The shadows of a crepe myrtle in the parking lot of a playground caught my eye

Shhh…there are Moose ahead.  We heard that for about 15 minutes before we can on these two moose on a trail in Rocky Mountain National Park.   We stayed and watched them for about 30 minutes.   The moose were content to hang out and play in this pool.

Anchor of the USS Midway in San Diego, California.  The USS Midway is a retired USN carrier now used as a museum.   This is an HDR photo shot with a compact camera.  It makes a gorgeous print on metallic paper.   The anchor of the Midway was at the end of 2,000 feet of chain and weighed approximately 40,000 lbs.   Sailors on the Midway used to make bets on when the anchor would be let down as the Midway sailed into port.   You can find more information on the ship and the museum at

http://www.midway.org/

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, is a museum owned by the State of Texas dedicated to telling “The Story of Texas.” It is named after former Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, who championed its creation.   The museum is located at 1800 North Congress Avenue in Austin, a few blocks north of the Texas State Capitol.   The museum has three floors of interactive exhibits, a special effects theater, and an IMAX Theatre.

My friend Anna Lisa Montaya was kind enough to let me buy some extra tickets for the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.  Rob Rickard and his son also joined us.  The Texas Longhorns were playing the Ohio State Buckeyes.   A good year for both programs–unlike 2010 (it would take the Buckeyes a while to recognize just how bad a year 2010 was for them).   Texas’ Quan Cosby caught the ball with 16 seconds left for a very exciting finish.   By the way there was a spectacular French Bakery in Glendale named Au Petit Four–well worth the visit.

So this is how it looks from the Lt. Governor Dewhursts’s perch.   We were lucky enough to be invited to take a few photographs at the Texas State Capitol.   I resisted temptation and didn’t bang the gavel.

My wife and I were walking by the Texas State Capitol on a beautiful December evening when I quickly snapped this with my Canon G10.   If I remember correctly, this was a HDR image.  By the way it was a quick shot because it was close to dinner time.

The Bush Estate, summer retreat of  George H.W. Bush, sits on a spit of land called Walker’s Point on the Atlantic near Kennebunkport, Maine.  The land has been in the family for over a century.  

The large central house, built in the New England shingle style, has nine bedrooms, four sitting rooms, an office, a den, a library, a dining room, a kitchen, and various patios and decks. Next to the main house are a four-car garage, a pool, tennis court, dock, boathouse, and guesthouse. There are spacious lawns on either side of the house, on which there is a small sportsfield.

The entrance is gated and guarded by Secret Service officers, though visitors can see the driveway leading up to the main house and a circular driveway, in the middle of which is a large flagpole flying the American flag.

Frankly Kennebunkport itself was a bit disappointing as a town–highly touristy.  Ocean Drive and the houses on it are beautiful.

We took a Whale Watching tour  on a Catamaran out of Bar Harbor, Maine.   Frankly the boat alone was worth the price of admission–a fast jet powered catamaran.   We lucked out and saw a number of humpback whales–the most famous was Spoon the Humpback Whale;  Spoon’s one of the largest humpback’s in the Gulf of Maine.   You can identify whale’s by the unique marking’s on the fluke.   The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Main maintains the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalogue.  By the way, I had a GPS unit on the camera while taking pictures so I can plot the track our catamaran took as well as the exact spots of the whale pictures.  Cool technology.