On our vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama last month we went on a Sunset Cruise on Wolf Bay. It was pretty nice, the skipper took us here there and everywhere in search of dolphins. We saw quite a few dolphin and I also enjoyed the other views on the water, other boats, the woods, docks, and such and especially the houses above in the golden hour, a little before sunset when the sun’s light is horizontal and makes everything stand out.
I had last Friday off so in our various wandering around we ended up having lunch at Ollie’s Station Restaurant on the west side of Tulsa in the Redfork District on Highway 66. The food and service is good and the place is packed with model trains and railroad memorabilia. Plus for those who are interested in PokemonGo there are two pokestops.
As I’ve written before when my dad moved into assisted living last month my sister gave me a bunch of his old slides when she prepared his house to go on the market. So going through his slides has been like opening Christmas presents because I never know what I’m going to see.
One box slides was some that Dad took of a prescribed burn on the Payette National Forest in Idaho back in 1966. Dad was in the Forest Service his entire career and spent many summers fighting fires all over the west. These photos were of a prescribed burn which is an intentionally set preventive fire to cut down on the fuel that may later lead to a big fire. Check the link for more information.
I was never much interested in following in my Dad’s footsteps although I respected him and what he did tremendously. I only viewed big fires from a distance and they always puckered me up up. Photos don’t give a big fire justice of how it takes up an entire mountainside with smoke reaching to the heavens. I think Dad ate it up though.
So I picked out a few of the slides of this controlled burn that stayed under control. I think they make good photos but count me out for being there live.
This is my favorite of the bunch. I have no idea what is going on but in my mind these guys are assigned to watch the fire and they are doing that while swapping stories about the big fires they have been on.
So, have you ever seen a forest fire live?
Last week Heather and I went to see Cafe Society, Woody Allen’s new kind of sad romantic comedy set in the 1930’s and we loved it. You can read the story line on the movie web site or IMDB and it is a story about how dreams, love, innocence encounter real life. The cinematography is gorgeous, the conversation sparkles and the acting superb. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart especially do a great job progressing from sweet and innocent to still sweet and not so innocent but a whole lot wiser toward the end. I loved this film.
Image from Tulsa’s Lafortune Park duck pond during a morning run early this week. I didn’t have my camera but my cell phone got the job done along with a little help from Topaz Adjust to bring the colors out a little bit.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
These pics are some that my father took in the mid 1960’s when we went on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon, among other places. He had a nice Canon Canonette camera (which he gave to me a few years ago) and I remember him taking photos but I never remember seeing them.
I think we went to the North Rim because it was far less crowded than the south. We were never much for crowds on vacation.
That was probably the last time I was at the North Rim. Heather and I took a trip back when we were childless to the South Rim in the mid 1990’s and I remember it being a zoo. No parking and lots of pushing and shoving and rude behavior by our fellow tourists. It wasn’t much of wilderness experience. If we go again I’ll head back to the north rim and maybe see my favorite Park Ranger, Gaeyln. Check out her blog, it is some sort of fantastic.
This is the Angel’s Window. You can reach it from a short trail. The other thing about our vacations is that we never strayed very far from the parking lot. Oh well, we had a good time anyway.
I’m thinking that this is a photo of me, my sister Ellen, and brother Bob. It is hard to get these kind of pictures exposed correctly. I kind of like it though.
And the Grand Canyon Lodge. Back then, as now, it was booked up well in advance. We stayed in a trailer on a National Forest campground, miles and miles away at a little town called Jacob’s Lake, if my memory serves me correctly. My memory is pretty poor so I am not going to swear to it.
I’m just gotten started on scanning Dad’s pics and I’m looking forward to what else I can find.
I’m guessing that this is the Golden Gate Bridge.
Way, way back in the middle of the 1960’s when our family was living in Price, Utah the parents took us kids and drove over to Winnemucca, Nevada and deposited us kids in the care of our Aunt Mary. The parents continued on to San Francisco to attend the wedding of my Uncle Glenn and Aunt Pat. Winnemucca was quite a place. Out in the middle of the desert but we were kids and we had a good time. I mean, we lived in a desert.
The images are kind of washed out but left to right this is my grandmother, my aunt Delores, and my Mother. I love the scarves and the handbags, and how my grandmother has her sweater buttoned at her neck.
So when they came to pick up up it sounded like quite a party went on. Mom and Dad went to a topless place for lunch and Mom was telling about how the ladies had tassels and they could make them tassels go round and round and a few of the more skilled ladies could make their tassels go in opposite directions.
Knowing Dad, he was probably interested in that Navy warship approaching the bridge.
So anyways ole Dad had a camera. A very nice one at that he has given to me. And back then you know film was expensive, and processing was expensive. So taking a photo was a very calculated thing. You were making an investment at the same time as you were taking a photo.
I struck it rich with this. My folks told me that they drove the old family Buick LeSabre through the tree with the hole and that they took a picture!! Well I never saw the picture until now. My mother is driving the car and my dad my the photo. So thank you for sharing this photo with me.
So anyway these photos you are looking at have never seen the light of day until now. My sister Ellen saved a ton of dad’s slides for me when she was getting the house ready. I love scanning old slides. I love analog photos, warts and all.
Old dad was a Forest Ranger (or maybe it is like the Marines) and he loved taking pictures of forests and trees.
I love looking at old photographs. It is like buried treasure for me.
And by the way, my uncle Glenn and aunt Pat are still married and doing fine.
I have been flying lately up to and back from Idaho Falls, Idaho where my Dad lives.
I’ve been going through the Denver Airport, which is huge and has limitless opportunity for people watching.
It also has the best airport pub in the country, The New Belgium Hub. It was pretty empty last time I was there.
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The Idaho Falls Airport is kind of small by comparison.
My dad called my sister and said that he was ready to change his living arrangements. We all went up in early July and looked around and found him a place. My sister and her husband took over from there and got him moved and his house ready to sell. So he has moved from his house of over thirty three years with the beautiful shady back yard to a very nice place in the same town where people are checking on him and life is quite a bit easier.
And he is doing very well. And still has a shady place to sit.
Thanks to my sister Ellen and world’s greatest brother-in-law, Irv. (Shown here with their grandson Mr. Beans)
This week I am going back to our vacation last month in Orange Beach, Alabama. This is a photo from my Android phone with a little Topaz Impressions oil painting filter backed off about 50 percent. Orange Beach has lots and lots of high rise condos on the beach. Even at the height of the summer season it never seems like there is that many people out and about. Which is fine with me.
