At the Zoo

We went to the zoo this weekend to practice with the camera. Animals are harder to photograph than flowers. They don't hold still!

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The Gateway Arch

In between dancing we walked down to the Gateway Arch with our friend Robert this afternoon. It was really hot and humid.

On the way we passed many grand government buildings.

We didn't go up in the arch as the line was too long, but we did get some great photos of the arch.

 

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Union Station Hotel in St. Louis

We're staying in the Union Station hotel in St. Louis for the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs annual convention. The hotel is really amazing remodel of the train station, very grand.

The Grand Hall has a gorgeous barrel ceiling.

Close up of ceiling. Lots of goddesses here.

Stained glass window.

We have a room in the old part of the hotel. It's bigger than a standard hotel room and laid out differently with a front hall and bedroom around the corner.

A group of us had dinner at the hotel grill and they put us in a private room together.

 

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Camera Play at the Arboretum

We took the new camera out for a spin this morning at the arboretum. It was beautiful sunny and got up to 73 degrees by noon when we left. The azaleas and rhodies were blooming.

We practiced changing ISO, aperture, and the shutter speed to learn how to do these. This first duck was taken at ISO 200 because it was in the shade. It still seemed too dark to me. The second duck was ISO 400. Much better photo

In the photo of these flowers by the water, the first one was with the automatic shutter speed of 1/60. Then I switched it to 1/160 and they were much better exposed. (ISO here was 100.)

We also tried to get a good photo of Sandra blowing the seeds off a dandelion using the sports mode on the camera. It doesn't show real well, though, because the background was too busy. Good lesson!

 

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Nita's Birthday, March 5th

A couple of our friends make a birthday list for their birthdays. Usually they include restaurants, a trip to a museum, a special treat item from a bakery or donut store. So this year we are doing the same.

Nita's list included: dinner at Louisa's (a favorite, but too far from home), dinner at Ma Ono for their famous fried chicken, golfing, breakfast at Luna Park, a chocolate factory tour, and watch a special series on Netflex based on a favorite detective series Nita has read and got me hooked on.

Ma Ono lived up to their reputation, the food was outstanding. We had the fried chicken, curry fried rice dish, a fancy brussel sprout dish, and some very different martinis that were strong and tasty.

The other restaurants were also good and golfing was great. We have yet to fit in the chocolate tour and TV series, but we will. Having a list has been fun and I am looking forward to making my list.

These photos were taken at Ma Ono, Nita noticed some interesting patterns her drink made on the table.

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Beach Glass

Here are some interesting photos of beach glass we found this weekend. My favorites are the parts of what looks like an old bottle. Most of what we find I expect are beer and wine bottles. The top of this bottle and its amber/green color suggests it might be older. We also found one red and a few blue. There's also one interesting pottery piece.

 

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Weekend at Quilcene Bay II

Sunday we packed up the car and started back towards Seattle with a couple of beach parks on Bainbridge Island on our iPhone maps. First we went to Faye Bainbridge Park. It's on the east side of the island facing back towards the Cascade mountains. The video below pans the horizon from Mt. Ranier to Mt. Baker (and Sandra beach glass hunting).

It was a lovely park, but we didn't find much glass there.

Nita at Faye Bainbridge Park

Next we went to Hawley Cove Park. It a conservancy park without much in the way of improvements, but there's a boardwalk across wetlands to a beach with a view of the ferry terminal. On the walk through the woods, we came across this tree that was growing out of a tree stump. We've seen these before in the forest, but not usually with the stump so rotted away with mostly the roots of the tree holding it up.

The beach was rocky with shells, barnacles, and and sand dollars.

We found lots of beach glass, including the usual beer bottles browns and greens, but also some really old fashioned amber bottle parts (photos to come). We completely filled our glass bags and had trouble leaving. This was one of the best glass spots we've found.

 

 

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