The Beach at Daybreak

Thanks to the alarm on my phone, I was able to get out of bed before sunrise on Saturday. I never use an electronic alarm at home, I have two canine alarms.

Neptune was just as lovely in the morning light as I thought he would be. I’d figured the sky would make a nice backdrop for him.

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Neptune at Daybreak

I took several shots, naturally. The one below would be my favorite if it weren’t for the playground equipment in the lower left-hand corner. If you want a closer look, just click on any of these images and a bigger version will open.

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Neptune from Another Angle

As for the sunrise, I captured a bunch of sunrise images, too. Not every frame I captured is worthy of sharing.

None of my followers come to mind when I say this… people who routinely share every single frame they capture make me crazy.

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Cloudy Morning

It was quite cloudy that morning (Saturday, November 7). Clouds can be good and bad. Too many, and the sunlight is obscured. I like some clouds because I think it makes the sky more interesting.

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Sunrise, Straight Out of Camera (SOC)

I don’t always edit (aka PhotoShop) my pics beyond re-sizing before posting. With sunrises/sunsets over water or some other flat horizon, I usually have to. Because no matter how hard I try, I can almost never get the horizon level enough.

I mention editing, because it’s easy to make a good picture look better with image editing software, as shown below, using the same image as shown above, adjusted for light.

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Sunrise, Adjusted for Light

Sometimes, I’ll adjust for composition, too. Below is the same image again, cropped so the sun is in the right third of the frame and the reflection of the sun on the water is in the lower right-hand quadrant.

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Same Image, Cropped

Why am I telling you this? So you’ll understand that when I say an image is straight out of camera or SOC, it means I think I and my camera have captured it perfectly. That’s not an easy feat.

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SOC with Slanted Horizon

The horizon isn’t horribly slanted, but it’s slanted enough that I notice.

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Same Image with Horizon Leveled

Leveling makes a difference, doesn’t it? (Sorry if I have just cursed you with the needing to have a level-horizon thing.)

There’s a lot to think about when trying to get a good picture — composition, light, focus, level horizon, etc. — and leveling the horizon is the one I forget and/or fail at most often.

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Captured with the Point and Shoot (SOC)

 

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My Favorite Capture of the Morning (SOC)

 

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My Third-favorite Capture (SOC with leveled horizon)

 

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Another Nice Shot (SOC)

When using an automatic camera, the point at which you focus will determine the amount of light captured in your shot.

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My Second-favorite (SOC)

The wider focus in the above shot made the camera let in just enough light to capture the foreground detail, but still leave some blue in the sky.

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Now, that is a sunrise! (SOC)

In the images immediately above and below this paragraph, zooming in/focusing on the brightness of the sun meant the camera let less light in, which is why everything else is darker.

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Loving all the colors. (SOC)

Achieving just the right balance takes practice and experimentation, too. The angle of the light is also important.

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SOC with Leveled Horizon

That shot would have been nicer with a slightly darker sky, but then you wouldn’t have been able to see my footprints in the sand. I can use PhotoShop to darken the sky a bit if I want.

All of the images shared thus far were captured on my point-and-shoot, i.e., automatic, camera. It has a variety of manual options, but I have yet to learn how to use them. I can be a lazy photographer at times.

The next few images were captured with my digital SLR camera (interchangeable lenses, easier-to-use manual settings, manual focus, etc.).

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This could be a tad darker, I think. But it’s still a decent image.

 

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Sasquatch Tracks

 

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SLR Capture (SOC)

Playing with the light settings and using manual focus let me capture those wispy little clouds in front of the dark, background clouds.

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My Favorite SLR Capture (SOC)

In the SOC version, you can’t really see the sun’s rays like you can (subtly) in the below version, which I adjusted slightly for light.

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My Favorite SLR Capture (after light adjustment)

Not surprisingly to me, I captured more shots worth sharing with the point-and-shoot than I did with the SLR. I’m out of practice. It takes thought to get the right light settings on that thing, and I am very rusty.

All of the pics would have been better had I thought about using the tripod. I did say I can be a lazy photographer…

I could’ve stayed longer to watch as the sky continued to change and capture more images, but I knew I’d gotten a few good ones. AND I had things to do.

It’s hard to pic a favorite, isn’t it?

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Those fish make me smile.

Next up, some fun images captured in and around Virginia Beach.

Butterflies

While enjoying my randomish ramble to Love, Virginia this past Saturday, I stopped at the Loft Mountain Wayside along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.

As I was preparing to depart, I noticed a large patch of wildflowers on the hill beside the building. Looking a bit more closely, I also observed a bunch of butterflies and bees enjoying said flowers. So I grabbed the point-and-shoot (aka “real” camera) and walked over for a closer look.

I only watched for about 5 minutes. The flowers were in the sun, and it was around 2:30, close to the hottest part of the day. I managed to capture some nice images. The color was a bit washed-out on all of them since the sun was so bright (that’s why midday is not the best time for pics), so I had to adjust the input levels a bit with PhotoShop Elements. I re-sized the pics to post, too.

I hope you enjoy the shots as much as I do. If you click on an image, you’ll get a better view.

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Three’s a Crowd

 

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Worker Bees

 

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The Soloist

 

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Grab Hold

 

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Seeing Double

 

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Landing

 

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Rough Around the Edges

 

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Uplifted

 

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Newness

 

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Accent Colors

My Mom loved butterflies. I can’t help but think of her every time I see one.

Tomorrow marks three years since her passing. She was my biggest fan, and would have enjoyed this post.

Just Because

I have some pictures that I’ve been wanting to share for a while. I’m better about sharing pics captured with my phone, usually, since they’re easy to upload onto Instagram and/or Facebook. Not as good about getting the images I’ve captured with the camera posted.

So here’s a rather random collection of images I should have posted sooner, but didn’t. Some are goofy, some aren’t.

First is this cool miner dude we spotted on our recent visit to Shenandoah Caverns.

Shenandoah Caverns' Miner
Shenandoah Caverns’ Miner

Shenandoah Caverns has lots of fun stuff to see. In my opinion. You might agree if you appreciate kitschy stuff as much as me.

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Helpful Pixie, Elf, or Gnome? I have no clue.

I’m not always on the lookout for weird stuff, believe it or not, it just catches my eye.

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New-ish BBQ joint near Sperryville.

I was all excited about seeing this kitschy-ish BBQ place. Then I learned it’s a chain. A small chain, but a chain nonetheless. That sort of diminishes the fun for me. It’s no longer a spontaneous “Hey, let’s park the General Lee” kind of thing, but a “we gotta find another General Lee for the Sperryville location.”

Maybe it’s just me, but standalone or at least unique, Mom and Pop-type businesses with kitschy decor are just cooler. More creative somehow.

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Evening Sky Over Old Town Warrenton (OTW)

I always have my phone along while walking the dogs, you know, just in case I have a heart attack or something, and can’t help snapping pictures when a scene catches my eye, or I see a specific thing that makes me smile.

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Old Town Warrenton

And here’s me having a bit of fun with my Love.

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Galax, VA LOVEwork (it’s pronounced like GAY lax)

I really like this next shot, which I captured during an afternoon walk with the girls. On a whim, I used the front-facing camera on my phone and held it upside-down below the flowers to get the sky in the background.

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Reach for the Sky!

There’s just something fun about M&Ms…

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She’s Got Your Back

Speaking of having your back, here’s something you don’t see every day…

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Carol, Tracey, and Me

Look at us all purtied-up.

Tracey’s youngest got married on August 1. Since none of us like getting all fancy, we HAD to have a picture taken.

And since you usually see Hubby and me looking sorta rough like this…

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Me and Hubby

…I couldn’t resist sharing what I think is a super-cute pic.

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Hubby and Me

There you have it.

Perhaps the next post will be more interesting for you. 🙂

 

Ay, Caramba

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Pretty Iris at DuCard Winery

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I haven’t been absent for lack of things to chat about. I’ve been busy. (My friend, Carol, hates that particular “B” word.)

Work has been a bit nuts. My job requires lots of writing, thinking, and involves a good bit of math, too. All under deadline. Which can sometimes be mentally draining. Especially when multiple projects with many moving parts, all very important, are due at one time.

Shortly after Aunt Bertha left, my mother in law came to visit for a few days. It was lovely having her here. So I couldn’t very well spend evenings on my computer after spending long hours each day holed-up in my office.

Then there’s yard work. I had stuff that HAD to be done before our fabulous friend came to do clean-out of the planting beds and spread lots of mulch for us.

Then on Monday. day one of another very hectic week, something weird happened. My world was spinning, literally. And I couldn’t think. I’d read e-mails three times, but it still felt like I was reading Japanese. All of this with one pretty major work deadline looming, and a second, only slightly less important work project. Off to the doctor I went.

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Icky Pollen

As it turns out, all the pollen I’ve been bitching about caused fluid to build up in both of my inner ears. And that caused vertigo, hence the spinning. After a couple of days on multiple prescription drugs and one OTC med, I’m feeling much better. And my world is once again on an even keel.

It freaked Hubby out a bit. He’s about to embark on a wee solo journey, which he’s been planning for MONTHS. I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow. I would’ve felt horrible if he’d been forced to postpone.

I’ve been working on a furniture project, too, which was halted due to a flawed, ad hoc design, which I hope to correct this weekend.

I have quite a to-do list, let me tell you. I’m not complaining, just sayin’.

Hmmm, what else?

There were the birds, too. A pair of Northern Cardinals unwisely built a nest in our yard. A yard occupied by two bird dogs, one of which spent a full week completely obsessed by said nest. Which used to be occupied by babies. Sadly, the babies are all dead, thanks to Special K, who I’ve newly renamed K-MOB (murderer of birds).

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K-MOB in action.

I feel horrible that my boss had to step in on Monday, amid a frenzied day of her own, to keep my BIG project on track. I really, REALLY hate not being able to pull my own weight.

Lucky for me, a VERY unusual thing happened. One of my deadlines was pushed back. I can breathe a bit easier now, and give it the attention it deserves.

The bulk of the yard work is done, save for some tomato plants and coleus that need planting. And a few pots that remain to be filled.

The fresh mulch really makes my newest frog stand out, doesn’t it?

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My newest frog is much more noticeable.

I’m glad this week is winding down. And there’s a three-day weekend coming up, which means my to-do list will become shorter, if all goes as planned.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s big announcement. For now, I leave you with this image, captured during a recent ride.

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I like turtles.

 

Ta ta for now!

– – – – – – – – – – UPDATE – – – – – – – – – –

I completely forgot to mention something else. Big.

We sold the WV Place! 🙂

The deal is closed, and the check is en route. So I figured it was safe to report about it now. Although there was a bit of a scare yesterday. The title company’s e-mail was hacked, and the proceeds of the sale were almost wire-transferred to someone posing as us (using our name and a different account). How’s that for some post-closing excitement?

And this occurred after they’d already mailed us a check. Left us both scratching our heads a bit… I mean, they were told to mail a check to us. They mailed a check. But then they get this out-of-the-blue e-mail requesting a wire transfer. So, they stop payment on the check and transfer the money. Good thing someone on the receiving end was skeptical.

 

A New Era

You know how I’m always bitching about not having my “real camera” when I share pics captured with my phone and/or point-and-shoot camera?

I finally bought a new camera!

There’s a reason I don’t always carry my “real camera” – a digital SLR (Canon Rebel XT). It’s big, bulky, and I can’t really use it well during motorcycle trips unless I remove my helmet since it doesn’t have a screen-type viewfinder, only the old-fashioned optical viewfinder, i.e., little hole you have to look through.

In case you don’t know the biggest difference between point-and-shoot and SLR cameras… a point-and-shoot camera has a built-in lens that can’t be removed/switched-out. SLRs use interchangeable lenses.

Not only is the Rebel itself bulky, there are four or five lenses I like to carry, too, for zooming and wide-angle shots. Three of those lenses are bigger than the Rebel camera body. Newer version of the Rebel are smaller and more-advanced, but I’d still need those other lenses.

The point-and-shoot I’d been using — a Nikon Coolpix L20 — captures decent images, but the viewfinder sucks. It’s not nearly as clear as I’d like, so it’s next to impossible to determine while shooting or even after you’ve captured a shot whether the thing you wanted to be in focus is actually IN focus. Granted, that’s an old camera, too.

While the phone does capture decent images, it has its limits. It could be that I haven’t spent enough time figuring out how to use all of the camera’s features. It could also be that I don’t have the latest-and-greatest phone.

Anyway, most of you would be bored by the technical pros and cons I weighed (and there were many!) when finally deciding to get a new camera. So I’ll keep it simple.

One of the biggest factors in choosing a new camera was size. Here’s the new point-and-shoot compared to the old dSLR with the SMALLEST lens attached. And that “small” lens is a fixed lens, which means it doesn’t zoom at all. You want to get closer to something, you use your feet.

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New vs Old

 

One of the biggest problems when shooting with any auto-focus camera, as evidenced in my image above, is making sure the camera is focused on what you want it to focus on. It wasn’t, which is why those pics are blurry. My new camera has manual focus capability. Yay! And several manual shooting modes, just like my dSLR. Double-yay!

Anyway, I promised not to bore you, didn’t I?

After agonozing for DAYS over which camera to buy, I actually went and bought the thing yesterday. Here are a bunch of snapshots I captured yesterday. They are all straight-out-of-the-camera, unedited images. And all were captured using the basic AUTO mode. (I have a ton of reading to do to figure out how to use all the features packed into this relatively small camera body.)

The First Shot
The First Shot (through windshield while sitting still in mall parking lot)

 

Captured while moving down the highway.
Captured while moving down the highway.

 

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Through windshield while stopped at a stop sign.

 

I actually pulled into a church parking lot to capture the next three images.

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Fauquier County Farm

 

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Fauquier County Landscape

 

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Zoomed in on the cows.

 

Once I got home, I had to charge the battery (batteries are rarely fully charged in the box).

Here are some other test images.

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Accidentally in a row. 🙂

 

One of my biggest complaints with the camera phone has always been that it is low-light challenged. This new camera seems to do a pretty good job capturing shading even in low light while being pulled along behind three impatient dogs.

 

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Quick snap of the Red Truck Bakery. (It would have been even better had I paused and fiddled for a second or two.)

 

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Sunset, zoomed in.

 

Sunset with little, if any, zoom.
Sunset with little, if any, zoom.

 

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Statue (no flash)

 

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Store Window (no flash)

 

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Cutest little quilt shop in Warrenton (no flash).

 

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Church Steeple (WITH flash)

 

I think I chose well. Some of the images (like the dogs) are a tad grainy, but considering they were captured without flash, I think they’re damn good.

I’ll try to do some test shots in brighter light today.

Something tells me you’ll be seeing a lot more pictures here. 🙂

The Things I Find

Quite a few folks that see my varied posts and ride pics remark that I find the oddest stuff. It’s true, I do.

But odd in a good way, I think.

Some are appalled by the creepiness of some of my pics. Like this one…

 

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Clowning Around

 

And this one…

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Cool Elf (or Pixie)

 

Others are weirded out by my photobomb-like selfies.

Keeping Selfies Interesting
Keeping Selfies Interesting

 

But I’ve never found clowns to be creepy. Or elves. I just think they’re fun. Same goes for photo-bombing my own pics. LOL.

Some people don’t understand why I bother to capture these oddities. A moto-blogger pal, Darlene (aka Princess Scooterpie), who lives on Vancouver Island in Bristish Columbia, Canada, captured it well in a recent post on her blog:

“I love it when I am out riding and spot something that catches my attention and makes me pull a u-turn and go back and look, I am more apt to do this on the bike  than when I am in the car.  I think blogging has a lot to do with this, we bloggers are always looking for the eclectic, interesting and appealing blog subjects.”

It’s true. Imagine how dull my blog posts would be if I just said something like, “I did about 150 miles, ate breakfast, and saw this cool collection of parade stuff.”

Really.

“Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!”
— Dr. Seuss

My recent visit to American Celebration on Parade. To me, anyway. I’ve known vaguely of the place’s existence for years. So I didn’t do much research before going beyond finding the address. Which somehow made it even better. Because I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was imagining a bunch of sorta tacky, old, parade floats crammed into an empty lot behind the caverns. Like an afterthought. Something you’d see on American Pickers perhaps.

Boy, was I ever wrong. The collection is housed in a huge, nicely landscaped modern building. The clown is one of only a few statues on the outside. The Statue of Liberty is another.

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Statue of Liberty

 

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Huge, Modern (as in recently constructed) Building

 

And when you go inside, this is what you see, seated atop the ticket booth.

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Jester Welcome

 

The $10 admission fee was a small price to pay for the delight I felt while visiting this place. Of course, if I were traveling with a group, that could add up. But I was alone, and I literally had the place to myself. Other than the staffers, I was the only person there.

As I entered the exhibit hall, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I felt like I’d stepped into Wonka land.

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It doesn’t get much more colorful than this. Or does it?

 

signageThere are signs like this one by all of the floats.

That genie is 30 feet tall and 47 feet wide!

I didn’t care as much about the history or the stats/dimensions. I was just enjoying the sheer creativity of the pieces. The saturation of color. The variety and amount of fun stuff squeezed into this building.

Really. How can you not smile seeing all these treasured bits of Americana lovingly housed and maintained under one roof for people like me to admire?

Some of you won’t get it. But that’s okay. I do.

Rather than overwhelm you with words, I’m just going to share some pics.

Okay, maybe a lot of pics. But I couldn’t help myself.

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Genie (the soldier was on a different float)

 

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I just love that face.

 

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“Mahvelous” Stuff

 

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The Genie’s Pet Parrot

 

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A Huge Hand

 

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To give you a better idea as to the large size of these displays, not ’cause it’s a great picture.

 

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Butterfly

 

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Polar Bears

 

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Dog-in-Wagon

 

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Lehman Trikes Bear

 

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Down the Inaugural Path

 

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Some pieces are less-attractive than others.

 

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Neptune

 

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Fearsome Dragon

 

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Family of Farming Bunnies

 

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The Driver

 

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Cuteness, Plain and Simple

 

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The detail was amazing to see.

 

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Don’t you just LOVE the matriarch’s dress?

 

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Dumbo!

 

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Very big disembodied Chieftain’s head.

 

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Pelican Band

 

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Even pelicans need pretty background singers.

 

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Swan

 

What tickled me even more than all of the complete floats were the miscellaneous items tucked into nooks and crannies. Like any collector, this guy has pieces you just know he loves so much that they have to be displayed somewhere. Anywhere.

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No wasted space here.

 

The guy must really like frogs. 🙂

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A skinny Bob’s Big Boy in an Uncle Sam costume?

 

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I’m pretty sure these came from a Broadway marquee.

 

This last one reminded me first of the Josie West doll I had as a kid. Second, I swear it’s my cousin, Shannon, immortalized as a parade participant.

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Josie West!

 

So there you have it. Wasn’t that fun?

Remember the giant frog? He’s at a completely separate building, The Yellow Barn, which I’ll share pics from in my next post.