Category Archives: Travel

On the Road to New York

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It was time to hit the road to upstate New York. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a year, ever since my niece-in-law posted a picture on Facebook. This event is the 40th Anniversary Adirondack Balloon Festival. 40 years tells me it will be a BIG DEAl.

I’ve never been to a hot air balloon festival. I’ve seen hot air balloons, even rode in a tethered one in Atlanta, Ga. and I saw hot air balloons on one of my trips to Sedona, AZ. as they drifted over the high desert.

Drfting over the high desert. AZ 2008

Now I was heading to my old stomping grounds in Upstate New York for the biggest Hot Air Balloon Festival on the East Coast. To give you a timeline it’s Thursday, September 20 and the opening ceremonies are tonight at 5pm at Crandall Park in Glens Falls, NY.

I got a late start. It seemed like every time I turned around I spotted something that needed doing before I could leave so instead of a 10 am start I didn’t get on the road until almost 12:00.

I was making pretty good time until I got to the halfway point, Springfield Ma. The Big E is in town. The Big E stands for Eastern States Exposition and is the biggest fair in Massachusetts. To add to the traffic going to the Big E there was road work. Only one lane of traffic was moving. It was close to 45 minutes just getting through that section. ETA for Albany was now 4:30…rush hour. Making the opening ceremony was not looking good.

I put the time issue on the back burner and just settled in for the drive. It was pretty uneventful. Even the traffic in Albany was light for a rush hour. I did miss the opening ceremony at Crandall Park. I arrived at my sister’s house in Gansevoort, NY at about 5:30. Once the car was unloaded we dealt with the question of dinner.

The Peppermill Restaurant in South Glens Falls was the winner and we headed over there for open-faced Roast Turkey sandwiches…yummm .

Open Faced Turkey and Gravy Sandwich

Back at the house we reviewed the Balloon festival schedule. Usually there are early morning launches and then again in the afternoon. To our surprise there was no morning launch on Friday. That means we don’t have to get up early and will have the morning and afternoon to do whatever we come up with! Nice.

Sometimes I feel Like “Dumbo”

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You remember “Dumbo” the Disney elephant that could fly as long as he had his “magic feather”? Well, I think I lost my magic feather. Let me explain.

About 2 weeks ago the chain of camera stores that includes Ritz Camera were put on the auction block. Everyone thought they would be bought out and reorganized but instead the top bidder was a liquidation company. Now they have less than 5 weeks left to sell all and clear out. My first reaction was shock. I think everyone at my favorite Camera Store in Hingham felt the same way.

To make myself feel better I headed off to Nantasket Beach to take some whimsical pictures of Hawaiian bobble head hula dancers. It was a nice day and I really enjoyed myself.

I couldn’t wait to get home and put the results on the big screen of my computer. Everything looks good on the tiny LED screen. When I uploaded to the computer I was confused and   horrified.  How could I get such grainy shots on a bright sunny day. I grabbed the camera and checked the settings. What a knuckheaded mistake! I had the ISO set way high from shooting interiors the day before. I haven’t made that kind of mistake in over 2 years!

A few days later I was back down to Ritz to see how everyone was doing. I had a few remaining prints to pick up. I’m not sure where I’ll get my photo processing done now. I didn’t stay long because I had arranged a photo shoot with a young lady that would like to do some modeling. So I was off to Nantasket again to get some late summer beach pics with her in them for Stock Photos.

It looked like I got some great shots and I was all excited. Home I went to check them out on the “big screen” monitor. OH NO! They were all blue!

How could that be? What is going on with me? Once again I reached for the camera. ISO correct…check, white balance on Auto…nooooo.  I had set the white balance to incandescent the day before and hadn’t reset to auto or even sun!

That was when I thought of Dumbo and his feather. I haven’t been able to take a decent picture since I found out Ritz was closing. These people have been my mentors and friends, not just clerks and salespeople. Over the past 2+ years my photos have made huge improvements just by getting a little hint here or a suggestion there, all done with kindness and gentle support. They have celebrated my successes and laughed  with me over my goofs. They have been my photography gurus always ready to answer questions or give me a boost when I was feeling discouraged or insecure. Now they won’t be there anymore.

So it seems Ritz was my feather. As long as I knew they were there I could fly. But now that they are closing I seem to have regressed…or in the Dumbo analogy…lost my feather.

Dumbo’s little mouse friend convinced him he could still fly and with time I’m sure I’ll get my groove back . To my favorite  Ritz Camera store in Hingham, I will miss all of you. I wouldn’t be where I am today without all the help you’ve given me.  I hope you all find doors open for you and new paths to achieve everything you want. It isn’t the end (even if it feels like it now) but an opportunity for new and greater things.

Roger Williams Park and Zoo

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Back from Maine life did not slow down. Summer is flying by. The deadline for the opening of my stall at Cape Cod Crafters was looming so much of my time was concentrated on getting the type of pictures they said would sell for my cards. A quick photo shoot at Nantasket and then back home to fold and package cards.

Finally the big day came, the stall was open and I was hopeful life could return to normal.

That’s when Nancy reminded me that we owed the kids their annual summer outing. I enjoy it as much as they do so we had to squeeze that in. We wanted a zoo or Aquarium so we had narrowed it down to 3 choices…the Zooquarium in Yarmouth (Cape Cod), Mystic Aquarium (Mystic , CT.) or Roger Williams Park and Zoo in Providence , RI. I compared prices and travel time and  Roger Williams was the closest and in the middle for price so Roger Williams it is.

I hadn’t been to the  Zoo there in quite a while. I went the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular the last 2 years and I like the Carousel Village for pictures but it’s been closer to 20 years since I’ve been to the Zoo itself.

Here are some of the sights and scenes from the trip.

We saw a dominate tortoise “beating up” on his “lesser” cage mate. Yup. It’s 2 males jousting for dominance. It’s pretty clear which one was winning.

No Lions, Tigers and bears but for once the Snow Leopard was where it could be seen.

The Flamingos were nice and pink.

And look at that tongue on the giant ant-eater.

We spotted a cute little red panda. That was quite a hit.

Our national bird, The American Eagle was majestic as he perched in his enclosure.

I think it’s safe to say that we all had a good time.

Too many pictures, not enough room!

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The kids played in the “misters” and we found the green eggs to go with the ham, but I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, I do not like them Sam I AM (Dr. Seuss)