Turning 17 and Quick snapshots in Charleston

Birthday girl with her guy. How great to be seventeen!

Three beauties, three of my favorite people.

And here's a photo of a lucky man who is loved by all those girls.



"Reese" aka Terry enjoying the camaraderie and the nice evening.

A nice view of Louisville's skyline from "The Sunnyside". That is a bird above the bridge. I worry about how much the new arena, which will be just to the right of the Louisville side of the bridge, will affect the view...not to mention the traffic.

Here are two photos from my "just got home" trip to Charleston. One is of a doorway in one of the three pretty courtyards at my hotel, and the other is a windowbox shot on Meeting Street - for my purple team!




Flight photos are coming. I promise! Too much schoolwork to catch up on right now...and when will I ever paint again? Just reminded myself - I have a calligraphy job waiting to be done. Never enough time.

Louisville

I had promised FLIGHT photos. Instead I want to serve up some photos from Louisville that I've taken over the past year. One is a tiny liitle petrol station. I don't think it's operating, but it's quaint and cute and in Middletown, an eastern Louisville suburb.



Another photo I'd like to share is Baby on Top. a photo op that reminded me of National Lampoon's Vacation where the aunt is strapped (deceased) to the top of the car. What does that say about the family that strapped the baby's car seat to the top of the vehicle????


Just another sample of Louisville. Those flight photos are yet to come.

Oregon's picturesque coast

Today's posts are of photos of the beautifully picturesque rocky Oregon coast. The first two are views of the Newport Bridge. One is a typical seaside view, and the other is from a bit of a distance away, through the trees.



These next two photos are of a sea lion sunning at Newport Beach and also a boat in the bay at Newport.



Four more from little beach towns and Newport: A gull on her post perch, beautiful flowers outside a shop, a tea shop window - see me in the reflection? - and another view of the lighthouse...different sky. Oregon reminded me a lot of Ireland...flowers everywhere and very green. Parts of the coastline reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher. Also all the tea. More tea drinking opportunities than I've seen since Ireland! Oregon doesn't seem big on fish and chips though. More healthy-styles of cooking seem to prevail, but it could be that we just didn't frequent other places. No diners, no fast food. Actually we frequently cooked. One meal stands out as really wonderful. Beth cooked that night...but as the little girl in the old commercial for Shake'n'Bake used to say, "And I helped." It loses a lot if you can't hear in your mind as I do the extended accented 'hay-ulp' syllables in 'helped'.






These last photos are of the beautiful coastline along the way back to Portland from Newport; boats docked near a winery we visited; looking down into The Devil's Punchbowl formation and out a cave-like opening to the sea; and the circular shape in the rocks that is 'the punchbowl'. The next batch of photos will be flying photos! Another day.

Portland Photos

More vacation photos...and more to come. Here are some views in the Chinese garden in Portland. Lovely place. Very serene. Good gift shop too. The tea house was nice. I love the photo with the reflected skyscraper in the water. I also enjoyed the arrangement of teapots on the shelf. Andrea & I drank Eight Treasures tea, served in a cute little pot with a lid made to scrape away the plentiful flower petals floating in the slightly sweet tea.





A street scene in Portland and presentation of my lunch at a Portland Thai restaurant. Wow! Two young ladies had darling hats on and were enjoying beautiful coconut encased fruit drinks at the next table. Beth urged me to snap their photo. Wish I had! They were so cute and sweet looking.






Wildlife in Portland. This couple was even more striking from the front and side. I was too polite to take the front view and too slow to get the side view. Enjoy the rear.





Portland is for Lovers? This couple wouldn't get out of my way when I was trying to compose a photo at the Chinese Gardens, so when they decided to tarry with an extended smooch, I snapped their photo. Live. Love. Laugh. Enjoy many more lip-locks. They were one of three smooching couples we saw that day. Should have snapped them all.




It didn't seem quite right to post these crab traps in the same post with three kinds of crab, but I thought they were picturesque. We ate at Mo's, apparently a place that is de reiguer for travelers to the area. Seafood. Not a wide selection at this water-side one. (Apparently it's the original but there are one or two others with different menus.) There was a photo of Robert Kennedy there.

Happy Birthday, Stevie!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Stevie! We love you!

Newport Beach at Negative Low Tide...-2.8!

Ranger Guy lived above the beach (a difficult climb, but he'd climbed down the rocky face to view the negative low tide) and we were lucky to run into him at a tide pool. He pointed out some of the varied critters to us and named the seabirds (orange billed cormorant was one I'd never seen) and generally made me think that he and my brother Roger would have been great friends if they had met. These pix are of Guy naming the creatures normally hidden from view; a mix of creatures attached to rocks - starfish and anemone to name two; the operable one of two lighthouses at Newport Beach; and another view of the starfish clinging to rocks.


Crabs, crabs, we got crabs! Actually, I snapped shots of three types of crab on Newport Beach. Ranger Guy is holding a tiny hermit crab in one shot, the pretty peachy colored one is a dungeness crab and the dark one is unknown to me...I thought it was a horseshoe crab, but Roger said it's not...and I trust his knowledge. Guy was gone when I saw this critter.

Couldn't not show Patrick...the pretty solo starfish.

What a treat it was to see the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach OR at a negative low tide of -2.8. I had never even heard of a negative low tide, but I knew it was something special!

June = Graduation & Family Times

If I don't stop taking new photos I won't have time to view the 1000 from vacation! Here are some new ones from Natalie's graduation and party. Never one to sit still, Natalie plans to begin with a course at JCC next week!
And here's a cute one of Natalie and her friend Kerry making their getaway from the oldies at graduation.
Celeste, Natalie, Kerry and Remmel enjoying conversation at the party last night.

Below, a photo of Roger, Wanda, Celeste and Marcia.

Here's one of Mom (Angie) with Celeste, one of Mom (Marcia) with Natalie and Kerry, and one of Dad Steve with the real MOM, and Marcia at the graduation.

THANKS to my ArtKerfuffle friend Pat for tutoring me on how to compose photos and text in my blog.

Here a Chick, There a Chick Portland Pix 1

I cannot begin to tell the saga of my Portland trip in words. It was unbelievable. I will attempt instead to tell it in photo images. First up is a photo of Beth and Andrea at the first winery we toured, J K Carriere in Newburgh OR. Next is a photo of the soulmate artist and new friend we made, Kathy Forster - who very appropriately lives near the Lawrence Gallery, home to some fabulous pieces of art by regional artists. Kathy's spectacular Golden Chain tree, her rooster (I call him "Mr. Big Stuff") and his hens, her lovely little potting shed and the fantastic field of white clover (looking like a snow covered field) that she told us she'd only seen this year on our route to the coast round out this first batch of photos. If a picture is really worth a thousand words, you can consider this 7000+.