Kathy & I have decided that there is such a thing as “Geyser Fatigue.” 🙂 But geysers are one of the highlights of visiting Yellowstone. The most famous one of all is Old Faithful, so it deserved a spot on this postcard. We had a room facing the geyser basin and specifically Old Faithful, so we watched it erupt numerous times over the four days we stayed at the Old Faithful Inn.
Kathy & I are wrapping up our visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It’s been a great couple of weeks, with beautiful scenery, abundant wildlife and some interesting weather. We had very limited connectivity in the parks (a good thing!) and also limited time to look at photos (also a good thing). This is a sample of the images from our first stop in Yellowstone, at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Those who know me know that I love to bring home “liquid souvenirs” from our travels. Our recent cruise on Celebrity Beyond was no exception. For our visit to the island of Barbados I had arranged a tour to take us to three distilleries. As luck would have it, our driver/guide for the day is a rum aficionado, so he was the ideal person for us to spend the day with. He also had a great place for us to have an authentic Bajan lunch!
We visited Foursquare, Mount Gay and Stade’s distilleries, and brought home several bottles from each. Just like with bourbon, gin and other spirits, rum distilleries all have their individual stories, methods and recipes. It is interesting to learn about them, in the interest of science, of course. 😉
I have finally completed all of the processing from our winter adventures and posted galleries on my Adobe Portfolio page.
Kathy & I visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC recently. I carried a camera with me in case I came across anything interesting. This was a bit of a “happy accident” as I photographed the hood ornament on an old truck repurposed as an ice cream shop. Sadly the ice cream shop was not in operation at the time…. 😉
With apologies to 2clicksaway for borrowing the title, I thought this group of photos made for an interesting study. Taken during our recent cruise aboard Celebrity Beyond.
On our way to Ohio to see the eclipse, Kathy & I stopped off in western Pennsylvania to visit our friends Jim & Lisa. While we were there we made a trip to McConnell’s Mill State Park to do a little hiking. The mill itself has fallen into disrepair, but the covered bridge has been nicely maintained and makes for a picturesque scene on Slippery Rock Creek.
I had been to this park years ago, but enjoyed the time outdoors and with friends. I even managed to make a few photographs.
I would suggest that anyone who claims that a total solar eclipse is no big deal has never seen one. Yes, this one was heavily hyped and over-commercialized, but that should not detract from the significance. What I saw today was beyond explanation. You truly had to be there!
Kathy & I drove to Avon Lake, OH which was right on the centerline of totality. My sister-in-law is an astronomer who led the sciency part of a celebration at the local high school stadium.
I didn’t take photos of the actual sun (well, to be truthful I did but they suck). I did take quite a few photos of the crowds, and of my brother and sister in law, Kathy, our son Scott and grandson Edison enjoying the show. We were all first timers and agreed that we hope to see the next one in the US, in 2045!
Here is an actual eclipse photo from my niece Cassandra.
After one day in Fredericksburg, Kathy & I decided we had seen enough cowboy art and turquoise jewelry, the wineries were busy and charged more for tastings than for a bottle of wine, so we stopped by the visitor center to see what else we might do. The woman there mentioned a driving tour of one room school houses in Gillespie County, the area surrounding Fredericksburg.
Better than I can tell it, here is a bit of history about the schools from The Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools:
As many as 44 rural schools were in operation around Fredericksburg, the county seat of Gillespie County, in the early 20th century. German immigrants had poured into the area that became known as the Texas Hill Country in the mid to late 1800’s, starting with the settlement of New Braunfels in 1845 and Fredericksburg in 1846. As families moved onto land more distant from town, the earliest rural educational efforts normally involved hiring a teacher to educate the children in private
homes.
Eventually land was donated by a family in the area and a community school was built taking names descriptive of nearby natural landmarks such as Cave Creek, Crabapple, Pecan Creek or Lower South Grape Creek. The German heritage of Gillespie County is evident in other names like Luckenbach, Meusebach, Rheingold and Nebgen.
The Gilmer-Aikin Law of 1949 resulted in the consolidation of most rural schools in Texas, bringing a close to this era of public education. Remarkably, the main buildings at only two of the 44 rural schools in Gillespie County were demolished over the decades. In the 1950’s, community clubs were organized and maintained some of the rural school properties in Gillespie County using their own funds, even though they were owned by the Fredericksburg Independent School District (FISD).
Short histories of the schools can be obtained at the Visitor Information Center in Fredericksburg, located at 302 East Austin Street, at each school and on our website: www.historicschools.org
The tour resulted in a very nice day, and quite a collection of interesting, albeit very documentary, photographs. It’s ultimately the way we prefer to spend our time, rather than trudging up and down the main street in a town, wandering through shops with no intention or interest in buying. When there is a bakery or ice cream shop, however…. 😉
We’re off to Ohio in a few days in hopes of catching the eclipse. I do plan to take some pictures, but not of the eclipse. I just want to watch it myself and let those with the patience and proper equipment make photos I can see later. I do hope to get lots of pictures of people wearing those awesome glasses, though! 🙂
After our stop in Shiner we arrived in Fredericksburg, where we stayed for a few days before heading east toward Florida. The draw for Fredericksburg is that it is in the heart of Texas wine country. We drove through Fredericksburg on a previous trip but only spent one night. Ironically, despite being in the middle of wine country we didn’t visit any wineries! We did manage to drink a bit of Texas wine, did a little shopping and some sightseeing.
I was really taken with the public library. Housed in the former Gillespie County Courthouse that was built in 1881-1882 and used until 1939, the building was subsequently converted to the current use as the library. The limestone exterior, high ceilings and wooden trim are a reminder of the days of fine craftsmanship. The library even has a card catalog, although the drawers are empty now.
The town of Fredericksburg is like a lot of small towns these days, just with a Texas twist. Instead of antiques and country crafts there is cowboy art and turquoise jewelry. Lots of interesting restaurants, though. We had several really nice meals during our stay.
We stayed in a really cool hotel located at the Gillespie County Airport. Named the Hangar Hotel, it is styled after a WWI aircraft hanger, complete with an Officer’s Club, the name of the lounge. It was fun watching all the planes coming and going, and made for some interesting photography.
On our journey across Texas we made a quick stop in Shiner, Texas to visit the K. Spoetzl Brewery, home of Shiner Beer. We had some gen-u-ine Texas brisket, toured the brewery and had some Shiner Beer before heading off into wine country.
The Spoetzl Brewery started in 1909. It was originally named The Shiner Brewing Association (SBA) and was founded by German and Czech immigrants who had settled around the central Texas town of Shiner. Unable to find the type of beer they had known in their home countries, they decided to brew their own. It is the oldest independent brewery in Texas and one of the oldest independent breweries in the U.S.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the brewery’s Shiner Premium Beer and Shiner Bock accounted for less than 1% of the Texas beer market. In 1983, Spoetzl produced 60,000 US beer barrels of beer; in 1990, only 36,000 US beer barrels. Sales improved after Carlos Alvarez of San Antonio acquired the brewery in 1989. Production grew to 100,000 US beer barrels in 1994, and over the next 10 years production nearly tripled. The company now has 120 employees and as of 2012 it was the fourth-largest craft brewery in the United States.
It was a good visit, and some of the Amber Bock even made it home for us to share with our friends, neighbors and family! 😉
