My 24 For 2024

Tour and tasting at Foursquare Distillery on Barbados

“Man… you guys do keep on the move. Even your “light” travel schedule would knock a lot of other folks to their knees.” –

Jeff C in an email exchange discussing 2025 travel plans

2024 was a good year. In fact, 2024 was a very good year for Tom & Kathy. Everyone stayed (mostly) healthy, there were no major catastrophes, we spent time with friends and family, and we traveled. Boy did we travel!

  • We started off the year with a 4700 mile road trip that took us to Texas and across the gulf coast to Florida that included three cruises and lots of sightseeing along the way.
  • We headed to Ohio in April for the Total Eclipse.
  • In May and June we made the 5600 mile round trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
  • In July we made a 3800 mile loop of PA, OH, MI, WI, KY.
  • In October we left the car at home for a 6+ week trip to Portugal & Spain.
  • And we managed to make a few other short jaunts to the NC mountains and beyond.
  • Miles: 20,441
  • Photos: 18,975 (How many keepers…I don’t know yet! 😉 )
  • Kathy considers a good travel year to be 100 nights away from home. This year: 153

I haven’t finished processing our Spain photos, although it doesn’t matter much. It’s nearly impossible to filter just 24 favorites out of 18,000!

 

How do you choose just one Yellowstone/Grand Teton photo? You don’t. You choose 6. That was tough enough!

Minerva Trace. Lower Terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park
Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Dead Lodgepole Pine Trees, nicknamed Bobby Sox Trees for the white bases that result from the trees absorbing the mineral rich water. Near Tangled Creek along Grand Loop Road in Yellowstone National Park
Mary Bay, on Lake Yellowstone near Lake Yellowstone Hotel.
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point. Yellowstone National Park
Historic barn at the Thomas Alma and Lucille Moulton Homestead. Part of the Mormon Row Historic District of Grand Teton National Park

 

Sometimes a photo is a favorite because of where we were:

Night time departure from New Orleans aboard Celebrity Constellation
Wawatam Lighthouse in St. Ignace, Michigan
The ‘Secret Garden’ at The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan
The Christopher C. Kraft Mission Control Center, from which NASA led Gemini and Apollo missions, including the momentous first lunar landing mission as well as early space shuttle missions. Space Center Houston in Houston, Texas
The Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas
Wawatam Lighthouse in St. Ignace, Michigan

 

Portugal and Spain were quite nice – 9 more:

Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, Spain
La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain
Tourist boats on the Douro River in Porto, Portugal
Scene from our walking tour of Porto, Portugal
One of many fountains at The Alhambra in Grenada, Spain
Taylor Fladgate Port Winery in Porto, Portugal
Ponte Infante Dom Henrique Bridge over the Douro River in Porto, Portugal
Portuguese Centre of Photography in Porto, Portugal

 

Sometimes a photo is a favorite because of who we were with:

Monte photographing the interesting clouds over Pawnee National Grassland, east of Fort Collins, Colorado
It’s usually a good idea to take a photo when Kathy points it out. Sunset from the rooftop bar of Hotel Hesperia, our hotel in Cordoba, Spain
I didn’t count this in the 24 but it is still a favorite! Aboard Adventure of the Seas

 

10 thoughts on “My 24 For 2024”

  1. Yes, a year of on the road. Do you need a refresher course on where the bathroom is when you get home? I love traveling through you images and stories. Looking forward to your 2025 adventures.

    1. Your comment cracked me up, because the two biggest issues when we travel – and for a few days after we get home – are (a) where is the !@##% bathroom??? and (b) what is my *&^%$ room number???

      We do carry a nightlight and a couple of small flashlights, which help. 😉

      It’s not so bad on a ship because it stays the same for a few days.

  2. What a daunting task you have with editing – and I know you caption in detail – so I can only imagine the time (well ok, I can make a good guess). Those are some pretty amazing travel stats. Very nice set of photographs – and what a nice composition of the Grand Hotel. Glad to have met you both in 2024.

    1. Thank you, Mark. The processing work is not as bad as it might seem. I have an import preset I use that does a lot of the work for me. And – I kind of hate to confess it – a lot of my photos are snapshots and I do make good use of the “Auto” button for them. I only “hand process” the ones that deserve it.

      Interestingly it seems like the “best” photos – lighting, composition and exposure – are ones that require the least work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.