2018- Hither and Yon slide show.
The images in this blog are thumbnails... cut down images to fit in a blog. As such, they lose a lot. You can see them in my Galleries as full size images. Click here to go to my 2018 Gallery. From there you can visit my other galleries, going all the way back to 2004.
We made a fantastic trip to the Mediterranean in August. We went to some amazing places, met some great people, made some good friends, ate some excellent food, and drank (a lot of) really good wine.
I posted the first two days here. You can read down to see them
OR
Go to our Trip Story Page to see the trip, the story, and the images. The page is a section of my Galleries, so the image copies are much better quality then I can post on this website. As always, It takes a while for me to get images done so the Story Page will grow over the next month until all ten days are posted.
The first full day in Nice, recovering nicely (snicker) from 13 hours on airplanes the day before. A full day of activities: tour of and a tasting at a local winery, lunch at an outstanding small restaurant, an afternoon Rose tasting, a walk through the old town, and dinner at the hotel restaurant. The day was a Bank Holiday in France; everything shuts down and everyone goes partying. For us, the evening ended with a beautiful fireworks display over the water that we watched from the roof of the hotel.
Obligatory scenic's of Nice:
Sidenote: there is no sand on the beaches. They are comprised entirely of small smooth rocks. It doesn't look very comfortable, but obviously that didn't bother anyone.
The Winery
Touring old town Nice
50 Shades of Rose,
A Tasting
And, lastly, an homage to my ongoing addiction to images of doors.
August 15, 2019
Next: A morning in Nice and on to Monaco.
Ruth and I embarked on an amazing trip to the Mediterranean August 13- 23. We went to some amazing places, met some great people, made some good friends, ate some excellent food, and drank (a lot of) really good wine. Over the next 2-3 weeks I'll be posting images taken along the way and will open a gallery dedicated to the trip.
So, as they say, it starts at the beginning. Tuesday evening flight, Tampa to Nice, France by way of Frankfurt, Germany.
August 13-14
Next: Wine and wandering in Nice. Coming soon.
The Florida Keys
Orlando
The Caribbean... the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Grand Turks, and at sea
April- May, 2019
Storm clouds on the road
Storm moving over Miami
Urban Sunrise
July, 2019
Key West
The Bahamas
The Grand Turks
Tallahassee, FL
A Rural Gated Community, with communal mailbox
May- June, 2019
On the bus...
May, 2019
Lensball, assisted by a shot-glass repurposed from what it is normally used for in Key West.
April 2, 2019
I275 South and I75 South Intersection
March 31, 2019
A bit of explanation:
The images above are from the FL DOC Road Prison on Big Pine Key. There used to be approximately 60 inmates housed who did basic road maintenance all up and down the Key's roads. The state decided several years ago that infrastructure repairs were too much to spend and closed the prison, contracting the roadwork out instead. The prison sits empty now.
The following are from the Big Blue Hole on Big Pine Key.
This now scenic stop is actually an abandoned rock quarry that was used for local roads and dug in the 30s and 40s.
If you search back through my posts, you can find images of the
One-eyed Alligator that lives in the Big Hole.
Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys
April 3, 2019
March 27, 2019
Last batch of images-
St. Augustine Doors
November, 2018
The pond in front out our home is visited by beautiful and graceful birds. They walk elegantly on long legs, brilliant white feathers glowing in the sun, occasionally dipping long beaks into the water for a snack. When done they spread beautiful wings and soar off to another spot.
And then there is this guy...
December, 2018
St. Augustine, FL
November 28, 2018
The Santa Maria Restaurant opened in the '40's on St. Augustine's waterfront, next to the popular downtown. In 2015 it was sold and closed down. An ongoing battle between the new owners and the city left the once popular landmark desolate and abandoned. The hurricanes and storms have not been kind, causing more damage with each passing year. The big sign on the roof is gone and the walkway to the building is collapsing.
This is an ongoing series, now going back over four years. Visit my Out of Business gallery to see all the images.
November 27, 2018
Signs x 2
November 27-29, 2018
St. Augustine Seawall at Sunrise
November 28, 2018
Tulum (Spanish pronunciation: [tuˈlum], Yucatec: Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.The ruins are situated on 12-meter (39 ft) tall cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Maya; it was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have resulted in very high fatalities, disrupting the society and eventually causing the city to be abandoned. One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites.
From our visit:
The Mayans are gone, but there are still local residents...
October 30, 2018
More of an ongoing series:
Out of Business:
No more Country Cookin
November 9, 2018
Hurricane Michael hit the Panhandle of Florida on October 10 as a Category 4 storm, winds two miles an hour less than a Category 5. The storm caused huge amounts of damage; everyone saw pictures of the devastation. A month later, on November 8, I drove from I10 down to just north of Wewahitchka in Gulf County, one of the hardest hit areas of the storm. The drive took me through Calhoun County including through the towns of Greensboro and Blountstown.
The talking heads did not do justice to the damage the storm caused. What the news reports do not give you is a sense of the size of the area that the storm hit and the breadth of the damage it caused. Mile after mile, as far as you can see, trees are snapped off like twigs and man-made structures damaged or destroyed. I have been around for a day or two (no jokes), have seen a lot of storm damage of one kind or another, but nothing prepared me for what I saw on that drive.
There was a lot of work going on, clearing and cleaning up. But even a month after the storm, the damage is astounding.
Here's the thing: everyone donates right after a catastrophic storm, but there is still a huge need in the area for money to rebuild, for food for those who lost homes and jobs, for the basic necessities we take for granted like soap and toilet paper. If you want to help folks, there are lots of agencies still taking donations: reach out to them. We are.
A few pictures from the drive. We didn't stop to take pictures and do closeups, folks there have enough on their plates without people stopping to take pictures. These were all taken from inside a moving vehicle with my little DX0. 'Most are not the quality I like but they give a sense of what hit the area.
November 8, 2018