Shore Excursion

Today ‘s activities included an hour ashore in Huatulco, MX, and I took several interesting photos depicting what I thought made up this tiny slice of heaven. It turns out the real town is a mile down the road from where we were. The contrasting colors on some of the buildings was unusual and I’ve found the lighting gets more intense as we travel closer to the Canal. This part of the Mexican coastline is inundated with tiny bays which we are told have been set aside as marine sanctuaries and will not be developed. It’s the only part of the coastline where sewerage is not dumped back into the ocean and they have three treatment plants in the area. I must say the beaches were clean and so were the streets.
Last night we went to one of the many bars to have a drink and catch some music before bed. We settled on a Jazz group because they were easy to listen to and they interacted often with us few members of the audience that were there at that time of night. We found out the leader/drummer was from New Zealand. While on deck this afternoon, we happened upon an intense game of shuffleboard being played between this kiwi and the sax player. We chatted for some time about how open and friendly we found the New Zealand people to be and how we had much enjoyed their hospitality three years ago. He was so pleased to hear it that he gave me a hug in spite of all the sanitation procedures the ship has placed into effect. I guess this norovirus has the shipping line concerned because they are in touch with the CDC regarding measures to be taken to get the ship healthy once more. Rumors abound about the number of passengers affected.
After a day at sea tomorrow, we’ll be docking in Costa Rica. I’m wondering if we actually cross over the equator on the 10th.

The Baltimore Four

Today is the first day I’ve really felt like myself. Fortunately, my head cold is letting up and I spent some time reading up by the pool while we’re docked in Acapulco. We’ve been here before, too. So it was a lazy Day. Carl went for a walk along the harbor and watched the local fishermen bring their catch to the beach while other guys sold the fish to passers by. For the past four nights we’ve been eating dinner at the second sitting, 8:30PM. We had asked to be seated at the early dinner, 6:00PM. Our request was made possible this evening and the phrase, “Be careful What you Wish For” certainly rings true. We are seated with two older couples from Baltimore. Now, it’s bad enough to spend the meal with Orioles Fans but I have to tell you, it’s quite an ordeal to act interested. One lady orders her appetizer and when it arrives she take a bite and decides she want something else. In fact each of the three courses, she sent back. I felt so bad for our waiter. It’s his first cruise and now I’m thinking he’s rethinking his career choice. Her husband is a retired judge and they’ve been on 39 cruises over the years. The other couple was something else as well. Both ladies coughed their heads off assuring me they weren’t contagious. All the while, we’re noticing the sanitation process ship wide has been stepped up because there are several cases of stomach virus on board. And to add insult to injury after giving up our quiet late table for two for the earlier sitting with the “Baltimore Four”, I missed the most beautiful sunset of the cruise to date.

Cabo Or Bust

First port of call is Cabo San Lucas which started out as a sleepy little fishing village at the very tip of Baja California, gateway to the Sea of Cortez. We watched breaching humpbacks while having breakfast. Our plan was to do a jeep caravan through the rain forest and dessert in the surrounding hills but this was sold out. Since we’ve been to Los Cabos before, as it is commonly referred to, we decided to pass on a substitute. Carl did have to go ashore to find a particular brand of tequila made famous by Sammy Hagar of Van Halen ( He owns the Company ) called Cabo Wabo. Apparently it’s good stuff and a couple of people where Carl works asked him to pick up a bottle for them. Of course, now we’ve filled our customs quota and can’t bring anything back for ourselves. It’s okay, though because we’re not going anywhere near the Amaretto Di’ Sarona factory ( my favorite). When you get off the ship in Cabo, you are immediately assaulted by the street peddlers with their “gringo trinkets”. I almost laughed out loud when I heard them hawking their beautiful silver for just $1.00. And if that isn’t funny enough, we even walked by a vendor who was selling t-shirts for $1.00 For that price you could buy a dozen. You’d have to because you could never wash them, just wear them once and toss into the textile recycle bin.

First Leg Of The Trip

I’m making an entry from San Diego today. We’re on board the Celebrity Cruise Ship, “Mercury” for our two week tour down the coast of Mexico, through the Panama Canal, a stop in Cartegena, Columbia, and our final destination, Fort Lauderdale, FL. The ship is good size and as always, it takes several days to become accustomed to where everything is. I wish I could have taken a picture of us during the mandatory life boat drill. The majority of the passengers are older with robust figures if you know what I mean and then to put these bright orange floatation devices on, well it’s just too comical. I can’t see down to my feet without holding the vest and tipping sideways. Once the drill is over, we can proceed with the fun. We were berthed in the part of the harbor next to the USS Midway which has been retired from active service and is now a floating museum. Her tower number is 41 but there are two other ships nearby with the tower numbers 78 and 68. I took several pictures from the dock just before we left. Does anyone know these ships? I'll post a photo later. Since my original post, I was able to discover the CVN 68 is the USS Nimitz, a nuclear powered air craft carrier.

Resolutions

In past years, I've made many resolutions and managed to keep some of them for a few days while most of them were not kept at all. In fact, the only resolution I've ever been able to keep was the one I made to never make another resolution. I will, however, try to do a better job of keeping you in the loop about my photography, what's happening at shows and on location during the upcoming year.

So, we are on the road again. This time, we're headed on a two week cruise down the west coast on Mexico, Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal, a visit to South America and then on to Florida. I'll try to make daily posts but due to lack of Internet access, I may have to make several entries all at once.

We spent the first two days of our vacation traveling by bus and plane to San Diego. Then, the sore throat and head ache that I'd been plagued with for the past few days blew into a pretty good head cold. So, here I am, in San Diego and feeling pretty lousy. So lousy, in fact, that I passed on a trip to my favorite attraction, Sea World. I'll spend the day drinking lots of fluids and resting so I can feel better in the morning. How's that for optimism?

The last week of our trip moves us to Vancouver Island, BC where we plan to spend several days photographing the beautiful scenery and hopefully some bald eagles that will pose for me. We'll keep you posted...

Long Lapse

I can't believe that it's been almost four months since my last post. I hope I haven't lost all my readers because of this lapse. I have to report that I haven't been idle during this time. I mentioned we would be building an addition on our house for Mom and this is nearly complete. With one of the wettest summers, and I use that term loosely, everything took weeks longer than it should. My photography, too, has suffered due to lack of good light, the expense of driving and the time to set off to search for adventure.
We've also started a side line to my business. Our 7 year old granddaughter, Stephanie, has been taking photographs since she was about 5. This past week, I taught her how to make some of her better and more interesting images into note cards. We spent this past weekend at the Sandwich Fair where she spent time talking with customers who showed an enthusiastic interest in her work Of the 60 note cards made up of nine designs, she returned home with only 36 and was very excited to find that people loved the image of her cat, Mrs B, and her ponies, Fancy and Lily. In the next post, I'll tell you about the foliage season and what's on tap for the next couple of months. The image I've posted is Steph's photo of Mrs. B.

Can't Be Long Winded

I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd poke around the Internet and one of the places I tend to gravitate towards is my blog. It's been way to long since I made an entry and my loyal readers have probably stopped checking on me. I hope this isn't the case because I haven't been slacking. It's just a case of being really busy. Let me tell you what's been happening since Mother's Day. The first few shows of this 2008 season started off on the slow side and I began to regret making the decision to travel farther and expose new people to my work. My faith was rewarded, however, at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Londonderry where we experienced not only a resurgence of interest in my work but a better class of campground at Hidden Valley in Derry, NH. In fact, we enjoyed our visit to this area so much, we've decided to attend the two day event the church sponsors in September. Our calendar is filling in quickly now with only a few weekends where we will be staying at home. This isn't a bad thing because my mom is getting ready to move in with us. She'll have her own studio apartment attached to the house by labor Day. That only gives us two very short months to build a 20 x 24 addition. Wish us luck! Meanwhile, the lupine season is in full swing with these beautiful three foot tall spikes waving majestically in the early summer breeze. The three weekends of the Lupine Festival in Sugar Hill, NH just concluded and overall, it was a well attended event. The weather handed us a mixed bag of hot and humid with high winds and torrents of rain thrown in just to keep us on our toes. Next weekend we're off to North Woodstock, NH for the Olde New England Days which includes a micro brewery tasting. Carl is looking forward to this one.