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

11/13/2024 Hump Day Photo

We took a Danube River cruise in October 2018 and we had a great time except…. There was sort of a pre-excursion part of the cruise where we stayed at a resort for 2 nights and were bused back to Munich for an excursion and only had an hour at an Oktoberfest. Once we boarded our boat in Passau we cruised forward for the night but then had to be bused to Regensberg and another excursion because the water levels were low and Viking took our spot in Regensberg. It created very long bus rides, shortened excursions, and cranky passengers (not us!).

We decided to cancel all our non-included excursions and woke Sunday morning to the notification that breakfast was ending in five minutes!

We got up, took our showers and headed out to find someplace for breakfast – in a country where we could barely speak the language (ok, we couldn’t at all).

Passau Germany 2018

We found this lovely passage and wandered around a bit until we found a cute little restaurant so we sat down and helped ourselves to the buffet being served. then realized the restaurant was part of a hotel!

They were very gracious and let us have our meal – thank God because we were starved!

The trip improved from there and we enjoyed ourselves traveling down the Danube.

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

11/6/2024 Hump Day Photo

Let’s pretend today is Wednesday! Unless you had such a horrible Wednesday, you’d rather forget it….

This was taken in October 2013. It was another fun travel trip with my sister, Janice, and her daughter Julie. We shared driving duties from Connecticut to Las Vegas, and then Jan and I would hop on planes and fly home.

We planned the trip to allow us to see a little of the area along the way. We timed our day right to stop at this site mid-morning and enjoy the grounds and the view from the TOP.

Do you know where we were? Have you been there?

Posted in 2023, 2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

10/30/2024 Hump Day Photo

On our trip to California last year, we planned a day at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We went on the Grand Rooms tour in the morning and the Upstairs Suites tour in the afternoon. Both tours included a stop at this outdoor pool – I didn’t care because the weather was gorgeous and so was the pool!

I can picture William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies hosting parties with Cary Grant and Jean Harlow and Clark Gable lounging along side the pool or playing tennis.

It was a really enjoyable day!

Posted in 2024, Home, life, photography

My Morning Weather

I can’t resist taking a picture of my view when I am outside in the early morning. Wednesday there was fog because of the low night time temperatures reacting to the heat we’ve experienced during the day (at least that’s my theory, I don’t know if it’s fact!)

When my workout was done and I was heading back to the house, it was brighter, but the lights were still on and I could see the sky brightening.

A short time later, my husband called me outside to come look at the sunrise –

During the mid-summer, the sun is rising farther to the left behind the trees, so this time of year is always a treat to see it rising.

The day progressed to another sunny and warm one. I don’t know how long it will last so I’m taking advantage of it and taking an afternoon walk when I leave work for the day.

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

10/23/2024 Hump Day Photo

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

Saint Denis, Paris France

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.

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

10/16/24 Hump Day Photo

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

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?

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

10/2/2024 Hump Day Photo

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.

Corridor at Melk Abbey, Melk Austria

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.

Town of Melk

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?

Posted in 2024, hobbies, life, thoughts, Writing

9/25/2024 Hump Day Photo

Wednesday September 25, 2024

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.

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

9/18/2024 Hump Day Photo

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?

Notre Dame Gargoyle
Posted in 2024, friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, relaxing, Travel

9/11/2024 Hump Date Photo

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!