Los Angeles

From our vacation to California last month, here are a couple of photos from Koreatown, near downtown Los Angeles. First up some flowers from near where my wife's mother lives; they're climbing up a wall.

And a skyward shot of a nearby church.

Although they're technically from May I'm linking to Tina's PicStory for the theme of June flowers, and of course to Our World Tuesday.

California Flowers

It's Memorial Day here in the United States, and here are some flowers for it. Thanks to all the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

These were taken at the Fuller Arboretum near Los Angeles last week. There's lots more photos to come from this vacation. I'm linking this to Our World Tuesday, and to Tina's PicStory whose theme this week is May Flowers.

Snowy Rattlesnake Ledge Trail

Back in March we were in the Seattle area to visit family. We went for a little hike in the mountains west of the city, on a trail that leads to Rattlesnake Ledge. It had snowed the night before, and it made for a uniquely beautiful hike in the rain forest.

The snow and moss-covered trees were an unusual combination.

The trees in this part of the world are so different from the dry pine forests where I live.

It was so damp that the lens started to fog up, which made for a couple of interesting photos.

This is part of Our World Tuesday, and certainly qualifies for the weekly theme of "beautiful" over at Tina's PicStory.

Washington Flowers

From our Washington trip last month, here are some of the flowers we saw. First, two photos from the downtown Bellevue park:

And finally some flowers from Seattle itself.

Tina's PicStory theme this week is April flowers; we don't have any where I live yet but these from our March vacation will have to do. And of course, they're an entry for Our World Tuesday.

Sunny Bike Rack

Tina's PicStory theme this week is Sun, so I'm lucky I live in an area that gets 300 sunny days each year. Here's a sunny photo of a bike rack taken north of Denver.

It's also a post for Our World Tuesday.

Euromast

It's time for Vintage Weekly, and this week's theme is N at Tina's PicStory, so here's an old photo from the Netherlands for both these fun memes. It's the famous Euromast in Rotterdam, probably in 1976.

To all my readers who celebrate this day, Happy Easter!

Guess Where I've Been

I just got back from visiting relatives. If you don't know where this is, just look at the labels below the post. But it's a pretty distinctive landmark so you can probably guess!

Both photos were taken on Saturday, but I'm back in Colorado again. I'm linking this post to Our World Tuesday, as well as to Tina's PicStory as this week's theme is March Flowers. We had a little of every type of weather while we were there - sun, rain, and snow, so there are lots of varied photos to come.

South Korean Dancers

Tina's PicStory theme this week is happiness. From a preserved South Korean village, here are dancers after a wedding ceremony, which I think perfectly illustrates the theme.

It's the last of my photos from a 1998 trip to South Korea, and I'm also linking it to Our World Tuesday. And I'm happy to notice that Vintage Weekly is back, so please visit there for more old photos.

Palmer Reservoirs, Dry Winter

Normally I can't hike here in the winter as I don't like climbing trails in the snow. But it's been so dry this year that I went up to the reservoirs just west of Palmer Lake last weekend. I'm usually up here in summer so the frozen reservoir was a nice change. It wasn't very cold, despite how this photo looks.

The trail had no snow, which is remarkable for this time of year. But it made for a pretty hike.

I was wearing my new GPS watch which tracks exactly where I hike including elevation, and uploads it to a web site. Here's a screen capture, and you can see on the blue line that I started near 7,200 feet above sea level (2,195 meters), topped out just below 7,900 feet above sea level (2,408 meters), and climbed back down again, all in 1.75 miles (2.8 km). For this area, that's an easy, low-elevation hike.

I'm linking this with Our World Tuesday. And since Tina's PicStory has the theme of "L" this week, I'm linking it there too (there is a frozen Lake in the first photo).

Magic Kingdom at Night

When I was at Disney World for my daughter's wedding I took a few photos at night. First are a couple from the Tomorrowland area.

It's Disney so it's going to look nice.

But my favorite area was the castle, which was all decked out in its holiday lights. The photo doesn't give an idea of the size, but the lampposts at the bottom give some scale.

Tina's PicStory theme this week is light, and these are also for Our World Tuesday.

New Years Socks

Here's a photo of my favorite Camera Critter, Socks, taken last January 1. He's probably thinking "let's get on with this hike, stop taking photos of me!"

Visit another fine meme, Pets Forever, to see more of our favorite animals. And I'm entering the photo into Tina's PicStory whose theme next week is snugly - Socks loves to snuggle with us day or night.

Kyongju, South Korea

I'm going back to South Korea for this 1998 Vintage Weekly photo, to the city of Kyongju or Gyeongju, as Tina's PicStory theme this week is K. This is a burial mound, kings were buried in these many centuries ago.

The people give some sense of the size of the mound.

Spring at the Air Force Academy

Here are some photos taken last May at the United States Air Force Academy.

These were taken in the cadet area, near graduation day.

The building is the famous cadet chapel. The photos match this week's "spring" theme at Tina's PicStory, as well as being part of Our World Tuesday. It's also nice to look back at spring after our first real snow last week.

Balloon Classic and Mountains

The Colorado Springs Balloon Classic is held the first weekend of September every year in Memorial Park and attracts dozens of hot-air balloonists over three days. The morning that I went to see the mass ascension it was too windy and nothing lifted off. So this is the best I could do, and the photos are better a month late than never.

That's Pikes Peak with a burst of flame from a balloon burner in front. Next is a view from the park towards Cheyenne Mountain, with a crowd of people waiting for the lift-off that didn't happen.

Oh well, maybe next year. This post is for Tina's PicStory theme of "Mountain".

Temple Front

This week's Vintage Weekly entry shows the front of the temple I've been showing for the last couple of weeks. I like the contrast between the modern road and cars and the classic temple.

And it's definitely a vacation photo, which matches Tina's PicStory this week.

Destruction

While I was volunteering at that Mountain Shadows concert a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to see some of the destruction from the wildfire. In places it's like nothing happened.

And 50 yards up the street you see what used to be a neighborhood.

Some of the scenes were surreal - here's something I saw on the sidewalk, a half-burned page from a book. How?

This is an unfortunate part of Our World this summer. And I'm stretching to make it work for Tina's PicStory's theme of I, "incredible destruction."

Too Many Miles!

Earlier this summer we helped our daughter move out to California. Here's a photo I took of our navigation unit on the way back, on Interstate 40 in California. It's telling us to stay on this road for the next 658 miles (that's 1059 kilometers for most of the world)!

We had already driven for a couple of hundred miles at that point, and we finished that part of the drive before stopping for the night at a hotel in Albuquerque. And the next day we still had hundreds of miles to go before getting home! In total we drove about 2,700 miles (4,345 kilometers) in 5 days. This post is part of Our World Tuesday. And since there are several triangles (the two most obvious being the one representing the car and the shape of the roads in the Nuvi's screen) and Tina's PicStory theme this week is "triangular" I'm also linking it there.

And as another "too far" photo - my car's odometer just went over 200,000 miles.

That mileage is 321,931 kilometers. And almost all of those miles are over 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) elevation! (In case you're wondering it's a Toyota Corolla and so far has given me very little trouble.)

Air Force Football Tailgate

We sometimes go to United States Air Force Academy football games, which are very popular in our city. Before the games we get together with one of the Academy academic departments for an American tradition called a tailgate, where we eat food, drink soda and beer, and have a good time. Tailgating is serious in America, it's part of the college sports tradition. Large barbeques are used to cook the food.

Portable generators provide electricity for music and other essentials.

This is Colorado so we can count on blue skies and sunny weather (although the temperature may be cold).

 And of course, there's food, food, and more food. (And of course drinks of many different types.)

Tina's PicStory theme this week is "my favorite color" - I have two and this post is full of them. I love blue especially in the sky (probably from my English upbringing where it's rare), and green on growing things. And this is a very American part of Our World Tuesday.

Stormy Deck

Here's a photo of our deck after a recent thunderstorm. I wasn't sure whether I'd get anything useful but was fairly pleased with how it came out.

I'm linking it to Tina's PicStory theme this week of SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera), which almost all my photos are.

Monument Hike

One of my favorite activities in the world is hiking, so this post is for Our World Tuesday as well as Tina's PicStory theme of H. This hiking trail was in the town of Monument nearby our house.

There are lots of hills and rocks in the area.

And even a mountain, Mount Herman.

I hope you enjoyed this hike as much as I did!