Reconnecting

I've been on Facebook for a couple of years now. It's been great reconnecting with friends from High School and grade school.  Mostly, they are the same people I went to school with my entire school career as I lived in the same house for all those years.  As a matter of fact, my parents still live there!

But catching up with kids from the old neighborhood and the school yard brings back many memories that I haven't thought about in years. Some of these memories are funny, some not so funny. Some of the neighborhood kids I'm reconnecting with now were younger than me when we all lived in the old neighborhood and other than knowing that they were "so and so's little brother/sister", I didn't really know them very well. 

By being friends on Facebook with them, I'm learning to know them in a whole new way... and sometimes it falls in line with my memories of them, and sometimes, it just blows those memories right out of the water!  One that I am thinking of right now has got a huge sense of humor and from what I can tell, we could/would be very good friends in real time.  Things in her life haven't gone the way she expected, but she's weathered it all and has come out the other side of all her problems very stable, loving, and kept her sense of humor alive.

We have a lot of the same interests, a lot of the same experiences, have visited the same locations, share the same type of outlook on life and have close ties with our families.  I do look forward to meeting her again when we move back home and I hope that we can become the friends that age and circumstance didn't let us have when we were younger.

It's Been A While

As far as I know, I have no followers on this blog, but it is sometimes therapeutic to just write to get it out. Not that much has been happening around here. I've been out with my camera a couple of times. The most recent outing was to the Santa Anita Race Track. What fun that was! I read about Santa Anita back when I was in 5th grade when I read the book, "Seabiscuit". It sounded so magical back then.  And it was!

We took the underground tunnel out to the infield when we first went inside, so my first view of the stadium stands was from the infield. It was awesome! Of course I saw it from the outside in the parking lot, but I didn't get to see the track until we got to the infield.

I took photos of almost everything, including the vintage MG Midget cars that they had on display at the end of the infield.  Then I was asked to leave because it was a private party! The tweed driving caps, the tweed jackets and the ladies all dressed in period dresses should have given it away... me in my jeans and sweatshirt sort stood out!  The lady that asked me to leave was rather nice, if not snooty about it.  I just told her I wasn't aware that it was a private party and that nobody had said anything when I came thru the gate. Oh well!  The horses were much more enjoyable!

After about the fifth race, I realized where I needed to be in order to get some decent photos. Heading that way, I was very pleased with the resulting photos. 

I am looking forward to the next season of racing.  Next weekend is the final race weekend for the season. At least I made it there this year!

Mount Rubidoux and Snow Valley

Last week I went to Mount Rubidoux in Riverside. It's a pedestrian park with a very cool looking "Peace Tower" at the top of the hill.  It was a 2.5 mile hike up the hill and then back down again. I didn't realize that it was that far, but enjoyed the hike anyway.  Beautiful day, nice (long) walk!

Went to Snow Valley with a friend from Texas who was visiting her parents just south of where we live. Her and her daughter snow boarded while I took photos of the area.  Very nice day with temps in the low 60's. With everything that I took with me, sun screen wasn't one of them and my face got sunburnt! Was lots of fun and want to go back again.

Well... it wasn't Vegas!

Lots of things going on over the weekend, but Vegas wasn't one of them.  Mike wasn't feeling well and ended up working very late of Friday evening. He didn't have to work on the weekend, but our trip to Vegas was postponed just the same.  That was OK. 

On Saturday morning, he woke me up and told me to get ready to leave on a day trip. OK. We ended up going down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido, CA. It's not quite as far as San Diego, but it's not that close either!  By the time we arrived, everything was sold out as far as all the tours and the "behind the scenes" type of activities. That was OK with me since we've already done that. It was actually pretty nice to just wander around at our own pace and not have to worry about getting from point A to point B in a certain amount of time!

We spent time with the gorillas and the lions. Amazing creatures all. There is something about looking at a gorilla and seeing the vast intelligence there in their eyes. Breaks my heart that they have to live like that, but I can also see them being ambassadors for their species and getting those homo sapiens to contribute money towards their preservation.

The silverback gorilla has the most "pissed off looking face" of any gorilla I've ever seen.  He seems to have a permanent scowl and even though he was relaxed, he sure didn't look very happy.  The other gorillas seemed to be intent on amusing themselves with a little donut ring on a chain. We spent almost 45 minutes with them and I would have liked to spend more time, but seems like the crowds like to gather when the animals are actually doing something.... imagine that!  LOL!

We ate lunch outdoors at the Mombasa Island Cooker. The patio sits just next to the lagoon and there were several species of water birds that entertained us with their displays. Some snowy egrets were preening for the females and they put on an impressive display.

After lunch, I went up in the hot air balloon. Mike wouldn't do it... he doesn't care for heights. But I went up and took lots of photos from 400 feet up.  Spectaluar view!  When we were coming down, the male lion started roaring. Man, that's a sound that carries for miles! We went over to watch the lions and I got some pretty good shots of the male lion looking right at me.  Glad that plexiglass was there in front of me!  Although, I have to say these lions are VERY well fed... there was a rabbit in the exhibit with them and they never saw it!  Amazing!

Last stop of the day was the gift shop on the way out. I got a lion figurine that is painted to look like a mosaic. I got a turtle the last time we were there. They are pretty cool looking and I think I will get another mosaic animal on each of my trips there. We've just renewed our membership to the San Diego Zooilogical Society, so our new membership cards should be arriving soon!

Grandbaby's First Photo

OK, so I know that this isn't very detailed (insert your own sarcastic tone), but it is very real! When Michael sent this, I told him it looks like him!  HA! It's going to be a long time to September!  Maybe sometime between now and then they will have another photo made that vaguely resembles something other than "The Blob"!

New camera on the way!

Hubby ordered my new camera for me for Valentine's Day.  He ordered it from Abe's of Maine and it should be arriving here on February 11th.  I'm soooooooooooo excited! I'm upgrading from my Nikon D40 to a Nikon D90. Not only is this a camera, but its a video recorder, too.  Not that I do a lot of video recording, but it will be nice to have it when I want to use it!  I'm also getting a new lens with the camera, too. It's a 18-105mm lens. Sweet!

I'm really looking forward to taking this camera out and seeing what all it can do.  I tried it out at Best Buy just to play with the camera and was impressed with the speed and capabilities that it has. The photos I post after next week should be from my new D90... stay tuned!

Courtyard Secret

Last week I was outside in the front courtyard messing with my plants when I realized I was being dive-bombed by a hummingbird.  Knowing that they are attracted to bright colors, I double checked what I was wearing... blue shirt, blue jeans, blue sweatshirt jacket... nope, it wasn't my clothes that attracted that hummer. I decided to see what she (it was female) would do if I sat at the patio table.

So sitting there for a few minutes, she finally flew from the tree by the front door over to one of the pine trees in the side yard. I watched to see where she went and then after a few minutes of her staying there, I got up to go see what she was doing.

This is what I found.  Do you see it?

OK, now do you see what she was doing?

I've never seen a hummingbird's nest before!  So cool... and so SMALL!

I've been keeping an eye out on the nest and she sits there for quite some time before flying off.  I'm not sure if there are eggs or not, but I'll let you know if I happen to see any babies!