Dragon fly

Enjoy, this guy was fun to try to capture on my camera!  See the previous post for the story behind the picture.

Beauty of Nature

Not quite a travel entry, but well.... thought this image would inspire some creativeness with it's amazing beauty. Eating lunch in our sitting area, we spied this amazing creature. At first I slid the glass door open ever so slowly as not to scare our friend away. I took two very quiet steps toward the plant it was perched upon, and snapped the first picture. Of course the sound, every so light that it was, of my camera sent the dragonfly into a fluttering frenzy and off it went!  One picture, I was disappointed as I was sure it was blurry due to my own shaking hand. Amazingly, it circled around aproaching me and then angling the other way, until it landed in the same exact spot. I quickly pressed the shutter button and off again it flew!  This time not returning to it's original spot but landing very near, and allowing me to snap two more pictures before it left, this time for good.

Tucson

Well boys and girls, just tweaking my blog and hopefully you will get an update when I post this, if not I will need to consult someone that is actually technical!  Went to 25th year high school reunion last night with Robin. Was hesitant, but it turned out to be pretty fun, we stayed over two hours so that must tell you something. The travel will come to an end as does the long days of summer. I will have to resume my real job as an art teacher, of which at this time of the year I'm glad for it to resume. Lots of changes at my school, new teachers, some others did not get their jobs back. I'm very grateful I do have a job that I love, but the lingering thoughts in the back of the minds of many arts teachers I'm sure have is will they continue to fund art?  Designing lesson plans, as I have already started to do involves a lot. Planing how they will produce, write about, and understand something new is both challenging and fun, it invariably takes more time than I think it will.

San Diego

 The downtown buildings look like mountains in the early morning fog. As one proceeds over the Coronado bridge it curves up and over to the left. As you descend into the swarm of traffic, the Island you just left feels like a sanctuary and you wander why you left at all. The ribbon of traffic flows and you can reach your destination in no time. San Diego has created a perfect traffic flow pattern with its freeways and expressways, too bad the population will someday soon make this disappear. The moist sponge cake was drenched in a kirsch liquor, berry's and cream flowed over the top, the rose on top was dusted with gold. Each bite was sweet, tart, and quite extraordinary. This is an amazing desert place. It is on Beech street in Little Italy near the airport, called Extraordinary deserts.

San Diego

Flew into San Diego on Sunday. The weather was overcast, had some great Chinese food, hung out on the beach with my brother and some of his friends. Monday Balboa park in the morning, the beach for the rest of the day. The skyline seems to change every year. As the sparkling lights began to shine like little stars reflecting in the bay, the change was apparent. For those that visit San Diego on a regular basis, like I do next time go over to Coronado Island and look at the skyline. More hotels and other buildings are creating an amazing skyline that gets brighter and brighter, that is if you like that sort of thing.

Santa Fe

As I leave the wonderful city of Santa Fe, a last glimpse or two of this oddly beautiful place.

Santa Fe after dark

The little dive bar, the matador deserves a more in depth description. As I sat at the small bar with my tequila, salt, and used limes piling up,  the show began. The music was a mixture of Hank Williams Jr, and the punk sounds of The Cramps, X, and other off the edge kind of music. On the video screen the original Mad Max was exploding with fire balls and car chases. As I sipped on my  tequila, salt sticking to my hand, a slow but steady trickle of interesting characters descended into the bar. Rockabilly girls with powder white faces and perfect red lips laughing and joking with guys with slicked back hair and tattoo's in place of long sleeves. An argument about something broke out, and the bartender yelled at the two people at the far end of the bar, but it ended as quickly as it began, I was sure they were going to get kicked out for sure. The crowd was mostly young, all now had a different look, sort of that Alpine/downtown look I mentioned before when I was in flagstaff, mixed with the 7 or 8 rockabilly types. This included the bartender and the DJ. Obviously this was THEIR bar. Well it was time for me to go, not really feeling a part of this scene, but somehow not feeling out of place at the same time. As I walked toward the door I took a last glance around and decided this was a great little bar.  It fit the strange, wonderful, and very different place it was a part of....... Santa Fe.