A Stop In Fort Collins

June 11, 2024 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Prairie Dogs at Pine Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins, Colorado

After our two weeks exploring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, we started our journey home with a quick stop in Fort Collins, CO to see our buddy Monte. We packed a lot into a little over a day!

Pine Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins, Colorado

Monte photographing at Pine Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins, Colorado

Monte met us at our motel and we had fun catching up over a nice dinner. The next morning while Kathy slept in, I met Monte at Pine Ridge Natural Area, one of his usual haunts. After an hour or so of burning pixels, we retreated to Cups, one of Monte’s regular coffee shops.

Salsify blossom. Pine Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins, Colorado

We went our separate ways for the rest of the morning, then met up after lunch for a drive out to the Pawnee National Grassland just east of Fort Collins. High winds from an approaching storm system made for challenging conditions on the ground but gifted us with some very interesting skies.

Interesting clouds over Pawnee National Grassland, east of Fort Collins, Colorado

Monte photographing the interesting clouds over Pawnee National Grassland, east of Fort Collins, Colorado

We had a second dinner before signing off and getting packed up for the rest of the journey home. It was great to see Monte again and catch up in person instead of just virtually through our blogs!

Postcards

Postcard From Grand Teton National Park

June 3, 2024 Tom Dills 8 Comments

View of the Teton Range from Mormon Row Historic District, Grand Teton National Park

We wrapped up our western swing with a 2 day visit to Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park. This is a classic view of the Teton Range from an area called the Mormon Row Historic District. The photo is a bit of a cliche but I can’t imagine a photographer passing it by. Some photographs just need to be taken! We had some pretty nice clouds on this day, which helps a lot.

Photography, Postcards

Postcard From Yellowstone: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

June 2, 2024 Tom Dills 6 Comments

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is a beautiful location, where the Yellowstone River has carved a magnificent canyon with several waterfalls. We were fortunate to time a visit to Artist Point to photograph a rainbow that occurs at the Lower Falls at certain times of the year.

Artist Point was originally named in 1883 by Frank Jay Haynes who improperly believed that the point was the place at which painter Thomas Moran sketched his 1872 depictions of the falls. Later work determined that the sketches were made from the north rim, but the name Artist Point stuck.

Postcards

Postcard From Yellowstone: Midway Geyser Basin

June 1, 2024 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Midway Geyser Basin is home of the famous Grand Prismatic Spring as well as a number of other equally impressive features. We did see Grand Prismatic, but on the day of our visit the temperatures were in the low 30s, making for a lot of steam. Despite being in the “off season” the place got so busy later in the day when the temperatures did warm up, that we elected to go in the morning before all the selfie-shooting tourists showed up and crowded the boardwalk.

Postcards

Postcard From Yellowstone: Old Faithful

May 31, 2024 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

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.

Postcards

Postcard From Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs

May 30, 2024 Tom Dills 6 Comments

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park

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.

Travel

Yo Ho Ho, Etc.

May 7, 2024 Tom Dills 6 Comments

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!

Tour and tasting at Foursquare Distillery on Barbados

Barrels of Rum at Foursquare Distillery on Barbados

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. 😉

Original Mount Gay Pot Still from 1760. At Mount Gay Rum on Barbados

Tour and tasting at Mount Gay Rum on Barbados

I have finally completed all of the processing from our winter adventures and posted galleries on my Adobe Portfolio page.

Tour and tasting at Stade’s Rum Distillery on Barbados

Close To Home

Branching Out

May 2, 2024 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Hood ornament on an ice cream truck on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina

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…. 😉

Photography

Seeing Red

April 29, 2024 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Morning on the Resort Deck of Celebrity Beyond

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.

Travel

A Walk In The Woods

April 13, 2024 Tom Dills 2 Comments

Rocks and moss. McConnells Mill State Park near Portersville, PA

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.