Day 61. Won the battle.

It has been a while. I missed four or five days of picture taking.  But one of those weeks of 15 and 16 hour work days trying to get a report out.  And, it's out. (Do you hear all the cheering?)

I am now in Fargo for a day and I hope to find at least one photo here.  But for now, here is half of the pile of paperwork I created and discarded this past week.

Good times.  See on.
Julee

Day 60. St. Augustine.

So I am posting this is a day late - almost two. I was exhausted from my week of travel, but my husband gave me a but of grief for not posting. And I do have some pictures from a late evening visit to St. Augustine, Fl.

The town is full if lights, and one in our group suggested we stop at the visitor center before wandering around.  My brain was thinking that a visitor center is not open at 10 pm, but I was just along to see something new so went with the flow.

Boy was I surprised to see a visitor center full of people. What a late night town this must be.  Turned out we were kind of crashing an opening party for a Picasso exhibit.  But the hosts were nice and even got us a map if the city and showed us how to get to the beach.

Best quote from the night: "You can't miss the lighthouse because, well it's a lighthouse."

Turns out you can miss a lighthouse when its light is very dim. 

We had a fabulous time wandering around St. Augustine and then getting to the beach at midnight.  (Yeah, I counted these pictures as a separate day from the fish restaurant since the last pictures were taken after midnight.)

A technicality I am totally going with since I am still a bit sleep deprived.

See on.
Julee

Day 59. Clark's Fish Camp

One of my coworkers used to live in Jacksonville so he took us out to Clark's Fish Camp tonight for dinner. It was a fabulous, authentic Florida experience.

The building was right on the edge of the water. It had low ceilings and pretty much felt like you were on a boat. But the boat was filled with Christmas lights, hundreds of taxidermied animals, and a live alligator.  Awesome.

I was very brave and tried alligator tail, conch, and frog legs.  All of it fried and perfectly delicious.  I also tried boudin.  Some sort if sausage made by soaking the meat in pig's blood.  (I was told not to Google until after trying it.). It was okay, but I am not a big fan of regular sausage so it probably wasn't destined to be a favorite.

Here are some pics from my experience.

Day 58. UPS Truck in the Sky.

Fun picture of the day. A full size UPS truck on the roof of a building.  What fun.  It was on a building about a mile from the hotel (Jacksonville Hyatt Riverside). 

I went for a walk after lunch and was surprised at how little was really in downtown Jacksonville.  There was virtually no shopping, and many buildings appeared empty.  There was a very large courthouse and police headquarters/detention center, plus one condominium and several big banks and hotels. But not a lot else.  A few blocks past the police building was a cool Maxwells sign that I liked. So I got a shot of that. 

Then I took a route along the pier back to the hotel where I saw some manatee encounter instructions.  Manatees this far inland?  Interesting.  Or do the boats head out to the ocean and that is why the posted instructions?

See on.
Julee

Day 57. Jacksonville zoo.

As a reward for all my extra work the past four days, I took advantage of a few free hours this morning and journeyed to the Jacksonville zoo.

It was pretty good as far as zoos go.  Although I think it was the fresh air and the walking around that really felt great. 
New to me animals were the okapi and rhinoceros.  The rhinoceros were HUGE.  The picture doesn't do them justice. 

One of my favorites was the great apes.  I felt a bit stunned at the humanness of their postures and gestures, especially obvious in the smaller ones.

My other favorite was all of the aviaries.  The wildly colored and unusual birds right up close and personal was fun.

See on.
Julee

Day 56. Florida must wait.

I was holed up in a conference room all morning then my hotel room until 8 pm tonight, but my 109 page report is done and submitted.  Hallelujah.

There will be some changes requested,  although it should be a day or two before I get those. Tomorrow I should be able to leave my hotel room and enjoy at least a bit of Florida.

Tonight's photo is of a neat fountain and some palm trees that I saw on my walk to dinner.  Oh, I almost forgot. There was the most incredible sunset. Brilliant, deep red over a rich blue of the river.  If only I hadn't been behind a hotel room window...  maybe there will be a repeat tomorrow.

Day 55. Jacksonville, sights in a rush.

I arrived safely in Jacksonville and even found my first photo in the airport.

In a corridor on the way to baggage was this glorious glass art piece. Love it.

Then, outside the hotel, a neat sculpture on the edge of the river.  Plus the bridges over the river are lit up in blue. Hurray for color!

The rush is because I have a time critical project to finish for work before I can relax and explore at a bit more leisurely pace.  So fingers crossed I can finish before midnight. If that happens I can play tomorrow morning after some training.

See on.
Julee

Day 54. Another world.

So another outdoor photography session during extreme cold and wind.  Once again my husband kept the car running and warm while I stumbled about in the snow. 

At one point I dropped my lense cap and the wind blew it, and blew it, and it rolled and rolled and rolled farther and faster than I would ever have imagined it could of on flat, snow covered ground.  It was not a pretty sight me running after it, although I did finally catch it - getting my pants even snowier than they were to start.  (I like to get down low and often kneel or lay down on the ground to get a picture.  But getting wet clothes in the winter tends to shorten my outings, so I have to really want a shot, or know it's one of the last shots in order to get all snowy.)

This world sculpture is in a Veterans memorial park.  While I like the end product I chose, after about 20 shots, I think an outstanding picture might be getting the right angle one day when a flag was flying on that flagpole you see on the right.  A gentleman stopped by while I was shooting and chatted with my husband briefly - mainly expressing he felt that I could have picked a better day to take a picture - but the gentleman is in charge of a project that will install a cobra helicopter in the memorial park.  How cool is that?

So next spring, this spot will definitely be revisited.

I'm off to Jacksonville, Florida on Monday.  Unfortunately I have some very large binders of data I hav to travel with for work, so my big camera is staying home.  But I'll have my trusty Nikon Coolpix S9100 that has taken outstanding photos at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens, so it should serve me well.  I may have a free half day, can't wait to see what I can find.

See on,
Julee

Day 53. Whiteout.

What is winter without bitterly cold temperatures and high winds?  It just wouldn't be winter without a bit of this, and this weekend was our weekend.

So it was miserable getting outside.  And as my indoor photography skills are still majorly lacking, I have more fun outside.  Well, maybe not today, but I gave it a try.

To capture some photos today, my sweet husband drove me out to the lake and kept the car warm and running while I battled the wind and snow.  I'm kneeling down, having a hard time holding the camera steady in the 40 mph winds, but I wanted to see if I could photograph the snow moving near the ground.

 

Not bad.

 

 

I was told I needed to try and get a flag in the picture to show how windy it was.  In the upper left hand corner, barely visible, is a blue flag.  Or maybe the lack of visibility and wisps of snow also suggest winds?

 

 

If you didn't buy my story about a whiteout before, how about now?  This shot was taken twisting just to the right of the previous pictures.

 

Outhouse at the Lake.

 

And just because I thought it was fun...  Unfortunately I never got turned around in time to shoot the outhouse when the snow was blowing like crazy and might have made it a hazier shot.

 

 

See on,

Julee

 

 

 





 



Day 52. Cats.

I decided to play with the cats today.  (Plus you know, the internet seems to go crazy for cats.  Or maybe that is just cute cat videos?) 

There is a chair in the living room that one of the cats (Bailey) has claimed, and recently I got a new piece of animal print fabric to protect the chair from the cat fur.  (The chair is a nice dark red, and previously I had this hideous green piece of flannel fabric on the chair.  Just before the holidays I decided it was time for a switch to something more subtle.)

Anyway, I figured I'd put the fabric on the floor and see if I could entice either of the cats to play on the fabric so I could get pictures. 

Did you just laugh a little?  Are you thinking that cats summarily avoid whatever place it is you would like them to be, and what was I thinking?  You would not be wrong.  My lover cat, Ellie, the white cat below, walked very carefully all around the fabric for about 15 minutes.  I tossed toy mice, a plastic helicopter thing, foam balls - which were chased only once they rolled off the fabric.

So I was not having much luck at first.  Then Bailey, the gray cat, suddenly got all into the fabric.  (It is her chair after all, so she was used to laying on the fabric, maybe she just decided it might be safe even on the floor.)  Well, she went crazy with playing with me right where I wanted her.

In the end I got one shot of Ellie, and a bunch of shots of Bailey.  It all worked out.

Ellie.

 

 

Bailey.

Playful (and oddly cooperative) Bailey.

See on,
Julee

 

 



Day 51. Blue night sky.

This evening, as I headed out to get a can of cream of chicken soup to cook tonight's pork chops in, I noticed a wonderful blue night sky right outside of my back door.  I took a couple of hand held shots, but realized I needed a tripod to get a steady shot.  Out came my new (Thanks mom and Lisa!) tripod.  Thanks too to my sweet husband who got me the piston grip ball head for my new tripod.  I was a rotating fool playing with my options.

(Although said husband also laughed as I tried to pull out the legs of the tripod in our skinny, little entryway - I was not definitely not doing it right.)

But it did a beautiful job steadying the picture.  I'm not sure it is a brilliant photo, but I thought it was neat how the tree branches showed up so white.

See on,
Julee

Day 50. Last one out.

Another day of smart phone beauties.  The excuse is a rough work deadline leading to a long day.  A day of starting in the dark, and ending in the dark, with no time to escape for a photo lunch break.

But I decided to capture one of the pieces of equipment people always comment on when it is dark in the lab. It is a fat extractor, that glows a bit blue when it runs.

Who doesn't love a glowing blue light?

And just for fun, the empty lab.

Day 49. Trees and Rocks.

First things first.  These are not pictures from today.  However, they are pictures from my weekend trip that I loved, but that didn't seem to fit together with any of the other trip blog postings.  (Plus the first day back at work was rough, and while I did take some pictures today, playing around with some beads - trust me - these pictures were not good.)

But it's my first day looking at these pictures on the computer if that counts for anything.

It probably doesn't.

But they are pictures that gave me some happiness today, and that does count for something.  Especially on a Monday.

 View from the Lutsen Sea Villas.

 



 Who do you see in this tree? (Taken at Cascade River)

Lake Superior Rocks.

 

Throughout the drive north of Duluth, all of the rock/granite along the road had these little, frozen waterfalls.  It was neat.  Something I had not noticed before this trip.  (And I've been up to Lutsen at least three times in the winter before, but I'm just now starting to see...) 

 

I did not choose to photograph them until our drive home.  Since it was zero degrees outside, rather than ask to stop the car and get out, I just rolled down the window and shot action shots while we drove.  (Mostly I was curious what I would get.)  Turned out a couple weren't too bad.

Frozen waterfalls.

 

  

 

See on.

Julee

Day 48. Minnesota sculptures.

My trip to northern Minnesota provided me lots of excellent scenery.  Trips to Duluth and north of Duluth always fill me with peace and excitement.  (It seems weird that those words go together, but they do for me in this setting full of trees and wildlife and the largest of large lakes - Lake Superior.) 

Since sculptures are among my favorite things, I felt the need to stop and photograph those I saw.  The first two are in Foley, Minnesota, and the last picture, with three sculptures, was north of Lutsen, Minnesota.

Glorious creations like these always remind me how awesome some people are to create interesting things to brighten the days of other folks.  (I imagine there are lots of people aside from just me who love seeing things like this?)

The pictures are not wonderful examples of photography.  The first two photos were taken at near zero degrees, so I hurried A LOT, and didn't try to eliminate the distracting backgrounds items.  The last picture was taken in the rain and fog.  Rain and fog that lasted all day long.  (But I figured better to have a picture of the memory than not.) 

I hope you enjoy too.

 

 



 

See on.
Julee

Day 47. Lost in the woods.

Last day of vacation. A final day skiing at the Lutsen Mountain.  From the one picture I took today, all appears to be going well...

Indeed the start of the day went well despite essentially ice to ski on.  (I am not sure what I thought would be the result of the inch of rain yesterday, but it wasn't as much ice as was there.)

I am an intermediate skier, at least on snow.  On ice it was back to beginner level. But by midday I was ready to try a blue run with the group. However because I was slow I got behind. Then, since the hill was a sheet of ice and got really steep I fell down. By the time I managed to get up none of the group was in sight, and the options in front of me all seemed equally terrifying.

I made the mistake of asking someone else which way they thought would be the easiest.  He honest to Pete laughed. But then he said that Moose Access was probably pretty easy and would be out of the main hill traffic.

What he failed to share was that Moose Access went to a totally separate mountain. A. Totally. Different. Mountain.  I was on Eagle mountain. My group expected me to meet them at the bottom of Eagle mountain.  I realized I was in trouble as passed all the ski hill condos and found myself on a very narrow run where there was no one else.

Luckily cell phones worked. And I called my husband and told him I was lost and that he needed to come find me. (He is an excellent skier, so I knew he would find me.) I had a sign in front of me that said 'Moose Access' so all he needed was a map.  He did find me after about 15 minutes. Thank you husband. You are the greatest!

Now after a while of standing around waiting for him, I kind of realized that I knew where I would end up, at the bottom of a chair lift at Moose mountain. We had skied Moose mountain several times.

But it was a long way from where I wanted to be and the ski lifts on Moose mountain closed in less than 30 minutes.  So there was a tiny bit of panic.

But all turned out well, and I even had time to get a few extra runs in back on the Big Bunny ski run.

Back to more meaningful photos tomorrow.

See on.
Julee

Day 46. Winter rain.

Who would have thought that a ski trip to northern Minnesota would have been rained out in early January?  (Not my husband and I.  Two years ago we came in mid-February and were disappointed at the warmth and lack of snow - but early January, surely that would be ice cold with good skiing.)

Nope.

Our first day of skiing on Thursday was beautiful.  But Friday was totally rained out.  And I mean it rained and rained an rained.  Had it been snow it would be have been a foot or more. It started raining before 5 am and is still raining at 10 pm.

But the forecast says snow will come overnight.  Fingers crossed as it is out last day of skiing.

However, today was not a total loss.  I got to play with taking photos of rain.  No ability to process with the photos with photoshop since I'm on the road with just an old laptop, but I'm still pleased with some of the pictures I got. 

 Red bush after the rain.

 If you look carefully, you can see the drop of water right at the base of each bulb.

 Evergreen after the rain.

Minnesota tree after the rain - rain drops are a bit hard to see, but all the spots you see on the branches are raindrops.

I'm not sure what these are, but I liked them.

See on,

Julee