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| Embarking on an Exotic Trip - Leopard BabyWe are embarking shortly on an exotic trip to Thailand. This is a busy itinerary which includes visits to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chian Rai. In addition to Thailand we hope to be able to add pins to our maps for brief stops in Taiwan, Laos and Myanmar.. The trip includes excursions to the factories, an elephant safari and river rafting on the Mekong River. I hope to be able to post a few photos as we are traveling.
 We dropped Sally (shih tzu) off at our vet today for baording. Our vet always seems to take in the most interesting rescued exotic animals to nourish  them back to health. In the past he had a fawn, then an oscelot. Today, while we were there we noticed what looked like a cross between a cat and a dog. The baby animal turned out to be a black leopard baby. So cute. One day he will be 100 pounds! Enjoy the photos.
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| Home from MissouriWe have just returned from a week in St. Louis and travel within Missouri. We spent time trying to get that unusual shot of the Arch, exploring Union Station and dining on The Hill. We transferred from the airport to our hotel, the Renaissance Grand, on the Metrolink. The train which costs approximately $4.00 per person is a fine alternative to a $40 cab ride!  On Monday we drove over 300 miles and visited Hannibal, Mark Twains' home and the German winery growing region around Herman, Missouri. We never had realized that Missouri has a wine industry. The pins on the map that we looked at indicated more than 50 wineries scattered across the center of the state. One that we particularly enjoyed was the Stone Hill Winery. We shipped wine home to Florida and also enjoyed the wienerschnitzel and great food at Stone Hill. I had been to Hannibal as a boy. It is a historic Mississippi riverfront town with some great 19th Century architecture and historically significant addresses. While driving south from Hannibal to Herman (about 100 miles) we noticed how much the production of corn for ethanol has affected the local economy. The old silos have been replaced with shiny silver ones..lots of them!
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| Travel in Indiana & New YorkLynn and I have been traveling in Indiana and in New York (Rochester area) this week. First, we spent a few days in my boyhood home, Huntington, Indiana, where I was thrilled to serve as the official photographer for the 1963 Class Reunion. I left Indiana before attending high school. The theme for the banquet on Saturday night was Hawaiian. One of my former classmates who lives in Hawaii even flew in fresh orchid leis for everybody. It was fun driving through the farmland and cornfields around this northeastern Indiana community. As the song goes, “The corn is as high as an elephants eye.” I have never seen corn so healthy. We flew from Indiana to Buffalo on Monday and we are on the way home today. During our stay with friends in Rochester we visited a beautiful park, Letchworth Park where we did some brief walks along a deep ravine and saw a couple of spectacular waterfalls. We also visited Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester where the highlight was photographing a beautiful tiger. (Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 VR lens)
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| Florida Beauty-Backyard Photography After attending an art gallery opening last night Lynn and I and our neighbors, Ed and Carol, we were driving home across Tampa's Courtney Campbell Causeway when I noticed what appeared to be developing into a beautiful Florida sunset. It seemed like there was a pulloff just waiting for me. After spending a couple of minutes just enjoying the spectacle that was happening before me I took this shot of the setting sun framed by sea oats. If you could see the enlarged photo you would also notice the pair of red flip flops in the lower left corner of the picture. The shoes were not staged. As a matter of fact I didn't even notice them until I reviewed the photo on the computer this morning.. Our recent rain storms have brought with them some really interesting skies. (Camera- Canon G9 handheld)
 Recently, I have been experimenting with some macro photography. During my early morning walks I have come across some interesting spider webs with the morning dew. On Friday I noticed this spider and took a couple of pictures with the Canon G9. I didn't even use the macro mode on the camera, handheld the camera and got these two photos which reveal detail right down to the hair on the spiders legs! 
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| 4th of July - Backyard Photography Surprise I hope that you had a great 4th of July. I spent part of the day washing and waxing one of my cars. I once always did this on holidays. As a matter of fact I remember once washing and waxing all three cars on one holiday. Now, that is a lot of work. I use to pay for it physically, so now I limit my project to one car per holiday! On the 4th as I was washing the car I glanced to the side and was startled when I noticed this enormous turtle with his head up high within 10 feet of where I was working. I instantly ran into the house for my Canon G9 camera...and called all of my neighbors to stop over and take a look. This turtle was at least 18 inches long and the head and quite muscular neck stood up well over a foot! Obviously, this is a quite old turtle. We never did understand how it got into our yard since all of the yards are well fenced. We continued to watch the turtle as it crawled down the neighbors yards. We hoped that it would find a home in the pond which is less than a block away! You never know what you will find right in your own backyard. | | |
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