Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Monday, November 2, 2015

Big Bend National Park (Oct 28 - Nov 1)

Beautiful hiking weather in Big Bend - Cold nights and daytime highs
in 70s.

This year's group of outlaws were Mark Schneider of Halletsville, Steve
Krammer of Pontatoc, Erwin and Patricia Lehmann of Boerne, Ivy Whitener of Fredricksburg,
Joann Seifert of Victoria, Korey Lehmann of Dallas, Mike Sanders of Kerrville and Sally and I.

Chisos Mountain Lodge Restaurant

Headed to the South Rim

Nearing South Rim
 
Nearing South Rim

View from South Rim

Lunch at South Rim

Steve is one tall guy
 
 
Big Tooth Maple tree

The "Boot" in Boot Canyon
 
Beautiful Day on trail to Cattail Falls

Cattail Falls

Cardinal Flower

Cattail Falls

Boquillas Hot Springs 

Soaking those hiking legs in 106 degree F water

Window

Window

On Window trail

relaxing in Terlingua on Halloween
 
 
 




Monday, September 28, 2015

South Padre Island - Family, Turtles, Birds and Lunar Eclipse

We spent the weekend at South Padre Island with Kurt and Agata and the kids. Soon after we got there, we heard that the shoreline of South Padre was experiencing red tide. I didn't know much about red tide but the effects were immediately obvious as there were lots of dead fish on the beach. Also, within minutes of being exposed to the wind sweeping over the waves, all of us were coughing and the coughing continued until we got out of the wind. Needless to say, we tried to stay out of the wind as much as we could. We googled red tide and found out that the coughing was a common reaction to a microscopic irritant released into the air by the red tide organisms as they are being churned up in the surf. Thank goodness, there doesn't seem to be any long term effects from an exposure.

Luca
 
Gabriel
 
Osprey

Turtle Rehab Center
 
Recognize these turtles?
 

The Sea Turtles at this facility were all recovering from injuries suffered from incidents such as being tangled up in a net or discarded rope or fishing line.
 
Family Vacation

South Padre Birding Center - Moorhen
 

SPBC - Great Blue Heron

SPBC- Tri-colored Heron

SPBC - Flock of White Ibis

 
SPBC - Great Egert

 
SPBC - Mottled Ducks
 
Family Vacation Time
 
Lunar Eclipse early

Lunar Eclipse - almost total
 

Sabal Palm Sanctuary borders the Rio Grande river - Green Jay

Sabal Palm Sanctuary - My first time to see and photograph the elusive Chachalaca.  Chachalaca is a ground bird that is larger than a pheasant but smaller than a turkey.These birds are only found in extreme south Texas in heavily forested areas.
 
 
 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Visiting Tim and Linda in Deland, Florida

Sally and I drove over to Deland today.... about 1 hour east of Orlando to visit Tim and Linda. Their new home is beautiful. Nephew Cole came over and we all went out to a late breakfast at the Old Sugar Mill Restaurant at De Leon Springs State Park.  This is the spring that is associated with the story of Ponce De Leon discovering the "Fountain of Youth". It is a magnificent spring and natural swimming hole. Near the spring is this old sugar mill that has been restored and updated as a restaurant.  Not only are you treated to the charm of eating in the old sugar mill, but they have a unique breakfast arrangement.  Each table has its own grill built into its center and if you go with the highly recommended pancake breakfast, they bring you a pitcher of batter and you grill your own pancakes. This was a lot of fun and I feel like the grandkids would love this.  We spent the rest of the day with Tim and Linda, reminiscing and solving the world's problems.

De Leon springs(Fountain of Youth) - Sugar Mill Pancake house in background

Amazing results after visiting Fountain of Youth. 
 
Juan Ponce de Leon
 
 

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

EPCOT

Four grandparents with no grandchildren.  We weren't the only gray-haired folks at EPCOT but we must have been the only ones without grandkids. This was basically a scouting mission carried out on behest of our combined total of thirteen grandchildren in preparation for a  future visits.

EPCOT has just a few rides but what they have is a blast -  Soaring was by far our favorite. You glide through the air simulating flight. Not hard to see why it is considered to be #1 by most park visitors. 

We also enjoyed Spaceship Earth, Nemo, and Test Trac(design and road test car), Circle of Life, and Ellen's Energy Adventure.


The iconic EPCOT ball
 

The story of Nemo while you ride in a seashell at breakneck speed(Well maybe not breakneck speed but enough to make someone in our party nauseous.)
 
Hey Erin, Does this ring a bell?
 

Friday, July 24, 2015

2015 Crossfit Games in LA

Brother Wayne qualified for the Crossfit Olympic Games in Los Angeles in the 55-59 age category so I went out there to support him and enjoy some LA weather. To qualify for this event, Wayne had placed in the top twenty crossfit athletes in the world in his age group.

He survived three days of grueling events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He didn't win it all but what a demonstration of toughness and determination.  You're the Man! Great job, Bro!

Get it, Bro!

 
Go Blue!

Go Blue!
 
Go Wayne.....the Florida connection

Go Wayne!

Go Wayne!
 
 


 

Wayne Poster

Crossfit Coaches and more



Wayne Fan Club
 
Family


Dam it! I should have worked out more last year.
 
Hermosa beach from condo balcony