Posts Tagged ‘Travels’

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Down Memory Lane: Mountain Air in 2009

February 7, 2014

2009 -- Mountain Air

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

In July, 2009, Betsy and I went to Mountain Air, near Burnsville, North Carolina, to visit my son Robert and his family.  Robert and Melissa were staying at a condo owned by Melissa’s parents, and they invited us to visit them there.

Mountain Air is a development built around a country club and get’s its name from the mountaintop airstrip that allows people to fly in to visit.  Robert and Mel  — as well as Betsy and I — didn’t fly in, but got there by car.

There are awesome views from many places in Mountain Air, as well as some beautiful homes.  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour given by Robert and Mel — as well as Zack and Sean.

The collage above shows views of the sky we enjoyed on our first evening in Mountain Air.  The picture on the left in the second row shows a view of the mountains on the morning of our second day.  The picture in the middle shows me with Robert.  The picture on the bottom right shows our hosts, Melissa, Robert, Zack and Sean.

To see larger versions of these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Travels | 15 Comments »

The Golden Hour

December 19, 2013
Sunset in the mountains near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. October 23, 2013.

Sunset in the mountains near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. October 23, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

I’ve read about the golden hour in photography.  The golden hour is the first and last hour of sunlight each day.  When we were with our friends Patti and Neal at the end of October, we spent much of one day enjoying the autumn colors and hiking in Kentucky.  Late in the day we drove through Betsy’s home town in Big Stone Gap, Virginia before heading back to the lodge in Kentucky.

The day had been dreary and overcast, but as the sun was going down, we saw a bright orange-pink sky in the west below the clouds.  Since Patti and Neal are as much into photography as Betsy and me, we of course had to stop for pictures.

Evening light in Virginia. October 23, 2013.

Evening light in Virginia. October 23, 2013.

Looking back to the east, the glow on the hills and the buildings were a perfect example of what the golden hour means.

A fiery mountain sunset. October 23, 2013.

A fiery mountain sunset. October 23, 2013.

But as beautiful as that was, our eyes kept going back to the bright light between the mountains and the clouds to the west.  What a gorgeous ending to a wonderful day.

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Posted in Travels | 19 Comments »

Our World: Great Falls of the Potomac

November 18, 2013
Great Falls of the Potomac, Great Falls Park, Virginia. September 24, 2013.

Great Falls of the Potomac, Great Falls Park, Virginia. September 24, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

Betsy and I visited the Great Falls of the Potomac during our Virginia trip at the end of September.  We have long had this waterfall on our ‘to see’ list, but it hadn’t been possible for us to get there before this trip.

A closer look at part of the Great Falls of the Potomac. September 24, 2013.

A closer look at part of the Great Falls of the Potomac. September 24, 2013.

We visited Great Falls Park on the Virginia side of the river on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  We didn’t have time to do a great deal of hiking, but we did get to a couple of overlooks from which these pictures were taken.

Betsy at Great Falls of the Potomac, Great Falls Park, Virginia. September 24, 2013.

Betsy at Great Falls of the Potomac, Great Falls Park, Virginia. September 24, 2013.

The waterfall is every bit as grand as beautiful as we were told it would be, but quite frankly, in my opinion the beauty of the waterfall is nothing compared to that of my Beautiful Bride.

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Posted in Our World | 24 Comments »

Our World: Autumn Colors in Harpers Ferry

October 14, 2013
Autumn color in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

Autumn color in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

On our recent trip to the east, Betsy and I saw our first inklings of autumn color in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  The beautiful yellows of these trees quickly caught our eyes.

Autumn color in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

Autumn color in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

These trees were actually in the parking lot of the Visitors Center, but they were beautiful nevertheless.

Looking toward the Potomac River from Jefferson's Rock, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

Looking toward the Potomac River from Jefferson’s Rock, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 26, 2013.

This final picture was taken later at Jefferson’s Rock above the town of Harpers Ferry.  The red tree and church steeple attracted my attention.  That’s the Potomac River beyond the steeple.

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Posted in Our World | 29 Comments »

Williamsburg Skies

October 4, 2013
The Governor's Palace at Colonial Williamsburg. September 21, 2013.

The Governor’s Palace at Colonial Williamsburg. September 21, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

This is my post for Skywatch Friday, a meme for sharing views of the sky from all over the world.  To see more, or to join and share your own photos of the sky, click HERE.

Our first stop on our recent vacation was Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  We walked through the garden behind the Governor’s Palace under a beautiful blue sky.

Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, Virginia. September 21, 2013.

Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, Virginia. September 21, 2013.

One of the main purposes for our trip was to enable Betsy to do some research at Bruton Parish.  Her eight-times great grandfather, Thomas Ballard, was a member of the Vestry of the church from 1674 – 1683.  By the time we left the church there were some scattered light clouds in the sky.

The Capitol in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. September 21, 2013.

The Capitol in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. September 21, 2013.

It was even cloudier when we walked over to the Capitol, but it was still a very pretty day.  All in all it was a nearly perfect day for visiting Colonial Williamsburg.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 17 Comments »

Down Memory Lane: Mammoth Cave

September 13, 2013

2001 -- Mammoth Cave

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

In late April, 2001, Betsy and I spent the day at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.  I had been there many years before, but it was a special treat to go back with My Beautiful-Bride-To-Be.

We took the Historical Tour of the cave, and later walked through some of the woodland in the park.  We took a cruise on the Green River later in the day.

In the collage above, my Beautiful Betsy is on the upper left, and the Grand Avenue in Mammoth Cave is on the right.  At the bottom, from left to right, is the site of saltpeter mining in the cave, the stairway in Mammoth Dome, and a cable ferry across the Green River.

To see larger versions of these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Travels | 14 Comments »

Our World: Where has George taken pictures?

September 9, 2013

Places01

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

As most of you know, I have been using a GPS tracker for the past few years when taking pictures while traveling.  The GPS tracker gives the GPS coordinates of the location where the photo was taken.

I’ve also started to go back and give the location of my archived older photos.  The locations are then plotted on Google Earth.

I recently noticed that I had photos in 300 ‘places’ around the world, as shown by the red pins on the image above.

Places02

That map of the world doesn’t look as if it has 300 pins on it.  But drilling down reveals more pins.  The top image has one pin for Hong Kong, but the closer view shows six separate pins in Hong Kong.

Places03

For some reason, the greatest concentration of red pins seems to be in the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.  I wonder why that would be the case.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Our World: Tanbark Ridge Overlook

August 19, 2013
Betsy at Tanbark Ridge Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. June 26, 2013.

Betsy at Tanbark Ridge Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. June 26, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

In late June Betsy and I traveled to North Carolina to meet my son Robert and his family.  We took advantage of the opportunity to drive along one of our favorite roads, the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We picked up the Parkway in Asheville, North Carolina, and headed north.  We stopped at the Tanbark Ridge Overlook to enjoy the view.

TanbarkRidgePanorama13062601

The mountains and the sky were both beautiful, and I tried to capture that beauty as best as I could in this panoramic shot.

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Posted in Our World | 19 Comments »

Our World: Aberdeen in Hong Kong

July 22, 2013

1987 -- Aberdeen

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

I found many things to be fascinating on my first visit to Hong Kong way back in 1987.  One of the things that surprised me was learning that there is an area of Hong Kong known as Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is on the southern tip of Hong Kong Island.  At one time in was a pirates’ den, but later became a simple fishing village.  In spite of modernization, there were still hundreds of junks and sampans that serve as floating homes for some of the people.

Aberdeen is the home to a couple of large floating seafood restaurants, which we unfortunately did not get to sample during our visit.

The collage contains images scanned from slides I took during my 1987 visit.  At the top left are some of the sampans used as homes by the fisherman.  On the right is a photo of one of the floating restaurants.  The middle photo is of a boatyard in Aberdeen.  The two photos on the bottom are from Repulse Bay, a beautiful part of Hong Kong Island not far from Aberdeen.

To see larger versions of these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Our World | 19 Comments »

Philippi Covered Bridge

July 1, 2013
Covered Bridge in Philippi, West Virginia. September 15, 2011.

Covered Bridge in Philippi, West Virginia. September 15, 2011.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

In September, 2011, Betsy and I drove from Hocking Hills, Ohio, to Blackwater Falls, West Virginia.  It was a dreary, overcast day, but we were driving back roads as we usually do and were enjoying the scenery.

As we neared Philippi, West Virginia, we suddenly came to a covered bridge.  Covered bridges are pretty unusual, and finding one in use is even more unusual.  After we got across the bridge, we just had to find a place to stop so we could get a picture.

You can learn more about the bridge from the photo of the historical marker below.

PhilippiBridgeSign11091501

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Posted in Our World | 25 Comments »

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