Jemez Mountains

Another photo from our day in the Jemez Mountains in the Ponderosa area.

Aspen Tree in Sandia Mountains

This is an aspen tree we saw on our recent trip to the Sandia Mountains. This was what is considered the 'backside' or west side of the Sandias. It is a narrow, usually single lane, dirt road that goes up the mountain from the town of Placitis, NM, which is north of Albuqueque.

Summer at The Villages

We have been settled at Peace River for so long that we have started to grow roots there. It has been a great place to grow some roots and yet we have still looked forward to traveling again. We considered heading out to travel this spring but decided to stay put for just a bit longer. To give us some sort of a compromise between traveling and staying put we decided to go to The Villages for the summer.




The Villages is the place we visited Rich and Donna last summer. We fell in love with it during our short stay here with them. There is pickleball everywhere in The Villages. Beyond the great pickleball, there are tons of other activities to do here. It is a great way to have a lot of options while staying in one place. We rented a place for the summer so we could have plenty of time to soak up the fun there.




We were up and ready to head out before I am normally even out of my PJ's this morning, which says a bit about how excited we were to get to our summer spot. We had a nice drive up, passing right by Aric on the way. We were tickled pink with the house and the neighborhood we will be at for the next few months. I think the outside space will be our favorite space when we are at the house. Ava seems to agree so far!





Since Aric is so close by, we also managed to get him to come and spend the night with us. We are hoping he will visit us a lot while we are here! We have plenty of room for him and the other kids so we hope to get visits from all of them. We are looking forward to many good memories this summer!

Glen Avon Falls, Beaver River

Taken last Wednesday on our way home from Duluth. We took a short detour off Highway 61 and headed up to Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River. This was only my second time visiting this location, and I can't wait to go back and see it when the water is higher. It is a spectacular section of the river with lots of photographic possibilities.





































I had a lot of fun with my 100-400mm lens taking shot after shot of this particular spot in the river. It was at the bottom of one of the many cascades that make up Glen Avon Falls. Each shot was so different from the one before, amazing how infinite the patterns of water can be when you freeze the action like this!

Mirror, mirror on the wall, can you see me at all?

When you are wearing a burka and you pose for pictures, what is there to see?

It’s a bit funny and I am not mocking the woman in this burka okay so hopefully no one will jump on me with a politically correct statement. It’s just that there is nothing to see in the picture except for a woman in black head to foot with a slit opening for her eyes.

This was taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the other week.

Happy Birthday to the Original Big George

Tomorrow is my father’s birthday, and we all have a hard time believing he is in his ninth decade.
Greeks in general have solved the problem of growing old, and it’s not the Grecian Formula. It’s the tradition of Name Days. Your Name Day is set by the saint you are named for and by that saint’s feast day which is set by the Orthodox calendar. Traditionally, parties are held, but no numbers are involved. I know my Papou and Yiya didn’t take the age thing too seriously when they arrived in America. Either they didn’t remember, or they didn’t want to remember their true ages. Papou was much older than Yiya, perhaps by twenty years. The gap grew larger as he aged, according to Yiya. He probably shaved a few years off for her. He was also younger for the insurance agents, and in 1930, he gave himself at least ten years off for the census taker.

When he was about eighty, he had to go take the newly implemented driver’s test at the DMV on Indiana Avenue. My Dad drove him down there and watched him scratch his head through a little window where he was taking the test. After a few minutes, Dad gestured at him to ask to go to the bathroom- then, oh so subtly I’m sure, Dad went into the bathroom with him, and they got the thing done. (Dad proudly recounts that “they” got a 98.) Next came the driving portion which involved a lot of orange cones. Papou hit every one. Fortunately, the inspector was a customer at Churchill’s, the family restaurant. Dad took him aside and told him that Papou would only be driving to St. Sophia’s, and his daughter’s house on Sundays, and could he please pass him. He did. At that point, Papou was wielding a Cadillac. He had a tiny garage so he hung tires on the walls to bounce off of when he parked. Dad says he often drove right over the curb into Aunt Catherine’s yard, and she would yell at him from her kitchen window. But he kept driving well into his eighties, and as far as we know, he didn't kill anyone.

My father is still driving as well, and still passing all the tests. He was born right here in DC where we have birth certificates and birthdays and eventually- with the advent of my mother, the American birthday tradition was established.
(My mother, by the way, solved the age thing her own way by joining in with Jack Benny and remaining firmly lodged at thirty-nine.)
Way back when, back in his childhood, Dad remembers his big present would be a five or ten dollar gold piece.he has given them all way now, but he wished he kept one. His favorite present, however, was the birthday gift that he bought himself at age eighteen: a used 1932 maroon DeSoto with black fenders. (So much for all the junk we bought him all these years)
We celebrate Dad’s birthday tomorrow- on April 18th, but I discovered a few years back that his birth certificate says April 17th. I said, “Hey Dad, look at this. You’ve been celebrating the wrong day all these years.”
And he said “Too late.”

Happy Birthday, Dad. Whenever.

Acadia :: Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

Tuesday - September 11th - - The day dawned bright and clear with sunshine and beautiful blue skies. The first stop was at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse just a short distance down the road from Seawall Campground. This map shows the layout of the Island. Seawall campground and Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse are on the southwest tip of the Island.







From the parking area, there was a short but rather steep trail to traverse. A stairway made the downhill portion of the walk easy, but it was still quite a ways down to the rocky shore.





I climbed over the upper portion of the rocks to get this shot. To get a really nice view of the lighthouse you would have had to have been on a boat in the water!





I ventured down a little ways but the rocks were slippery and I just didn't feel comfortable going further out.