Our recent trip to Vancouver Island gave us a chance to visit with friends and see some of the Island. One of the highlights was a half-day spent at the Butchart Gardens. I have been there before but is is always enjoyable to walk through the various gardens and enjoy the flowers. The garden is a worked-out limestone quarry which was converted into a collection of gardens. This 55 acres is now over 100 years old and is designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

As I walked though the garden I not only enjoyed the view but also took a number of pictures. Of course the Garden is one of those things that is almost impossible to capture the complete beauty of the landscape in a photograph. I did take some views of the various gardens but spent most of my time taking pictures of the many different flowers.

It was a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon, but you always leave things how it would look with different lighting as the sun moves across the sky and how the view would change with the seasons. It is truly worth the visit.

You can see more of my pictures on Flickr.

Food from Hilton Head

Food on the visit to Hilton Head centered around seafood. Shrimp may be the biggest single thing I ate. In fact by the end of the stay Marilyn wanted anything but shrimp and I have yet to serve it at home.
We did visit the Shrimp Shack out of Beaufort to have their famous shrimp burger. Interesting but I was still hungry. I guess I should have ordered the larger shrimp burger with a side of sweet potato fries. The Shrimp Shack is mentioned in the Book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die". So one more place to mark off the list.
Also mentioned was the Low Country Boil. That would be shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, and red new potatoes. The link is to Paula Dean's recipe. We didn't eat at her restaurant but did walk by the large crowd waiting to get in.
Another two special items were She-crab Soup and Shrimp and grits. I would have to say I enjoyed both of them but Marilyn only had a small taste. She was not ready for the full treatment.

Bridges and Water

On the visist to Hilton Head and the surrounding area, We became very aware of the importance of water in the lives of the people. We took a harbor cruise in Charleston on a large ferry and rode around the Savannah harbor on the free ferry that goes from the City hall, Conference Center, and the Waving Girl. Of course you are continually crossing over bridges and there are many opportunities to eat at restaurants overlooking the harbor.

The Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah was one of the first sights I saw flying into Savannah and it is a beautiful sight. The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridege in Charleston is the longest among cable-stayed bridges in the western hemisphere. These bridges are designed to allow the passage of the many container ships that us the harbors. There are also numerous smaller bridges conecting the islands.

We Were in Charleston during the Harbor Fest but didn't really take part in any of the activities. We did see the tall ships as we did our harbor cruise but was not on any of the tall ships. The harbor cruise took us by Fort Sumter but did not land on the island. I am not sure which of the larger sailboats we saw are part of the tall ship activities and which are always in the Charleston Harbor to provide sailing activities for the tourists.

Animals of Hilton Head

While spending a week at Hilton Head, South Carolina we were surrounded by water and there were many waterways through the island. We visited several wildlife areas and it always seem to be low tide when we got there. We also rode our bikes through the resort area and saw many land loving birds and squirrels.
One of the interesting things was to see the great number of small crabs that would scurry around as you walked along the paths or across the saltwater flats. Of course there were also many waterfowl eating the crabs in these area.
In one area we walked to an area that was the nesting area for the ibis. There were other birds in the area but the trees were full of the white spots of birds sitting on their nest or just roosting in the tree.
Although we did not find that big alligator that were told was there we did see a couple of small alligators and if there are small alligators there must be big alligators. I guess we were just lucky.
Check out all the pictures.

Travel Egypt

Back recovering from three weeks of travel in Egypt, Sinai, Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel and trying to process the 4,000 pictures from the trip. I guess you have to start with the pyramids. What can you say? Yes, they are big and right at the edge of the city. But then like all cities I guess they have changed in the past 50 years since I studied about them in grade school. All of my pictures I saw them are going to be different.
The biggest thing that prevents your enjoyment of the pyramids is the people. Many of them are tourists both local and foreign like ourselves. Some of the children are school groups on a field trip but it seemed that half of the people most of them children wanted to sell you something or help you so you would give them a tip.
The Sphinx was very impressive and the face was even more damaged than I had thought. It made you wonder just how long will some of these treasures last with number of people touching, taking home pieces, and breathing on them, This is even more true as we visited the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Many of the carvings and painting on the walls of the tombs were outstanding. Many of the tombs were closed for restoration and some of the walls were protected by glass but in places I saw people touching the walls and I know the fact we are in such a closed area will speedup the destruction of these artifacts that lasted so long while they were covered with sand and protected from human contact.
Well it was a good trip and I will have more to say. We traveled with 21 people and it was a great group. But really we were always with another group of 22 people and that many people just adds to the overcrowding that I mentioned before. It was a fast moving trip so it also allowed little time for careful picture taking but of the 4,000 I am sure I will have some good pictures. More pictures on my web page and Flickr page.

BNP Paribas Open

Well the BNP Paribas Open Tennis Tournament is over and for the most part a good week. We volunteered as ushers for the fifth year. The scheduling of ushers was not the best this year and there was many unhappy people and strange days. We had one day we did not work a match! Just watched tennis, had lunch, watched tennis, and went home. Since I was working it was difficult to take my good camera to take pictures except for the two days I didn’t work and just watched the matches. For the first time we did not work the Sunday finals. That was much more relaxing and I was in the upper deck taking pictures.
Maybe the best day of tennis was Saturday when they had the men’s semis and the men’s doubles final. Roger Federer played Andy Murray and lost and Andy Roddick played Rafael Nadal and lost in the semis. But Andy’s day was not over. After a rest time he joined with Mardy Fish to play Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram for the men’s doubles and won. So I guess it was not a completely bad day for Andy.
For the women Vera Zvonareva beat Ana Ivanovic in the finals. The wind played a big factor in both the finals matches. It was not a steady wind so the ball did strange things at times. The same could be said for the ladies little skirts. Sometimes it was not all skill that would win a point. I did not catch the look on any of the players faces and they watched a ball they was sure OUT fall IN or just the opposite. A ball hit without much force or high could do about anything. More pictures on Flicker.

Wildlife photography

I am not sure if my day at the Salton Sea was bird watching or camera testing. Of course I also stopped at Salvation Mountain but the trip was planned to visit the State Recreation Area and the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge.
I hadn’t had an opportunity to use my long lens very much so the 75-300 lens was on the camera most of the time as I took pictures of the wildlife. I also wanted to get pictures of birds in flight. Of course there were many pictures that will not see the light of day but for the most part I was happy with the work.
First I use the Sport setting on the camera which gave fast shutter speed and continuous shooting. I worried about the focusing but it was good in most shots. As is always the case the animals always just seemed to be further away that you wanted so cropping was necessary to get the close-up I wanted. There were large flocks of Black-necked stilts that were fun to watch and attempt to photograph. You could never get very close before they would fly away and they flew as a flock almost in formation. They never seemed to fly to a spot but would circle around as one large group.
It was late in the season so many of the snow geese were gone but some of the ducks were preparing to nest. At the Wildlife Refuge I did see the burrowing owl. Again at great distance but did get a reasonable shot of two sitting by their burrow.