I was sitting at the car dealer this morning, and I got to thinking that I shot more […]
Category Archive: Travel
“What the heck is that?”
My best guess is that it’s a rusty steel drum made up to represent an underwater scene. I took that shot near the end of our visit to the Long Beach aquarium. I’m telling you that as a way to let readers know that these photos are not in order, and the title gives away the plan to spread the photos from that visit into multiple posts.
January 2, 2019, was the day we planned to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, which is the actual name of the place (click on the name to visit their homepage).
That link has a lot of information about the place, the exhibits, and lots of photos. Photos that are better than mine, so, if interested, that might be the better plan of action . . . or you can proceed with reading what I have to say about it and looking at the photos and videos I took.
So, we’re now into the New Year (2019). We stayed in Long Beach until January 6th, when we sailed on the Coral Princess for our Ocean-to-Ocean cruise with passage through the Panama Canal.
On two of those days, we visited the Aquarium and the Queen Mary, but those photos merit their own posts. Maybe even multiple posts. For the remainder of the days, we wandered the waterfront, snapping photos.
This, then, is a visual tour of what caught my interest enough to merit me snapping a photo. Mind you, I have a facile shutter finger . . . I tend to snap far more photos than is probably good for me. Well, I enjoy it, so maybe it is good for me.
One other reason I use the P900 is that it was easier to take hand-held movies with the P900 than my then camera, the D7000 .
December 30, 2018, was the first full day in Long Beach, CA. We were staying at the Hyatt Regency, conveniently located central to a number of attractions and walkways next to the Pacific Ocean.
All photos in this post are from THIS SmugMug Gallery, and all were taken with the Nikon P900. That means you’ll see things like this . . .
It’s what I like to do with that camera . . . prove to myself that the zoom function is still worth the compromises one makes when deciding on this camera.
Those shots were from about 2,000 feet away, give or take a couple of hundred feet.
The advantage of such a long zoom is that you can see the old girl could use some sprucing up (something I confirmed when we went to see it). It’s obvious in these next photos.
At the end of 2018, we left Hawaiʻi. We moved there in June 2016, with plants to stay for five to ten years (or longer), but various things prompted a move back after only two-and-a-half years.
When I say the end of 2018, I literally mean the end of 2018 . . . we left the Big Island late on the 28th, and the 29th found us in Long Beach, CA.
As is my wont, I don’t typically announce trips ahead of time, so the first hint came via a passing comment in Post No. 260 of my Project 313 effort (the post explaining the project is HERE).
Here’s the thing with that move . . . the original plan was to be gone from The Big Island for three months (something to do with the lease in the condo we were renting), and we had decided it was cheaper to send the car back to the mainland as opposed to renting one for three months. But that meant we had three weeks before the car would arrive on the mainland. So we booked back-to-back cruises covering those weeks.
Then, we got a call from Princess Cruises, asking if we would mind swapping the first cruise for a cruise at a later time (that first cruise included New Year’s Eve, and they overbooked). And that’s how we ended up in Long Beach for a whole week before going on our scheduled Panama cruise.
Why am I explaining all this?
It’s been a while, so if anyone needs a refresher, Parts 1, 2, and 3 are HERE, HERE, and HERE. BUT . . . since it’s a rare reader indeed who follows links, a quick recap:
- Original plan: Chicago, north through Wisconsin, across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, down to the Lower Peninsula, through Indiana, and home.
- Modification 1: North to the Lower Peninsula, up to the Upper Peninsula, back down to visit friends, down through Indiana, and home.
- Modification 2: 1,909 miles from home to as far North as Whitefish Point in the U. P. and back home in 102 hours.
This post, then, is about September 19th, 2022.
Them who read the previous posts know today’s travels start Traverse City. It would end nearly 385 miles later in Michigan City, which, oddly enough, is in Indiana.
We’d originally planned a stopover at the Air Zoo, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but with most of the trip already modified beyond recognition, we decided to get home as fast as possible. The 20th of September would see us getting home in the early afternoon, thus — as the title says — completing the 1,909 mile trip in 102 hours.
For some reason, some of the photos are loading slowly, and I don’t know if that’s WP or SmugMug’s fault, but if I mention something and you don’t see it, try refreshing the screen. Like, for instance, the following map.
That’s the route, and what follows are the photos . . . by the way, as before, some of the gallery’s photos appear to be duplicates because after snapping a photo with the D7500, I often would bring out the Note 20 and capture the same scene.
It’s been a while, so if anyone needs a refresher, Parts 1 and 2 are HERE and HERE. BUT . . . since it’s a rare reader indeed who follows links, a quick recap:
- Original plan: Chicago, north through Wisconsin, across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, down to the Lower Peninsula, through Indiana, and home.
- Modification 1: North to the Lower Peninsula, up to the Upper Peninsula, back down to visit friends, down through Indiana, and home.
- Modification 2: 1,909 miles from home to as far North as Whitefish Point in the U. P. and back home in 102 hours.
This post, then, is about September 18th, 2022. Them who read the previous posts know today’s travels start at the Ojibway Hotel in Sault St. Marie (The Soo). It would end nearly 300 miles later in Traverse City, MI. We’d originally planned a stopover at Tahquamenon Falls, but based on the accelerated schedule, we decided to skip Michigan’s largest falls (upper and lower) and its tannins-tainted waters.
For some reason, some of the photos are loading slowly, and I don’t know if that’s WP or SmugMug’s fault, but if I mention something and you don’t see it, try refreshing the screen. Like, for instance, the following map.
That’s the route, and what follows are the photos . . .
It might surprise readers to learn that although it says “Part 2”, we’re still on the same day . . . Saturday, September 17. You should, of course, read Part 1 if you missed it, otherwise, the following sentence might not make sense.
We left Machilimackinac State Park and headed to the McGulpin Point Lighthouse.
As mentioned before, the image has been edited using DxO ViewPoint 3.0. I use the program to remove the distortion from photos taken with ultra-wide lenses. For instance, take note of where the grass begins and how close it is to the lighthouse.
So, a few weeks ago, we planned a road trip . . . a big circle tour up to Chicago to visit my family, then North through Wisconsin and into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We’d not been up there for . . . well, at least 20 years, but likely longer.
From there, we’d drop down through Mackinaw City, follow Michigan’s western shore, end up at some friend’s place for a few days before continuing South, and a few days later get back home.
That was the plan . . . but two days before we were scheduled to leave, we heard the bad news that one of our nephews might have COVID and Strep. Luckily, it turned out to be only Strep, but by then, we had nixed the Chicago visit and going up through Wisconsin.
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
When I composed the last post, I forgot to include some of the artsified versions of the grizzly and her cubs.
And, I figure I would remind readers to visit THIS<<link post and leave their suggestion for a title.
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
In June of 2015, we took a drive to Yellowstone, our favorite National Park. Late one evening, in poor lighting, we were lucky to watch a grizzly and her cubs foraging for food.
I first mentioned the encounter in THIS post, and at the time I said it was late, the lighting was bad, and I had to shoot at a high ISO (2500 and above). Meaning, the photos were grainy, soft, and of low quality. The photo I shared in that post was one I tweaked and worked on to “make better” and still wasn’t very good.
This post documents our September 16, 2017, arrival and sojourn in Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s also the continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise which began in November 2017. The documentation began in November of 2017; the cruise itself was in September 2017. With any luck, I’ll wrap this up this year.
Anyway, current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE(link).
There’s a gallery at the end of this post and a SmugMug gallery HERE(link) for photos from this day. Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. The SmugMug Folder Containing all of the Alaska 2017 galleries is HERE(link).
You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. I’m breaking up photos into multiple posts in an effort to keep them manageable. Meaning, composing long posts in the Block Editor (ptui!) is still an exercise in frustration.
Can you believe it’s been almost four weeks? That’s right; you have less than two days before the voting closes. I wouldn’t wait until the turkey is in the oven, but that’s up to you.
If you are new to the SDS Challenge, a little background.
Three writers will each write one story a month going down the list of deadly sins. The stories can be anywhere from 666 words to 6,666 words in length, although those numbers are not set in stone. If ambitious, the writers will provide accompanying graphics. These stories will not be anonymous because some writers may want to use the same characters for each story and write a series — or book — encompassing all seven sins. Finally, interpretation of the titular sin is up to the writer. Meaning, each ‘sin’ can take multiple forms.
Disclaimer: The writing challenge has no restrictions and the stories will likely span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG-rating range with a few perhaps pushing into the soft R-rating. Some readers might find a few of the stories disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, and if so, stop reading and move on.
If you want to read the Seven Deadly Sins submissions for the Sin of Envy, and then vote, your gateway is THIS POST <<link. There, you’ll find links to each of the three stories and a poll for you to vote after you finish them (if you be so moved).
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
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Edited to Add: the caca Block Editor’s Paragraph Block is — for some probably stupid coding reason — highlighting all the text in yellow. I’ve tried to fix it a number of times, and I’ll keep trying, but if you see the distracting and unwanted yellow highlight, please curse whoever coded the editor (I do).
Edited to Add: Apparently, per the response I received, this is a recent and known bug. They are “working on it” without a current estimate for when it will be fixed. Yes, yes . . . the caca Block Editor is great!.
Edited to Add: One of the support people sent me this email, and the fix appears to have worked (except the text color is not what I had specified when I created the post); the yellow highlight is no more. Below, I include the directions and the piece of code to add to your site (use the customize link provided) as directed by the support team:
BELOW THIS LINE IS FROM THE SUPPORT TEAM
Can you add the following CSS code to your site?
/* -- fix text highlight issue | 4377763-zen (DZ)-- */
mark {
color: unset !important;
background-color: unset !important;
}
Please browse to Customizer ( https://wordpress.com/customize/ ) > Additional CSS and add the code at the bottom there below any existing code.
ABOVE THIS LINE IS FROM THE SUPPORT TEAM
This post continues my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise which began in November 2017 (the documentation began in November of 2017 — the cruise was in September of 2021 2017). How’s that for running a bit late?
Anyway, current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE(link).
There’s a SmugMug gallery HERE(link). Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size.
You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. I should also mention many of these photos are of lesser quality than I would like as they are primarily taken with my then Note II. Not that the Note II didn’t take excellent photos; the poor quality is a combination of low-lighting and a bit of carelessness on my part.
Disperser Tracks 