Shawnee Shopping

As many of of my family and friends know I collect Shawnee pottery. So we went to Emmitsburg Antique Mall last Sunday and found this cute and I think pretty rare bronze pony, I have one in a common red color. We have never seen a bronze in color in anything Shawnee before just in books that I have, so to me I think it is rare.

Yesterday's Snow

I stepped outside to snap just a couple of photos. Here are some clay flower pots waiting for spring outside the backdoor. Just enough snow and ice to close school. I worked on my wedding scrapbook of Josh and Whitney's wedding, I believe it is finished and it turned out well. Now I should work on their dining room curtains and chairs. Breanne and I shopped for her material for living room curtains on Saturday and came home and made them.

Josh and The Fox

Josh started to do predator hunting and he got his first fox. I know some people do not like the idea of shooting the innocent animals, but like Josh says they aren't so innocent when they kill your poodle. I have seen seen a couple dead along side the road this past year.

Dave took the photo after Josh called and said he got stuck and needed assistance to get unstuck.

Apple Harvest Photo Contest

When we got home from out trip there was a large envelope from the National Apple Festival and upon opening it I found out I won the grand prize and an honorable mention in their annual photo contest. A large blue ribbon and a small green one, with a check of 110 dollars!! They have had this contest for many years, if I remember right they had it back when I was a crafter and set up a booth there. For people not living in Southcentral PA, Apple Harvest Festival is a 2 weekend event in October in Adams county, having apple activities, food and crafts of all kinds, I think they have antique cars and the steam engines. I printed out the info a couple of years now but never entered until this year about a week before the deadline. Here is the website. http://www.appleharvest.com/photo.htm

Grand Prize Winner

Both were in the same catagories, Division 3, special effects, creativity or something like that.

Honorable Mention

Our Hotel Ect.

Our Hotel was very nice, although we didn't have a balcony or a view of the ocean. It was a block long and wide.

This is the gate going into the valet service.

This is the front, on Ocean Drive.

Another sign on the corner, I think this sign was on 3 of the corners.

The 2nd largest fig tree in Santa Monica at the valet entrance.

On the other hand, there was a large amount of homeless people.

I really love this hotel, it stood out from the other modern looking buildings. The Georgian.

Interesting Plant, don't know what it is.

Bird of Paradise

That's it! This is my last blog post on our trip to the Rose Bowl. Hope you enjoyed my photos.

Our Last Night In California

We decided on Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Located on the Santa Monica pier which is a good place for it, considering the movie Forrest Gump had a brief scene at the pier.

One thing I want to say about the restaurants in LA. They are clean! When first arriving the bus driver that took us to out hotel told us about LA's restaurants grading system. Every door as you enter a restaurant has an A, B or C posted. An A means that the health inspector says it is very clean and following proper procedures, B is OK and C you better be really hungry! We never saw a C in any window and just a couple of B's. We ate at A places and they all were a lot cleaner that places in PA, and since I am certified in food service in Pa that says a lot.

Life is like a box of chocolates, Dave sat in for Forrest, a typical tourist!


A night time,stroll on the boardwalk, I need a lot of practice with night time photography.

Malibu Canyon Road

The last place just befor dark was a drive on the Malibu Canyon Road. We stopped at a parking area, they had them every now and then. You could see some of the bushes were burnt at some time.

Here you can see how big the mountains are, with the road weaving throught the valleys.

We didn't stop, anymore after this stop because it was getting dark, we had a map and Breanne found a road to take us back to the Pacific Coast Highway because this would eventually taken us into LA. We turned and at the next intersection and the road was so curvy and scary, some places had no guide rail. I don't know if it was any better that we couldn't see because of the fog. There was some houses along the road and as we drove the road got narrower, some other cars were on the road coming down the mountain. Finally, we did get back and drove back to Santa Monica Pier for diner.

Our Drive On the Pacific Coast Highway

We rented a car on Friday, 1/2/09. We wanted to drive on the coast route 1 also known as the Pacific Coast Highway. It was very foggy that morning and out travel guide thought it might be clear south of Santa Monica, so that's where we started.

These 3 photos where at Venice Beach

This was taken at Dog Beach, we believe it is devoted to dogs because there was a lot of them.

This is an oil rig just of the beach around the Long Beach area. Since the sky were no better to the south we turned around, we took the freeway back to Santa Monica to start out trip up to Malibu.

It was great scenery along the coast and if it were a beautiful day i would have taken lots more photos! We drove so far up and turned around about 3pm. We wanted to stop at a couple of places to take photos and Dave wanted to drive on the Malibu Canon Road.

This poor guy or lucky, I don't know which had eaten or was trying to eat a starfish. Breanne thought it might be stuck in his mouth. He did not try to fly, he just walked around. After we got home I researched and they do eat starfish and swallow them whole.

Sunset

Only the one day or evening we had a chance to get good sunset photos, we were either away from the beach or it was foggy.

This one was from the 5th floor window of our hotel.

Scenes from Santa Monica

Santa Monica Statue

The bluffs, proof California is falling away. Acroos from the hotel were these bluffs, showing the soil erosion, certain areas you could see where the sidewalk once was. these 2 photo where taken ocean level between the beach and Highway 1 or also known as the Pacific Coast Highway.


Here is a different view taken on a different day with a different camera.