2024 – Page 3 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2024, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel, Writing

10/23/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 23, 2024 by nancyb422

I shared a picture from a trip to Paris I took in 2008 here and today, I’m sharing another!

Poor Saint Denis! He was the first bishop of Paris back in the 3rd century when Paris was still ruled by the Romans. At that time, Romans were not the Christians we know of today and they weren’t very happy with the number of conversions to Christianity that Denis was accomplishing.

So they took him to the Montmartre area of Paris and beheaded him. It was said that immediately after he was killed, he picked up his head and walked six kilometers north before he finally died.

This statue is in the Place Suzanne Buisson, a lovely park in Montmartre. We came upon the statue as we were heading down the winding streets of Montmatre after visiting Sacre Couer.

We would see Saint Denis again above a door of Notre Dame and again inside the cathedral.

2024, family, hobbies, leisure time, life, photography, relaxing, Travel

10/16/24 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 16, 2024 by nancyb422

Greetings from our nation’s capital! My husband and I are here for 3 full days to explore Washington and Alexandria. Two days are in the books and both have been great.

Day one we took the metro into the city and visited a bunch of monuments around the mall and went to the Holocaust Museum. Today we went to Mount Vernon and the spent a few hours in Old Town Alexandria. Tomorrow we’ll be back to DC for the White House, Capitol building, the museum of the American Indian, and on the way back we’ll stop at Arlington Cemetery.

If you’ve been here, what’s your favorite place to go?

friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, This Old House, Travel

10/9/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 9, 2024 by nancyb422

In July 2016, five people and three bikes took off from Wallingford, Connecticut, for a cruise around Pennsylvania. The trip was inspired by our 2012 trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway through Gettysburg. My head was on a swivel as we went through the middle of town coming home from that trip and I knew I wanted to go back some day!

We prepared for the trip in February by checking out the state on a map looking for sites and hotels and planning our route.

We headed out on July 12th and had a wonderful time. We saw sites including the Colton Point State Park gorge, known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, Kinzua Bridge State Park, the Flight 93 National Memorial, and the piece de resistance of the trip, three nights and 2 full days in Gettysburg.

I took so many pictures during our trip and one of the sites I couldn’t get enough of was Fallingwater.

This home was designed in the mid-1930s by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann who met him through their son Edgar jr. The home is cantilevered over the falls of Bear Run!

The family, through Edgar jr., continued to own the house through the early 1960s, when he turned over the home and 1,500 acres to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It’s a beautiful home in a gorgeous location and the ride on the motorcycles to it was filled with rolling hills, forest, and farmland.

Have you ever been to any of these locations? Tell me in the comments!

2024, Goals, life, thoughts, Writing

Too Hard to Start

Posted on October 8, 2024 by nancyb422

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

To work on myself….to understand myself….to learn self-love and practice it….to break my co-dependent nature.

I haven’t succeeded because it’s too difficult to start. To start means to move away from the person I know into the unknown.

2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

10/2/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 2, 2024 by nancyb422

Six years ago today, my husband and I set off on our first significant vacation – a Danube River Cruise. We left on October 2nd at 6pm, had a stop in Dublin, and a short flight to Munich. It was a great trip and we met some really great people on the first evening.

We stayed 2 nights at a resort before we boarded our boat (could have done without those), and the low water levels messed with our time in Regensburg (that really annoyed me!), but once we started really sailing it was great!

One of our tours was of Melk Abbey and it was so beautiful but photography was not allowed in the rooms.

Bonus Hump Day photo because I loved the colors of the town. These are real colors – no filter but it sure looks like one! I have quite a few photos of the town!

Have you ever taken a Danube River cruise? If you have, what was your favorite destination?

2024, hobbies, life, thoughts, Writing

9/25/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on September 25, 2024 by nancyb422

Today is Hump Day and today I’m posting a picture of something I see on my Monday through Friday travels from my house to my garage workout room.

Some days it’s easy to get there and some days it’s tough. Today I wasn’t excited about it! I went to bed early (fell asleep reading my book!), and I woke up at 1:30 and what felt like every hour after that. Of course I woke up groggy when the alarm went off at 5:30 and I thought about staying in bed. But my brain told me I had Day 2 of Rebecca Kennedy’s 3-Day Split waiting for me and I couldn’t give up on my leg workout. So off I went!

When I round the corner and see this sight, I feel energized. This time of year, it’s chilly in the morning but not chilly enough that I don’t want to linger to take in the view. My phone probably has 100+ photos of this same view throughout the year because every one is different. It’s what keeps me going.

2024, life, Memories, Writing

Put a Lid on That!

Posted on September 23, 2024 by nancyb422

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

Picture this –

I’m standing at the kitchen counter in my pretty pink Izod polo shirt with the alligator and a popped collar (hey, it was the ‘80s!) and I am blending broccoli, something, and something else, hoping it will turn into a tasty broccoli soup.

Unfortunately, I failed to make sure the lid was on tight enough! The top flies off and green liquid is flying everywhere – and it’s HOT!

After I freak out and regain my senses, I turn off the blender and begin cleaning up in my pretty pink Izod polo shirt that is now covered in broccoli soup.

Epic Cooking Fail!

2024, family, friends, life, Memories, photography, Travel

9/18/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on September 18, 2024 by nancyb422

Going back to my first trip to Paris in 2007. I was with my sister, her daughter, and their neighbor.

This was from our trip to Notre Dame. We were staying just over the river in the Marais District so we spent a good amount of time in this area.

I remember we took a tour of the church on Tuesday and while we were waiting in line to go into the bell tower we met some college girls who told us the best time to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower was in the evening. They were right! It was beautiful.

We had already visited Montmartre the day before and I love that I had it in the background. The gargoyles were so much fun and I have so many pictures of them! I wonder if they are ok?

2024, friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, relaxing, Travel

9/11/2024 Hump Date Photo

Posted on September 11, 2024 by nancyb422

There’s nothing like “seeing the colors” on an October weekend in New England!

Our motorcycle gang of 4 people, 3 bikes took off for Vermont on a Friday morning in October of 2015. We stayed at the Grey Ghost Inn in West Dover. On Saturday, we took a ride to Mount Equinox and had an amazing 360 degree view of mountains and valleys.

Of course when you’re on a motorcycle, you take a very circuitous route there and back so I’m sure we spent the entire day riding to a place that is a 2 hour round trip! Of course, there’s stops for snacks, lunch, more snacks, candy…..

Along the way we passed through 2 covered bridges and this beautiful steel bridge. This was taken as we were motoring by and there are 3 or 4 pictures I took leading up to it because I’m always hoping for at least one spectacular shot. I think I succeeded here!

What’s your favorite part of fall? Do you have changing colors where you live? Let me know in the comments!

2024, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

9/4/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on September 4, 2024 by nancyb422

I have a thing for trees with no leaves. That doesn’t mean I like winter though; I hate cold weather. But I love the sights that trees with no leaves give me.

This picture is from February 2009 – so long ago! It was during an overnight trip to New York.

I love the way the branches curve in and out and I can “see” the canopy that the branches with leaves would create during the summer.

We go to New York every December to shop for the holidays but we haven’t been to Central Park is a few years.

Maybe it’s time to visit it.