Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
And taking pics of oneself alone and/or with one’s family/friends/pet/motorcycle, etc. is a fun thing to do.
The video collage posted below was done by a guy — Alex Chacón — who took the selfie to a different level.
I forget where I stumbled across it, but, in addition to being the best selfie ever, it’s the stuff daydreams are made of.
If you’d like to learn more about Alex, he has a Website, which you’ll see mentioned in the video, The Modern Motorcycle Diaries.
The thing about cows that I find most interesting is how they always look at you when you stop to say hello. Whether you actually speak or not. They’re curious critters.
Here’s further proof of their inquisitive nature. This video has to be one of the coolest I’ve seen for a while.
According to the PetFlow.com blog, which is where I saw this,
An American jazz brass band touring in France pulls over next to a pasture and puts on a performance for the cows. Literally. For the cows.
I find the video inspiring. I always thought it was cool to stop and talk to cows. Next time, I’ll have to sing.
What genre do you think they’d like most. Country, pop, or rock?
It’s mid-April and gardening season is upon us. Riding season, too. Sort of. Our strange weather continues. Although Hubby and I did get out for a ride last Sunday (April 13), temps dropped back into Winter range. It’s warming up slowly, but yesterday, a holiday for my employer, it was still in the mid- to upper-40s in the morning, so I didn’t ride. Instead I ran errands.
I did multi-task a little bit.
You know that smart phone I mentioned? I have a cool app — Passport to Your National Parks phone App — that let’s me make a checklist of national parks I have visited.
For those not familiar with the parks passport, it’s actually a passport-like booklet that…
…makes it easy to learn about and explore all of our national park sites. The Passport® to Your National Parks includes maps that are color-coded for specific regions in the country, pre-visit information, illustrations and photographs. It also includes a free map and guide to the national park system.
Spaces in each region are designated for you to collect rubber stamp cancellations at each national park site you visit. The cancellations, similar to those received in an international passport, record the name of the park and the date you visited.
It may sound a bit geeky, but it’s a great way to keep track of not just the parks you’ve visited, but when you have visited them.
Anyway… the other day, after creating my list of parks, I realized I’d only visited three of the 16 parks listed in Virginia.
And the closest national park — the Manassas National Battlefield Park — is one I had NOT been to. It’s 16.24 miles from where I sit. How bad is that? I’ve driven through it many times, since one of the major routes to DC and points north cuts through the park, but had never stopped.
I had to go to Manassas yesterday anyway, so I decided to stop at the park. I didn’t want to spend much time there, I just wanted to, 1, be able to say I’d been there and, 2, grab some info to plan a future visit.
I did walk around a bit after my stop at the Visitor’s Center. It was a bit cloudy and cool, and I had things to do, so I didn’t linger.
The view is nice and, I thought, impressive. Looks like it’s out in the middle of nowhere, right? It isn’t. It’s right on the edge of Northern Virginia, one of the most densely populated regions in the US.
If you click on that image of The Stone House, you’ll get a bit of history.
Passports are typically sold at park bookstores. You can buy them on-line, too.
Now that I’ve been to Manassas NBP, I can say I have visited 66 US National Parks. But there are many more to see…
I’d been meaning to visit Coscto for weeks. It’s not close (about 20 miles away) and is usually very crowded. I try to time my visits for off-peak hours, but never seem to succeed. I didn’t take any pictures, though.
No pics there, either. I must be losing my edge. LOL. I did buy a few perennials, though. Most importantly, I got the info I needed to schedule a delivery of mulch. I even ran into a friend who might be willing to install it for me. Oh, happy day!
Now I just have to get everything planted so it’s in the ground before the mulch arrives.
I’m glad Spring is here. It’s so nice seeing colors again. Here are a few pics I captured this past week.
While we’re on the subject of pictures, this shot from a friend’s blog post made me chuckle aloud with delight…
Bob lives in British Columbia, outside of Vancouver. This shot is from a camping weekend of his last September.
That’s it for today. I have GOT to get busy. I need to visit the Farmers’ Market and a nursery center or three. And then I have to start digging. And weeding. Sigh…
We might get a little loopy, but that’s part of the fun.
We all share similar likes/dislikes when it comes to interests, pace of travel, things to see/do, food to eat, places to stay, things that amuse or or not, etc. Hubby swears that Annelies and I are sisters separated at birth.
One of the things Annelies and I share is our love for photography. Our men are used to the two of us lagging behind, shooting photos. She and I always chuckle when we catch up to them and see them sitting on a bench, log, wall, etc., happily chatting away about one thing or another, as they patiently wait for us. I think “the boys” might enjoy those moments as much as we enjoy shooting pics.
After finishing my vacation re-cap (there’s a listing with links to all of the posts, at the very bottom of this post), I decided to have another look through the images that Annelies captured. I did incorporate some of her pics into my later posts, but I thoroughly enjoyed going through her pics again.
I find it quite intriguing that we travel together, both taking tons of pictures, and inevitably end up with different images of things, unique shots that the other didn’t see, etc. Of course, when we are shooting we’ll sometimes say, “Here we go taking pictures of the same thing again.” So it’s fun looking through someone else’s shots of the exact same vacation and seeing so much different stuff.
I thought you might find it fun, too. So I uploaded about 200 of her images to Flickr and embedded a slideshow below for your viewing pleasure.
You can watch the show on this screen or, if you’d prefer seeing larger shots, click on the link at the top of the slideshow embedded here and you’ll get to watch it on Flickr (photo-sharing site). Don’t see a link? Put your mouse pointer over the slideshow and FLICKR should appear at the top with the link to the right of that. It’s easy.
I hope you enjoy seeing her images as much as I did.
NOTE: If you are using a mobile device, you may not be able to see the slideshow and/or link below, so CLICK HERE to get to the Flickr slideshow.
One thing is certain, the four of us had had lots of fun seeing some amazing things together on two different continents. We’ve shared a lot of laughs and have made some incredible memories. Hubby and I are both very grateful to have them in our lives and anxiously await our next adventures together.
Hugs hugs to you both. We really love you guys!
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!
Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach
Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park
Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent
Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest
Installment 10: Rialto Beach
Installment 11: Getting to San Juan Island
Installment 12: Enjoying San Juan Island
Installment 13: Whales!
Installment 14: Deception Pass (Fidalgo & Whidbey Islands)
Installment 15: Ebey’s Landing & Coupeville (Whidbey Island)
Installment 16: Family Time
Friday morning, the grand kids headed off to school, and we got to hang out with Amy, TJ, and Shannon. We opted to visit Sumner, a neighboring town, that Amy had told me about.
It was a pleasant morning spent visiting as we perused the various shops lining Sumner’s Main Street. One of the shops is an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist. Amy is interested in learning to paint furniture and stuff. In fact, since then, we visited again and I was able to give her a lesson. If you missed the painting post, it’s here.
Sumner is a nice little town. There were quite a few funky little shops that piqued our interest and gave us something to do for a few hours. We’d tossed around the idea of going into Seattle to see the public market, but Hubby and I were quite tired of touristy pursuits by that time, so we decided to postpone that until our next visit. We really just wanted to spend time with the kids.
Temperatures were mild that day (60s?), but the skies were quite gray. Here are a few images I captured in Sumner…
We had lunch then returned to the house for more visiting.
The next day, Saturday, was all about football. Joey and Gaige both had games that day. Joey was quite tickled to have us all there watching.
Click on any image to see a larger view.
Temps that day were in the low to mid 50s, I think. By the end of Joey’s game, we were all quite chilly. Especially Shannon, who had ended her two-month tour of Central America before flying to Washington to visit with us. But we still had Gaige’s game to see…
Unfortunately, Brianna was under the weather, so we didn’t get to see much of her. She’d stayed home rather than suffering through two coldish football games.
And that’s it for the September vacation re-cap. Finally.
If you missed any of the posts, there’s a list of links for you below.
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!
Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach
Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park
Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent
Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest
Installment 10: Rialto Beach
Installment 11: Getting to San Juan Island
Installment 12: Enjoying San Juan Island
Installment 13: Whales!
Installment 14: Deception Pass (Fidalgo & Whidbey Islands)
Installment 15: Ebey’s Landing & Coupeville (Whidbey Island)
It was essentially a relaxed travel day. We’d planned things so that our last night was relatively close to our final destination, Amy’s house in the Seattle suburbs, but also near some sights. Annelies had identified Coupeville as a place to visit and I’d zeroed-in on at Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve (ELNHR). Have I told you that she and I make a great planning team?
We started out with breakfast at McDonald’s, a first for Annelies and Yves, which made for some giggles.
Americans know hot cakes = pancakes, but that confused our friends. Also confusing was the speed at which orders are taken, the staffs’ assumption that you have eaten at McDonald’s previously and understand their menu, know how to tell them how many cream and/or sugars you want in your coffee, etc. Compounding the problem, Annelies and Yves, who both understand and speak English very well, had a hard time understanding the African-American lady from Georgia that took our order.
It was truly an entertaining way to start the day.
Knowing we wanted to lunch in Coupeville, we headed for ELNHR, a rural historic district established to preserves and protect a historical record of Puget Sound exploration and settlement from the 19th century to the present. ELNHR uniquely encompasses a mix of federal, state, county, and private property. There are historic farms still under cultivation, the Victorian seaport community of Coupeville (where Seattle’s Best Coffee was started!), Fort Casey and Fort Ebey State Parks, and even a section of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail.
ELNHR is actually pretty big. We drove around a bit, surprised no note that the landscape looked a lot like the rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania, if you could ignore the snow-capped mountains in the background. Our first stop was Fort Casey State Park, which features an old gun battery, lighthouse, and lots of beach.
The next two shots are kind of funny. To me, anyway. They’re both examples of how the camera can skew perspective a bit. Look at the size of the lighthouse in relation to the people.
Hubby decided to wait in the car while Annelies, Yves, and I explored a bit of beach. I HAD to see the water up close one last time.
Annelies was not pleased that we had to descend this semi-treacherous cliff to reach the water’s edge.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island in Coupeville…
The clock was ticking, and we had places to be, so we hit the road, driving south to catch the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry to the mainland, and then back to civilization, skirting Seattle to get to Amy’s house in the suburbs.
For some reason, I didn’t take pics of Annelies and Yves greeting Shannon again and, finally, meeting Amy, TJ, and the grand kids. AND, worse, I seem to have misplaced the pics of Annelies and Yves driving off. Which, really, is okay because it would be yet another picture of me crying at our vacation’s end.
My next and final post will touch on family time!
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)
Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!
Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach
Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park
Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent
Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest
Installment 10: Rialto Beach
Installment 11: Getting to San Juan Island
Installment 12: Enjoying San Juan Island
Installment 13: Whales!
Installment 14: Deception Pass