Thematic Photographic 55 - Cloudy

Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge this week is Cloudy. Check it out here. http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2009/06/thematic-photographic-55-cloudy.html

Yesterday the weather was very unsettled and we experienced several thunderstorms, one of which was extremely intense. As usual the thunderstorm was short and the sun came out rewarding us afterwards. We headed for Kingston for supper and to run errands that night and as we were heading home the rain started again. Not thunderstorm rain but just a quick rainstorm. As we arrived to North Shore Hay Bay where we live there was a beautiful rainbow which Jeff captured with my camera and I caught the clouds on the other side of the road.

Rosebud and friends

As I drove home from yoga last night, there were many boats docked at the small marina area in Napanee. I don't even know if you can call it a Marina. It's just by the park and the bridge that goes over the Napanee river. Sometimes there is a couple of boats but last night there were many. I decided that on my way into work I'd stop and catch a picture of them when it was quiet.

At 6 :30 am however it wasn't so quiet. There was some kind of boot camp group working out in the park and I could hear the instructor yelling. On my way home tonight I noticed every boat was gone. I have to wonder if it was the wakeup that they got from the boot camp instructor or if they were just heading out on the road.

And if you didn't already know, my favourite is the little red tug boat. Her name is Rosebud.

She's trying again!

Ashley & Hayley

http://www.wfn.tv/adopt/view.php?entry=119

My daughter's friend Ashley is obsessed with fishing. She recently visited Hayley in Toronto and Hayley told her she should move to Toronto. Her response, "But where would I fish?" She is definitely one of my daughter's favourite people and my husband and I love when we run into around town. She's a nice girl, full of life and happiness.

Last year she entered the World Fishing Network's to win a fishing boat package. She came in the top ten I believe but ended up only winning a Bass Pro gift certificate. This year she is attempting to win a dream fishing vacation. I'm asking all that come into my blog if they could take the time to click on the link and view Ashley's video and give her a vote. The first part is based on the number of votes. Like last year I will be voting daily but I figured if others could even vote for her just once she would be so thankful.

Happy viewing!!!

Thematic Photographic 53

Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge 53 this week is Road. If you'd like more information about his challenge head on over to http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2009/06/thematic-photographic-53-road.html Carmi has a new challenge every wednesday. I posted a picture early from my trip to San Francisco of the crookedest street in the world. It has a series of 8 hairpin turns in one block. This is a shot looking down from the top which is a different view from the bottom shot I previously posted. Good brakes are mandatory to take this stretch of road.

Here is a picture of my own driveway. It's a tad bit bumpy and at one time there was a promise from a neighbour. He used to come pick up my daughter to take her to events with his daughter when they were in public school. He said that if he ever won the lottery the first thing he would do his pave our driveway. Since he doesn't come to pick Hayley up anymore I think the promise is probably defunct. There was also the friend who didn't realize that we had a turn around at the top and backed the whole way down. A month later she still had a stiff neck. After living on a busy road for two years it was nice to live here tucked away from all the traffic. My children could roam free without worry. I still love our bumpy country lane driveway...except in the winter when it needs to be plowed.

Thematic Photographic 50 - Signs

For a few weeks now I haven't participated in Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge but Signs is just too tempting. I have a couple that I will probably post. I find signs very interesting. This particular picture is one I snapped quickly while riding on the Hop On Hop off Double Decker bus in San Francisco. I believe it's a nightclub but I found the inscription on the sign very interesting and double edged. I love the way Love will only let you down is facing down...

A Thousand Splendid Suns Book Review

I really enjoyed the author's previous book the Kite Runner and received this book as a Christmas gift. I finally picked it up and found that I enjoyed it even more than the Kite Runner. Author Khaled Hosseini delivers several strong messages in this book about the bond between two women Mariam and Laila. I don't want to tell the story as I would encourage others to read this tale. I just want to say something about the message I received from it. It's about forgiveness and regret. That possibly we should put our anger aside and forgive because we later might regret not doing so. Not doing so we could possibly miss out on something very important in our lives.

San Fran Days 6 & 7

I've been so bad at finishing this off but I'm truly committed to it now.

Day 6

At the suggestion of one of the cable car conductors we took the F Streetcar from Fisherman's Wharf up to Castro. A young girl from the cable car said it was a good place to have lunch. We were early so we had breakfast. Then we took the street car back to Union Square where we found a bus that would take us in the vicinity of the Golden Gate Park. A funny story from that bus ride was that my husband was sitting beside a young man who was writing in a notepad. Jeff noticed he was writing a letter to god. It said, "Dear God, I woke up in a bad place this morning but I've worked my way through it and I'm in a better place now. Jeff was worried that the bus was going to lurch and send him careening into the young man sending him back to the bad place.

Once we arrived in Golden Gate Park, we ventured into the beautiful Conservatory of Flowers. And beautiful it truly was. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Note the train display. The buildings were made from simple items like cassette tapes, etc.

Then we walked around the Botanical Garden and then to the Japanese Tea Garden where we enjoyed some Green tea and cookies. The garden as you can see is spectacular.

After that we took the Culture Bus back to Union Square where we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at Macy's. On exiting Macy's I saw a dog with a cat on top of it and a rat on top of it. I didn't get a picture of this but it didn't take too much googling to find this. http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2008/11/dogcatrat_man_busted_for_crack.php

Day 7

We rented a car so that we could go to Muir Woods and Sonoma and also use the car the next day to get to the airport. We picked up the car at 9 a.m. and shortly after we were heading across the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a quick drive through Sausalito and then headed to Muir Woods. What a wonderous place!! Nature is magnificent! We had a nice hike. I have to laugh at myself when we were leaving Muir Woods. The road is beautiful and twisty turny. I was trying to delete bad pictures off my camera to make room for new ones. The act of looking at my camera and the road made me queasy...not a good plan but you know the panic when you think you'll run out of space on your camera on vacation.

After Muir Woods, we made our way to Sonoma. What a beautiful little town. The downtown is built around the town square. It reminds me of Goderich in Ontario. We had a beautiful lunch in a small cafe. If you couldn't pick a wine, they would let you choose 3 and bring you 2 oz's of each. Jeff took them up on it.

After wandering around town we went to Bartholomew Park Winery http://www.bartpark.com/ Their wines are all certified organic. The only sad part is that they aren't available in Canada and they don't ship to Canada. Another reason to return someday.

We headed back to San Francisco for our last supper at Fisherman's Wharf. We decided to go to Joe's Crab Shack. It certainly wasn't the best meal I'd had all week but the one reason I mention it is that at one point there was an announcement that Joe's Crab Shack will be rocking in 2 minutes. I had no idea what this meant. Well apparently all the waiters are dancers too. For about 3 minutes a song comes on and all the waiters and waitresses do a choreographed dance. Nothing gets served or ordered in this time. It was kind of interesting and comical. I have to give them a lot of credit as it was pretty hot in there and some of the bigger guys were sweating profusely afterwards.

In conclusion, we had a great week. The weather was beautiful and only on the morning we were leaving did we see any fog...how fitting.