SkyWatch Friday

All my sky photos this week I took on a recent trip to the San Diego Zoo. If you look at the photo above, you will see a small deer standing on the rock in the bottom of the photo, towards the right. The elephant topiary was one of a pair at the entrance of the zoo.

Here I was taking the sky ride back which I knew would take me back to the exit at the end of the day.

Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia for hosting SkyWatch Friday.

If you want to join in you can click right here.

Nature Notes

"In all things of nature there is something marvelous."

~Aristotle~

Michelle is the host of Nature Notes. Thank you Michelle for this great meme.

Michelle's Natures Notes is right here.

Watery Wednesday

This photograph was taken in Balboa Park, one of our favorite places in San Diego.

Thank you 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this great meme.

You can get there by clicking here.

Monday Ramble

I'm back and I feel a bit like these seals. We got in at around eleven last night after having had a great week. However, I am like the homing pigeon and it was good to be under our own roof. Our flight was very late taking off from San Diego, and we only had minutes to spare getting from one end of the airport to the other. There was a lot of power walking going on and I can only say thank goodness for 'people walkers'. Even on those we zoomed by passengers who obviously were not in danger of missing their flight. By the time we got on the plane all seemed to be seated, but not a minute afterwards a couple got on board. They walked towards the back and the wife had a seat but there wasn't one for the husband. He got off accompanied by one of the flight attendants, and in a few minutes we saw what we assumed was an airport employee get out of her seat (it looked like she was in the airline uniform), and the man sat down about 30 rows in front of his wife.

Just under an hour later we were all getting off the plane at Dulles. It was raining steadily and after we collected our bags we decided not to wait around for the shuttle, as it was only about a mile-and-a-half easy walk to where we had parked our car. The rain felt refreshing as was the cool night air. Pulling the suitcases behind us was no problem, although when we sat down I did say something like "Eureka!" Whoever invented wheels on suitcases I could kiss them.

We found these seals on a beach in La Jolla. I'll share more photos later when I have more bounce in my step.

TODAY'S FLOWERS

As you may already know I am away from home and in San Diego, but Sunday we are flying home. My photos were taken at the San Diego Botanical Garden in Encinitas, California. I was only able to identify three. Others you may be able to help me out.

Thanks to Kay and to Poetic Shutterbug, I now know this beautiful blue flower is called Agapanthus (The Blue Lily). If you click on their names I have provided a link that will take you directly to their blogs.

Below, "Natal-Plum - Carissa macrocarpa 'Tuttle' - Apocynaceae Oleander family

This common landscape shrub is native to the south east coast of South Africa."

Below, "Blood Lily - Haemanthus sanguineus - LiliaceaeLily Family - South Africa

This lily has red blooms and no leaves in late summer. The leaves grow during the fall, winter and spring, then go dormant - South Africa"

The last photo, the Hibiscus.

TODAY’S FLOWER’S was created by our good friend Luiz Santilli Jr.

You can find beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world by clicking here.

Camera Critter

Camera Critters is a wonderful meme created by Misty Dawn. Thank you Misty!

You can find other critter photos by clicking here.

SkyWatch Friday

This week's photos were taken at Mission Beach, California.

Gregg and I went out to catch a sunset last night. The photo above is his. I thought it was a lovely capture of the couple in the foreground.

This old wooden rollercoaster was also in Mission Beach. It is called the "Giant Dipper" and was built in 1925 by 100 to 150 people in just two weeks. The coaster became very popular in the 1940's-50's but by the 1960's had fallen into a state of disrepair. It closed in 1976 and in the early 80's was scheduled for demolition. However a group got together, called themselves the "Save the Coaster Committee" and had it designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It was restored in 1990 and was once again opened to the public.

On Sunday we will be heading back home.

Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia for hosting SkyWatch Friday.

If you want to join in you can click right here.

Nature Notes

I am up early today. The clock showed 4.00 a.m. but considering my inner clock is still on east coast time, it is actually 8.00 a.m. Yesterday I left the hotel early and got to the San Diego Zoo at opening time, and walked around until 4.30 p.m. I'll share those photos later. I was surprised that the time went so fast and I still didn't get to see everything. Always have to leave something for the next visit. Hopefully it won't be another 20 years.

Today for Nature Notes I thought I would share some photos from the San Diego Botanical Garden. You can click here if you want to take a look at their site. It's a marvelous place to visit for nature lovers and I can highly recommend it.

These photos were taken at the pond from my previous post. The ducks had company. The first frog was larger than any I have seen before, and the second quite a bit smaller.

Michelle is the host of Nature Notes. Thank you Michelle for this great meme.

Michelle's Natures Notes is right here.

Watery Wednesday, combined with a Monday Ramble, one day late.

As there are a couple of pictures on here that have water in them, I decided to add them to Watery Wednesday.

I'm a little late with my Monday Ramble, but here I am letting you know that Gregg and I have been having a great time since we arrived in San Diego last Friday. Gregg, however, had to work yesterday, this being a business trip for him with me tagging along for the ride.

Thank you for all the well wishes and lovely comments on my previous posts. My time on the computer is limited right now as you can imagine, but I will be trying to catch up with you all - my favorite words I know - when I get back home.

So far we have driven by our old house and had a good look around the old neighborhood to see how much it had changed. The itty-bitty little tree in our front yard isn't so itty-bitty anymore, all our old neighbors seem to have moved on and the place was so quiet considering it was a Saturday morning. But it was fun, we took pictures and just for old time's sake we stopped in at our old McDonalds. I looked up the hillside with the memories flooding back, remembering going there with a neighbor and our children, suddenly seeing a car careening round the corner on two wheels, screeching to a halt, man jumping out and running up that very steep hillside. Sirens followed almost immediately, several police cars, police officers jumping out and chasing him up the hill. We got out of there! If I remember correctly it was a carjacker and they eventually caught him. So, as I stood looking at the hillside all this came rushing back. Thankfully everything else was a great memory and this is the start of the conversations people would have heard, "Do you remember when......."

We have been to La Jolla Cove and watched the seals snoozing on another beach not too far from the actual Cove. One playful little pup seemed to be enjoying himself digging for some kind of shellfish I'm presuming and playing in the waves. We also went to the oldest mission in San Diego and left just as a wedding party turned up.

When Gregg went to work yesterday I got into our rental and drove up to Encinitas and walked around the San Diego Botanic Gardens for several hours. These are a few of the photos I took. One of me in self-portrait mode taken at arm's length, a sculpture - there were several around the garden - a couple of ducky bums - ducks are the most comical things when they are eating, or was it something really interesting down there that took their attention - a hummingbird -very exciting for me because this is the first photo ever that I have taken of a hummingbird - and a flower. I think I'll have enough shots after this week to last until next Spring now, says I smiling.

It was a bit drizzly this morning. One reason I am late getting out of the hotel, that and the fact I walked my feet off yesterday. I didn't think to bring a raincoat with me this time. About an hour after Gregg had left I got a call from him. I thought he might have forgotten something - the offices are only a short distance away - but he told me that they had a fire drill. The alarms went off and everyone had to stand outside in the drizzling rain until they were allowed to go back inside. He didn't think to bring a raincoat either.

You can enlarge all my photos for a more detailed look.

Thank you 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this great meme.

You can get there by clicking here.

TODAY'S FLOWERS

A predated post as I am away from home.

My entry today is part of a series of photos taken when we visited Washington DC last weekend. You can see my other photos here and here if you missed them. After meeting with the family we visited Arlington National Cemetery where Gregg's Dad put red roses on my mother-in-law's grave. The rose petal fell and lay on the ground looking very beautiful in its simplicity. I thought I would dedicate this photo to Bea who made me feel so welcome all those years ago, when I first got married and was missing my own mom and dad. She helped the homesick little girl that I was and I will always be grateful for the kindness she showed me.

These silk flowers were on another gravestone. I would like to dedicate this photo to all Veterans today, with love and grateful thanks.

TODAY’S FLOWER’S was created by our good friend Luiz Santilli Jr.

You can find beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world by clicking here.

Camera-Critters #128

A pre-dated post. I should be in San Diego by now.

I didn't expect to see a juvenile Cardinal around this late in the year. The bird feeder was right behind him but he seemed more interested in the leaf wedged into the wood.

Camera Critters is a wonderful meme created by Misty Dawn. Thank you Misty!

You can find other critter photos by clicking here.

Honor Flight - WWII Veterans Visit Washington DC

These are photos I took at the WWII Memorial in Washington DC last weekend.

The Color Guard were soldiers dressed in WWII uniforms

Last Saturday we met up with Gregg's Uncle and Cousin who were part of the Roughriders Honor Flight from North Dakota. You can find out all about this group if you click here. It is an organization that enables Veterans from all over the US to travel to Washington DC to see the National WWII Memorial for free. They can be accompanied by one companion. In our case it was Gregg's cousin, his Uncle's daughter.

Gregg's Dad, his wife, Gregg and I met up with Uncle and Cousin at 8.30 a.m. at the memorial. We were there as the buses arrived. I found the sight of all these wheelchairs very poignant.

There was a group photo but I couldn't get everyone and had to cut people off at each side.

The last photo shows not only the Veterans but also their family members.

The Canada Geese gave them a fly-over. How did they train them to do that? It was a nice touch. Clever geese, they must have known what a very special occasion it was.

This is my father-in-law who was in the navy for 30 years. Several years ago he acquired this jacket which tells his service history.

And here are the two brothers.

A television crew followed the Veterans from North Dakota.

The Memorial is not too far from the Washington Monument and in the other direction is the Lincoln Memorial.

All the flags were at half-mast as it was Saturday, September 11th. The date was very much in people's minds and hearts. Below the Stars and Stripes is the POW flag. I couldn't get a decent picture of it and the breeze caught one and not the other, and vice versa. I had to give up eventually as we had to be on our way. I met one Vietnam Vet, a photographer accompanying the WWII Veterans. He was wearing a cap like all the other vets. I would have liked to have talked to him a little more but the opportunity didn't arise. I couldn't exactly detain him from taking his own pictures that have probably since been seen in many of the newspapers in North Dakota.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to get around as much this past week. I always seem to be trying madly to catch up and just falling short. Please bear with me. It's been an exceptionally busy week and tomorrow Gregg and I are flying to San Diego. He is on another business trip and has asked me to join him. Fortunately I don't even have to stop our mail because our family is looking after the house while we're gone. This trip is going to be fun as we used to live in San Diego for several years back in the 80's. I am looking forward to seeing all the old places.

Have a great week everyone.