the two (lower right) has two twin beds and a sleep sofa that can be expanded for additional sleeping space. And if that isn't enough, there is a small "cottage" opposite the main house that sleeps more (upper right). Sture and Inger lived in this one-room cottage during the construction of their larger home. They built it themselves using, in part, materials from an old house Sture bought and had transported to their property in Tärnaby in order to take it apart and use the materials in construction of their vacation home. The wedding photo sits on the table (a small part of which is seen in the foreground, lower right) and is of their older son Örjan and his wife Lisa. I rather like the look the glare on the glass gave this photo of a photo.

What to do after our marvelous meal? Why, walk it off, of course. Through the forest and down to Lake Gäutan where we saw the sunlight on Ryfjället, the lower of the two main peaks seen here, and spotted quite a few alpine flowers along the way (or on a later walk). Ryfjället rises 1130 meters (0.7 miles) above sea level; the taller and more distant peak is Ryivegaise which rises 1412 meters (0.87 miles) above sea level.

Another look at Ryfjället and Lake Gäutan, Sture, Inger and Frosse (phonetic spelling) on the lake shore, the colorful door to their home with its lovely hardware and the moose antlers seen on a neighbor's garage. One note about hiking down to Lake Gäutan... if you ever find yourself in Sweden hiking around this lake, make sure you have used a good insect repellant! The mosquitoes were pretty hungry.

This is a bit out of order since this image is from Vägsele but I wanted to include it anyway. The home seen here belonged to Sture's parents. The small extension on the right of the main house was used as a post office until 1960; during that time, Sture's mother was postmistress for the town of Vägsele. The main house dates from the 1930s but both the post office extension and the porch on the left were added at later dates.

Out and about in Vägsele, Ytterfors and Lycksele in Northern Sweden

2011-08-24T18:21:00.000-04:00

We learned rather quickly that any visit with cousin Sture and his wife Inger meant hiking, eating REALLY GOOD food and learning about how things were in the "old days" as evidenced by relics left in the old houses where various relatives were born and/or lived at some time in the past. Our second day visiting with them was filled with so much activity that it was very hard to choose representative images... hope you enjoy your visit here. We certainly enjoyed our visit there!

Images seen here in the top left and bottom right are from the garden as is the flower image (cannot recall the species). Others are from our before lunch hike on the property where Sture and Inger live and include a rear view of my brother and his partner heading into the woods, my brother getting up close to a flower, a view through the trees to a distant farm, my brother-in-law with Inger and my sister trailing behind Inger as we return to their house at the end of our walk.

The images across the top half of the collage include views of the Johansson family property showing Sture and Inger's home and barn as well as land across the street that used to be part of the property; the two smaller images are actually the left and right halves of a landscape image take from high up the hill above their home looking across to distant mountains. The bottom half of the collage shows the home of one our great-grandfather's brothers next to the windmill that is a lawn decoration at this home, another view of distant mountains as seen from the Johansson property and the barn with wood bins FILLED to overflowing with wood chopped by cousin Sture. Inger told us the home that belonged to our ancestor has been added on to since it was originally built in our great-grandfather's time and is now quite modern.

A short drive away from the home of our cousin found us at a lovely picnic spot, complete with shelter in case of inclement weather, a fireplace for warmth and/or cooking and beautiful scenery just across the road from the picnic table. Sture carried the coffee pot and fixings for coffee with him whenever food was involved in our outings... including carrying it in a knapsack when we went hiking! By the time we had lunch spread out on the picnic table and had taken a few photographs of the lovely scenery, Sture had coffee ready for us. The tiny people in the image in the lower left are my brother and his partner.

In addition to lovely scenery, wildflowers were abundant at our picnic spot. Caught my sister taking a photo of our spectacular views... we never did figure out if the white flower is Queen Anne's Lace or some other look-alike flower... and the pink cluster of tiny buds is still unidentified. The others are either Common or Small Cow-wheat (hard to know which the tiny yellow, twin blossoms are), Buttercup and Wild Geranium, completely with a tiny fly that MAY be a hoverfly. (There is not enough detail to be absolutely certain of the ID and it is not a hoverfly with which I'm familiar if it is, indeed, a hoverfly.)

After lunch, we headed off on our next adventure. A short distance away we visited property that used to belong to my grandmother's family and saw the house in which she was born, the top left and bottom right images are of that house which is no longer livable. The woman in the lower right image, Brigitta, lives in the new house (built in 1960) on the property and had much to tell us about the old house and the old days. She is standing on the back corner of the old house and told us that it used to be bigger but part of it was demolished to provide building materials that were used in building the new house. The top right image is of the old barn on the property; Sture and Inger are standing in front of the old playhouse on the property and the dishes and tea service (use your imagination) are inside the playhouse. Although there is a new playhouse, Brigitta says the children prefer to play in the old one. She also told us she played in this house when she was young and learned everything she needed to know about life here. The other images on the bottom left are of some of our party going into the woods (you will see why in the next collage), a vole hiding in the grass and a detail of the old, cast iron stove in the old house.

More images of the old house including a closer view of the rear corner where Brigitta stood and told us about the house, another view of the playhouse, the other side of the rear of the old house and a building used by our great-grandfather as a smithy. The part of the old house, now gone, that was on the rear half of the house seen in the lower left was lodging for the schoolteacher who came for three months of the year to teach the school age children. It would have also served as the schoolroom.

The top left image is one last view of the barn on the Ytterfors property... beautiful to me in the setting of all the green hues and wildflowers. The rest of the images in this collage are from the inside of the old house on the Johansson property and include old wallpaper, old linoleum flooring (watch your step), lasts used in making their own shoes, one door of a wardrobe used until fairly recently by one of our grandfather's brothers (we think), two views (front and rear) of an old knapsack that would have been used for berry picking and an anvil that our great-grandfather used in the old days. Sometimes I think we have NO IDEA how easy our lives are compared to our ancestors.

An old sundial, another lovely view from the Johansson property, our cousins' pet playing with his chew toy, another marvelous meal prepared by Inger and Sture and roadside views taken around 9:30 PM on our way back to Lycksele. The late evening light was just amazing!

The sunset images flanking the church are not exactly as they were seen. I was experimenting with color adjustments on images taken at the same time as those seen in the previous collage... clearly one can change the look/feel of an image quite dramatically! The church in Lycksele was right across the street from our hotel; the picture was taken at about 10:30 PM as we were heading out to walk along the water before bedtime.

Images from our wandering around town and along the Ume River in Lycksele... a lovely building whose purpose I cannot recall, a house in town (do you see the face?), one of the only modern churches we saw during our stay in Sweden, sunset along the river with an abandoned boat, two fishermen coming in to shore, a statue of a fisherman and the front of our hotel. As for the "WICTORIA" poster, it is advertising a Circus and was sometimes spelled WICTORIA and sometimes Victoria. Either way, I had to take a picture of it!

Last, but not least, you may like to view a slide show of the images included in this post. If you made it this far, thanks so much for coming along for the journey!

Travels continue... from Umeå to Lycksele and Vägsele - Sweden, 2011

2011-08-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

An unexpected discovery in my hotel room in Umeå... two sets of barbells along with a DVD of suggestions for workouts. Fortunately, they were not at the head end of the bed! And they did NOT get used by me but they were an artistic addition to the decor. :-)

Before leaving Umeå, we went to Gammlia, a part of town where there is an open air museum with buildings representing diverse cultures and various historic times. We happened to be there just as people were coming to church in the old Gammlia Kyrka. The church is not very large but it is quite pretty... the service was outdoors on this nice Saturday morning during Midsummer celebrations and the pastor was happy to tell us a bit about the church. We were invited to stay for the service but needed to be on the road to Lycksele and Vägsele to meet up with our cousins.

More from the Gammlia Kyrka... close up of the bell tower and interior shots showing the painted walls (commonly done to make them look like stone) and some of the interior decorations as well as the high pulpit (dark because I chose to show it as it was with natural light).

The schoolteacher docent in Gammlia standing outside the schoolhouse which was also used as a bakery. Interior shots show some of the school supplies (slates the student used, chalk (in baskets in drawer) and erasers (rolled up rags)), the room where the teacher would have stayed while teaching students for the 3 month period s/he was at this school and the chamberpot (used during the night if needed and emptied the next day).

Schoolteacher explaining that the "sticks" of letters, numbers and symbols behind her were used to teach arithmetic, the alphabet and spelling, a water mill building near the school, oil lamp used for light during long, dark winter nights and the school garden which also would have been used in teaching the students as well as providing produce for the teacher.

Entering the Sami village we saw smoke coming from this "cot" and were invited in by the young Sami who was the docent on duty. He told us that he and his father built this cot, first finding the curved trees that are used for the main support of the structure and then finding and cutting all the logs. Construction was done entirely without the use of nails which were very scarce and hard to come by in northern Sweden in the old days. In the cot, the family sits to the right of the fire with the most important members seated furthest from the door in order of importance to the family (the mother is the most important); guests would have been seated on the left. I commented that his clothing didn't look very authentic Sami to me... his comment in return was that he is Sami and the clothes felt like clothing to him so they must be authentic Sami clothing. :-)

Images from the Västerbottens museum in Gammlia, Umeå, Sweden. Museums of this sort were established to display buildings and lifestyles that seemed to be vanishing with the onset of the industrial revolution. Of course I had to include a macro of a hoverfly... the images surrounding it from top right to lower bottom left are of a summer barn, a rail fence with a drying rack in the background (both built without using nails), a threshing barn, windows of the "cot" seen in the adjacent image, two sheep stripping a young pine of its bark and lower needles, a lovely scene of an old wooden structure next to the forest.

The two wooden structures high off the ground and supported by raised platforms with tree trunks as the base are typical of Sami food storage buildings, designed to keep food away from four-legged predators. The tree trunks are still rooted in the ground. The middle structure is a portable cot (Sami home) that is used in summer while moving the reindeer herd from one grazing ground to the next.

This reindeer carving was in the Sami village in the open air museum in Gammlia, Umeå, Sweden. Reindeer are very important to the Sami who domesticated reindeer in the 16th and 17th centuries.

By now we were LATE for lunch for sure and anxious to join our cousins for a meal and to get acquainted/reacquainted. So off we raced to Lycksele where we checked into our hotel and then continued on to Vägsele. Cousin Sture and Inger live in the "new" house on the family property which has been in the Johansson family since the 1600s, seen here with our rental car and their car parked in front shortly after our arrival. Sweden's colors of blue and yellow were in the wildflower bouquet and the maypole (significant to Midsummer celebrations) on the dining table, the wood stove is the second of two stoves in Inger's kitchen and serves dual duty in winter as an extra cooking stove and a heat source. Our first meal included two types of herring (pickled and in cream sauce), moose (killed by Sture during the winter hunt and deliciously prepared by Inger), cloudberry quiche (delicious!) and other wonderful food. The old red barn seen on our after dinner hike, the table set for dinner, our cousins' pet peeking out from under the rug where he hid for awhile and lingonberry blossoms finish out this collage.

After dinner, we went off on an "easy hike" as described by Inger who is five years older than I am... if this was an easy hike, a difficult one might be too much for me! It wasn't that difficult but it did go through rocky ground and was an uphill climb. The red building is one of many old buildings we saw in the countryside in northern Sweden; ruins of old farm equipment dot the landscape; Sture's wife Inger with their pet following close behind (must get the correct spelling of the dog's name but think it might be Frässe); Sture carrying umbrellas in case of rain (it did not); and images of distant landscape as seen from high up the mountain.

The top left and bottom right corner images are the new and old houses respectively on the Johansson property. Sture and Inger have lived in the new house since 2004; the old house, built in 1792 and no longer livable, is where our grandfather was born and where he and our grandmother lived after they were first married. Their oldest two children, born before they emigrated to the US in the early 1900s, were also born here. Other images include a lovely old stone building in disrepair, a small portion of the wood chopped by cousin Sture (no wonder he is in such great shape) for their use in heating their home, a late evening scene of the beautiful countryside in Vägsele, the old laundry house, used by our ancestors as a communal clothes washing place, and more old farm equipment rusting in the fields.

I'll leave you with two more late evening sunset scenes... a beautiful end to our first day spent with cousins Sture and his wife Inger. All images in this post are available for viewing as a slide show if you'd like to see them in their original format.

From Härnösand to Umeå... a day of travel in Sweden - 2011

2011-08-14T19:15:00.000-04:00

As we continued our journey north toward Umeå, we passed many small villages and farms and saw fewer and fewer cars on the road. If you ever find yourself anywhere near the High Coast region of Sweden, on the world heritage list, it is well worth spending a day or more exploring the area. Once again, editing the many images down to a few to share has been a daunting task. Hope you enjoy the ride! (remember, click any image to view the large size... or if you prefer, have a look at all the images in a slide show)

From Wikipedia The High Coast Bridge (in Swedish Högakustenbron or Vedabron) is a suspension bridge crossing the mouth of the Ångermanälven river near Veda, on the border between the Härnösand and Kramfors municipalities in the province of Ångermanland in northern Sweden… length is 1,867 metres (6,125 ft)… constructed between 1993 and 1997 and was officially opened on 1 December 1997.

The fog lends an air of mystery to these images taken under the bridge after we crossed it leaving Härnösand en route to Umeå.

A few things that caught my eye as we explored the High Coast area... quiet fishing villages, roadside lupine, novelty advertising and red buildings in fields bordered by typical Sami style wooden fences, constructed without using any nails.

Buzzing bees, wildflowers, beautiful scenery... we never lacked for something lovely to view.

Nordingrå Kyrka (kyrka is Swedish for church) is a beautiful church on the High Coast, constructed from 1825-1825 and restored in 1962, it sits on the same site as a church built in the 12th century. The row of red cabins in the lower left are part of the Nordingrå church village... church villages in Sweden are charactered by a such collections of small cabins and were built up around the churches to provide lodging for parishioners who traveled long distances to church. Prior to the 1860's, it was a crime in Sweden to not go to church. And it wasn't until the last century that church and state were separated. These days, those cabins are sometimes rented to tourists, used for summer camps or are not used at all.

Another view of the exterior of Nordingrå Kyrka and 3 views of the ruins of the 12th century church. Only the foundation is left standing and nature is taking over the area. Such ruins are particularly beautiful to me with the contrast between the old stone and the lush colors of nature.

Continuing our generally northward journey, we stopped at Rotsidans naturreservat on the recommendation of our cousin Örjan. The beach is famous in Sweden and he thought we should stop and see it. The path to the beach is about 500 meters through a lovely forest, passing over the rocky shore dotted with wildflowers... we reached the beach only to find it completely fogged in! My brother's partner is waving at me through the fog as he stands next to my brother. The last image of the sailboat with all the signal flags is from further along on our journey... more about that later. But first, a few more of the foggy Rotsidans naturreservat.

The sea is lost in the fog...

As is the shoreline...

Wave action over the rocks along the shore...

Shore bird soaring out of the fog over the trees on shore at Rotsidans naturreservat... you might enjoy taking the extra time to click this one and view it large... the light on the bird is quite nice!

The High Coast town of Mjällom is where we finally saw a bit of the Midsummer celebrating that was ongoing during our visit... in the lower right on the distant shore, people had gathered and were playing games and listening to music. The image in the lower left is from Skuleskogens National Park and is of the tourist convenience facility there... it is a beautiful building and one would never guess its purpose without seeing the signs for Men (män) and Women (kvinnor) on the doors!

Upon our arrival in Umeå, we find out once again that "proper" restaurants are closed due to the Midsummer holiday so we dine on OK fast food at Max, Sweden's answer to McDonald's and a cut above. Afterward, we wandered around the town exploring our neighborhood... the gentleman in the top left was quite insistent I take his picture and his fingers are forming a heart. The homes along the river are quite impressive and the differing styles of architecture on many of the buildings quite beautiful.

In my next post, you will see more of Umeå and then we are off to Lycksele where we at last meet up with our Swedish cousins who live in Vägsele, a small town of 43 inhabitants about 20 minutes from the larger town of Lycksele.

From Stockholm to Härnösand... a day of travel in Sweden

2011-08-07T20:38:00.000-04:00

It seems that when we traveled in Sweden, we often found ourselves traveling the highways in the rain. Some of the time, we got lucky and found ourselves stopping during lulls in the rain... other times we battled the rain when stopping to visit sights we wanted to see. Our day of travel from Stockholm to the High Coast town of Härnösand was just such a day... and we weren't always lucky as you will see! (reminder, just click any image to view it larger... or view them all as a slide show if you prefer)

There are two reasons you won't see an image from me of the exterior of the Uppsala Cathedral, the tallest cathedral in Sweden and one that has survived fires and had multiple renovations over the years to reach its present form as a Gothic style cathedral. One is that there was no way to get far enough away from it during the short time we stopped in Uppsala en route to the High Coast... and the other is that the pouring down rain made me not want to even try! Meanwhile, this image is of just a few of the lovely stained glass windows... just look at that organ too!

Near the Uppsala Cathedral, the Holy Trinity Church is older and much simpler... and to my eyes, lovelier. The church was consecrated in 1302 and was decorated with paintings by Albertus Pictor, a famous medieval artist, in the second half of the 15th century.

The old buildings on the canal are fishermen's huts, houses and fish stores in the town of Hudiksvall, one of our stops en route to the High Coast from Stockholm. The church spires towering over the foreground buildings are on the cathedral in Härnösand, the only white cathedral in Sweden and also the smallest of Sweden's cathedrals. And the familiar (at least to Americans) golden arches barely visible on the building across the water is the McDonald's in Härnösand... it was an option for dinner that we did not take!

The street scenes are from our exploration of the older part of town in Härnösand. The town was chartered in 1582 and has been partially destroyed by fire 10 times over the years since. I don't know the age of these lovely wooden buildings in the older part of town which is very picturesque with the narrow streets. It was still quite light after 10 PM! The colorful painted doors caught my eye as did a distant view of the cathedral from another angle.

The pizzeria where we had dinner served OK food... not what I'd had in mind for dinner but that and McDonald's were really about our only choices during the midsummer holiday when almost everyone takes vacation. Another view of the church and yet another view of those painted doors which I liked so much! The tourists waiting for the photographer to stop playing with her camera are my sister and brother.

Sometimes it seemed that there was brilliant color everywhere we looked! Two shop windows and these flowers caught my eye while we were having our after dinner stroll in Härnösand.

Continuing our wandering, we saw still more flowers and a colorful building whose purpose I've since forgotten (maybe city hall). The other building (lower left) housed a pub on the first floor where we spent some time having a drink before heading back to our hotel. It seems the clocks in Härnösand's public spaces (the ones I noticed anyway) had not been set for daylight savings time. It was after 11 PM when the photos of the building and the clock tower were taken.

I think I'm getting the hang of putting these posts together a little more efficiently. I sure hope so anyway because I absolutely MUST finish reporting on this journey before my next adventure begins in mid-September!

A Packed Day of Tourism in Stockholm, Sweden on June 21, 2011

2011-07-31T20:52:00.000-04:00

Regular readers may be pleased (I know I am) to know that I've figured out how to enlarge the images included in small size... just click any image you'd like to view in the larger size. If you found your way here from World Bird Wednesday, where I'll be posting later on this week, you may want to scroll down the page to the bird images which are towards the end.

Hang onto your hats for a parade of collages from a day so full that I cannot begin to share it all!

We started our day wandering through Gamla Stan (the old part of Stockholm and the location of the Royal Palace) where we saw colorful fruit and vegetable stands, lovely building details, wandering tourists and a nursery school on parade, a gnome outside a shop door, a BIG bag (filled with construction debris and too heavy for any human to carry) and the Swedish Academy where the Nobel prize winners are chosen every year.

We tarried long enough in Gamla Stan to take numerous photographs of narrow streets, building facades, steeples, windows, and even a "pissoire" (urinal) near the Royal Palace. We also had coffee and a pastry (sorry, no photograph as I wasn't fully awake yet) and observed the changing of the guards afterwards.

Street filled with people, lovely facade reminiscent of Dutch architecture, quiet side street and window of a shop not yet open.

Steeples everywhere... so many different styles to catch the eye.

Another quiet street, what might be the most photographed pissoire in the world although it is apparently no longer in use as a urinal and a strange piece of wearing apparel, especially as shown with a jacket and tie! Can you imagine wearing a vest made of tiny skeletons? (photographer reflection in lower right)

Hotels along one of the many scenic waterfront areas in Stockholm, the Royal Chapel, the organ in the Royal Chapel and the church (kyrka) on Skeppsholmen (more about that later in my journey).

Much pageantry is associated with the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Stockholm... the outgoing guards were wearing blue uniforms whereas the incoming guards were wearing black uniforms. Those wearing white were members of the marching band providing music for the ceremony. The tiny inset showing tourists in the first of the two collages above is a small taste of the huge crowd gathered to watch the show... the two men wearing plaid on the right are my brother (nearest the camera) and his partner... the woman, also wearing plaid, with her back to the camera on the left is my sister. As the band marched past us (second collage of the two shown above), I was happy to note that the leader of the band was a woman!

The building in the upper left corner is a small portion of one of the wings of the Royal Palace (I believe it is the wing where the private apartments are located, hence the privacy covers over all the windows.); the building on the lower right was built from 1882-1889 and is the headquarters of Norstedts, Sweden's oldest publishing company. I'm not sure about the other buildings that caught my eye!

Leaving Gamla Stan, we wandered past the Opera House and through a park where I spotted a Black-backed Gull perched on a statue... it took me about 10 minutes to make my way closer and closer to capture the image in the bottom right. The wooden windmill is out of place in that it was seen in our next destination, Skansen Park on Djurgården, but I needed an image to fill up this collage.

Nude statue seen in a quiet courtyard, gorgeous steeple on the House of Lords and the Stockholm City Hall as seen from a distance.

The last set of images were all taken at Skansen Park on Djurgården. Stockholm is a city made up of many islands, Djurgården is where Skansen, the Gröna Lund amusement park and the Aquaria Water Museum are located. We spent our time on Djurgården at Skansen, Europe's first open air park. It was established in 1891 at a time when the rural way of life was changing and was designed to preserve how people lived before industrialization brought about sweeping changes. One can see buildings from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and hear docents explain how people lived in the "old days." There is also a section of the park devoted to display of Nordic animals.

No one going to Skansen Park could miss this guy waiting to make balloon animals for anyone willing to pay him. The animals, a reindeer and a goat, were seen in the Sami area of Skansen Park and the building, maybe a schoolhouse (?), was seen while wandering the grounds after a nasty storm blew threw and soaked everything. I love the light!

The Peacocks and geese wander freely around Skansen Park; the Heron (young Great Blue?) was seen in the animal park. The Peacock was uncooperative when it came to displaying his tail feathers for me... but he knew enough to take shelter from the pouring rain that blew through the park later in the day. I don't know what kind of geese these are.

Some more of the geese (the gosling was wet with rain), a Moose grazing in an enclosure in the animal park and an unknown wee critter (maybe a bunny?).

One last mystery bird... a Sparrow whose ID I have been unable to find so perhaps one of you will know it! A fitting end to our day at Skansen included dinner at the restaurant near the exit gate and a very fine beer! If you've stuck with me to the end, I hope you've enjoyed sharing my day. You've only seen a small subset of the many images I took that day... digital photography makes me picture happy... must learn to censor so I don't have quite so many images to go through on my return!

Slightly out of order once again... a visit to Drottningholm Palace, Sweden, 2011...

2011-07-26T19:29:00.001-04:00

Although we visited Drottningholm on our second full day in Stockholm, I wanted to coordinate these images with a post to my photography blog so I'm including them here. I'll pick up with images of our first day in Stockholm in a future post. So hang on to your hat... here's a nearly five hour visit trimmed to 7 collages containing 32 images to give you a taste of the official residence, since 1981, of the Swedish Royal family and the lovely grounds/park associated with the palace. The first palace on this site burned down to the ground in the 1600s. Construction on the present structure, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, was commissioned by the dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora and began in 1662.

Our day began with a boat ride, the common way for tourists to reach Drottningholm. The first image of the Swedish flag flying over the stern of our boat sets the tone for the day... a nice, sunny day with a stiff breeze most of the time! The statue of Apollo di Belvedere is in a courtyard surrounded by four buildings which today house the Theatre Shop and private residences, the gilded gate in the lower left is the entrance to the formal gardens behind the palace and in the lower right is a view of one end of the palace as we approached by boat.

Here you see a view of the front of the palace as we passed by before the boat docked, a close-up of the crest of the royal family as it adorns the gated entrance to the formal gardens, one of many statues gracing the gardens, and colorful flowers typical of many of the plantings seen throughout our day.

Continuing into the gardens and looking back, one sees the rear of the palace; facing forward down the grand promenade is a view of the length of the garden... the same view the royals have from inside the palace; a side lane lined with trees gives a view of a different part of the palace at the end and the cascade fountains serving as a backdrop for the Water Parterre in the formal gardens.

Color overload! Images include the "Confidence" which was used as a private dining room for the royal family when they did not want staff to overhear their conversations (top right and top middle close-up of the tower); the Chinese Pavilion, one of the worlds best preserved rococo structures, was originally built as a prefab house and birthday gift for Queen Lovisa Ulrika from King Adolf Fredrik in 1753 and was rebuilt in the form seen here from 1763-1769 (bottom right, and the two lower images in the middle on both rows); information about the bottom left building is taken from the brochure on Drottningholm: The Guards' Tent was built in 1781 for the dragoons of Gustav III, C.F. Adelcrantz designed the building - built of timber, clad with iron sheeting and then painted to resemble a tent in a Turkish army camp. I'm not sure what the building in the upper left is but thought it was quite pretty and the reflections in the globe light are of the Chinese Pavilion and the Confidence.

Before leaving the buildings to wander through the beautiful gardens, one last image of the Guards' Tent showing a bit of the detail... all wood! The other images show you what a beautiful park this is with statues, flowers, greenery and water features. Stockholm residents and tourists alike find it a lovely place for a picnic.

A few more images showing the lovely gardens and some of the winged inhabitants including a Black-headed Gull (brown head during breeding season), Geese feeding on the lawn (not sure what kind of geese they are) and a Black-headed Gull and a Mallard female sharing a pond. The other image is just very peaceful... you aren't missing any birds here!

As we were heading back toward the palace to visit the inside areas open to the public (no photographs allowed and I got busted trying to take one through the window looking out into the gardens), these old wooden posts lining one of the waterways caught my eye. Wandering past the Royal Stables which now houses the Royal Guard, I managed a photo of these lovely old cannons without any tourists in the way. The last two images close out our day... one of the many statues on the grounds of Drottningholm and a last view of the front of the palace as we pulled away.

Photographs were not allowed in the interior of one of the most interesting old buildings I've ever seen... the Royal Theatre. If you go to Drottningholm, don't miss the opportunity to see this building, completed in 1766 and still in service today, preserved in its entirety as it was then. The theater closed in 1792 with the death of Gustaf III and remained closed until it was rediscovered in the 1920s. From May to August every year, a festival of 18th century opera is presented here. In 1991, the Drottningholm Court Theatre was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage.

If you have the time to comment, please let me know what you think of the idea of combining this blog with my photography blog which has been suggested by one reader. It would save me cross-referencing and allow for bigger images since the format of my photography blog is different from this one and I haven't a clue how to adjust the code for this template to allow larger images.

Göteborg to Stockholm... a Day of Travel in Sweden, 2011.

2011-07-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

At this rate, I'll be on my next trip before I finish posting about my recent family trip to Sweden and Iceland. BUT, I think I'm getting the hang of decision making about what images to include in collages to give a taste of our travels. There is simply no way I can possibly share everything we saw and did without overloading everyone with images and stories! But I simply had to share a few more images from our day of travel (already reported briefly in a previous post) between Göteborg and Stockholm. The previous post was made while still traveling and using an iPad for posting to my blog... not the easiest thing I've ever done!

Exterior of two churches: Habo Kyrka in Habo, Sweden on the left and Gränna Kyrka in Gränna, Sweden on the right. Habo Kyrka is famous for its painted interior which is considered to be the finest in all of Sweden. The present Gränna Kyrka, rebuilt in 1895, is on the same site as the 12th century church that was destroyed by fire in 1889.

The painted interior of Habo, Kyrka is mind boggling to see... the church, cathedral style, was built entirely of wood in the early 1700s. From Wikipedia: The interior of the church was painted [from] 1741-1743 by two artists from Jönköping, Johan Kinnerius and Johan Christian Peterson. The paintings represent Martin Luther's summary of Christian Doctrine. No single image could possibly do justice so I suggest you go there and see this church (kyrka) for yourself! Clockwise from top, left: the part of the pulpit where the minister would stand, the portion of the pulpit above where the minister stood, the high altar, and a detail of one of the many painted areas of the church.

A few miscellaneous images including a view of the beautiful countryside near Habo Kyrka, watering cans hanging in the cemetery near a water spigot, delicious lunch at Gyllene Uttern Hotel (the first motor hotel in Sweden and a lovely spot to stop along the way), and the robot lawnmower we saw cutting the grass (really well!) at Gränna Kyrka.

You might like to view a slide show of images of my family vacation which includes additional images not posted to this blog.

More on Göteborg, Sweden from June, 2011

2011-07-17T00:12:00.000-04:00

If you have been following along on my journey, you will have noticed that posts have been very slow to appear! (and that this one is out of order) In addition to having difficulties with internet access while I was away, I took over 3500 photos in the 2-1/2 weeks that I toured Sweden and Iceland... a bit of overkill that NEVER would have happened back in the days when I had to pay for prints! So it's been taking me quite awhile to go through the images and pick just a few to share.

The collage (created with Picnik) has two images from our visit to the Göteborgs Stadsmuseum (Gothenburg City Museum) which houses viking and emigration history as well as special exhibitions: in the top left, copper coins used for currency during a time in Sweden when silver was extremely scarce and pottery and tile samples diagonally opposite in the bottom right corner, Skansen Kronen tower (sits on a HIGH hill overlooking Göteborg), a view of the city from Skansen Kronen park (on the left under the tower) and just one of the many church spires soaring over Göteborg on the right. Under the copper coins, a close-up of the Poseidon statue, a famous fountain at the top of the main street, Avenyn, in Göteborg, a colorful police car and one of the many coffee shops we saw in Göteborg.

At present, Starbucks has no coffee shops in Göteborg. Apparently, that will change when a Starbucks coffee shop opens in Göteborg's Central Station in the winter of 2012... I have to wonder how many of the marvelous coffee shops everywhere in the city will remain after/if Starbucks builds a large presence there.

This collage represents quite a lot of trial and error, research looking for templates (FAIL) and a painful learning curve encountered in putting this together in Photoshop CS5. My goal was to be able to create a collage that wasn't locked in to the templates offered by Picnik. I'm somewhat satisfied with this but, if I had it to do over, would try to figure out a better way! Meantime, I will post this as is and MAY replace it some day if I ever figure out a simpler, cleaner way to do it. Clockwise from top left, a view of Göteborg from the deck near the top of the building where my cousin Örjan works, architectural detail of the roof of his building as seen from this same deck, detail of one of the painted inlays typical of the elaborate exterior decorations seen on many buildings in Sweden, atypical street scene (no people in it during early afternoon), detail of statues decorating a balcony... they seem to be saying oh my aching head... or how long do we have to support this balcony above us!

I'll close this post with a shot of the seaport from which our grandparents (and their first two children, my Aunt Ada and Uncle Holger) set sail for America in the early 1900s... Grandad came first to get settled and earn money to pay the way for Grandma and their children to follow him several years later. After their family was reunited in Sheridan, Wyoming, four more children were born. My mother was the fifth.

From Göteborg to Stockholm... A day of ups and downs...

2011-07-02T15:09:00.000-04:00

Our second full day in Sweden found us traveling from Göteborg to Stockholm with a few stops along the way. One was to see the church in Habo which is an old, wooden building famous for the extensive painted interior of the church. It is in the countryside near Habo, not in the town itself. The setting is beautiful and we spent quite awhile there exploring the cemetery and the church interior.

Up until our last stop to get gas about 30 minutes outside of Stockholm, we were doing fine. But the trouble started at the Statoil station when we used the windshield washing pump instead of the gas pump to fuel the car. Our inability to read Swedish plus exhaustion after a long day driving plus an idiot employee who told us to use the orange button to begin fueling at pump 18 when he should have known it was not a gas pump added up to a very expensive and time consuming delay before we finally arrived, hungry and exhausted and quite a bit poorer at our hotel.

A few photos from the day begin below.

First, the bell tower at Habo Church...

One of the many detailed interior paintings from which you might see why this church is considered to be the finest example of a painted interior in all of Sweden. At some point during our travels, we were told how common it was in the "old days" for wooden churches to be extensively painted.

After my return, I promise to post a few more images from the better parts of our day. In the meantime, here is what our view looked like as we were towed to a service station to have the washer fluid drained from our tank and replaced by gas after the mishap described above.

Our tow truck driver, moving our car into the garage bay where it was raised on a lift so they could drain the tank. They were very thorough, flushing the tank twice with gasoline before giving us 20 liters of gas, for which the repair shop owner did not charge us, figuring perhaps that we'd suffered enough already!

Playing tourist in Göteborg, Sweden on a rainy day in June, 2011...

2011-06-26T18:11:00.000-04:00

After breakfast on our second day, we met up with Örjan and Lisa who showed us a bit of Göteborg. We started with a visit to Örjan's office building which is situated on a high hill that offers great views of Göteborg. The older part of the building was the home of the "Göteborg Navigations Skola" where sailing was taught in the "old days" (an expression we heard used a lot on this trip).

Since it was a cold, rainy day, we opted for spending time indoors since we couldn't possibly see all of Göteborg in one day! Örjan's office building partially surrounds a historical hill where there was a very old town cemetery and where they used to execute people in the 1600s. We passed by the old city hall, a chocolate/candy store and proceeded on foot to a museum with lots of viking and emigration history as well as a design exhibition that included a jewelry display by their daughter Matilda. The museum cost 40 SEK, but covered 5 museums in Göteborg for a full year.

View from outside terrace at Örjan's office building showing the interesting architecture and a few church towers above the rooftops of the town.

View of entry to the old part of Örjan's office building showing the name of the sailing school that was originally housed in the building.

Some more of the interesting features of the old part of Örjan's office building.

Rainy weather does provide some lovely opportunities for colorful images of exterior features of lovely old buildings.

Tourist train that would have saved us a bit of walking had we opted for using it... Lisa and Örjan provided us with great guidance on our tour of the city and allowed us to stop whenever, wherever we wanted to take photos which wouldn't have been possible riding this cute train.

If you've read this far, thanks so much. It has taken me 3 to 4 times as long as usual to put this post together. Perhaps if I get ore familiar with the iPad, I'll be able to put things together more quickly. One source of frustration is that I cannot use "Picnik" to put together collages which would allow me to pack more into less space. I'm only half finished with our tourist day in Göteborg so probably will leave the bulk of posting about our travels until my return home where I have access to more familiar methods of posting and editing images!

Family visit in Gothenburg - or Göteborg... Swedish style!

2011-06-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

It has taken awhile to get to anywhere the Internet is reliable enough to post anything. Will see how it goes. We arrived in Göteborg on Saturday but my checked bag didn't make it until Sunday. Fortunately, I planned for that possibility and we just continued on with only minor worries about the luggage. Cousin Örjan met us at the airport and led us to our hotel, saving us the worry of finding our way while jet lagged!

For this post, I'll just include a few family photos and leave the tourist report until another day. Our cousin Örjan is doubly related to us through his great-grandfather and our grandfather who were brothers and his great-grandmother and our grandmother who were half-sisters, making him our second cousin, once removed. (his father Sture is our second cousin; we will be visiting him later on our journey)

Our first evening in Göteborg was spent dining with Örjan and his wife Lisa and planning our next day while keeping in mind that it might be a rainy day. No pictures from our first night in town...

A few family photos are included below from our second day and evening when we were squired around town by Örjan and Lisa and then treated to a marvelous meal at their home where we met the rest of their immediate family.

Left to right: sister Valerie, cousin Lisa, cousin Örjan, brother-in-law Tom, brother Lukas and yours truly...

Cousin Örjan.

Örjan and Lisa's son Ludwig.

Örjan and Lisa's daughter Matilda putting the finishing touches on dessert.

Left to right: Ludwig, Örjan, Lisa, Svante, Matilda and Sixten at their home on the evening of June 19, 2011. We were wined and dined and treated to a marvelous meal of traditional Swedish dishes including moose that was absolutely delicious! I wish that I hadn't been so jet-lagged or I'd give you more details about the meal. In addition to delicious food and lovely wines, we had wonderful conversations and learned more about our Swedish family.

Nothing to do with our travels... Just a test...

2011-06-16T17:34:00.001-04:00

Sitting in Rock Bottom in Bethesda the night before leaving on our trip... Thought I'd give posting a try just to make sure I have everything I need on my iPad. (for our itinerary and notes on the trip, please see the previous post)

The image below is another experiment in HDR processing and is from a bracket set of images taken at Wollam Gardens in Jeffersonton, Virginia. After merging the images with Nik software, the vintage effect was applied. I rather like how the foliage frames the 1935 vintage tractor which is still in use on the 11 acre property.

My next post here will either be en route to Sweden or after our arrival on Saturday, June 18th. (the house is not empty while I'm away in case anyone is concerned about that)

Upcoming trip to Sweden... with side trip and a stop in Iceland!

2011-06-11T12:33:00.005-04:00

Just a quick post (HA!... my posts always take longer than I intend) to share an upcoming journey itinerary. I'll not worry about my house/home while I'm away because someone will be in residence there to keep an eye on things. :-)

At a family reunion in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada 25 years ago, I met Swedish second cousins Sture and Inger Johansson and their son Örjan. Sture and I are doubly related through our Swedish grandparents because our grandfathers were brothers and our grandmothers were half-sisters. When we met in 1986, I promised to come visit them in Sweden and now I am finally going to do just that.

This trip will be a family trip with my brother, his partner and my sister who is the serious genealogist in the family. We will be staying first in Göteborg to visit with Örjan, his wife and their four children who live in a nearby suburb.

We will also visit with Sture and his wife Inger while staying up north in Lycksele. Sture and Inger live on the property that has been in my Swedish family since 1640. Family records for that area of Sweden were lost in a fire in 1640 when the church in Umeå where they were stored burned. So we don't know anything about our family prior to that year.

Part of our visit with Sture and Inger will be in the mountains close to the Norwegian border where they have a cabin near Tärnaby. After our stay there, we will cross the border into Norway and drive south through the mountains before crossing back into Sweden.

In between visiting with family, we will spend time in Stockholm, the High Coast, Umeå and Österund. On our return trip, my brother, his partner and myself will be stopping in Iceland for a few days. My sister will be returning to the US from Österund through Stockholm after our overnight in Österund.

Our itinerary and a map of our route follow... if things go according to plan, I will be posting a few photos and stories along the way. However, I do not know how well the plan will work since I will be attempting to blog via iPad on a wireless connection whenever possible and will not have my computer with me! (trying to travel light)

Letters represented on the map above correspond to locations indicated on the itinerary below in parens (A, B, C, etc); we are not staying in Norway at the junctions indicated by letters G and H on the map. (large view of map)

June 17th for Göteborg, Sweden via Icelandair; arrive in Göteborg at 3:00 PM June 18 local time
June 18-19 in Göteborg (A); drive to Stockholm on the 20th
June 20-22 in Stockholm (B); drive to Härnösand on the 23rd
June 23 in Härnösand (C; High Coast region); drive to Umeå on the 24th
June 24- in Umeå (D); drive to Lycksele on the 25th
June 25 -26 in Lycksele (E); drive to Tärnaby on the 27th
June 27-28 near Tärnaby (F) at Sture and Inger’s cabin; drive to Östersund on the 29th
June 29 in Östersund (I) overnight; drive to Stockholm on the 30th (Val flies home from Östersund on June 30)
June 30-July 1- Brother Lukas, partner Tom and myself in Stockholm (B) two more nights
July 2- flight to Reykjavik where we stay July 2-4.
July 5- depart Reykjavik for home

More about the Horseshoe Crabs and other creatures... 2011

2011-05-27T00:12:00.003-04:00

In the previous post, I included a picture of a crab pileup and quite a bit of information about the Horseshoe Crabs... this first image in today's post is of a breeding pair who are working their way to shore (although here, the waves seem to be carrying them out) so the female can lay the eggs (she's the front, larger one) and the male can then fertilize them. The female pulls him along behind her so he can do his part after she finishes laying the eggs.

This is a young Horseshoe Crab before it has developed the front claws which allow us to know whether it is male or female. Males have front claws shaped roughly like boxing gloves, the better to grip onto the rear of the female's shell as seen in the previous image. When a Horseshoe Crab gets turned upside down, it uses its long, spiny tail to flip itself upright. We assisted this one in righting itself at which point it headed for the water. When upside down, the crab is extremely vulnerable to predators. Also, its gills will dry out quite rapidly which means it will certainly die unless it rights itself and returns to the bay.

This is the same young crab, heading for the water after we turned it back upright to assist it. You can certainly see why they are referred to as living fossils... and they have been around since prehistoric time.

Sanderlings on the beach... a possible caption for this is "you go this way and I'll go the other way" as they search for crab eggs and/or the tiny creatures deposited as the waves recede from the shore.

I think this is an immature Herring Gull but am not certain. I'll have to do more research but it's almost 1:00 AM and time for bed so I want to wrap up this post soon!

The oddly shaped "rock" in the center of this image isn't a rock at all... it is a Sea Cucumber! It was spotted by one of our group and we weren't at all certain what it was. Our naturalist guide told us a bit about these strange creatures, most of which I've forgotten already. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that when it feels threatened, it will puff itself up and expel its stomach. A predator will then eat the stomach instead of the Sea Cucumber and the "cuke" will go merrily on its way and simply grow a new stomach.

Horseshoe Crabs and the birds that depend on them...

2011-05-25T10:48:00.005-04:00

Although the first image is crabs, crabs and more crabs, the rest of this post (scroll down) will be birds who love to dine on their eggs. If I haven't missed the cutoff, I'll be posting this to World Bird Wednesday shortly. (am posting here instead of my other blog because this blog is where I post when the images tell more of a story than I want to tell on my photo blog... am WAY behind returning visits from last week but will be catching up before the weekend)

My cousin Jane, friends and myself went to Slaughter Beach, Delaware (and a few nearby spots) to view the annual mass breeding of the Horseshoe Crabs. They breed and come to shore, riding high tide in to the beach, in great numbers to deposit and fertilize vast numbers of protein rich eggs over a two week period (+/- a few days) every May. One of the best places to view this spectacle is Slaughter Beach on the Delaware Bay.

Blue Ridge Workshops provided a photography instructor and a naturalist guide for our "day at the beach" and some of us even got to try out HUGE lenses on our Nikon cameras. I failed miserably to get the hang of using a 600mm prime lens fitted with a 2x converter and think my Sigma 120-400mm zoom is much easier to use! (also would need someone to carry the rig for me if I were to use such a huge and heavy lens assembly) Too bad I forgot to pack the 1.4x converter for my Sigma lens.

And now for a few of the birds who dine on the eggs laid by the crabs...

Sanderlings with a few Ruddy Turnstones mixed in (look closely and you might spot the Turnstones)

The foreground Sanderling has a crab egg in its mouth. (larger view)

Laughing Gull, aptly named if you've ever heard them! Note Horseshoe Crabs on the beach too.

Willet with tail of Horseshoe Crab visible, sticking out of the water on the left.

A few Ruddy Turnstones with some blurry gulls on the water behind them.

The last part of the photography adventure...

2011-02-22T18:07:00.002-05:00

Alright, I'm trying again to finish up the adventure I had the other day with my cousin Jane and our friend Susie. It seems that Google's blog service is having a bit of difficulty today because it keeps posting "Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying..." and then occasionally posts "Draft autosaved at..." So this last collage of images from our adventure may or may not show up today if I fail at publishing!

The two scenic images were both taken from the same spot... the James Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, WV. The "Opera House" is in downtown and is not an opera house at all but was built as a movie theater in the early 1900's and was in continuous operation as one until 1956. The Yellow Brick Bank building was, at one time, a bank but now houses a lovely restaurant.

More of the photography adventure...

2011-02-22T17:30:00.007-05:00

I was going to add this to the previous post until I realized how much I'd already written about Del, his pottery and our visit there. So this post will be about the rest (or more) of the adventure... depending! ;-)

Our first stop of the day (upper left in the collage above) was at the "Scenic Overlook" on I-270 not far from Washington, DC where I took LOTS of photos and found that most of them did not please me (this one did). The lovely old church on the right had a corner-stone dated 1856; some of the graves in the cemetery were those of soldiers who died in our Civil War. The lower left is obviously a close-up of the gorgeous stained glass window and on the right, skipping to the end of the day, is a sunset taken in Boonsboro, MD.

We stopped for lunch in Shepherdstown, WV and wandered the town a bit both before and after lunch. The collage above includes an image (upper left) of the tower of McMurran Hall, part of Shepherdstown University... the clock in the tower is mainained, wound twice weekly and strikes the hour as it has since 1841 although in 1841 it was not in its present location. It was originally intended for the tower at Trinity Church but was moved to McMurran Hall in 1860. (information from the Historic Shepherdstown Walking Tour guide) Additional images are of a lovely old home and the main street, an old, stone Lutheran Church tower and a quirky coffee shop "bumper sticker" hanging on the wall of the Lost Dog coffee shop in Shepherdstown. This bumper sticker caught my eye for two reasons... it made me laugh and then I noticed that it was from a coffee shop in Sheridan, WY where we lived until 1955 when we moved to Billings, MT.

Rambling to Foxcross Pottery in Sharpsburg, MD with stops along the way...

2011-02-20T16:28:00.007-05:00

Del of Foxcross pottery is a favorite potter of mine whose pieces I have been buying for over 30 years... his studio and home are both on the same property where he lives with his wife and works in his studio most every day. My cousin Jane and I had been discussing going off somewhere to have fun together while taking pictures for awhile now since photography is a passion for both of us.

Since it had been quite awhile since we had visited Del in Sharpsburg, MD, we thought making a day of it and heading up that way (slightly less than a 90 minute drive from my house if one doesn't stop at all en route) qualified for a fun adventure, especially since we decided to go up by one route and return by another... traveling a few back country roads and having lunch in Shepherdstown, WV either before or after visiting with Del at his pottery studio. Our friend Susie concurred and happily joined us.

The collage above (view large; right click link to select view in another window to avoid leaving this page... html tag target=blank isn't working for me any more) is a collection of images from our visit... Although I've visited Del many times, I learned a few things that I hadn't known before... the collection of old tools hanging on the wall are some that Del found on their property when they were clearing the land to build their home and the artifacts on the shelf (some bullets, uniform buttons and other items) are Civil War artifacts. Del used some of the old tools when building their home! Del is pictured above an old teapot that sits on a wood stove in front of the shelf holding the artifacts. To his right is the sign outside his studio. The stained glass window decorates their kitchen/dining area, the wooden shelf with several pottery pieces showcase 'pots' from potters who inspired Del when he was starting out and the rest of the pottery (the bowl with gourds and pine cone and in the lower right collage image) is all Del's work.

I will be adding to this post when I find the time to put together a couple more collages showing representative images of the rest of the adventure my cousin Jane, our friend Susie and I had the other day. In the meantime, there is a fairly brief slide show of the images I hope to organize better when I find the time. Who knew retirement would keep me so busy!

Catching up... again... this time from our Montana trip in June, 2010

2010-09-30T18:11:00.002-04:00

I'm more behind than ever and before memory fails me completely... thought I'd try to catch up a bit and post some images and experiences from our June trip to Red Lodge, Montana where (as some of you may recall) we have a lovely home that is available for a vacation rental when we are not using it.

One of the best experiences from our visit this year was when I got together with a high school classmate for an adventure in the nearby Pryor Mountains where a herd of wild mustangs has roamed freely for many years. The Pryor Mountains span the southern Montana - northern Wyoming border not far from Red Lodge so making a day trip to search out the horses was easily arranged.

Cathy picked me up around 9 AM and we packed our lunch (provided by me) and my camera gear into her car and headed for Lovell, Wyoming where the Wild Mustang Center is located. After a quick stop at the Wild Mustang Center to pick up a detailed map of the area and to find out where the horses could be seen, off we went in search of horses. We found five (four adults and a young foal) right where the ranger at the Mustang Center told us they would be. All the images I posted from our adventure are viewable as a slide show... I've also included a few of my favorites below to whet your appetite for additional viewing.

Typical, wild, wonderful Wyoming scenery in the area around the Pryor Mountains. The red color is a result of iron in the soil.

The horses were some distance away when we first spotted them and we'd been advised not to approach too closely as they can be unpredictable. Here, they appear to be having a conference about something and the foal is almost completely hidden from view (look on the left side behind the front horse).

This was taken after the horses had moved from where we first saw them to a much more accessible location... and they seemed totally bored with our being there! This is the mother of the young foal that was with this group (see the next image for the foal).

The young foal was never far from its mother's side.

Although we never really tired of taking pictures of the horses, we did decide to go to the Canyon Overlook of the Bighorn River where this image was taken. There are a few more as well as a map of the Canyon Overlook area in the slide show which only has 16 images so it takes less than a minute to view it.

Big Sky Panorama... Montana, 2010

2010-08-26T22:03:00.006-04:00

Is it any wonder we love visiting Montana... we were there in June, 2010 and I'm clearly way late in posting anything about our adventures from this trip. This image is a panorama, stitched together from several images taken off Route 78 and Fox Road outside of Red Lodge, Montana. (We have a vacation home there, available for rent when we are not using it.)

This is a teaser... I hope to post more from our trip soon and hope you'll enjoy this image in the meantime!

Catching up... St. Croix... the rest of the trip and future notes!

2010-07-06T11:58:00.006-04:00

Since my last post (and not THE last post) about our trip to St. Croix, we've been to Montana for three weeks and to Illinois for 7 days so I'm definitely far, far, far behind on posting here. It seems that many things have intervened and kept me too busy to post...

first with things here at the house and two weekend trips the two weekends prior to leaving for Montana

one from May 21-23, 2010 to "Dirt Fest" at Raystown Lake, PA (a mountain biking event Mike wanted to attend again this year and I accompanied him)
a second trip (by me alone) to Easton, PA to visit Robin (brother) and Pat (his wife) over the Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day Weekend

and then with our trip to Montana (from June 2-23, 2010) which came about in a rather rushed fashion with a decision to go only about 3 weeks before we actually packed up and left
and last but not least, a trip to Illinois from June 27 - July 3, 2010 due to a death in the family (Mike's mother passed away on June 19 while we were still in Montana); viewing and a memorial service were held in Lovington, IL (where she grew up and where other family is buried)

SO... I will try to briefly wrap up the last few days of our stay in St. Croix before forging ahead with stories from the rest of our travels! In the days after attending my nephew's wedding (see previous post) and before our departure, we managed to fit in another family dinner at our villa that included picture taking at the request of some of us who especially enjoy the tradition of a photo of "the five" siblings, some more shopping, another snorkeling trip for "the boys" (Mike and Larry III), a visit to the St. George Village Botanical Garden to walk around the grounds and shop a bit more at their delightfully air-conditioned shop (it was HOT outside), a quick stop to see Jason and Keely's apartment high on a hill overlooking Christiansted, and last, but not least, a family dinner at No Bones Restaurant (Jason and Keely's favorite local dining spot) on our last night in St. Croix. A few images are included below...

One of several family photos taken on June 25, 2010 in St. Croix. This one shows "the five" siblings from left to right... Robin, Valerie, Larry, Victoria and Lukas. There is a slide show available for viewing the rest of the family photos including the ones from our last night together at No Bones Restaurant.

Larry III and Mike returning from snorkeling at a beach near Point Udall.

Just on the other side of the hill... better snorkeling than where Mike and Larry III snorkeled... but we saw it too late!

A very unusual flowering tree... the Cannonball tree... so named because its fruits resemble cannonballs when ripe... this image shows some buds and one fully opened flower.

A view of Christiansted (town and harbor), USVI from Jason and Keely's apartment... the road was pretty rough (steep with sharp turns AND muddy) getting up there but we made it!

An interesting building with exterior walkway and arches... I just like this one!

"THE END" of my St. Croix posts... on to the next adventures when I have some more time to post.

St. Croix, USVI - Wedding Day - April 24, 2010

2010-05-15T11:38:00.006-04:00

I know I'm very late posting the rest of our trip images and stories... seems that many things have intervened since our return home on the 28th.

The day of my nephew's wedding dawned cloudy and there were several periods of rain showers throughout the day. But the weather cleared shortly before the ceremony was to start and the rest of the late afternoon and evening was marvelously clear and quite nice.

We arrived, as instructed by my nephew, 45 minutes before the ceremony was to start to find the catering crew completing the setup of tables and the bar and wandered around exploring the lovely grounds of the estate. As guests started to arrive, we saw family members we hadn't seen since the last wedding (Jason's younger brother Michael married Dawn in August of 2008).

Once all the guests arrived and were seated, following a short and joyous ceremony, Jason and Keely enjoyed celebrating their union with all of those in attendance. Partying LATE into the evening followed the ceremony and I have far too many images of their wedding to share in this space. I've uploaded a few here which may be viewed as a slide show if you want to see all eleven images (takes about 30 seconds depending on your connection speed).

I've included a few family images below ... and a couple of scenic shots from the grounds of the lovely Cane Garden Estate, St. Croix, USVI where the wedding was held. Enjoy!

Cane Garden Estate, main house. Jason and Keely had their wedding ceremony on the steps; we weren't allowed inside but peeking through the windows showed a gorgeously restored interior of this historic residence.

The lovely bride and handsome groom after the vows and just before marching down the aisle to "Another one bites the dust..."

Grooms uncles L-R back row: Tom, Lukas, Larry, Mike; front row: Duane, Larry III, Robin.

The kiss... Pat and Robin on a bench with the clear water and gorgeous countryside behind them.

Dress was island casual... we all took advantage of that! Family members L-R include Valerie (mother of the groom), Larry III, Larry, Tom, Chris, Lukas, Michael, Dawn and Pat.

Groom's family in the left photo L-R: cousin Evan, sister-in-law Dawn and brother Shane; brother Michael and his wife Dawn on the right.

St. Croix, USVI - April 23, 2010

2010-05-07T15:28:00.004-04:00

Still trying to catch up on posts... our villa in St. Croix was marvelous... if you are ever inclined to go there... look up Amonoka Villa and see if it's available... 3 bedrooms on the main level (a fourth sleeping area in the downstairs apartment), 4-1/2 baths on the main level, huge common area that doubles as a dining room and sitting area indoors, pool with large deck and more dining area space as well as LOTS of lounging furniture to aid in loafing the day away if you aren't inclined to explore the island. There is also a large kitchen, wireless internet, generator (in case of power outages)... all in a gated community high up on the hillside on the north side of the island. The master bedroom suite has two bathrooms!

Anyone interested in tropical plants, birds, lizards (geckos) and/or insects will find plenty to enjoy in the grounds surrounding the villa... the gardens have fruit trees, many flowering plants and bushes and all manner of visitors if one sits quietly and waits. You might enjoy viewing a short slide show of the grounds and spacious rooms.

One day late in the week, we came back to the villa to discover a power outage had disabled the keypad (electricity required) that we used to enter the combination to access our private driveway. Once we realized that there was no power, a quick phone call to the emergency number led us to the caretaker who talked us through getting in the gate. Once inside, and still with no power, another phone call to the caretaker had him on site within 15 minutes to fire up the generator. We were VERY impressed to find out that the generator would give us full power at the villa until the next morning IF the power didn't come back on... but the power was restored within an hour or so which meant we didn't have to rely any longer on the generator.

Our evening adventure was a mixed failure/success... our dinner at The Waves was not so great (seriously overcooked red snapper which required cutting with a knife) and slow service (island time)... but the Mocko Jumbie show afterwards at Carombola Resort was quite entertaining! (Family and friends might like to view the slide show of pictures taken during dinner at The Waves.) We hurried to RumRunners after the Mocko Jumbie show only to find that the rehearsal dinner party crowd had mostly dispersed which meant we didn't get to party that evening with my nephew and his fiancee.

I'll leave you with another island sunset image (taken from The Waves Restaurant) and a photo and a bit of information (a teaser) about the Mocko Jumbies.

Mocko Jumbies (sometimes spelled Moko) have been in the Virgin Island cultural heritage for over 200 years and trace their history back to Africa as far back as the 13th and 14th centuries. More information is available elsewhere about their history and cultural significance. Mocko Jumbies are popular for their performances at many festivals as well as in shows for the tourists and locals who appreciate seeing these colorful dancers high up on stilts doing steps that some of us cannot even do with both feet firmly on the ground!

St. Croix, USVI - April 22, 2010

2010-05-05T08:10:00.005-04:00

We've been home for a week and I've been playing catch-up everywhere... so today I've vowed I WILL post at least one more report from our week in St. Croix. After a lazy morning, we went into town for lunch at RumRunners (great spiced shrimp and good salads) and learned a bit about our excellent waitress who lives year-round on a 56 foot sailboat... traveling with her partner where the wind takes them and lighting here and there to wait tables whenever the spirit moves her! Since I'm not overly fond of heat and humidity (which St. Croix has), I'm not terribly envious of this life style.

I already posted a few images from yesterday in the previous post. We wandered around town and shopped a bit for snorkel gear (flippers for me, mask repair parts for Mike) and the best find... a hat for me to wear to the wedding! After lunch, we tried (and failed) to find the recommended supermarket and wound up shopping at Pueblo instead. Groceries are QUITE expensive in St. Croix since almost everything (except rum made locally) has to be shipped to the island. Dashing home afterward, we communicated with the rest of our immediate family members who were staying at a nearby villa that we would host dinner to save them having to go out after traveling most of the day!

For some reason, I don't seem to have family photos from our gathering but will include a few other images below...

View of yellow building with green doors (same building that appears in close-up of stairs and doors in the previous post).

Working on restoration at Fort Christiansvaern, the best restored of the many Danish built forts in the US Virgin Islands and now a historic site.

A shore bird on the rocks in front of RumRunners.

St. Croix - April 21-22, 2010

2010-04-23T10:01:00.003-04:00

Arriving in St. Croix, we were met by the "Villa greeter" (holding a sign with our name) and my brother and his partner who had arrived "on-island" a few minutes before we did. Once we collected our luggage and rental car, we followed the greeter (caravan of two white Toyota Camrys) to our villa. We're in a HUGE sprawling villa with 4 bedrooms and who knows how many bathrooms (haven't counted those yet), a swimming pool, loads of lounge chairs for relaxing outdoors, beautiful gardens... luxury!

Staying at our villa are my sister and her youngest son (oldest is the reason we're all here as he is getting married Saturday), my youngest brother and his partner, myself and my other half and another one of my nephews. Maybe I'll try to get a group photo later!

Meantime, I'm posting a couple images from yesterday... a sunset from our villa and a portion of a most interesting building at Fort Christiansvaern, an old fort built by the Danish in 1749 to protect the harbor at Christiansted, St. Croix... The fort was was partially rebuilt in 1771 after being severely damaged by a succession of hurricanes. It is now a national historic site and is the best preserved of the few remaining Danish-built forts in the Virgin Islands.

St. Croix, USVI - April 21 - April 28, 2010

2010-04-20T08:27:00.003-04:00

We're off on an island adventure as of tomorrow... house sitter lined up to take care of getting us to the airport. (what an incredible friend indeed since we must be on the road to the airport as of 4 AM!) And he'll feed the birds, take care of newspapers and mail and generally keep an eye on things.

My nephew Jason is getting married on Saturday... he's been living in St. Croix for several years and it is where he met his bride-to-be... the lovely Keely! I hope to find time to post a few images while we are there... but family vacations are pretty happening events with this crowd so we'll have to see what happens!

Hope also to do some snorkeling and see a bit of the island. And of course, take LOTS of photos to post here, there, and maybe elsewhere too.

September 15, 2009: Hanging out in and near Red Lodge, MT...

2009-10-11T18:14:00.003-04:00

Mike's cousin Tom and his wife Helen came from Utah to visit us while we were in Red Lodge this year. They arrived the evening of September 14th in time for dinner... after a LONG day of driving. Our day together on the 15th was a bit low key with a somewhat late breakfast together before wandering around town.

Our house (which is available as a vacation rental when we are not using it) is in the "Hi Bug" area of Red Lodge which is where the larger homes were built by the "upper crust" of Red Lodge in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Several of the homes on our street were designed by the same architect, Seth Hunneywell, as our house was. Our walking tour of Red Lodge with our guests included wandering up our street all the way to route 78 and then back again, reading both from a book on the historic homes and a book on the history of Red Lodge as we wandered around.

Photos I've chosen to include today include some from our walk as well as a couple from later in the day when we drove up to Red Lodge Mountain and stopped at Silver Run before returning to town.

Chapman House was completed in 1902, having been built by W.S. Smith at a cost of $6,500 from plans drawn up by Seth Hunneywell. It was described as one of the finest residences in the state of Montana at the time.

Heading back toward town, a structure of a different sort... this grain elevator is no longer used for grain and currently stands idle. I'm not sure whether it will be eventually torn down or repurposed... the angles and shapes against the cloudy sky struck me as worthy of recording. The fencing in the foreground is part of a relatively recent addition to the town of Red Lodge, a childrens playground.

Trains no longer run to and from Red Lodge but this rail car is preserved outside the Art Gallery.

Family photo... Mike (on the right) with cousin Tom and Tom's wife Helen.

The parking lot at Silver Run outside of Red Lodge, MT is accessed by crossing the West Fork of Rock Creek. Silver Run is a multi-use trail with several loops that allow the hiker, biker or cross country skier (in winter, of course) to choose how long they want to make the trail. This photo of the West Fork was taken from the bridge one must cross to reach the parking lot.

September 13-14, 2009: Coaster Classic and House Guests...

2009-10-09T08:13:00.003-04:00

If you follow my Photography Addict's Showcase blog or my Flickr stream, you may already know that on our return home from our western trip, I was invited by a local Bethesda, MD art gallery to have a show of my photography in February, 2010. SO... the excitement over that has kept me hopping recently and I'm way behind on finishing up the saga of our three weeks in Idaho, Wyoming (Yellowstone National Park) and Red Lodge, Montana. Before I forget entirely... thought I'd better work on finishing my posts of our adventures!

The day after Oktoberfest (previous post), the Coaster Classic (Cruiser Classic?) happens... an event involving bicyclists who have their bikes trucked up to the State Line (or to Rock Creek Vista which isn't quite as far up the highway) on the Beartooth Highway and then coast back down. The meet-up spot is on the Rock Creek Road at the campground parking lot where everyone gathers 10ish (timing isn't exact) with their bicycles and various vehicles involved in carting the bikes up the mountain. Of course Mike participated in this adventure but I'd fallen the previous day (on my way TO Oktoberfest) and had skinned up my knees pretty badly so didn't take part.

Without further blathering, I'll leave you with a few photos from the event... And a teaser about our house guests... Mike's cousin Tom (from Utah) and wife Helen arrived at dinner time on the 14th and there will be a couple of final posts about their visit and the end of our stay... will try to finish this trip before TOO long!

We, of course, were the first people at the parking lot... and witnessed a truck pulling into the parking lot with the driver rushing out, throwing up the hood, hollering did anyone have a fire extinguisher and throwing dirt on this engine block while hollering some more about needing a fire extinguisher! He was supposed to help drive bicyclists and bikes up the mountain... but was unable to do so... and I didn't get a photo because I felt bad for the guy... so enjoy this view of mountains from the parking lot instead.

The bicycle in front with the banana seat was ridden by an adult, all the way down the mountain from the state line (Montana/Wyoming border) on the Beartooth Highway.

These boys rode down the mountain too ... but from Rock Creek Vista which is a shorter ride.

The gentleman standing on the rear of the fully loaded flatbed truck is the driver of the flatbed and hauled MOST of the bikes up to the two drop off points... here he is giving instructions to the crowd and cautioning them that they ride at their own risk!

Fully loaded... Lucas drives riders up the mountain in his truck/van complete with couch for seating in the rear. Mike is on the right, bicycle helmet already on and ready to ride.

September 12, 2009: Oktoberfest in Red Lodge, MT!

2009-09-20T14:14:00.002-04:00

Oktoberfest comes early to Red Lodge, Montana... by October, the weather is already too cool for an outdoor festival in the park whereas September weather is beautiful... at least it was this year! I've included a few photos of the festival which are probably only of interest to those pictured... but we didn't really do much else on the day of the festival. A good time (too good a time?) was had by all as we drank an Oktoberfest brew (by beermeister Sam of Red Lodge Ales) or two or more, ate bratwurst, knackwurst, German potato salad and danced to the music (early in the day... oompah... later in the day... blues and rock and roll provided by the Firehouse Band of Billings, MT).

The dirndl I'm wearing was purchased on EBay for about half what 'authentic' German online clothing merchants wanted... it was fun to dress for the occasion.

Beer maidens Hillary and Vanessa on break from serving beer.

Mayor Betsy with Mom, Millicent, modeling the hat awarded to the Oktoberfest Queen elected each year.

One of the youngest Oktoberfest participants dressed in authentic costume... Wyatt was later voted Oktoberfest king for 2009...

Keg bowling was just one of the games for Oktoberfest... here Maryvette throws for what she hopes will be a strike (it wasn't) as the crowd watches.

Lindsey in her authentic German dirndl... one of the organizers who helped make Oktoberfest a smashing success again this year.

Sam, beermeister and owner of Red Lodge Ales...

This photo of us dancing to the Firehouse Band at Oktoberfest was provided by one of the people we met that day...

September 10-11, 2009: Red Lodge, MT with friends

2009-09-19T18:37:00.007-04:00

This post may only be of interest to family and friends... or those who would like to know more about what is available in the way of food, friends and fun in the Red Lodge area. At this point in our vacation, I'm having trouble remembering exactly what we did each day but have a few memorable moments to share in pictures! (when you get to the photos mentioning Wolfie's spot on Red Lodge Mountain... Wolfie was our friend Tim's dog who is no longer with us... we leave you to conclude what is meant by "Wolfie's spot" on Red Lodge Mountain)

No trip to Red Lodge is complete without a trip to Roscoe, MT for a marvelous steak dinner at the Grizzly Bar. Below are snapshots of friends Mary and Evan and of Mike and myself in the parking lot prior to our annual fine dining experience at the Grizzly.

On the next day, we started out in the morning with a 'townie' bike ride (or girlfriend ride as Mike likes to call it when he goes slow) and here's a photo of Mary, Evan and Mike on one of the bridges across Rock Creek.

After our townie ride, Mike and Evan went mountain biking while Mary and I were treated to a ride up Red Lodge Mountain, courtesy of our friend Tim, where we had a picnic lunch at Wolfie's spot with spectacular views of the ski runs (below) and the valley and palisades (subsequent photos)

Tim setting up for our picnic lunch... spectacular view in the background...

View of the palisades and valley from Wolfie's spot on Red Lodge Mountain..

Koda, Tim's current dog, is one happy camper riding in the back of Tim's truck.

The last two photos show the end of our adventure up the mountain with Tim (we stopped to look back at the entrance to Red Lodge Mountain) and the last evening of our visit with friends Mary and Evan (the best of our squinty eyed photos taken at Sam's Tap Room looking into the sun) before their return to real life back home in Maryland.

September 9, 2009: Beartooth Highway Adventure...

2009-09-18T23:38:00.003-04:00

Mike unfortunately had to work today... so Mary, Evan and myself drove up the Beartooth Highway until we hit the construction at the Montana/Wyoming border at which point we turned around and came back down the mountain. For those of you unfamiliar with the Beartooth Highway... it is the stretch of route 212 from Red Lodge to Cooke City, MT and was described by Charles Kuralt as "the most scenic drive in America."

What follows are a few photos of the adventure experiencing the scenic beauty of this wonderful road... a route I never tire of no matter how many times I drive it. From several vantage points along the Beartooth Highway, the Hellroaring Road and Plateau are beautifully visible!

You may recall from yesterday's post that we drove up the Hellroaring Road to the Plateau... the rocky outcropping in the above photo is the spot where we stopped and had our lunch yesterday.

Look closely and you will see the last couple of switchbacks before reaching the top of Hellroaring Road... we parked our car at the end of this road yesterday and explored the plateau on foot for an hour or more.

The road seen here is a jeep trail on top f the Hellroaring Plateau that is no longer open to vehicular traffic.

Hellroaring Road and Plateau as seen from Rock Creek Vista on the Beartooth Highway...

Another view of the Hellroaring Plateau as seen from the Beartooth Highway... the switchbacks in the center foreground are lower down on the Beartooth Highway.

September 8, 2009: Hellroaring Plateau Adventure

2009-09-17T11:41:00.005-04:00

Last year's attempt at navigating the 7 miles of ROUGH road to reach the top of the Hellroaring Plateau failed due to snow drifts (before) and downed logs (after) blocking the road near the spot where we ate our lunch in June of 2008. Snow is almost always melted by August so we vowed that this would be the year we made it all the way up the road to the very end where we would then wander around and explore the plateau. Although this road is definitely NOT for the faint of heart, nor would we recommend it for anyone with back problems since it is 7 miles of bouncing around no matter how carefully and slowly one drives, the views to be had are spectacular.

Friends Evan and Mary, Mike (driving our "Hyundai Santa Fe") and myself set out from our vacation home in Red Lodge, MT at about 10:00 AM on a gorgeous, sunny day ... destination Hellroaring Plateau. After a stop at Café Regis for sandwiches and chips for lunch, we were on the road and shortly bouncing along at a very slow pace up Hellroaring Road. Enjoy the day with us through photos included below...

Hellroaring Road as seen from Rock Creek Vista point on the Beartooth Highway (route 212) out of Red Lodge, MT... this is the road we followed to the summit in our September 8, 2009 adventure (this photo was taken on September 7, 2009)

View of the Beartooth Highway from part way up Hellroaring Road... we were at approximately the same elevation here as the photo taken the previous day looking toward Hellroaring Road from Rock Creek Vista lookout on the Beartooth...

Views of the Beartooth Highway (right, with ends of some switchbacks visible at extreme right), Rock Creek (middle, up the valley) and Hellroaring (left) Roads as seen from where we ate lunch on our way up to the Hellroaring Plateau...

Intrepid adventurers Victoria, Mike, Mary and Evan on rocks at our lunch spot overlooking the Rock Creek Valley on Hellroaring Road...

Sometimes, the safest way down from a high rock outcropping is on your butt... Evan (below) and Mike (above) watch Mary make her way down from a place I would not go!

Looking up Rock Creek Valley toward Glacier Lake (not visible) from the same spot where the photo of Mary scrambling down the rocks was taken...

Mount Rearguard - 12280 feet high... it's possible to hike to the summit but we didn't as we weren't properly prepared for such a hike... this year!

Our deer-dented, faithful vehicle in the parking area at the end of the Hellroaring Road... there are jeep trails beyond the parking area but vehicles are no longer allowed to go past the spot where we were parked in order to preserve the natural beauty of the plateau...

Look at all those switchbacks, barely visible through the trees below... view of the Hellroaring Road from near the top of the road to the plateau...

Another view looking down Hellroaring Road and across the valley to the Beartooth Highway...

September 7, leaving the park and heading to Red Lodge, MT...

2009-09-16T00:22:00.003-04:00

Am way behind with write-ups on this trip... have had a hard time making time to edit photos and then post! We left Yellowstone Park under sunny skies after a nice breakfast in the dining room in Mammoth. Destination... Red Lodge, MT and our vacation home there via the Beartooth Highway after leaving the park through the Northeast Entrance. With no further blathering... I'll just show you highlights of our day in pictures...

We didn't make it very far before we were treated to the sight of a large bull elk and his herd resting in the shade of the buildings in Mammoth village. This is one of the young elk (who seems to be chatting away) in the herd and the only other male we saw. (clearly no threat to the big bull elk who had at least a 12 point rack!)

Just before crossing the Gardner River, we stopped for a last look back at Mammoth Hot Springs... even from a distance it is quite the sight!

Lone bull crossing the road... stops traffic and gives me an opportunity to snap a bison in sunlight as he enters the field by the roadside!

Pilot and Index Peaks as seen from the 'sitting rock' we found for our lunch break at the Pilot Peak lookout spot along the road to the summit of the Beartooth Highway...

The road in this photo (up the valley) takes one eventually to the plateau known as Hell Roaring Plateau... the road is seven miles of rough, rock-strewn road which we traveled the day after this photo (taken from Rock Creek Vista point on the Beartooth Highway) was snapped. (photos of that adventure will be appearing eventually... one of these days I might catch up with posts... but it will have to rain all day long here in Red Lodge to keep me indoors long enough to catch up!)

September 6, Mammoth Hot Springs and other areas of Yellowstone National Park...

2009-09-12T00:03:00.005-04:00

The travel guide for Mammoth Hot Springs says the hikes around the springs take about two hours... we took so many photos that it was closer to three hours before we finished exploring all the areas of the springs.

From there, we continued our exploration of the park by heading counterclockwise around the northern loop drive with our next major stop being the Canyon area of the park and the Northern rim drive where we took several short hikes to view the falls, Osprey, etc. before continuing on to Tower Roosevelt.

A note about our Osprey viewing... there is one stone pillar in the grand canyon of the Yellowstone River where Osprey have nested for years and one can almost always be guaranteed a sighting in that area of the canyon... we were not disappointed this year... a mama Osprey was staying fairly close to the nest with short forays for food because at least one chick (maybe more) was chirping away in the nest (but not visible).

A view of Canary Springs at Mammoth Hot Springs...

Thermophilic (heat loving) bacteria thrive in the hot pools of Mammoth... which type grow where is temperature dependent...some idiot park visitors (tell us how you really feel) throw coins and kill the bacteria where the coins land (dark spots in upper right corner and along the top about 1/3 over from the left corner).

Looking toward Mammoth Village from the Hot Springs boardwalk...

Terraces at one of the many thermal areas at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park... love the cloudy sky here...

Mountain ranges provide a lovely backdrop to one of the Hot Spring features that is no longer active... wish I could remember what this was called... must find my trail guide and update the caption later!

View of the lower falls of the Yellowstone River taken from along the northern rim... from about this same vantage point, we were able to see the Osprey sitting on her nest and hear the young chirping away... but the view was a bit too far away to get a good picture, even with my 300mm lens!

September 5, 2009: Stanley, Idaho to Mammoth Hot Springs, WY

2009-09-10T15:42:00.003-04:00

Following our last breakfast at the Stanley High Country Inn (a great place to stay if ever find yourself in Stanley, Idaho), we pack the car and get on the road for Mammoth Hot Springs. Our route found us heading north on Idaho Route 75 to pick up 93 north to 43 east to 15 north to I-90 east to Livingston, MT and then finish by following 89 south through Gardiner into the northern entrance of Yellowstone Park and on to Mammoth Hot Springs. We aren't too far along on our day's journey when we have an unfortunate encounter with a deer somewhere north of Challis, Idaho, doing considerable damage to the driver's side front fender, headlight, hood and side panel. We ourselves are not hurt, the car is mechanically sound and drivable after the mishap but the deer was not so lucky... and we certainly were quite shook up after this happened.

Most of our northern route followed the Salmon River and also followed the same pathway that Lewis and Clark followed through Idaho. Once we head east on MT route 43, we followed the Big Hole River for much of the way east. Route 43 turns north at Wisdom, MT where we stopped at the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant for a delicious lunch... and also purchased a six-pack of Wisdom Amber Ale brewed by the Big Hole Brewing Company. Once we picked up 15 north and then 90 east, we were on interstate highways and made very good time... but the scenery was not nearly as beautiful! We stopped briefly (hop off, hop back on I-90) in Bozeman, MT for gas and continued on the last stretch of our journey to reach Mammoth and have time to briefly visit the nearest part of the Hot Springs before having dinner in the Mammoth Hot Springs dining room... excellent meals!

We were a bit surprised to find thermal features along the Salmon River and made one brief stop for photo opportunities...

View of the Salmon River from alongside the road near the hot springs shown in the above photo)

Just for the record... our poor smashed rental after colliding with a deer...

Sunset view of Mammoth Hot Springs Village from the lower walkway at the springs...

Lower terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park...

September 4, 2009: Stanley, Idaho and vicinity...

2009-09-09T00:45:00.003-04:00

Another lovely day in Stanley, Idaho... Michael off on another mountain biking adventure and me busily playing photographer... Mike's ride start took us down a dirt road off the main highway through some marvelously beautiful countryside... so of course I stopped along the way on my return to the main road to take photographs before continuing on to Stanley Lake where I did some hiking and took more photographs!

Roadside view of the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho...

Sandhill Cranes are slightly over 3 feet tall and easily spotted from a distance... this is the best my telephoto lens was able to do at capturing this group...

Mt.McGowan reflected in Stanley Lake near Stanley , Idaho... this view was my lunch time vista...

Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho... another of the many wonderful views to be seen...

September 3, 2009: Stanley, Idaho and vicinity...

2009-09-05T00:44:00.002-04:00

Woke up at 6:30 AM MDT which is oversleeping by EDT time standards... felt pretty good! Breakfast and get organized for the day... Mike to mountain bike and myself to go to Redfish Lake and figure out the day from there... Dropped Mike off to head out on his ride around 10:15 AM and headed to Redfish Lake... By the time I figured out what I wanted to do for the day, it was almost noon and I paid my money ($15 round trip) to take the shuttle boat service from the main dock to Redfish Inlet.

Once at the end of the lake, things got a bit tricky... wanted to hike to Lily Pond and the guidebook said go ~80 feet to the trail head after crossing the second bridge over the creek... BUT... I went somewhere between 300 and 500 feet beyond the second bridge without ever reaching the trail head for Lily Pond... so back down the steepest part of the trail I went... back to the bridge to see if I could figure out where I went wrong... and luckily met up with some veteran Lily Pond trail hikers who assured me I was on the right trail. SO, I think my guidebook meant go 800 feet past the second bridge to reach the trailhead because reach it eventually, I did! And I suppose it didn't hurt me that much to hike the roughest part of the trail twice.

Made the 3:00 PM shuttle boat back to the main dock and headed back to Stanley... met up with Mike on the road but he didn't want a ride so made his way 'home' on two wheels while I stopped and took MORE photos... What follows are a few from the day's adventures.

Early morning shot of Bakery with Sawtooth Mountains in the background...

Mike on his way to bike Fisher Creek trail...

Modern day range workers mending a fence... two working (one holding the rail and one pounding away) and two supervising...

View of Mt. Heyburn on the way to Redfish Lake...

Victoria at Lily Pond with Mt/ Heyburn in the background...

Sawtooth Mountains as seen from the rear of the shuttle boat taking passengers back from Redfish Inlet to the main dock at Redfish Lake, Idaho...

Roadside view of the Sawtooth Mountains...

Sun setting over Stanley, Idaho as seen from the airport....

Moonrise over Stanley, Idaho...

September 2, 2009: Bethesda, MD to Stanley, ID

2009-09-03T23:50:00.005-04:00

We woke at 4:45 am to throw luggage and ourselves and driver (friend Steve who is also house-sitting while we're away) into the car... on the road by 5:30 am for Dulles Airport and a 7:40 am flight to Idaho Falls with stopover to change planes in Salt Lake City. Our flights were largely uneventful except for having to wait on the tarmac for 30 minutes after our EARLY arrival in SLC (ground congestion) and suffering a broken bag (Victoria) as a result of having to check an intended carry-on on the commuter flight from SLC to Idaho Falls. (bag should be under warranty and/or airline should reimburse me although we didn't file a claim before leaving the airport because we were anxious to get on the road)

There was no line at the rental counter (Alamo) so we collected our car and our checked luggage and were on the road by shortly after 1 PM MDT. The road out of Idaho Falls is flat, straight and has almost NO traffic... hooray... we are in the land of no congestion again! One of the first things we noticed about the landscape was the strange dark color of some of the roadside scenery... and the dark rocks piled up along farmers fields... lava rock and lava plains from some long ago volcanic activity. The first part of our journey took us through fairly flat terrain with fields of sagebrush and flowers... and distant mountains under puffy clouds...

This lovely view was seen as we were leaving Idaho Falls, headed for Stanley, ID... probably within 45 minutes of Idaho Falls.

Flowers frame an inactive volcano near Craters of the Moon, Idaho... lava fields give the dark color to the middle ground...

We were stopped for awhile by road construction after leaving Carey, Idaho... this was the view we had to suffer while waiting to get on the road again...

Our route to Stanley took us through Ketchum Idaho where we had dinner at Papa Hemi's Hideaway... fine food, great beer on draft... and live music while dining outdoors in the lovely mountain air!

We passed through this lovely area on our route to Stanley... and now that I'm already a day behind with posting... look for more tomorrow about Stanley and our adventures in finding beautiful scenery and good food on our second day's journeys.

Itinerary for our next trip...

2009-08-31T08:37:00.003-04:00

With Australia and New Zealand behind me, we're looking forward to a trip west to Idaho, Yellowstone National Park (Mammoth Hot Springs area) and our lovely vacation home in Red Lodge, Montana (available for rent when we aren't there). We're fortunate to have friends willing to house sit while we're away... they will feed the birds, eat the tomatoes and generally keep an eye on things such as watering the plants, etc. Our itinerary...

• Sept 2, 2009 leaving out of IAD at some ungodly early hour... to Salt Lake City... change planes... to Idaho Falls, Idaho... rent car... drive to Stanley Idaho where we will spend 3 days...
• Sept 5, 2009 driving to Mammoth Hot Springs for a couple of days stay in Yellowstone National Park
• Sept 7, 2009 driving to Red Lodge, MT via the Northeast entrance/exit to the park, Cooke City and the scenic Beartooth Highway over the mountains to Red Lodge.
• Sept 23, 2009 driving to Billings, MT, turning in the rental car and flying home via MSP (change planes) and on to DCA

A teaser photo taken from the Beartooth Highway last year follows... am sure I'll be posting photos from this year's trip west as time allows!

The Beartooth Highway is "the most beautiful drive in America" according to Charles Kuralt. (believe he wrote that when we were just 48 states but it is truly a beautiful drive and we'll be on it one week from today) This photo is from June of last year when there was so much snow that we couldn't walk all the way out on the lookout path.

Last Day in Sydney, NSW, AU... Afternoon and Evening Adventures...

2009-08-26T20:55:00.004-04:00

Sydney is a beautiful city... and the people are friendly too! I was especially fortunate to have a local stop me as I was taking photos in Hyde Park and give me some tips for where to capture the best photos of the downtown area and special sightseeing destinations. His best tip caused me to change my plans for the afternoon... had planned to wander through the Botanic Garden and eventually wind up at the Opera House to go on the one hour tour that would tell me about the construction of the Opera House and so forth. BUT, my friendly local told me about options for walking across (or partway across) the Harbour Bridge and told me I'd be able to get some fantastic photos from the Bridge's pedestrian walkway.

As I was gradually wending my way down toward the harbor after having a bite to eat at a hotel along the way, I spotted a sign for the Cahill Expressway Pedestrian walkway route to the Harbour Bridge walkway. Without giving it too much thought, I punted my plan to go to the Opera House in favor of exploring the walkways above the city streets below me. I figured if I finished my tour early enough I might still get to the Opera House before the last tour of the day began... but that didn't happen!

It seemed that my vantage point above the city streets gave me wonderful photo opportunities at every step along the way... so of course I had to take LOTS of pictures. And when I reached the Harbour Bridge, I discovered another fantastic spot to visit... the Pylon Lookout. This is a museum inside the South Pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge... 200 steps up from the main bridge walkway to the top gives the viewer unobstructed vistas on all sides of the bridge. Along the way, there are exhibits and a short film telling the story of the Harbour Bridge from conception to completion.

All in all, my last day in Sydney (August 4) was marvelous and it was capped off by dinner with friends Ruth and Guy at the Park Hyatt Restaurant where we were treated to a lovely view of the harbor by night... and also had a fabulous meal! Oh, and dare I mention that I discovered an art gallery (before dinner) where Aboriginal Art is sold and was able to find a couple of paintings that I was SURE would look good at our house... a very long, productive and enjoyable day for my last day of vacation (home on August 5)... and now... for a few photos...

Aboriginal musicians playing on the streets below Cahill Expressway... in the Sydney Harbour area... This was the first group I saw... usually there was only one musician playing the didgeridoo which has an amazingly distinctive sound.

The Russell Hotel (where I stayed my last two nights in Australia) is in the lower left foreground... photo taken from the Cahill Expressway pedestrian walkway looking towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge... obviously!

I just LOVE this photo of the Sydney Opera House taken from the Sydney Harbour Bridge... the tiny little yellow boat is a water taxi and it is completely dwarfed by the massive Opera House structure.

Those tiny figures (may need to view the large size of this photo to see them) on the left atop the Harbour Bridge are people who have paid a hefty sum to do the Bridge Climb... an event that takes about 3 hours (or more) and requires one to leave their camera (among other things) behind... so I did not do this!

Shadows of the Sydney Harbour Bridge reach the Sydney Opera House as the moon rises over Sydney...

With apologies for the fuzzy photo... taken by our waiter... SIGH... myself, Ruth and Guy with the view of the Opera House and harbor behind us.

Last Day in Sydney, NSW, AU... Morning Adventure...

2009-08-26T08:28:00.005-04:00

Since August 4th was my last full day in Sydney, I set out to see how much of what I'd missed so far that I could squeeze into the one day... and this means LOTS of photos so am splitting the day into two posts.

Breakfast, check... camera gear, including tripod and three lenses, check... off to Sydney Tower to go up and see the 360° views of Sydney... but first one must experience the "OzTrek" virtual reality visit to some of Australia's most well-known locales. After a ho-hum twirl around in small theaters (the visitor group is split into fourths for the first part of OzTrek) listening to an Aussie guide (real person) superimposed on several classic, diorama-type views of Australia (outback, barrier reef, etc.), the REAL fun of OzTrek begins. Strap yourselves in for the ride of your life... Your OzTrek journey excites the senses with its 180-degree cinema screens, special effects with sensational surround sound and heart-stopping real-motion seating! Believe me, I was hanging on for dear life but it was wonderful!

I'm including a few views taken from the observation deck and some taken after my descent to the street level world of Sydney... my next post (later today or tomorrow) will have more of my last day's experience... the highlight of which was walking along the Cahill Expressway pedestrian walk to get to the Sydney Harbour Bridge pedestrian pathway.

St. Mary's Cathedral as seen from the Sydney Tower Observation Deck...

The Anzac Bridge, Sydney's other well-known bridge, was given its name on Remembrance Day 1998 in honor of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who fought in WWI. It is visible in the middle distance of this photo taken from Sydney Tower's observation deck and is Australia's longest cable-stayed bridge according to Wikipedia. Ruth and Guy (my hosts in Sydney) live not far from the Anzac Bridge in the Lilyfield area of Sydney. The next photo is a closer view taken from the same vantage point.

Although this bridge is quite close to where Ruth, Guy and Andrew live, I never made it down there on foot. There is a wonderful fish market on the water near the bridge and we stopped there on my first day in Australia so Ruth could pick up some fish for our dinner that evening.

A larger view of this photo shows some familiar company names (at least, familiar to those in the computer field) with Australian offices in Sydney... Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, Cisco... to name a few.

With my feet back on the ground, I headed for St. Mary's Cathedral through Hyde Park and captured this view of the goddess Diana in Hyde Park Fountain, Sydney, NSW, AU...

As I was lining up my camera to capture a view of Sydney Tower against the sky, a nice gentleman stopped and informed me that there was a much better vantage point on the steps of St. Mary's Cathedral... which is exactly where this photo was taken. He also advised me how to go about taking the walkways to the pedestrian pathway on the Harbour Bridge so I decided to add that to my afternoon plan... more on this adventure in my next post. (later today or tomorrow)

Return to Sydney, NSW, AU... vacation winding down...

2009-08-25T18:53:00.002-04:00

With an approximately 3 hour (maybe more) drive a head of me and a 1 PM flight from Auckland International to make, I awoke early, grabbed a quick breakfast, loaded the car and was on the road by 7:20 am... leaving Rotorua behind but not my many memories of the sights I'd seen and the adventures I'd had. My drive to the airport was uneventful but quite nerve-wracking for the last half hour before arriving at the airport... roads around the airport are under construction and the signs weren't exactly plentiful... at one point I was about to turn around and head back because I was certain I must have taken a wrong turn OR missed a turn I should have taken. Luckily, I stayed the course and saw a sign a few seconds further that assured me I was on the right route!

With the time zones in my favor, I landed in Sydney at 2:30 PM local time and was at my hotel (the Russell, in the Rocks district of Sydney) by shortly after 4 PM whereupon I dumped my luggage and headed out to explore the neighborhood and capture a few late afternoon, early evening shots of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Late aftenoon sunlight on the Sydney Opera House...

Sydney Harbour view with skyline, ferry boat and sailboat..

Late afternoon sunlight streams through the windows of the Pylon Lookout of the Sydney Harbour Bridge...

Hiking in Waimangu Volcanic Valley, Waimangu, NZ

2009-08-21T12:17:00.003-04:00

Woke up feeling somewhat recovered from my cold so went ahead with my plan to hike along the trails in the Waimangu Volcanic Valley about 25 km from Rotorua. Since this was to be my last full day in New Zealand, it was my last chance to explore this unique thermal area created by the June 10, 1886 eruption of Tarawera. That event opened a line of craters all along the rift zone of the multiple eruptions, forming several craters and thermal features and completely destroying the Pink and White Terraces as well as all plant and animal life in the area affected by the eruptions. The Waimangu Volcanic Valley is the only hydrothermal system in the world that was completely formed during recorded history, as well as the only New Zealand example of a biosystem naturally reestablishing itself after total destruction.

After a leisurely breakfast and organizing myself and my camera gear for a day of hiking and exploring, I was on the road by about 10:30 AM, arriving at the visitor center around 11 AM after a couple of stops to snap some photos... Of course! I'd decided to hike and then take the boat ride around Lake Rotomahana (formed (from a smaller lake in the same spot) in its current configuration by the 1886 eruptions) to see more of the thermal features available only by boat.

The "wanderer's guide" to the hikes suggests that 2 hours is the time required for the easy hikes and says that allows for stopping to take pictures. HA! Suffice it to say that I managed to make it to the boat dock on Lake Rotomahana in time for a few photos of the lake area before the 2:50 PM boat left the dock. The boat captain asked the bus driver, as I got on the boat, "Is this the 1:10 PM lady?" (1:10 PM was the time the Visitor Centre estimated that I would make the boat ride when I purchased my admission to the Park at ~ 11 AM) One thing to note, however, is that I took the side trip to the Mt. Haszard Trail which is billed as requiring good fitness, having steep hills and rough underfoot and requiring up to one hour to complete just that portion of the trail. And I became TOTALLY side-tracked at one point by attempts to capture a bumble-bee going after pollen in what I think was a form of heather flowers.

All in all, I took FAR too many photos to post them all anywhere for fear of boring everyone to tears... but here are a few for you to peruse.

View of the rift valley taken from the Panorama scenic lookout outside the Visitor Centre for Waimangu Volcanic Valley.

This is Ruaumoko, Vessel of Remembrance, at the start of the hike from the Visitor Centre to the boat landing at Rotomahana Lake. From the wanderer's guide: The surface design of the statue includes spirals (Koru Rangi) put on all points of movement to bring the ancestor to life. The bulb in the middle of the spiral pattern is "Koru" (symbol of rebirth). Rangi is the divide/contrast between the Haehae (the cut line, to slice) and Pakati (the knotch, to cut deeply).

Inferno Crater Lake, Waimangu Volcanic Valley, NZ... From the wanderers guide I learned that this lake is somehow linked to Frying Pan Lake and the level of Inferno Crater Lake ebbs and flows and coincides with greater and lesser discharges from Frying Pan Lake, respectively.

Tourist (yours truly) at scenic viewpoint on Mt. Haszard hiking trail in Waimangu Volcanic Valley, NZ. This is the highest point on the Mt. Haszard trail. The next photo is from the name spot without the tourist and with a somewhat wider view as well as a caption explaining what you are seeing.

View of Lake Rotomahana (middle distance) and the Tarawera Volcano from the Rift Valley Panorama. The large hole (just below the horizon line about 1/3 in from the left edge of the photo) is where the side of the mountain blew out in the 1886 eruption of Tarawera Volcano. (also visible if you look closely on the left part of the photo above the trees in the foreground is steam rising from the walls of Black Crater, another geothermal feature created by the 1886 eruptions)

Visit to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, Rotorua, NZ

2009-08-20T10:43:00.005-04:00

Seems that my cold got the better of me and I slept until almost 9:30 AM on my first full day in Rotorua but luckily awoke in time to have cereal, juice, coffee and a sweet roll at the breakfast provided by the Ventura Inn & Suites of Rotorua, my home away from home in Rotorua. The weather was not terribly promising and I certainly wasn't feeling well enough to tackle an all day adventure. So I organized myself for a visit to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, a "living thermal village" a short distance away from my motel.

Hoping for the best in terms of the weather, I managed to find parking a couple of blocks away from the visitor center for Whakarewarewa (often shortened to Whaka by the locals), paid my entry fee AND discovered the reason for the lack of parking is that there had been a funeral that morning at the Wahiao Whare Tipuna (Whare Tipuna = Ancestors House). This is not only where they hold their funerals but is the Meeting House for all the major events of the Village. From the Visitor Guide I learned that The best of all Maori carving is saved for the Whare Tipuna. The carver takes pride in displaying all his skills and knowledge as he recreates Whakapapa (genealogy) for all to see. Without a written language he recreates a story through his carvings. The house is named "Wahiao" after our great ancestor.

The tour began with our guide standing in front of the sign post naming the village by both the original full name of Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua Wahiao and the shorter Whakarewarewa (still somewhat unpronounceable for native English speakers). The name of the village translates to mean "The gathering place of the army of Wahiao" and adopted this name in honor of Chief Wahiao who, three hundred years ago, gathered an army to successfully avenge the killing of his father.

As our tour continued, we learned many things about life in this Maori Village, including that corn is boiled daily (for the Hangi Feast served as lunch at the café in the village) in Parekohuru (Vigorous Ripples) pool.

And we learned that the modern homes in "Whaka" village use both thermal and solar energy to meet their energy needs. (an original Maori home built using thermal energy may be seen on my photoblog)

Once the tour ended, we were encouraged to go visit the meeting house which had been off limits to tours due to the funeral earlier in the day. But respectful visitors were allowed to stop by on their own which led me to take the photo below from the porch of the café across the street and slightly uphill.

I'd planned to take one of the longer hikes available to visitors as self-guided tours, but the pouring rain that started shortly after the formal tour ended discouraged me from doing that. The following photograph was taken from Pohutu Geyser Lookout and the strange structure visible above the trees across the way is part of the Te Puia Village museum complex.

A return trip to Rotorua would definitely have me visiting Te Puia Village since it is the village where Maori craftsmen and women demonstrate their time-honored crafting traditions and of course, sell their wares to tourists wishing to purchase souvenirs.

On the road again... from Auckland to Rotorua, NZ

2009-08-16T23:39:00.004-04:00

My time in Auckland at end, I collected my rental car from Thrifty (three days for the price of two and they picked me up at my hotel) and was on the road to Rotorua by 10:30 am. I'd packed a lunch since I had no clue what my options would be while traveling through unknown territory. The left-side road driving didn't confound me (had had two weeks "down under" to get used to it) and the trip was relatively uneventful, passing through beautiful farmland and quiet towns en route.

Although I stopped a couple of times to take photos, I was at Rainbow Springs (a few kilometers from Rotorua) for the 2 PM Kiwi tour where I learned how they are working on bringing back the Kiwi population. If left in the wild, the survival rate for Kiwi chicks is about 5% but under management as is done at Rainbow Springs, the survival rate is on the order of 60% and chicks are returned to the wild at about six months of age. Photography isn't allowed on the Kiwi tour (it disturbs the hatchlings and the adult birds as well) but I've included a couple of photos taken en route to Rotorua below.

This scene reminded me of a Cat Stevens lyric... "Miles from nowhere.. on the road to find out.." At least I think that's how it goes... When I stopped on the side of the road to take this photo, I was surprised to find a feathered friend (below) visiting on what appeared to be a completely deserted stretch of road...

I have NO IDEA where this bird belonged... there was no farmhouse in sight, nor a barnyard anywhere near where I'd parked. He (?) just suddenly appeared next to my car and startled me a bit when I turned around to get back in the car.

No visit to Rotorua is complete without attending a Maori cultural experience... an evening of story telling, dance and food (Hangi feast) designed to teach visitors some of the history of the Maori and give them a taste of the native culture. My first evening in Rotorua included the show at the Mitai Maori Village and was quite enjoyable (in spite of the miserable cold that I had at the time). The food was fantastic! Took too many photos to post them all but here are a couple for you...

The chief (in the background) is urging the warriors into a frenzy in preparation for going into battle.

Close-up of one of the younger warriors performing at the Mitai Maori Village.

Second Day in Auckland, New Zealand

2009-08-10T16:47:00.003-04:00

Since I had a bit of a cold AND it was a rainy morning, I chose to sleep late and take the Waitakere Rainforest and black sand beaches tour with Bush and Beach Tours in the afternoon. Since it appeared that we would need to provide our own lunch, I asked at the desk at my B&B to recommend a good place to get a sandwich to take along for the afternoon... Subway was the desk clerk's recommendation because, he said, "it is healthy and other places do not give you healthy food." So I've come half-way around the globe to be told to eat at Subway! (took his advice and on the way to Subway, found the delightful O'Connell Street Bistro and made a reservation for 7:45 PM dinner meal that turned out to be one of the best dining experiences I've ever had... highly recommend this restaurant if you ever find yourself in Auckland, NZ... it's tiny and I was very lucky to get a table on short notice)

The tour was really wonderful in spite of the rain that seemed to follow (or precede) us from point to point along the way. There was myself, Mohammed (from Abu Dhabi) and Eileen (from Germany) on the tour led by Stan of Bush and Beach Tours. Our first stop was the Arataki Visitor Centre in the Waitakere Rainforest where we had the opportunity to see wonderful vistas looking back toward Auckland, the Wiatemata Harbour, Rangitoto Island and the Pacific Ocean as well as looking the other way toward the Manukau Harbour (Auckland's second harbor) and the Tasman Sea. We also had time to wander through the visitor center and the outdoor boardwalks to learn a bit about the local flora and fauna. I'm personally glad I never saw a weta any closer than I did through the glass at the visitor center! I've had a hard time choosing photos from this tour but what follows are a few representing the wonderful sights we saw and/or the things we did on this four hour tour (snack included!).

Rainbow over the rainforest as seen from the Arataki Visitor Centre in the Waitakere Rainforest, North Island, New Zealand.

Map showing red dot representing Arataki Visitor Centre and where we were when the photo above the map was taken. Our tour continued along a southwesterly course from that spot.

We luckily had a break in the rain for our afternoon snack break which included cookies and a choice of tea, coffee (instant, I had tea!), water and/or juice... all the comforts of home except for brewed coffee.

New Zealand Kauri trees were harvested all over New Zealand for the wood which is durable and beautiful. There are now protected forests where the trees are coming back. This one would have been over one thousand years old at the time it was harvested, perhaps several thousand years old. We saw 'young' trees that were 'only' four to six hundred years old that were about one third the diameter of this tree stump. I asked Mohammed, Eileen and Stan to stand in this photo to give a sense of scale to the tree trunk... Mohammed moved just as I snapped the photo.

This photo was taken from the van while stopped at a traffic light en route back to Auckland at the end of the day's tour.

First full day in Auckland... Touring by Bus and Ferry

2009-08-01T02:06:00.001-04:00

Managed a reasonably early start following breakfast at my B&B (simple options of cereals, white and wheat bread for toast, OJ and apple juice, instant coffee (UGH) or tea)... purchased a hop-on/hop-off, all day bus ticket for a bus that takes an hour drive around some of the sites with commentary as to what one might do while waiting for the bus to return in one hour if one hops off at any of the stops. (Note that summer time buses run every half hour which makes for shorter waiting times in between buses.)

As I am somewhat weary of playing tourist at this point (and feel a cold coming on), I opted to stay on for the circuit and then hopped a ferry to Devonport for another bus tour around that lovely little seaside town. After the ferry dropped me off, I had time to shop a bit as well as grab a bite to eat at a local café before hopping on another bus for a ride around the Devonport area with stops at a couple of the higher points of land for photo opportunities.

On my return to Sydney, I walked up Queen Street and turned onto Victoria Street to make my way to the Sky Tower... what an incredible structure from which to view the entire Auckland area as far as the eye can see! Had a lovely chat with a couple from the South Island while having a glass of wine in the Sky Café at the main observation level. We agreed that bungee jumping (which could be done from a level above where we were sitting) was not for us... but managed to catch some jumpers on camera while chatting.

What follows are some photos of today's adventures...

This was taken from somewhere on the bus ride around Auckland.

This is as close as I got to Rangitoto Island, a 600 year old volcanic island guarding Waitemata Harbor. Seems that they are having an aggressive poisoning campaign at the moment in an attempt to rid the island of rats once and for all. Although it was perfectly safe to visit, the notion of them trying to get rid of rats put me off the idea of going there.

The views from Devonport looking back toward Auckland City and its suburbs are quite lovely from various vantage points on our bus ride. (also note ferries coming and going)

No idea what this place is about... the Department of Doing in Devonport seemed to be closed and thus was not doing anything as near as I could tell!

It is quite dizzying to look up at the Sky Tower from down below.

I couldn't figure out what was going on at the observation deck... LOTS of people waiting in front of two of the many observation areas... then WHOOSH... here came a bungee jumper... pausing for photos in front of the viewing area. Seems this gal made at least three jumps while friends watched and waited for her to finish having adrenaline highs.

Leaving Sydney, AU... arriving Auckland, NZ... the Journey Continues...

2009-08-01T01:46:00.003-04:00

An early morning departure from Ruth and Guy's courtesy of the Silver Service Taxi finds me at the airport in PLENTY of time to make my 9:30 AM flight. Am not sure why Air New Zealand wants passengers through check-in 90 minutes before flights depart and at the gate one hour before departure because nothing happens at the gate until about 25 minutes before boarding at which time they efficiently board everyone at once... first and business class through one entry and the cattle (economy) class through a different entry.

I couldn't resist taking a few photos on departure from Sydney as well as some cloud shots en route... one of each follows... I quite like the one that shows the window frame in it as well as my partial reflection as I snapped the photo.

By the time I arrived at my hotel, settled in and was ready to go out and have a short look around town, it was already dark. So no photos of Auckland until tomorrow. Had a lovely pub supper (tomato soup, Galway mussels (done with wine, garlic and herb broth) and fresh vegetables) along with some Murphy's Irish Stout to wash it down at a pub on the waterfront area. Danny Doolan's (if memory serves) was established in 1906, seems to be a neighborhood gathering spot and definitely serves good food if my dinner is any indication of their other offerings!

Continuing saga of Depot Beach, NSW, AU Adventure....

2009-07-30T06:52:00.003-04:00

Today (Last Saturday in July, 2009, whatever that is) was our first full day at Depot Beach... We walked the Discovery and Lake trails in the AM and visited the beach in the PM (walked along a couple of beaches and checked out a couple of overlooks). Saw quite a few birds and even saw a majestic sea eagle swoop down and grab something from the shallows or rock pools. If we were going to be here longer, I'd set up the tripod and myself and wait for birds to appear.

Dusk finds us back in our cabins and Brenda and Lyn prepping for a sumptious feast of lamb pie and fresh green beans. Must get the recipe for the lamb pie. Ruth provided another excellent dessert. Must be putting on the pounds!!!

A few photos from today's adventures at the beach follow... enjoy...

Pink clouds, sunset at Depot Beach reflected in a tidal pool.
Photos below are of my hosts, Ruth, Guy and son Andrew flying his kite...

And last, but not least, a majestic Sea Eagle takes a break from flying and roosts in a tree.

Depot Beach Adventures... Beginning...

2009-07-28T02:21:00.003-04:00

This past Friday (July 24, 2009) found me on my way to Depot Beach, being chauffeur driven by host Guy while hostess Ruth and their son Andrew amused themselves (and us) in the back seat with the luggage and blankets that wouldn't fit in the "boot." Following a stop in Kiama for viewing the "Blow-hole" and a lunch of fish and chips with sea gull and pelican watching for our amusement, we arrived at Depot Beach with enough daylight for a wander down to the beach before sunset. (no Internet and no phone service at Depot Beach... no TV either) So this will be short and sweet because now I'm in Auckland, New Zealand and the guest house where I'm staying doesn't have a clue what to do about getting Macs on their wireless network (nor do I) and their one PC is PATHETIC!

So am posting this from a coffee house down the street (free wi-fi if you buy a cup of coffee or tea) before heading down to the waterfront to find a restaurant for dinner. I'll obviously be playing catch-up with posts for the rest of my trip... back to Depot Beach, though... Have included two photos below... one from the beach and one of a Laughing Kookaburra who was hanging around our cabins when we arrived.

Last day in the Blue Mountains...

2009-07-23T08:20:00.003-04:00

Bryan put bird seed out the first morning after I arrived at his lovely B&B... today the birds made an appearance and I had a chance to snap a few photos on my last day here. The Sulfur-crested Cockatoos are considered a nuisance bird... while I was having breakfast, upwards of 30 of these birds were occupying the the feeder or the tree from which it was hanging (while waiting their turn at the feeder). In addition to the cockatoos (one may be seen below), I was also lucky enough to see a Blue-cheeked Rosella at the feeder as well as one unidentified (as yet) bird.

Before heading for the train back to Sydney, I managed some quick shopping in town. Bryan met me at the train station with my bags and made sure I purchased the correct ticket for Sydney Central Station before wishing me a "good day" and leaving me to catch the 11:30 AM train.

Unlike our train stations in the states, Australian train stations often have lovely views (see below) and are not located in the very worst parts of town. I'm sorry to leave the Blue Mountains but happy to be heading back to Sydney and my friends who are packing and readying things for our next adventure... off to Depot Beach (no Internet!) tomorrow. Will be back in touch with my next post on our return from the beach.

Blue Mountains continued... more exploring...

2009-07-22T07:10:00.003-04:00

The Toy and Railway Museum of New South Wales is a short walk from Broomlea B&B and is where I started my day after another lovely breakfast. The guide to attractions in Leura states: "A large collection of children’s toys and trains are housed in historic Leuralla on Olympian Parade in Leura at the bottom of Leura Mall. Pre and post war toys include a large collection of Barbie dolls and railway trackside memorabilia of lights, trolleys, seats and signs."

What the guide fails to mention is that there are lovely gardens on the grounds of the museum and I managed to amuse myself for nearly an hour at the gardens without ever setting foot inside to visit the museum collection. Images of the lovely home that houses the Toy and Railway Museum and one example of the lovely flowers that may be seen (remember, it's winter here) in the gardens follow.

After visiting the gardens at Leuralla, I hopped the Discovery Bus to Echo Point to continue my exploration of the Blue Mountains. Since I completely exhausted myself hiking the previous two days, I kept hiking to a minimum today and merely wandered around the Echo Point area exploring the various side trails available. After hiking down the steps to walk across to the "sister"closest to the cliff path, I had my lunch while sitting on a rock bench looking at one of the many stunning views of the Jamison Valley. The image below (taken under the ledge after crossing the bridge) shows part of the staircase down to the bridge across to the first Sister... going down the steps is scary... going up is hard!

It was a beautiful day early on but degenerated to high winds followed by rain, heavy at times. Managed to beat the rain back to the B&B and settled in for some computing time next to the fire before heading out for a delightful dinner at the Bon Ton Café and Restaurant.

Blue Mountains ... What a lovely place!

2009-07-21T03:24:00.004-04:00

Arrived yesterday on the noon train and settled in to Broomlea B&B... accommodations are lovely... short walk in to town for lunch and exploring followed by STRENUOUS hike in the afternoon. Divine dinner at Silks in Leura. Photo opportunities were minimal yesterday but here's one from today's hike along the Cliff Walk. The Three Sisters are famous rock formations in the Blue Mountains... here they are in a bit of an optical illusion... the Skyway ride does not run into the rocks but rather passes in front of them... The ride is a must if you ever find yourself in the Blue Mountains!

When visiting the Blue Mountains, one of the things to do is ride the cable car to the floor of the valley and do the scenic walkway, then ride the train back up... or vice versa (train down and cable car back up). Once on the floor of the valley, walking is quite easy since a beautiful boardwalk pathway was installed 8 to 10 years ago.

The sign at the beginning of the walkway cautions that the following things may happen to you while on the Walkway (am including only items 1 and 2 here)...
1- The Walkway may be slippery under the following conditions (paraphrased and shortened: cold weather (ice), wet weather (slippery), berry season makes for squashed berries on the walkway)
Solution: Take care when walking and use handrails if it looks wet, icy or there is vegetation/berries on the ground. Walk on carpet where provided.
2- A tree may fall over or a branch may fall from a tree.
Solution: If you hear a loud crack, run away ignoring point 1 above.

Fortunately, I didn't encounter any of the conditions that are cause for concern and quite enjoyed my walk through the valley rain forest. The photo of Cyathea australis included below is unusual in that it has a bifurcated trunk caused by a virus attacking the fern. This plant, commonly known as Rough Tree Fern, is native to New South Wales and Queensland in Australia and a few other parts of the world.

To close off this post... I leave you with a photo of the Broomlea B&B, heartily recommended if you find yourself in the Blue Mountains some day. This is the side of the house which is easier to photograph than the front due to the lovely gardens filling the front yard.

Sydney adventures with Ruth, Guy and Andrew...

2009-07-20T04:16:00.005-04:00

Quick summing up of a couple of whirlwind days playing tourist and socializing with various friends and family members of my hosts Ruth and Guy and their son Andrew... Saturday, July 18 found us touring the zoo in the morning and the Botanic Gardens in the afternoon after having lunch in an Italian neighborhood at a local lunch spot/coffee bar/deli. The giraffes in the zoo have a lovely view of Sydney Harbor and the city across the way... but they are MUCH more interested in their empty food container. And there are hundreds of fruit bats hanging in the trees in the rain forest area of the Botanic Gardens... sleeping by day and on the prowl at night.

On Sunday, July 19, 2009, we headed for the beach after breakfast and walked from Bronte Beach to Bondi (pronounced bonDI with DI as in Diane) The photo shows Bronte Beach as seen from the walk toward Bondi Beach... the second is my friends Ruth and Guy with son Andrew at Bondi Beach... see how cold winter is in Australia?

Traveling far and wide... Sydney!

2009-07-17T07:31:00.002-04:00

Am sitting here at friends Ruth and Guy's house in Sydney, AU this evening after the VERY LONG trip to get here... IAD (Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC) to LAX (Los Angeles International), 6 hr layover, ~13-1/2 hr flight to Sydney with arrival ~6 AM Sydney time... then no rest for the weary but rather stay up and see some of the town. Arrival photo of the morning sky outside the terminal follows...

Today's adventures with Ruth and son Andrew (while Guy toiled away at work) included...
• a quick trip by car to the Rocks area of Sydney where we luckily found street parking in a 4 hr spot
• a ferry ride to Manly on the Manly Ferry, a working ferry as opposed to a tourist boat... lovely photos of the Opera House to be had from the boat (see below for one)
• a walk down to the beach followed by fish and chips, eating outside in Sydney's mild winter
• play time for Andrew at a small 'park' area on our return walk to catch the ferry back to Sydney
• a mad dash to the Ferry... barely making it as they held the gates open for us
• shopping for dinner and house supplies at the local fish market and grocery and fruit and vegetable stores
• frustration with Sprint (virtual, not actual) over my cell phone not working as it was promised while here in the Southern Hemisphere (more aggravation to come tomorrow when I try to contact them via web chat during normal US CDT business hours)
• an absolutely lovely meal of shrimp with leeks as appetizer (marvelous sauce) followed by steamed salmon done Thai style, rice, broccoli and stewed apples with passion fruit and ice cream for dessert
• etc... etc... etc...

Since I'm falling asleep as I type this, I'll leave you with just ONE of the many photos I took from the ferry boat ride...

Next trip... Australia and New Zealand

2009-07-10T17:42:00.004-04:00

Will be leaving shortly with plans to...
• visit friends in Sydney, AU
• go to Depot Beach with these same friends for a long weekend
• head off by myself for a few days to the Blue Mountains
• spend a few days in Auckland, NZ (again, on my own)
• and a few days in Rotorua, New Zealand
• and last, but not least, a couple more days in Sydney before heading back to Bethesda.

Mike will be in residence in Bethesda while I'm off on this jaunt on my own. Watch this space for posts beginning with the first about one week (or so) from today. I'll also be trying to post a photo/day to my photoblog if you want to check that out too.

Before I Forget Everything... Portland/Seattle Trip Continued

2009-05-03T14:27:00.006-04:00

Seems my Flickr addiction is seriously interfering with blogging... so before ALL the memories of my early April trip to the Northwest to visit family and see spring beauty have completely faded away... I'm here again to reference a few photos from the trip and tell a story or two (maybe)...

Sunday, April 5, found us en route to Seattle, WA by way of Tacoma, WA where we stopped to see the Museum of Glass, visited the exhibits and the Hot Shop to watch glass blowers ply their art (live demonstrations can be viewed here when the Hot Shop is open), wandered across the Glass Bridge (featuring marvelous Chilhuly glass creations along the bridge walkway) and generally had a wonderful time.


Glassblower at work	Chilhuly glass art

On arrival in Seattle, Lauren (my niece) put us to work in the kitchen assisting with dinner preparations. (she did allow me a short get-acquainted visit with her fiancé Justus before assigning us all tasks) Dinner was a wonderful group effort featuring tacos, rice, black beans, guacamole, sauteed peppers and onions (my task) and beverages of choice with the meal. Seems we were all having too much fun to take photos that evening... but here are a couple from the next morning.


Early morning sunlight on downtown Seattle	Distant mountains from Pike Place Market

Since it was Monday morning, everyone in the group house was off to work so we went off to have breakfast at the Pike Place Market and do a bit of shopping and looking at the many shops there. It's quite a place to visit and I'm sure I'd be shopping there for fresh fish if I lived in Seattle. The flower vendors and vegetable vendors are pretty fabulous too...

Our visit to the Weyerhaueser Bonsai Garden (planned stop for our return to Portland) didn't pan out. (Weyerhaueser has closed the garden for lack of funding to maintain it.) So what else could we do but stop at McMenamin's on the Columbia River for a micro brew and a bite to eat. The views below were taken from our table while seated outdoors to take advantage of the balmy spring weather. The grackle was dining on a french fry tossed up on top of one of the umbrellas sometime earlier in the day. The folks sitting underneath the umbrella when I snapped this had NO IDEA why I was taking the photo.

Sobering Thought

2009-04-20T11:32:00.002-04:00

Found this video via a delightful blog I follow written by a woman I met online through photos she posts to Flickr... it moved me enough to post it here in the hope that others will watch and spread it more widely.

The journey continues to Wilsonville, OR

2009-04-20T10:26:00.005-04:00

After spending the first two nights at my nephew Dan's house (with his wife Wendy and son Elliott), Saturday morning found me on my way to Wilsonville (about 20 minutes south of Portland) to spend some time with my brother Larry and his wife Chris. Dan, Wendy and Elliott showed up in Wilsonville not long after I did ... we grabbed some sandwiches at a nearby sandwich shop and headed for the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm hoping to see fields of tulips during their annual tulip festival.

It was a beautiful spring day, blue sky and warm temperatures. BUT, on arrival at the tulip farm we were disappointed to discover that there were almost NO tulips blooming in the fields due to the unseasonably cold (and snowy) winter as well as the cooler than usual spring weather. Not to worry... there were many potted tulips in bloom and we saw many other beautiful bulb plants blooming as well. And the view of a snow-capped Mt. Hood against the blue sky was spectacular! The potted tulips were quite nice as well.


Snow-capped Mt. Hood	Zombie (that's their name) tulips

We saw a notice at the tulip farm that the nearby St. Josef's Winery was having a tasting with MUSIC and souvenir glasses... so off we went over back roads in search of the winery. We did our tasting, then bought another glass of wine and sat outside listening to the band play and enjoying the sun. Great-nephew Elliott doesn't much care for bright lights and the sun was VERY bright... so he was wearing his shades. The fabulous Mr. Elliott definitely appears to be considering an important deal. (record contract or who to whack?)


Let me think about it	OK... let's do it

At the end of an afternoon of adventures, Larry, Chris and myself headed home to Wilsonville and dinner out nearby... Dan, Wendy and Elliott headed home to Portland. Tomorrow... off to Seattle with Larry and Chris to see Lauren (their daughter, my niece). I'll be staying in the group house guest room... AND I get to meet Lauren's fiancé Justus too!

Spring in Portland, OR

2009-04-19T16:00:00.006-04:00

Hmmm... been back already for 11 days and still haven't finished posting about my wonderful journey to Portland and surrounding area to meet my great-nephew Elliott, visit other family members and take a side trip to Seattle (with intermediate stops coming and going) to see my niece Lauren and meet her fiancé Justus. Where DOES the time go? (Seattle Story will appear in separate post)

In the interest of getting SOMETHING down before I forget everything... brevity is the watchword of this post...

Friday, April 3... morning spent babysitting Elliott (easy job) included wheeling him around the neighborhood during a misty rain (no worries, fancy buggy had a rain shield)... he slept while I snapped photos of spring flowers.


Star Magnolia Blossom	Euphorbia Blossom with Raindrops

And mustn't leave out one of Elliott napping...

Friday, April 3... afternoon spent at the Japanese Garden of Portland, took a guided tour that was great (docents are volunteers), then wandered on my own to snap a few more pictures of the lovely gardens... rain off and on didn't interfere with my enjoyment of this beautiful place as evidenced by photos below.


Anthuriums in Ikebana Arrangement	Reflections of Sky in Pond

Getting a bit long so will continue with Saturday adventure to the tulip farm (not many tulips but fun anyway) in a separate post. (maybe will post tomorrow but don't count on it!)

Family and Flowers

2009-04-04T10:46:00.007-04:00

Weather in Portland, Oregon is iffy in the springtime. Since my arrival Thursday afternoon, clouds, rain, sun and cool temperatures have been the norm with sunshine one minute and rain showers the next.

Purchases at Powell's Books (first stop after arrival Thursday afternoon) included a book on Pacific Northwest flora, fauna, birds, etc., travel guides for my next trip, and, of course, some fiction for pleasure reading. Dan worked away at the gelato place (free wireless) across 11th Street from Powell's while waiting for me to finish my Powell's adventure and capture a few street scenes with my camera.

Downtown Portland adventures done, we headed to my home away from home. Larry and Chris were the first to arrive at Dan and Wendy's for our evening adventure in dining out nearby. After Wendy arrived home from work with the little bundle of joy, my great-nephew Elliott, we discussed dining options and settled on New York, New York... a nearby Italian eatery serving NY style pizza, Italian food specialties and, on Thursday night, crooning Frank Sinatra style by local performer John English. Here he is singing to Elliott while Elliott goes after the microphone.

Signing off for now... Flowers are part of Friday's adventure which MAY be posted sooner rather than later.

Pending Trip to Portland, OR and Seattle, WA

2009-04-01T15:57:00.003-04:00

Bright and early tomorrow morning, my friend Karren will be picking me up to take me to BWI airport for my NWA flight to Portland, OR (arriving ~1:15 pm local Portland time). Nephew Dan (wife to Wendy and father of Elliott... all of whom may be seen here) will be picking me up when I arrive. Even before going to their house, Dan and I will be visiting Powell's Books. If you are ever in Portland, it is a MUST SEE destination... a truly amazing place where one can while away HOURS of time. The biggest problem with going there is that I'm a bookaholic and must constantly remind myself that what I buy, I must carry home or pay for shipping it!

My first two nights will be spent with Dan and Wendy so I can get acquainted with my great-nephew Elliott who arrived on Nov 3, 2008. I'll also be spending time with Larry and Chris (brother and sister-in-law, parents of Dan and grandparents of Elliott) the first couple of days and then will head out to their place in Wilsonville (suburb of Portland) on Saturday morning.

Early Sunday afternoon (approx) Larry, Chris and myself will drive up to Seattle, WA so I can meet my niece Lauren's fiancé and his dog as well as most (or maybe all) of her house mates. Sunday is her night to cook for the occupants of her group house.

I hope to capture Elliott on camera (maybe get some REALLY great shots with my Nikon D90) and and also hope to get some lovely shots of the beauty of the Portland and Seattle areas and places in between. We plan breakfast at Pike Place Market on Monday morning before heading back to Portland via some other stops along the way. Abstracted from Wikipedia: Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street, and remains one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations.

The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill, and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops. Antique dealers, comic book sellers, small family-owned restaurants, while the area contains one of the few remaining head shops left in Seattle. The upper street level contains fishmongers, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer." ... (go here if you'd like to read more about it)

Depending on time and photo opportunities, I may post while on travel or MAY wait until my return.

Photograpy Class Outing - March 21, 2009

2009-03-26T07:36:00.014-04:00

Since retiring at the end of February last year, I've found time to rediscover a love of photography and have been going a bit nuts with digital cameras. (last day of work as a federal government employee: Feb 29, 2008, hereafter referred to as "leap for joy day" in our house)

But back to photography... after using film cameras for 40+ years (favorites being my first SLR, a Nikkormat and a newer Nikon SLR camera used more recently), I fell off the wagon (to borrow a phrase from my fiancé) and started using digital. My fiancé Mike is actually the one who led me down the path to digital photography because he bought me my first digital, a Nikon Coolpix P1 in spring, 2006. Since that first adventure in wasting photons, another of Mike's favorite phrases, I've moved through using a Nikon Coolpix P4, a Nikon Coolpix P80 (gifts from Mike) and recently purchased a Nikon D90 kit with 18-55mm and 55-200mm VR lenses. This purchase was my motivation for taking a couple of photography classes through the REI Outdoor School (great classes, BTW).

Back to the P80 for a sidetrack... it is the camera I used most on my trip to Costa Rica because the 18x zoom was quite good at capturing much of the natural beauty we saw there. But I don't think I'll ever go on a guided bird outing without my P4 (which I'd taken along for quick snaps). Our guides had bird scopes and one brought along an attachment that allowed the P4 to 'mate' with the bird scope and capture REALLY close up shots such as the one shown below of a Scarlet Macaw chowing down on berries.

Finally, a few words about the photography classes I took this past week through the REI Outdoor Photography School. After my Costa Rica trip, I started posting photos to Flickr and found so many quality photos from others that I started getting frustrated with the limitations of the point and shoot digital cameras I had. So I signed up for REI's very reasonably priced Intro to Digital Photography class (2 hours - one evening) and their day-long Outdoor Digital Photography class (also reasonably priced at $50). Both were taught by working professional photographers (Carl Bruce is a Washington Post staff photographer and Vickie Fruehauf teaches Photography at Georgetown University) and both were excellent instructors. My Nikon D90 was purchased about ten days before the first class with the hope that I'd quickly learn how to use it.

The classes exceeded my expectations and I'm SO MUCH more comfortable now with my newest digital camera. I've been photographing spring flowers and buds/blossoms on trees as they are now starting to sprout in our area. If you'd like to view the class photos and a few taken since the class using techniques learned in class, they are on Flickr and can be viewed as a slide show. I'd taken my Nikon Coolpix P4 to the outdoor class also so there are a few pictures using it in the slide show, but most were taken using my Nikon D90 with the 18-55mm lens. (photos in the slide show that occur after the one below were taken with the D90 using either the 18-55mm or a 70-300mm AF lens formerly used with my film camera)

I'll leave you with one more photo from class... our last photography assignment on our outdoor shoot at Seneca Creek State Park, Clopper Lake, playground and boathouse areas. We were challenged to imagine that we had 20 minutes in which to take ONLY ONE photo and to make it our best shot. I got lucky and noticed a fisherman in a kayak coming in just as I was about to snap my photo of the boathouse reflections in the lake. See what you think of the result. :-)

Rascally Squirrels

2009-03-13T17:51:00.005-04:00

For the longest time after I put up bird feeders in my yard, the squirrels left them alone. But this past year was apparently a bad year for the oak trees in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area (which is where we live), so the squirrels have been pretty desperate for food. As a result, we (the squirrels and I) have been having a running battle... I've been trying to keep them from the bird seed and they've been coming up with ever more creative approaches to get to it in spite of my efforts.

One of my feeders is a wooden house feeder which the squirrels first learned they could dine from by hanging upside down from the wooden roof as shown below.


First he grabs some seed...	and then he hangs around eating it!

I've posted an album of Rascally Squirrel photos on Flickr and expect that more photos will be added as the show continues. Meantime, enjoy the show (I'll be back to edit this post sometime later but it's time to organize dinner now!)

Final Impressions of Costa Rica Trip of Jan 3-17, 2009

2009-02-23T15:48:00.005-05:00

This trip was a first for me... traveling with a group tour instead of with my significant other. I was asked to join the group when someone else dropped out. Our group consisted of my first section chief (Micah) from my employment at the National Institutes of Health, his wife Elaine (both of whom I've known since 1971), their son Evan, daughter-in-law Nancy and granddaughter Aliza (who was my roommate), their daughter Tamar and son-in-law Mike, Len and Leslie (husband and wife whom Tamar and Mike have known since college), Mark (Audubon tour guide and long time friend of Mike and Tamar) and his wife Paige. Our other group members were Niño (our bus driver, bird spotter and source of local information) and Charlie, the amazing naturalist who joined the group for the second week of our trip.

Tamar and Mark were the chief organizers of the tour, doing much planning in conjunction with Costa Rica Expeditions to ensure that everything about the trip went smoothly and that we visited interesting and beautiful places while traveling around the country-side. Words aren't sufficient to explain how invaluable Mark, Niño, Charlie and Costa Rica Expeditions were to our group's enjoyment of Costa Rica. Our group was treated to many wonderful tours, bird and animal sightings, heard many stories about local culture, ate wonderful food, saw beautiful scenery, experienced both locally run and internationally run tourist locales and came away with an affection for both the country and its people.

Impressions of Costa Rica and its people... the country is clean and very beautiful... its people are very friendly and we can learn a LOT about good conservation practices from this country. Signs posted in bathrooms everywhere we stayed reminded us to conserve water. Cans labeled with the type of recyclable 'trash' that can be disposed of were pretty much everywhere we traveled.

The Costa Rican people are justifiably proud of their country and happy to share their knowledge with tourists. If I recall correctly, 93% of the population is literate and their school system has a very low drop-out rate. The country has no military and no enemies (we should be so lucky). Costa Rica has a population of around 4 million in a country the size of West Virginia and produces coffee, bananas (and other fruit), chocolate products and other items for export. There is no oil or coal in Costa Rica and they are working on becoming self reliant for energy by taking advantage of wind, hydroelectric, solar and geothermal methods of energy production.

Costa Rica is on a major fault line which contributes to the large number of volcanoes (some still active) and can result in earthquakes. On January 8, 2009, there was an earthquake (6.2 magnitude) that greatly affected one of the areas we visited three days after we had been there. Many lives were lost in the area of Costa Rica most heavily affected by mud slides caused by the earthquake. The La Paz Waterfall Gardens, one of the major tourist attractions near the epicenter of the earthquake, has closed for 3 months to conduct repairs (no lives were lost at La Paz). The Costa Rican population rallied to provide relief by conducting fund raisers in town squares and setting up on-line sites for donations.

The slide show currently running on my blog is a summary of the best photos taken while on this trip. If you want to view a day-by-day account of the trip, please check my January 2009 posts.

Costa Rica - Departure (Jan 17, 2009)

2009-01-27T12:37:00.003-05:00

We are all sad to leave Costa Rica. This has been a truly marvelous experience and we all vow to return to Costa Rica one day. I start my day by taking a few last minute photos at Borinquen, one of which is shortly after the last sunrise seen this trip.

From Costa Rica - Departure

We arrive at the airport to find no lines at the windows where we must pay our departure tax of $26/person and too early (around 10:30 AM) for check-in for those on the earliest flights out of Costa Rica. But by the time we've all paid our departure taxes and filled out the required paperwork for departure, Len and Leslie are able to check in. American Airlines agents finally open for check in (for Mike and Tamar), after staff have thoroughly cleaned all counter surfaces which anyone might have to touch! Once the early crowd has checked in, we head for a local tourist trap, a souvenir shop where we can purchase last minute items for ourselves or to give as gifts. We also take more photos... some gender-bending photos using the 'head shot' board at the shop and a few photos of our trip leaders, Charlie, Mark and Niño, all of whom contributed greatly to our enjoyment of this trip.

Shopping done, it's back to the airport to bid good-bye to Len, Leslie, Mike and Tamar. The DC area six (Micah, Elaine, Nancy, Evan, Aliza and myself) check in next after which we have about 90 minutes to go for lunch. And then we too bid good-bye to Costa Rica, Charlie, Niño, Mark and Paige as we head for our flight to the cold north.

Costa Rica - Day 14 (Jan 16, 2009)

2009-01-27T12:35:00.002-05:00

Our last day in Costa Rica turns out to be our most strenuous adventure of the trip (at least, the most strenuous one where we all participate). Shortly after breakfast, we all pile onto the bus for a ride to Rincon de la Vieja Park nearby. We see a double rainbow along the way, the end of the prominent rainbow seems near enough to the road that we might be able to find the pot of gold. We also see a very young gaucho roping a horse (he succeeds).

From Costa Rica - Day 14

On our arrival at Rincon de la Vieja, we venture forth on a hike to view some of the geothermal features along a trail that winds around about half-way up the volcano slope. The wind is howling and it is raining as we exit the bus but once we are into the rain forest, the wind dies down and we opt to shed our rain gear in favor of remaining cool as we continue our hike. The first third of the trail is relatively easy along level ground with few obstacles in our path. We see mud pots, hot pools and fumaroles, familiar sites to those of us who have been to Yellowstone Park but made interesting by the differences in the landscape around this park's geothermal features.

We decide to continue on the trail rather than retrace our steps and this is when we encounter river crossings, up and down portions, rocks and tree roots and water hazards (real muddy spots) as we continue our hike. Some of the river crossings are quite challenging for most of us while they are easy for others. Wherever the trail becomes treacherous, Charlie arranges support as we continue our hike.

Our trickiest river crossing occurs at a spot where the original trail was recently washed out (left photo below), requiring us to either wade through hip deep water in the pond above the wash-out or find an alternate way to cross. We find a way most of the way across by walking along a rotting log (right photo below). The last part of the crossing is done over a hastily built "bridge" of rocks and tree branches made by some of the men in our group.

We are relieved to finally exit the rain forest after encountering still more obstacles (steep steps, rocks, roots) after our last river crossing. We are happy to be able to eat our box lunches on Niño's spotless bus while heading back to Borinquen for much needed massages (for some) or naps (for others), showers (for all) and a marvelous facial for me! This hike took longer and was harder than most of us expected so relaxation time is great.

Dinner our last night is a festive affair as most of us have agreed to dress up with some of us wearing items we purchased at Villa Lapas. It took two photos to get all of the group 'visible' to the camera and we all agreed that we'd had simply marvelous adventures and made many wonderful memories over the past two weeks.

Costa Rica - Day 13 (Jan 15, 2009)

2009-01-27T12:33:00.002-05:00

Today is our first full day at Borinquen and the group has various plans for how they are spending their morning after our breakfast gathering... some are riding horses to the waterfalls and then to the zip line tour, some are being driven (by Hummer) to the start of the zip line tour and some are hiking to the start of the zip line tour for photo opportunities (this is my choice).

Our hike takes us up the side of the mountain to the end of the paved road and continues on a dirt road through a cow pasture to the start of the zip line tour. It is very windy high up on the mountain and once I see the first platform, I'm happy that I've opted out of this adventure. The first "zip" is over a very deep chasm in the rain forest and looks extremely scary to me and the others who have opted out of zipping along down the mountain through the rain forest. Paige is happy to be having no part of zipping as others mill about getting their gear checked and being instructed before setting out on the zip tour. Mike has perfect form and Tamar goes tandem on the first of 9 (or 10?) zips on the return to Borinquen.

From Costa Rica - Day 13

After all the "zippers" have taken their first step on the zip tour, Elaine, Micah and myself opt for a ride down the mountain in the hummer... a bone rattling experience! Then it is off for a quick hike on the Petroglyph Trail through the rain forest for the three of us... we want to be back in time to greet the crowd doing the zip tour when they return via the last zip line which ends near the stables. The guides encourage upside down zipping at the end of the tour and all our crowd does this.

The afternoon is spent by some lounging in the hot pools or around the swimming pool while others take advantage of the mud baths and/or massages in the spa. My choice is to relax, take a nap and then go birding with Charlie and Niño from ~3:30 pm to sunset. This turns out to be a great adventure because I have them all to myself and Charlie spends a great deal of time capturing bird photos for me on my Nikon P4 which he uses paired with the bird scope to get closer than I can with my Nikon P80. We have very good viewing of some birds I'd seen before but not seen well and spot new birds (new to me on this trip) also. It's hard to choose the best photos from the many taken today by Charlie... but I do like his "extreme close-up" of the Turquoise-browed Motmot and the Double-striped Thick-knee we saw. Additional photos (both by Charlie and by myself) are in the complete album from our thirteenth day in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica - Day 12 (Jan 14, 2009)

2009-01-27T08:10:00.003-05:00

Our day starts with great views of the Scarlet Macaws dining on berries high in trees on the grounds of Villa Lapas. Travelers who have been to Costa Rica previously are amazed that we are seeing them so close up. They really are spectacular birds. Both Charlie (using my Nikon P4 and a bird scope) and myself get nice photos.

From Costa Rica - Day 12

Today is a fairly long travel day so we stop for lunch and a walking break at a delightful restaurant along the Pacific coast. The food is wonderful and the gardens are pleasant for our bit of exercise. We encounter some heavy traffic on the road after lunch and arrive at Borinquen, our last stop on our wonderful tour around 4 PM. This place is an elegant retreat with spa facilities and lovely grounds. Our rooms are wonderful, furnished with two double beds, a writing/computer desk, a wet bar (we don't touch it), a small table with two chairs, two comfortable chairs (one a rocking chair), TV (we don't watch it) and a bathroom with a nice large shower. We also have a porch which is separated from our neighbors (Aliza's parents, Evan and Nancy) by a flowering hedge. Special touches include towels folded as swans with a fresh hibiscus flower. The windows are screened so we can take advantage of the cross breezes instead of using air conditioning. We unpack, relax and shower and change for dinner. We each take photos of the sunset from our porch.

Costa Rica - Day 11 (Jan 13, 2009)

2009-01-27T07:27:00.004-05:00

Our day starts VERY early so that we may be the first ones to the Canopy Tour at Villa Lapas. There are five suspension bridges, some crossing high above the rain forest below can be pretty scary. It is best to be on the trail soon after the sun rises, before it gets too crowded and before the jungle gets too hot. We have coffee and pastries in the dining room and get onto the bus bright and early. Our day starts with sightings of the Scarlet Macaws dining on balsa flowers and flying across the skies high above us. Once on the Canopy Trail, we see army ants, leaf cutter ants, birds and more as Charlie and Mark are sure to point out interesting sights.

We learn that Leaf Cutter ants will go up to 1.4 mile from their nest to search for leaves to cut and bring back to the nest (top left photo below), following pheromone trails through the rain forest. One trail we see crosses our path 4 times as we descend down the many switchbacks at the end of the trail. Once across the trail, they go straight up the side of the hill to the next switchback and so on until they return to the nest. They carry out their waste (right photo below) and pile it up a few feet away from the nest until the pile gets too big and then they will relocate. The bottom left and right photos show the ants carrying leaves and a traffic jam caused by a leaf that has fallen across their pheromone trail back to the nest.

From Costa Rica - Day 11

After we return from our Canopy Tour, we have lunch and free time until 3 PM. Some rest, some take walks in the rain forest and some adventure forth to do the zip line tour at Villa Lapas. I walk with the zip group to their first station and get videos (short ones) of each of them on their first zip through the jungle. Then I wander back through the rain forest, taking a wrong turn at one point which I correct once I realize I'm not on the same path we took earlier. The Tarcolito River bank beckons me and I capture several photos of butterflies along the river before heading back to our room for a short nap.

At 3:00 PM, we assemble for a short bus ride to the Tarcoles River for our "Crocodile Man Tour." We not only see crocodiles on this boat ride, but also have sightings of new birds, the Roseate Spoonbill being the most beautiful, as well as some we've seen before and now recognize easily. We end our day on the river watching the setting sun before heading back to Villa Lapas for dinner and packing up to head to our next stop in the morning.

Costa Rica - Day 10 (Jan 12, 2009)

2009-01-25T11:30:00.004-05:00

Our first full day at Villa Lapas starts with a flurry of bird sightings shortly after sharing coffee before dawn... there are trees on the property with fruits and berries which attract a wide variety of birds, Trogons, Toucans, Scaly-breasted Hummingbird, White-tipped Dove, Fiery Araçari and more. It's a wonderful way to start the day. Photos below are of a Chestnut-mandibled Toucan having breakfast and a Black-headed Trogon.

From Costa Rica - Day 10

An addition to our usual buffet breakfast is eggs (either scrambled or as an omelet) cooked to order with items we select from the choices offered. We then gather gear for the day and pile into the bus for our ride to Villa Vanilla, the home of Rainforest Spices, where we have a tour of the plantation and learn about their production of vanilla, spices and essential oils. The bus ride to get to Villa Vanilla is mostly over unpaved roads which we begin to refer to as giving us a Costa Rican massage. Our tour is extremely interesting and educational and starts at the drying and processing shed. (items shown drying below include allspice, black pepper, white pepper, cacao beans and LOTS of vanilla beans) After learning about the drying and processing steps, our tour winds along the Epiphyte Trail past examples of every spice produced at the plantation as well as cultivated epiphytes. Epiphytes (some shown below) are plants that grow on other plants and take the nutrients from air and rain; they are not parasitic.

We are pleasantly surprised (since we had NO IDEA this was happening) to find that lunch at the "viewpoint" is included after we are nearly through with our walk through the plantation. A cool breeze at this high point is a welcome respite from the heat and the light rain that has begun to fall. The lunch is wonderful, consisting of black beans, plantains, and arroz con pollo (chicken with rice). Dessert is the most wonderful part of lunch with chef Chelsea's hearty cookies and cinnamon-flavored, home-made ice cream. The teas served are delightfully refreshing as well.

Our last stop is the Spice Shoppe where most of us spend cold cash to purchase some of the options available... I brought home vanilla beans, vanilla powder, cacao nibs and Ceylon Cinnamon (both ground and dried chunks before grinding). All-in-all a wonderful experience. (I will add to the information about Villa Vanilla after I get some of the information from others that I cannot recall myself.)

On our way back to Villa Lapas, we stop at a public beach so some of us can dip our toes into the Pacific Ocean. We get more than we bargained for when waves come crashing in and go up higher on our legs than we'd rolled up our pants. Thank goodness for quick-dry fabrics.

Costa Rica - Day 9 (Jan 11, 2009)

2009-01-25T07:55:00.004-05:00

The day starts off with a chuckle when I see a familiar bumper sticker on my way to breakfast. Seems that Costa Ricans are quite happy with the outcome of our presidential election.

Morning dew on daisies and a calla lily are among the last photos taken before leaving Savegre for a day of travel and fun en route to Villa Lapas.

From Costa Rica - Day 9

We stop before lunch at Our Lady of the Angels Basilica in Cartago to see the fabulous Basilica revered by Costa Ricans as their national church and as a source of healing waters. An interior and exterior view are shown below (more photos are in the complete album).

We plan to meet up with our naturalist guide, Charlie, at our lunch stop today. A last minute change in plans (Charlie says there is no parking for a bus at the chosen restaurant) has us having lunch at the Gomez home. We have delicious food (take-out of typical Costa Rican meals from the nearby restaurant) and get to meet Charlie's family and see his lovely home and gardens. It is truly a delightful break and a special bonus to see Charlie's home and meet his family.

Costa Rica - Day 8 (Jan 10, 2009)

2009-01-24T16:22:00.005-05:00

Once more on to the bus after breakfast for our morning adventure... relatively clear skies greet us so there is a good chance we will be able to see both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean from the highest point on the Pan American Highway, Cerro Bellavista. There are many radio towers as well as a Biological Research Station at the end of the road. The highest point is over 11,000 ft and the research station (off limits to tourists) is at 10,500 ft.

An option that some of our group are taking for the return to Savegre is to hike down the mountain on a trail that goes through old growth oak forests for part of the descent. I opt out of this adventure due to sore knees (it includes a 4000 ft elevation drop on the return to Savegre) since I'm certain that I would slow down the group considerably. Four members of our group (pictured below) plus a guide (required) hired at Savegre set out on the hike about 9:30 am and we expect them to return by 3:30 pm since the hike is supposed to take about six hours. Raul, the local guide, is in fantastic shape and our folks must be too since the group returns in slightly under 4-1/2 hours!

From Costa Rica - Day 8

Meanwhile, those of us not hiking the entire distance wander down the road awhile with Niño following in the bus. We snap photos, watch birds, marvel at being above the clouds (photo above right) and generally enjoy the beautiful scenery as well as the balmy weather. Niño calls a halt to our wandering ways around 10:45 am and back into the bus we go. Before getting on the road to Savegre, we make a much needed stop for baños at a local bakery, restaurant, shopping mart, bird watching area. About every place we've stopped so far has at least one, if not more, bird feeding and/or hummingbird feeding stations as well as gardens we can wander through. Photos below show an orchid and bromeliad (both epiphytes) growing together on a tree (left) and the so-called Poor Man's Umbrella plant (the leaves are large enough to shelter one from the rain) in bloom on the right.

Once back at Savegre, we have lunch and are on our own until 4 PM when we are scheduled to meet for another trip to view the Quetzals. Len, Leslie and myself opt to hike down the trail to the first waterfall along the river on the hotel property. It's not possible to hike to the second one because the trail is washed out beyond the first waterfall. We are only hiking for a short while when it starts to rain and continues, harder at times, for the duration of our hike. Most of us opt out of the 4 PM birding trip to view the Quetzals since the rain is still coming down. Relaxing in the bar with a warm cup of coffee laced with brandy seems a better option. Tonight is, sadly, our last night in Savegre so we don't party because we are all tired from the day's activities and must pack before going to bed.

Costa Rica - Day 7 (Jan 9, 2009)

2009-01-24T11:22:00.007-05:00

We are really getting into the routine now... early morning bird watching followed by breakfast and then on to the day's adventure. Today finds us taking a short bus ride to a nearby farm (admission of $2/person is part of our package) where rumor has it that the Resplendent Quetzal is dining daily on wild avocado fruits. We catch a glimpse of a male and female Quetzal in the trees shortly before they fly away, not to return even though we watched and waited for another 30-45 minutes. While waiting, your intrepid blogger took a few photos of the flora and fauna seen nearby and Niño and others in our group gathered kindling so our fire wouldn't fail tonight.

From Costa Rica - Day 7

We make a plan to meet for lunch and return later in the day for another attempt at better viewing. Some of us hike back to the hotel (~2.3 km from the farm) and some take the bus. After lunch is free time for whatever we want to do until our 4 PM meeting for another try at viewing the Quetzals. I take a NAP to refresh myself.

While waiting for our trip to view the Quetzals, I manage to catch 4 of the 5 Hummingbirds that can be seen at Savegre on film.

Then it is off to try to see the Resplendent Quetzals again and we have much better luck in the afternoon. Once seen, it is truly understandable why they are named "Resplendent." I've included just two of the photos I took below; more can be seen in the complete Costa Rica - Day 7 album (which doesn't include ALL of the over 100 photos taken on this day).