Bee Haven???

I just heard someone talking about blogging and they said it's like a living being..."if you don't feed it...it dies".  I think this is completely true.  I know that if I am reading a blog and there aren't new posts that I never go back...so...with that in mind, this blog died years ago...not that it ever really got out of infancy.  I'm going to give it new life and post again!!!

Ok, moving on....

The other day, one of my photo friends had the great idea of driving up to Bellevue for a fun morning of making butterfly images at the Butterfly Garden.  Well, as it turns out, she selected an absolutely glorious day.  Low temps and even better...low humidity.  The drive was quite pretty.  The rolling hills made for great vistas...definitely not as flat as home.

We got there, grabbed our gear and headed down the path.  Oh, the disappointment!  For some reason they needed to mow down over half of the windflowers and so there were very few left.  (I think there garden needs the same resurgence as this blog.)  We walked on, hoping we would see some butterflies anyway.  On the way in, we saw one pretty thing flitting around but figured we would see more.  Not so.  Nope!  None!!

Well, we were there so we may as well make the best of it.  I guess we will photograph flowers instead.  We didn't just drive up for the lunch...although it was very good...and in an old grist mill.

I decided that I might as well play a little!  I used an extension tube and teleconverter that I had borrowed from another friend to capture this stacked image photo.  It was an experiment and it turned out pretty good for a first attempt.  It could have used about 3 more images but overall I was fairly pleased with the results...after all, it was an experiment on multiple levels.

Bee and Friend

View of the overgrown remnants of the garden

Like I mentioned we went to a good place for lunch, so what do we see when we walk up to the restaurant (no camera in hand) but a big beautiful black and blue butterfly (I don't know my butterflies by name).  Should we go get are cameras or not...just when we were ready to get them...he was gone.  Didn't even pull out my phone.  

We had a good time but the funny thing is that when we got back to her house, there were more butterflies in her back yard than we had seen all day.  Go figure!!

AUTUMN IN ASHEVILLE

Autumn in the Blue Ridge Mountains is suppose to be really pretty so we decided to see for ourselves.  Then the big question was when to go.  We wanted to be there to experience the peak of the season...so when is that going to be???  I kept checking the internet and of course, Hubby's schedule and finally we decided on Oct 18.  Did we pick the right week or not?  As we flew in, the trees looked...well...pretty green.

Still trying to be optimistic, I kept telling myself..."we're heading to the mountains and it is suppose to be farther into the season at a higher altitude, so maybe it will be more colorful".  So as we were driving, I just kept questioning our choice of weeks but still kept hoping it would get better and better...and I was sure glad we didn't go with the week earlier.

We arrived in Asheville and it was a little more colorful but not really what I was expecting, but again still hoping that it the next 3 days that we would be there that the trees would really change...and change they did!  It is amazing how different they would look from one day to the next.

This is the view from our hotel room and as you can see there is some color in the background but I wanted that WOW, orange!  Well, maybe those photos that I saw were photoshopped and they are never that orange...more like home...very pretty but not overpoweringly orange.  We will just have to wait and see.

Tomorrow, we are heading to Biltmore Estate.  Can't wait to see it.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

Just wanted to wish everyone a fun, safe, and happy 4th of July.  Enjoy the day and try to stay cool!!

Last Day of the Conference

Just hangin' out this morning.  Dave's at the conference that goes until 2:30 so after that we'll head out.  I decided to walk to the beach.  It was very pretty out there.  








It was kind of nice just kicking back for awhile.  Once we were ready to go we decided to head back to Little Italy for dinner.  First we had to check out the grocery stores.  It's kind of a fun place to explore and we found a few things that you just can't get back home.


Dinner was good.  Napolian style pizza and some calimari.  We always compare pizza to our homemade pizza that we have started making...so pretty good.


Had to get back to Coronado by sunset...there were some pictures that I wanted to get.  Dave's such a good sport about my photography.  He says he doesn't mind.

We got to the beach and the Navy seals were doing some practice maneuver...3 helicopters were lowering guys into the water, then pulling them back up, taking off, then coming back and doing it all over again.  Kind of fun to watch.  

Sunset in Coronado

On My Own

Here comes my ride!
"Here I am Mr. Trolley driver"

It's Day 3 and today I'm on my own.  The day started out cloudy again...you know, the June Gloom, but it cleared up by 9am, so yeah!!!  It was a beautiful day, all day!

Balboa Park
SanDiego

I went back to Balboa Park to   walk around and take  pictures.  Oh my gosh...there were tons, and I mean tons, of kids there.  I never realized how loud and out of control they can be.  I told Dave the kids were like bees buzzing around everywhere.  I'm not sure if they were still in school or if they were out of school and in some kind of daycare but they were all elementary age.  The park was beautiful though.








The next stop was Little Italy.  Lots of restaurants, a great camera store, Dick Blick Art Supply, and a couple of grocery stores that reminded me of the real Italian store.  Another trolley fact was that San Diego's Little Italy is larger than the one in Chicago, New York and San Francisco combined.  I don't know but that's what he told us.   How about this fence?

                                                                            

Little Italy...now, that's a fence

Then on to the harbor area.  Lots of walking.  I saw some of those bicycle rickshaws, I think that may be a good option, if you didn't want to walk.  Saw all kinds of ships, old and older...the new ones are across the bay.  

The ship from Master and Commander

This ship seems so elegant with her lady in front...I think it is a lady anyway...what do they call these??...I looked it up...they're called figureheads.  

View back toward San Diego

Coronado,CA

Back to Coronado for dinner and because I was tired.

Pedometer reading for today 9.13 miles...21,444 steps

I can't believe how much I walked.  I'm proud of that.  I'm sure it won't happen once I get home.  (nope, it didn't!)

June Gloom??

Coming from the Mid-West, we had never heard of "June Gloom" but we heard a lot about it once we arrived.  June Gloom is when the moisture from the ocean comes ashore and then stays along the coast until the sun can burn it off which sometimes doesn't happen for more than a couple of hours or not at all.  We were a bit disappointed.  We, or at least, I, thought the weather was always good there, because I have heard "it never rains in southern California"...oh, that's a song, isn't it? 


We woke up to "HEAVY" June Gloom.  It was actually drizzling, too. Oh well, that isn't going to ruin our plans, so off we go to catch our bus and onto the tour trolley.  

We were using buses to get around until we head to LA and there is a bus stop just outside the hotel property (and nothing else).  There is our hotel and that is just about it, along a 6 mile strip of beach...we were about 4 miles from town.  So we're sitting in the drizzle, waiting for our bus and we see this fishing boat come to the beach that is in front of us and start dropping his nets.  See all of those birds?...they were only around the boat, no where else...they must have been hoping for easy fishing.  Never have seen that before so it was worth sitting in a little drizzle.  Caught our bus and headed into town and the drizzle was over for the day...yeah!...it never did clear up though.

Hacienda in Old Town San Diego

We took the Old Towne Trolley around San Diego.  It was a great way to see the tourist sites.  We got off in old town San Diego in hopes of getting a really good Mexican meal.  You'd think being only 14 miles from Tijuana (heck, you can see it from Coronado) that there would be great Mexican food but we must have picked the wrong restaurant because we decided Azteca, at home was much better.  We spent a few hours walking around Old Town but it was pretty touristy, so we continued on our way.

We had a little more time before Dave had to head to the start of his conference so we stopped by Seaport Village.  It was just a little shopping area so Dave decided to head back and I stayed around for a while before I got back on the trolley.  There were some unusual trees.  Of course, all the trees there were imported.  There were no native trees to the area (just one of the many facts that I learned on my trolley tour).

I had to visit the beach before I went back to the hotel and a guy had just finished this sand castle.  It was pretty awesome.  I think it stood over 5 ft high.  I should have checked back to see if it was still standing a few days later or did someone knock it down.  It was probably just too tempting to leave standing.  I bet it was gone.


Pedometer reading 15,878 steps...6.76 miles.

San Diego...We're here! Well, Coronado, really.

There seems to be a learning curve here.  I thought I had this figured out but it didn't take long to know that I didn't.  Still working on it...I will keep trying although it seems to be taking an excessive amount of time so my patience is growing thin...please bear with me.


Well, the trip to San Diego and Los Angeles was good.  Dave worked, I vacationed.  How pampered does that sound?  Really, he only had to work a few of the days then we both vacationed.


We arrived in San Diego and then had the afternoon and evening to explore Coronado Island.  We had a great time but then we usually do.  Just walking around and seeing the area.  A beautiful beach and quaint homes and a kind of old time relaxed feel to the town.  It's the kind of place you wish you could live but know that you can't afford it. 


We did lots and lots and lots of walking.  I brought along my pedometer and we got in 16,231 steps...that's 6.91 miles.  I'm pretty proud since we had a big amount of flight time in our day!

The Boat House

Coronado Island

Little Church

Coronado Island

The day started with clouds but you can see that we did get to see some blue skies for awhile in the late afternoon.

San Diego as seen from Poehe's in Coronado

We had reservations at Poehe's Chart House Restaurant so we started our long walk to the other side of the island.  It was really enjoyable, walking through the neighborhoods.  That is when we said this would be a nice place to live.  


Anyway, we had a really great meal.  I had Mahi Mahi with macadamia nuts and bananas...a pretty unusual combination, kind of sweet, but oh, so great.  Dave had Lau Lau Purse which was seabass and pork.  Oh yum!  Then after all of that, we received a free dessert which was, oh-so-good because Dave told them it was our 30th Anniversary, which it was... in April.  He said he was going to milk it for the whole year! (Yes!...fist pump here.  Now you know why I love him...that's my guy) The dessert was some kind of molten chocolate cake and ice cream.  We scarfed that up like we hadn't even had dinner.  Haha.  Sad it's it?  


You really should go here it was worth the drive!  While waiting for the taxi, I grabbed this photo of our view from the restaurant...pretty good, huh?  Then it was time to waddle back to the hotel.