On Saturday we had a very brief visit to Downtown Denver with the grandparents. It was a beautiful, but super bright day, so in the short time we were there I searched for reflections in the windows of the skyscrapers. This is what I found:
Family Trips
This post is the continuation of yesterday’s post about my visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado. If you haven’t read the first part yet, you should start there.
I was telling you that after entering the one way road I saw something unusual – it was a herd of bison. Other than coyotes, rabbits and squirrels I don’t see much wildlife in Irvine, so spotting the American Bison was a treat. I believe that the small birds around and on the bison are European Starlings. These birds pick pests out of the thick coats of the bison.
On Thursday, prior to meeting with a friend for lunch, I wanted to spend some time doing photography. One favorite spot for me is Sawhill Ponds in Boulder, CO, but I felt it was a bit far for this day. I then noticed on the map an area that I only visited once while living in Colorado: the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. When I went in the past, it was in late winter, and there was still snow on the ground. I can still recall that it was a very cold visit.
The weather has been very nice in CO during our short spring visit, and luckily, there is no snow on the ground. I made the decision to give another try to the Arsenal, and am I glad I did! I spent a few magical hours at this huge, 15,000 acre prairie, woodland and wetland habitat. This area first was used by Plains Indians for herding bison, then farming was introduced, later during the WWII it was a chemical weapon manufacturing facility. In the Cold-War era weapons were still manufactured here, but in 1992 it was transformed into a national wildlife refuge. You can find over 330 species of animals in the area.
Within 5 minutes of entering the Refuge, I got very excited upon spotting deer on both sides of the road and some were also crossing the road.
I took lots of pictures of them; I liked observing this fawn, because she looked a bit confused (maybe looking for mom?), and it sounded like she was crying.
After driving just another minute I found the following deer grazing right next to the road.
We decided to spend most of Spring Break with grandparents in Colorado. I really like taking images from airplanes, and I got lucky again with a window seat. For the first time I also tried some of my Lensbaby lenses for this aerial photography, and I think I created some very interesting images. 🙂 The one lens I didn’t care for in the air was the Burnside. After a few pictures I switched it out to something else. I liked the Twist 60 and the Sol 45 the most.
Here is a set of images taken between Orange County and Denver, CO. Except for the first four, they are all Lensbaby images. I think the first and last two of this set show a great contrast between where we live now (OC), and where we used to live (CO). The first two images I took moments after we took off, and the last two moments prior to landing. Very different views, aren’t they? (Hover over the slideshow and click the Next arrow to advance the images.)
IMAGE 1 - Taking off from Orange County.
Just for fun, here are those first and last two images one more time:
Need a destination for a quick family getaway? Try New Orleans, Louisiana.
In January of 2019 my daughter got 2 extra days off of school around MLK Jr. Day, and we decided to take a family trip during the 5-day long weekend. Although we considered going to New York, NY first, luckily we decided to go to New Orleans, LA instead. (The weather in NY was far from pleasant during the weekend.)
In this post I just wanted to share what places we visited (with a 14 year old), in case someone else is looking for great stuff to do there. In future posts I will write about a few of these places in detail.
First of all, after a whole day of searching for places to go to and things to do I decided, that the New Orleans City Pass was not going to work for us. Since this was a family trip and we wanted to enjoy our time in the Crescent City, we did not want to rush from one attraction to the next one all day long. I planned two major things to do every day, and we filled the rest of the time with small walks, etc. I did find many great deals on www.livingsocial.com, and I was able to get discounted tickets for 3 out of 6 places there. If you are interested in the various city passes, this article compares them very well.