Posted in 2024, family, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

August 7 Hump Day Photo

I took a trip to Paris in May 2007 with my sister, her daughter, and their friend. We rented an apartment in the Marais District from a friend of mine from California.

Our apartment was about four blocks from the Seine and after we rested, we took off to look around. It was amazing to see all the beautiful buildings and that famous river we’ve heard so much about!

I like this picture because of the couple stealing some moments together on the banks of the river Seine. It is one of the first pictures I took on our trip.

Paris France

Before we left, I studied the Rick Steves’ book on Paris and came up with a list of places we might want to visit. Everyone was willing to follow my suggestions! We went to the Montmatre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Père LaChaise Cemetery, the Louvre, Musee d’ Orsay, and Versailles. We really packed in a lot of sights in 7 days!

Back then, I was taking pictures on one of those small Canon SD600 cameras. I don’t know what type of phone I had back then but it must not have been very good if I didn’t use it for pictures. I took 305 pictures, they are still in my iCloud photos and I still enjoy looking at them and remembering our trip which means another one from this trip might show up sometime!

Posted in 2024, family, friends, Holidays, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Sports, Travel

July 31 Hump Day Photo

Today I’m sharing a photo from February 2006. The same sister and her family that we went to Mexico with, we also took a few ski vacations together over the years!

We took a 2 or 3 February vacation trips to Mont Sutton located in Sutton Quebec. It was approximately 6 hours away from our home in Connecticut. We would meet up with my sister and 2 or 3 other families from Rhode Island at The Junction Restaurant in Troy Vermont for lunch. From there, we would cross over the border into Canada. We would stay every trip at an auberge right next to the slopes and rented the entire first floor wing of 8 or so rooms to make sure we had a game room for the kids and so we wouldn’t disturb any other guests! The hotel served us breakfast and dinner and we all brought coolers of food, a microwave, and whatever else we needed to come back to the rooms and have lunch if we wanted. All we had to do was ski.

The Sutton bird

This picture was from our 3rd trip to Canada. It was crazy to see this up in the tree but even funnier was what I thought I saw on the slope. My husband and I were on the chairlift, and I saw a small group of people on the side of the trail. I looked closely and then said to him “why is there a canoe on the trail?” He thought I was insane! What I was looking at was a snowboarder sitting on the ground with his board up on its side edge. From the direction I was looking, it looked like a person in a canoe!! 😂😂 I have a very vivid imagination!

Every time I see this picture in my favorites album I think about all those fun trips we took, and the canoe on the ski slope.

Posted in 2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

July 24 Hump Day Photo

View from Las Carmelitas Puerto Vallarta Mexico

In August of 2006, my family and my sister and her family went to a Mayan Palace resort in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

For one of the dinners we went to Las Carmelitas which was approximately a half hour outside the side far up into the hills. It was a little nerve wracking being driven so far away from the resort in a taxi in a country we couldn’t speak the language! After passing through the city, we turned off the main road onto a road with a gate at the bottom. What did we get ourselves into! It was a dirt road, bumpy and winding. At one point, my sister’s taxi was having trouble making it up the hill, so she and my niece jumped out of the car and started walking!

Once we got to the top, there was a beautiful open air restaurant overlooking the water. There were chickens walking around and a toddler scooting around on his toy.

The food was so incredibly fresh, I remember the ceviche in particular, it was like it had just come out of the sea. The margaritas weren’t bad either!

We had a beautiful dinner as we watched the sun set over the water. After a few hours, the taxis returned to take us back to the resort. Whoever recommended Las Carmelitas knew what they were talking about. This picture is one of the many I took of the setting sun.

If you missed last week’s photo, you can find it here.

Posted in 2021, 2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

July 17 Hump Day Photo

Arch Rock, Mackinac Island, Michigan August 2021

I take so many pictures on my IPhone. 29,386 photos and 1,079 videos to be exact! I have a Canon EOS with three different lenses but it just cannot compete with the instant gratification convenience (my Canon doesn’t have wi-fi).

What should I do with all those photos? First off, delete all the duplicates. But second, Share them! So starting today, on Wednesdays I will share a photo and give the when, where, and why.

This photo was taken during a vacation in August 2021 to visit friends who had a home in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. While there with 2 other couples and the hosts, we took a trip to Mackinac Island.

It was quite a drive to get to the ferry (although we’d gone to Petoskey on a previous trip) but it and the ferry ride were enjoyable!

Once we got to the island, we had lunch and shopped and then took a horse drawn tour which brought us all over the island. It was such an enjoyable trip and one of the stops was at Arch Rock which looks out onto Lake Huron to the east. Believe me when I say, I took many pictures of this view from every angle.

We also saw the beautiful Grand Hotel on our tour along with a cemetery, and our tour guide had a lot of great information about the island.

Once our tour was over, we walked back down to the town and took the ferry ride back to Mackinaw City and headed home.

I’m very grateful for having met these couples on a Danube River cruise and our visits with them afterward!