I missed the Christmas greetings last week but I have a great excuse, I was traveling around celebrating the holidays with family; especially the little ones, yes all three granddaughters together in one place, Orlando. Grandma’s heaven for sure!
Making a list and checking it twice with NOLA’s Santa! Lauryn and dad (Michael)
I will come back next week to update you on all the excitement of the season and the New Orleans trip. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos I took during my travels.
The Creole Queen Paddle wheeler sailing around the Mississippi River
Happy New Year, stay safe and enjoy the festivities, I’ll be doing the same!
This is one of my favorite pictures, taken a few years ago during a trip to London; I took this picture during a cruise through the River Thames on one of those days when the London weather decided to cooperate. That day we discovered that one of the best ways to see London’s famous landmarks, is from the river. As we went past London County Hall, I was duly impressed with the architecture of its building and had to snap this picture. You can see a corner of the London Eye peeking through on the left side as well a ship passing by. This week’s photo challenge: Two subjects.
Louvre Museum, Paris-from the inside looking out...
Taken a few years ago, during my first (and hopefully, not last) trip to Paris this picture is one of my favorites, and was the first thing I thought of to fit the “distorted” theme of this week’s photo challenge. Taken from inside the museum, it shows a beautifully “distorted” view.
Louvre at night
The pyramid, at the entrance of The Louvre Museum, was designed by I.M. Pei, and completed in 1989. It is a magnificent structure that takes your breath away when viewed from any angle, especially at night in its lighted splendor, spectacular!
A few years ago, fresh on the heels of Dan Brown‘s published novel The Da Vinci Code, I embarked on a three-week Global Perspective course in London, sponsored by the college I was attending at the time. I saw enrollment as a unique opportunity to study abroad while enjoying a bit of adventure and relaxation.
Sign post in London points to the Temple church
A few of my classmates (whom I met a week before the trip) had been reading The Da Vinci Code as well, so we decided to set out on a “decoding mission” while in London. Of course, we would do this on our own time. Needless to say,
Entrance to the Temple Church
it was a fun-filled adventure; of course it was a work of fiction–but what was the harm? Because many of the sites included in our course outline already included some of the places we planned to visit–The Temple Church for instance, the visit here became one of discovery. Would we be able to follow the clues to uncover the Holy Grail? I think not, but we had a lot of fun trying to. LOL
Yes, this venture was sheer indulgence, one with long-lasting cherished memories!
Verb, -eled, -el·ing or (especially British) -elled, -el·ling
Noun, adjective verb (used without object)
To go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip, journey–to travel for pleasure.
To move or go from one place or point to another
To proceed or advance in any way
To go from place to place as a representative of a business firm
To associate or consort: He travels in a wealthy crowd
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about traveling. Not sure why, but suspect it has something to do with the impending holiday season. I cannot believe it; we are five weeks away from Christmas. The days are barreling through, toward the end of the year, at the speed of lightning, scary.
Anyway, I have been talking about traveling in “my mind” and that has set my brain in motion—I am now looking at every place I go to as a “travel” destination; convenient, actually. There is a good chance you will be reading more of these stories, as the year-ends; because I will be moving from one point to another very often.
Let the work begin!
Yesterday morning I got up early, thought I would head out of the house–with the intent of going to the park or the beach; take some pictures of birds, the water, boats—or whatever got my eye’s attention; then come back home to write a blog post or two. Well, that was the plan. Before I could get going, I heard some noise outside the door, peeked through the window to see what the racket was and suddenly—there it was, a change of plans. The County, in its infinite wisdom had decided to replace the aluminum culvert pipes around our neighborhood, with concrete ones, and today was our turn. That is fine, but could they have let me know ahead of time?
We need to move...
Not being one to miss an opportunity, I quickly got my Canon out; took some pictures, and went out to talk to the work crew, let them know I might be talking about them in my blog. The men were a good-natured bunch—all they said was “as long as what I had to say about them was good, it would be okay with them”. My response—“it would be all good—as long as I could get out of my driveway”. No problem there, they graciously moved all the heavy trucks and equipment, and I was on my way—to the spot I originally had in mind.
It is beautiful out here,,, the birds agree!
It was a beautiful day, at Gilchrist Park, sunny and bright. There were people out having lunch and reading books under the pavilion. Others were just sitting around enjoying the weather. I got into easy conversation with a woman who reminded me that there will be music on the park Thursday night. I made a mental note of that and went back home.
In addition, I now have added respect for the job those men do every day. It was nearly 90 degrees outside, while they plugged away at their duties. Tough job, but somebody has to do it, right? Glad it is not me.
Life is good!
On any given day, life throws surprises your way, especially in our neighborhood. One day you step outside to find turtles sunning in your backyard, and yet another day you see a bobcat chasing some other animal. Nevertheless, you take it all in stride; life is what you make it, so you learn to enjoy it!
Chica on the Move 