22 Years is a Long Time

I had the pleasure not long ago of visiting with a friend that I had not seen for 22 years. Sheila, you have not changed a bit, and your family is abolutely charming. Thanks so much for making time for me on your vacation, and for driving all the way to Chelsea to see me. And a big thank you to Kirstie too, for taking the pics that include me in them. Here are a few of my favorites....

SeaWorld 2010

Note: Sometimes the videos do not show up on phones and mobile devices - if you want to see the video please visit my blog from your PC!! :-)

Just when you thought you were safe, here I am uploading more vacation shots LOL. I can't help myself, we had soooo much fun at SeaWorld in Orlando and I did my best to capture the day. We took the VIP tour, and got to feed dolphins, sea lions and sting rays; we rode roller coasters and watched shows...a very good day. Some of the video clip credit must go to my dear husband (thanks Rob!) and our awesome tour guide (thank you Nicole!!), check out the resulting movie:



And if you have just 30 seconds more, here is a video of my trip with Alex (some Mommy/Allie time!) to the Calusa Nature center. Just a short clip of that day.

Old St Mary's / Mount Calvary

Well I needed to take a break from editing vacation photos, and move on to some of the other exciting things I've been doing - I'll just have to get back to the vacation photos later. :-)

I was invited by a friend and fellow photog Brian Lantis to visit and photograph an old cemetery in Chelsea, MI. I worked hard to find some history and / or a story on the cemetery, but either there isn't much on the web or my search skills are lacking as I was unable to find anything. Brian indicated that the cemetery is called "Old St. Mary's" or "Mount Calvary", and many of the graves were moved to Mt Olivet when it opened.

My Riley came with us to explore, and before we explored the cemetery itself, we walked into the wooded expanse behind it to see an old car that Brian knew was there. This ended up being Riley's favorite part of the entire trip - a neglected little piece of history out in the middle of nowhere. Who knew you once had to roll up car windows by hand with those wierd little handles? LOL

After investigating every detail of the car, we went back to the cemetery, where Riley was fascinated by the writing on the stones, the way that the stones have changed over the years and the fact that some are so weathered that you can no longer see any writing at all.

This cemetery is certainly not forgotten, as there are US flags on the graves of veterans and a few stones have been replaced with newer versions. However, there is also evidence of vandals in the form of broken and toppled stones, as well as cans and other trash in the wooded area beyond the cemetery where it appears that kids have probably been "hanging out".

As the sun lowered in the sky, I tried to add sunflare to my shots and to capture this wonderful place as it appeared to me, I wanted to photograph the site in a meaningful and respectful way. My images do not do this incredibly beautiful place justice, but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy...

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A Day at the Beach

What would a Florida vacation be without a day at the beach? I think the kids had more fun in the sand than in the water. Here is a video of our day...

Ding Darling Nature Center - Sanibel Island

Riley and I got up bright and early one day on our vacation to take a special trip to Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, just the two of us. Ding Darling is incredibly beautiful, and a great place to photograph wild birds especially. Riley and I looked for alligators (we know they live there LOL) but we never did spot any. We took our time exploring the 4 mile wildlife drive, stopping to take pictures along the way, or parking to get out and explore on the hiking trails. Riley loved playing "nature I spy" - a game we made up to see who could spot the most wildlife before the trip was over...Riley won. :-) Check out the video below of our mommy/daughter special time...

Florida Vacation - Day 1

What could be better than the first day of vacation?? Especially when Nana has a pool...the kids didn't even care that it was a bit chilly the first day. Here they are...fun times :-)