Monte Carlo Casino

Walking in Florence

Still need to edit some of these...

Bells Bells Bells

Walking to a church in Barcelona

Barcelona - Flamenco

From the roof top bar at our hotel in Venice

Our taxi ride from the ship to the hotel in Venice

Washington, D.C.

Trip to the South

I went to Atlanta for work and took a couple of extra days off there to explore around. I managed to drive through 5 different states in one day! Very beautiful part of the country.
(See the link above for more pics)

Downtown Atlanta

My new friend Dianne took me out on the town in Atlanta to Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown, and Virginia Highland. What a blast!
MLK Junior was born in this house January 15, 1929

Chattahoochee National Forest, Appalachian Mts. in northern Georgia

Reunion

Kristina, Sue, Jessica, Quinn, Ken, Aidan, Callie, Lori, Amber, Michael Kristina, Sue, Gary, Quinn, Ken, Aidan, Callie, Lori, Amber, Michael

Up up and AWAY!!!

Kristina took Ken and I up in a single engine Cessna 172 out of Troutdale, OR up to The Dalles and back. What a blast! Kristina is a fanstastic pilot!

Multnomah Falls

Bridge of the Gods, Cascade Locks

Bonneville Dam

And a smooth landing!

Sedona, Arizona

Mazatlan, Mexico

Chrissy, Angela and I stayed at my family timeshare at the Inn at Mazatlan. Thank you Dad!! Here are a few pics and a couple of videos. To see more pics, click on the link above.

Video from our patio...

Video

Desert in bloom

Flowers around the yard...

Purple Prickly Pear

This cactus below used to come up to my knees when I bought it 4 years ago. It' now over 7 feet tall. It finally bloomed for the first time this year. The blooms are big and begin to open in the evening...by the next morning they are in full bloom. By that evening they have expired.

Bloom in the early morning...

A different flower that bloomed earlier that day...

Small golden barrel cactus

Spring time flowers bloom in the Sonoran Desert. This was taken at the White Tank Mountains minutes from my house where a friend and I hike every Saturday morning....well, almost every Saturday.



These petroglyphs found in the White Tanks were made by the Hohokam Indians and date from about 500 to 1100 A.D. Some, however, are believed to be as much as 10,000 years old.


Infrequent heavy rains race through the canyons, pour down chutes and over ledges onto the plains below. These torrential currents have scoured out a series of depressions, or "tanks", in the white granite, hence the name. My sister and I hiked up Waterfall Canyon Trail where there is a 75 foot waterfall ( usually no more than a trickle except immediately following a heavy downpour )

Mars?

Well, not really...this is in a very remote part of northeastern Arizona inside the Navajo Nation. All part of the Painted Desert.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Critters

One lesson I learned was to always check my suitcase before I start packin!



Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, found on my trail hiking in the White Tank Mountains. This was almost four feet long!!

This moth is on the screen door. It's about 4" wide!

Wolf spider in a 2" thick block.

They really do glow under a black light! As of Nov. 2008 I've encounters 42 of these buggers!




This is a leopard gecko that lives in my garage. It's actually kinda cute, it wags it's tail like a cat!

Camping

My friends invited me to go camping on their property just outside of Payson, AZ. They brought along a couple of quads and we rode around for hours. It was a blast!