Another From West Virginia in the Fall

Another from our West Viriginia trip in October, this one from Hawk's Nest State Park.

Other Foliage

In October, Julie and I went to West Virginia for a few days right around the time of peak fall foliage color. In addition to seeing some of my family, we also spent a couple of nights at Pipestem Resort State Park in the southern part of the state.

We were blessed with mostly good weather, and got in one wonderful hike, too, while we were there. This is just one of the many photos that I took that show some wonderful foliage, as you will see over the next several days.

More Float Details - Rose Parade 2007

If you read the link in my last post, you will have read "Every inch of the float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds, or bark." This photograph shows detail of another float, showing the use of materials other than flowers that cover some of the floats.

Float Details - Rose Parade 2007

You are probably already aware that the floats in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade are dressed with roses and other flowers. But seeing them on TV does not do justice to the what the floats actually look like in person. This detail shot shows one of the floats from this year's parade and the ornamentation involved in the floats.

St. Louis in Pasadena on 66

As promised yesterday, today's photograph is of the City of St. Louis' entry in the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade. St. Louis is another one of the metropolitan areas along Route 66 that has a lot to offer the roadie that is willing to look for it. However, much like Los Angeles, St. Louis' hodgepodge of multiple and complex alignments can be difficult to track without a knowing guide or guidebook. I, myself, have gotten lost there twice.

More OK Rose Parade

This is the last of the Oklahoma Rose Parade photos that I will be putting up. Tomorrow, I'll move on to St. Louis. This one shows a bit of the Will Rogers OK/CA Route 66 connection.

Oops - More OK

Well, yesterday I accidentally put up the wrong photo. I meant to put up a shot of the band itself, but instead posted another one of the OK floats. So, here is the photo I should have posted yesterday of the Oklahoma All-Star Centennial Band.

More Rose Parade / Oklahoma

Continuing from yesterday, today is the Oklahoma All-Star Centennial Band from this year's Rose Parade.

Oklahoma - in California (Rose Parade)

I scanned some new photos in a couple of days ago and have not taken the time yet to clean them up (I always clean dirt from the scans, but rarely - if ever - alter the nature of the photograph itself) but I thought I would start posting a series of shots in honor of Oklahoma's Centennial in 2007.

This first one was shot on January 1, 2007. In California. It was taken during the annual Tournament of Roses Parade, which happens to traverse a portion of Route 66 for most of its journey. There's no doubt that the cities of Duarte and St. Louis (both Route 66 towns) and the state of Oklahoma (which 66 also runs through) realized this connection while taking the journey down the parade route.

I posted some of the upcoming photos in the Route 66 egroup, and heard back from one of my friends, who sent me this link. And it's a pretty darn good link for anyone interested in taking a trip to Oklahoma, perhaps for the annual Route 66 celebration that happens in a different city every year and this year is being held in Clinton.

I Love This Name - Wenceslas Square, Prague

I've been debating for awhile whether or not I wanted to post this photo. I love it and hate and find it amusing all at the same time. So I really am not sure if it is very good.

I am amused at the "fuji" and "olympus" signs, since this was shot on kodak ektrachome using a pentax camera.

I hate the lower half of the photo, finding it way too dark and not terribly interesting.

But I love the way those two signs stand out on the middle line, with that gorgeous sunset in the background.

And since I've been showing so many Prague photos lately, I thought I would keep it going with this one.

(Besides, I have a bunch of scans to do tonight, and didn't have too much more immediately ready to post at the moment!)

Prague Castle - Guards

Two more shots from Prague, these from the castle area showing a guard shack and also some of the guards just after they have been relieved.

Prague Overview

This was taken from the hills near the castle overlooking Prague.

Another Prague Streetscape

More from Prague this morning. (I REALLY wish I could go back!)

Prague - Residence

One of the things that I really enjoyed about all of Europe was the blend of old and new. It seems that the places in Europe that we went - Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Budapest - all have a very nice blend of old and new, with the eye toward restoration and adaptive reuse of their historic structures. It leeds creedence to the belief that Americans are a disposable society. Too bad. We have a lot of historic structures worth saving that we just do not put forth the effort to keep.

This is another one of those shots I took in Prague that the building just seemed really neat, but I can't tell you exactly why. If I remember correctly, this is located near the Magika Laterna Theatre, which was anoter enjoyable experience in Prague.

Buildings - Prague

After yesterday's seemingly "newer" side of Innsbruck, I thought I'd show a streetscape shot from Prague this morning. I know, not much in common really, aside from the fact that they were both shot on the same trip to Europe. But hey, at least I posted another photo this morning!

Innsbruck

Two more shots from Innsbruck. I especially like the blue building on the left in this first one.

More Trains (Austria)

This was taken in April 2005 on our train ride from Salzburg to Innsbruck.

Storm - Slovakia / Austria border

This was taken on the train ride from Salzburg (Austria) to Budapest (Hungary), and as best as I could tell from the map and what I knew of our route, we were near Bratislava (Slovakia) at the time that I shot this.

Another Train Station (Santa Barbara)

Taken from the Amtrak train, this photo is the Santa Barbara train station. I took this during Julie's and my train ride to San Luis Obispo for Julie's birthday in 2004.

One More From Union Station

One last one, the BACK of the building. Well, I think it is the back. To me, the front faces the tracks, like in the days of the Harvey Houses, such as the La Posada in Winslow, AZ, the El Garces in Needles, CA, or the Casa Del Desierto in Barstow, CA. All 3, of course, are on Historic Route 66.