Day 228: August 16, 2010

I Wonder Who Lives Here?

Since the weather was glorious (and the humidity was actually low!) I headed to the park this afternoon.  My walk was cut short by the hoards of ravenous mosquitoes, however - one even tried to bite my eyebrow!  I did come across this fungi growing in the hollow of a tree along the path.  It looks just like a real life "fairy door", all decorated with white mushrooms for an awning!

Day 227: August 15, 2010

Underbelly of the Beast

This little guy was hanging on my neighbor's garage today just before a storm blew in.  It's not as sharp as I'd like due to not having the tripod (no time to grab it with the rain starting) and due to the breeze blowing him around a bit.

Day 226: August 14, 2010

Do Not Leave Me Alone With Photo Shop Filters...

OK, so my photo-mojo isn't quite back yet.  I looked around for something to photograph tonight and saw this little bird ocarina I picked up on vacation.  He really is black with white painted bits - which is kind of boring.  So I started messing around with cropping, angles, and filters.  Ahem.  Got a bit carried away but it's always fun to play with the filters in PS and see what they can do.

Day 225: August 13, 2010

Cats!

Today was another long, hectic day.  The cats sort of cooperated for a photo shoot, but my living room lighting leaves a lot to be desired.  This means I have to use a flash which means they blink.  Every time.  So I cropped this one of Wednesday in close and played with some of the artistic filters.

I caught Colby looking a little pensive below.

Day 224: August 12, 2010

Fried/Fry's

I promise this is the last day I post a cheat (at least for a while!).  Jet-lag kicked my butt this am (feeling much better now) and once again, I spent all day prepping my room - still not ready, but getting there.

This is another picture from the last day of my trip - this is the Fry's store in Burbank, CA.  The inside is even weirder - space aliens, giant robots, huge octopus whose arms hold shelves full of TV's, etc...  I did not take the camera inside the store - d'oh!

Day 223: August 11, 2010

Wish I Was Here:

So I didn't take any pictures today - a bit jet-lagged and also spent the entire day at school as I am pretty behind on getting my room ready for next Thursday's start of school.  I took this at Malibu outside Paradise Cove restaurant - the seagull was a surprise - flew across my view just I snapped the pic!

Day 222: August 10, 2010

Airport Oddity

Well, I did manage to take one photo today.  I had a layover of just over two hours at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport today and this structure was smack in the middle of the concourse near the food court.  There is nothing to see inside of it (I checked) - it just appears to be some sort of artistic statement.  Shrug.  Made for a an interesting picture on an otherwise uninteresting day of travel.

Day 221: August 9, 2010

Rock Lobster!

On the last day of our vacation, we went to Malibu and had lunch at Paradise Cove, which is right on the beach.  There are some tide pools just down the beach from the restaurant and a bunch of kids were having a blast with the lobster-munching sea urchins.  Empty lobster shells were everywhere - one of the kids was more than happy to hold one up for me so I could snap a picture!

Day 220: August 8, 2010

Sunset at Santa Monica

We reached the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica, California.  Whew!  What a ride!  The beach near the Santa Monica Pier wasn't too crowded - water was a bit chillier than Californians are used to apparently.  It felt good on my toes, though!

Tomorrow is a day to bum around the LA area then I fly home on Tuesday.  Tuesday's post may be difficult as I'll be traveling most of the day, but I'll do my best to take a picture somewhere!

Day 219: August 7, 2010

Desert Cows!

Visited my second ever desert today - the Mojave Desert.  It was WINDY!  And not as hot as the Painted Desert was.  Driving out of the National Preserve I spotted this foursome literally on the side of the road.  Some were standing, some were laying down, but all were nomming away on the brush.  By the time we had the car turned around and in position for me to hop out and take this picture, they had all stood up to look at us.  The one on the far left was very spooked by us and bolted pretty quickly.  

So to sum up, what I have learned about deserts is:  1. it rains and 2. they have cows.  Who knew?

Day 218: August 6, 2010

Sunset at the Grand Canyon

Spent the entire day at the Grand Canyon.  Ended with a view of the sun setting from the Watchtower area near the Eastern Entrance to the South Rim.  It was cloudy and threatened rain but the view was spectacular.  I probably have a better shot somewhere amongst the 255 I took today, but after 11 hours at the canyon and an hour drive each way, I'm exhausted! Look for more canyon photos to be up on the travel blog in the coming days.

Day 217: August 5, 2010

Painted Desert

So I went to a desert for the first time in my life.....and it rained.  Seriously. Not the whole time, thankfully, but still!  The painted desert really does live up to it's reputation - stunning views at every turn.  Unfortunately, it was 93F plus humidity and was actually very sunny for most of the drive through the park.  Someday I'd like to come back with better camera equipment and more photography knowledge and a heckuva lot more time!

Day 216: August 4, 2010

Sandia Crest, New Mexico

This is the view from Sandia Crest outside Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We drove up to the top (10, 685 feet) this morning and were rewarded with fantastic views in all directions.  We spent most of today in Albuquerque - but it's late and the Route 66 blog will have to wait until tomorrow!

Day 215: August 3, 2010

Cadillac Ranch

Sorry for the delay in updating - last night's hotel had a bad wireless router and a defunct land line.  

As always, more details on the Route 66 blog.  This is the infamous Cadillac Ranch.  Basically, someone "planted" a row of old cars into a field and allows/encourages people to spray paint them.  It was a bit of a trek from the road back to the cars.  We didn't stick around very long in the 102 degree heat!