A Travel Blog about No Travel

Anne and I had a trip planned to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas for the middle of March—it was one of the trips we postponed because Anne couldn’t fly for a while after her ear surgery (which went fine). The Canyon would be cold, but we’d get some golf in Vegas. Then, along comes the coronavirus COVID-19. And if what’s happening worldwide isn’t enough for concern, the cases in Kirkland, WA, and in Lake Oswego, OR, brought the disease much closer to home. At first we weren’t panicked, and we still aren’t, but being in the group that gets hit the hardest by this virus—over 70 with underlying health conditions—made us take a longer look at our two planned spring trips: Grand Canyon/Vegas in March and Scotland in late April and May. There’s nothing saying we have to cancel or change either trip, but we are firm in our resolve not to jeopardize the Scotland trip. Our final decision came down to how safe is was or wasn’t to be in Vegas with millions of other tourists from all over the world carrying who knows what bugs with them. 

We got all reservations for the Las Vegas trip cancelled without losing anything except what we paid for upgrade economy on Southwest Airlines. We know others who are wrestling with the same kinds of dilemmas. Deciding to cut our last fall southwest trip short because I was so sick was a no brainer. This current decision, though, was much more difficult. Were we giving in to media hysterics or would the planned trip be overly risking. From my position on the sled behind my sled dog team, I had great hindsight, but I doubt I’ll ever really know if we are making the correct choice of travel plans to not travel to Vegas.

With no trip to Grand Canyon, Red Rocks, Valley of Fire, and Vegas, that leaves me searching for a new post for the blog. I think I found one that has several benefits for me and will I hope be interesting to you. As a part of my photography workflow I store what I consider to be my best or most useful photos in categorized albums (castles, churches, landscapes, seascapes, street photos, etc.). This post will include two photos with comments not previously used for the blog from twelve different categories. For me this exercise first, gets me back in touch with some neglected photo gems. Second, it shows me how much improvement I’ve made from earlier photos. Third, it tells me how much improvement (a lot) I still need to be making in my images. And lastly, it is great fun looking back at photos from trips ten or more years ago. I hope you get some fun out of seeing these previously unseen images. Nothing here will be very significant, but I had fun putting it together—and after cancelling travel plans and worrying about health issues, fun is what I needed.

 Castles - lived in or ruins

Aughuanure Castle in Oughterard, Co. Galway, Ireland. The castle was owned by the  Chieftan of the O'Flahertys, but the guide, an O'Toole, kept referring to the castle as his castle.

Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands is the summer residence of the royal family. The castle  was a very special place for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It can be toured in the spring, when the Queen isn't in residence.

Domestic Animals

I have no idea why this Scottish sheep is this color, but there was a whole flock of them. I wouldn't mind a sweater of that color though.

This ewe and lamb look lost, but then we saw them when we were lost in the fog in Dartmoor National Park.

Signs

Poor advertising in the Scottish highlands. The next year this sign was replaced with one which read,  "Dull, Twinned with Boring, Oregon."

We're trying to live by this.

Buildings

The Bothy on our club, St Fillans Golf Course, voted the Best 9-Hole Course in Scotland 2019. A bothy is a basic shelter usually used by farmers and shepherds. In Scotland many bothies also served for making illicit whisky.

The village of Culross in central Scotland is a National Trust of Scotland village maintained as it was in the 1700s.

Bugs, Insects, Small Critters

I saw this vicious looking thing on my fence one day. I have no idea what it is, but I'm glad I had long range macro lens.

This mantis crawled or hopped up on my golf club bag one day at our course. He stayed with me for about two holes and then tired of my poor swing.

Arches National Park

At Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, are many interesting rock formations. I don't know if this one has a name, but "Balance Rock" sounds good.

This formation is called Courthouse Rock and it's particularly nice at sunset.

Lighthouses

Trwyn Du lighthouse or Penmon lighthouse is on black Point peninsula on Anglesey, Wales. At low tide you can often walk out to the lighthouse, but it's a tough walk over or through tidepools.

Anne got a picture of me putting on a hole at New Moray GC and Moray Firth in Scotland. It's one of our favorite places to play golf. I probably missed the putt.

Dogs, Cats

We had sled dogs (Siberian Huskies) for 15 years and raced them for about twelve. Gromyko of Kolema Creek (Myko) was our second dog and my favorite--always a hard worker, a lover, and a great backpacking companion.

Queenie was queen of the B&B we lived in Scotland until it was sold. She was known for wrapping up in our blankets, crawling into our suitcases, and her lady-like manners.

Churches, Cathedrals, Religious Sites

Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nois in Irish) is an ancient religious complex in Co. Offaly, Ireland on the Shannon River. The complex's stone structures are as old as the 9th century. Clonmacnoise is known for it Irish High Crosses and round towers.

I love this view of the cloisters at Fountains Abbey three miles from Ripon in North Yorkshire. Founded in 1132 this Cistercian abbey was used until dissolution by Henry VIII in 1539.

Meals, Food

On Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks, we visited the Myrtle Inn in Callander, Scotland, for a bite of lunch. There we met this nice lady having her one meal a day out. She was extremely concerned for us and kept asking if there was anything she could do for us. Little did she realize that her concern was one of the best things anyone could have done.

On the way to golf in Blairgowrie, Scotland, we stopped at a Scottish version of a drive-thru for a cup of coffee. We'd seen it at this farm before, but the next time we came by it was gone.

Shops, Shopping

This fishmonger set up at Nairn Harbour had some interesting items for sale. The real hit for dinner was brown crap claws with pasta. I guess the closest we have now to this kind of shopping is Swan's home delivery.

Here I am wishing and dreaming outside a watch shop in the Shambles area of York. Just think about having to change all those watches on Daylight Savings Day.

Street Photos

Street photos are grab shots which daily life in towns or villages. Here I had Anne pretend to focus on me, when I really wanted a shot of this interesting couple outside a tearoom in St Ives, southern England.

I thought I'd stick with the coffee shop/tearoom theme and show another grab of a couple in an English coffee shop. It seemed like an interesting first date where I got the feeling there wouldn't be a second.

CRASS COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: My third update of Golf in Scotland: The Hidden Gems has just been finished and is on sale on Amazon. I would show you a picture of the cover, but I haven't even received my copies yet. 

NEXT: We are taking a short hop to the coast for a couple of days and flowers should be nice soon, so maybe I'll have someone interesting for next time.

The First of 2020

Sea Lions on the Salishan Spit

It’s difficult to write a travel/photography blog when I’m not traveling and/or not taking pictures. This winter is one of those where things seem to get in the way of travel and photography—weather, family matters, health, etc. It’s been so long since the last post that I actually had somebody ask if there was going to be a next blog [Thanks Abbie.] This post will actually include some details (mostly about places to eat) of a recent three day trip to the Oregon coast and a selection of some of my favorite images that I haven’t shown before.

Newport and Florence. We found a four day/three night window for a trip down the coast starting with two nights in Newport followed by one night in Florence. It rained hard most of the first day 

and we hunted up some inside things to do. We did have a nice visit to Robert’s Books in the old Nelscott section of Lincoln City. 

This is one of our favorite bookstores and almost every coastal trip includes selling and buying of books at Robert’s. We did have lunch at the the Newport Cafe on the main drag through town (Hwy 101). It was the first time we had been there and it was so good (absolutely delicious fried oysters) that we went back for breakfast on our last day. 

After lunch we managed to get enough dry time to go out to the lighthouse on Yaquina head for a few pictures, 

but it was so windy and misty that only a few pictures were worth keeping. Dinner was at a local pub near the lighthouse, 

Szabo’s Seafood and Steak House. Szabo’s has had a good reputation for quite a while and lived up to it’s reputation this night. The special was a great dish of spaghetti and meatballs for $10.99.

The next morning we met our nephew Jon who lives in Newport for breakfast at the Coffee House on Bay Street (the harbour). Good breakfast and coffee, but better visiting time with Jon.  It was again stormy without being photogenic and we ending up spending a good deal of time in the local casino without going broke. Dinner was a light meal in our Worldmark condo unit at Scooner’s Landing. Our last morning in Newport was our second visit to Newport Cafe and a leisurely drive to Florence looking for possible photo stops without much success  We had better success with a coffee stop in Florence, 

Bridge in Florence over the Siuslaw River

The River Roasters, where we visited with a fellow writer for an hour. The shopping in Old Town was so good we had to make a stop at our parked car to drop off several jars of stuffed olives to take home. The best, though, was lunch at Lovejoy’s Tearoom near the Florence harbour. The tearoom had been recommended by friends Judy and John and was the find of the trip. 

Lovejoy’s is a quaint British-style tearoom with excellent lunches (I had sausage rolls and salad) and great service. After such a pleasant lunch, a later dinner at one of the local restaurants was just okay. 

Florence harbor at night

Since we were staying at the Three Rivers Hotel and Casino (good room, great price) and since we didn’t lose in the casino, we didn’t let the weak dinner bring us down.

The last day of the trip started at The Brown Hen in Florence, always a great place for breakfast, and ended with a long non-stop drive back to Canby. It was only three days and there weren’t many good photo ops, but we at least got in our first trip of 2020.

Some Favorite Photos.

1. Anne at the Tay River, Dunkeld, Scotland. The Tay is an outstanding fishing river and the bench is on the grounds of Dunkeld Cathedral.

2. Branklin Gardens in Perth, Scotland, in the fall. Branklin is a two acre garden inside the city and it always has something in bloom. We visit every trip.

3. Buchan Ness Lighthouse on Scotland’s east coast. Built by Robert Louise Stevenson’s father, the lighthouse is automated and the keeper’s cottages are now rented out as self-catering. We’ve stayed twice.

4. Buzz, our jeep-tour guide in Canyonlands National Park. He didn’t jump, but the cliff is where Thelma and Louise went over the edge.

5. Trees and the Kootenay River in Canada. Two years later and the entire copse was gone.

6. Anazasi (Ancient Ones) dwelling, Pueblo Bonita in the Chaco Canyon settlement. At one time this pueblo consisted of more than 600 rooms.

7. This scene was one of my favorite images from a three day stay in Rottenburg, Germany.The lady smiled at me and went about her gardening.

8. In the village of Glencoe in the Scottish highlands I saw this door and couldn’t resist taking several photos.

9. The Glenfiddich Distillery (Scotch whisky) is one of the largest in the world. This series of pot stills produce 10 million liters of single malt whisky a year.

10. This is an abstract image from an arch in the Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, NM. All the church is lovely, but I was most attracted to some of the details.

Bonus Photo: Kilchurn Castle at the edge of the Highlands in Scotland. The castle is surrounded on three sides by Loch Awe and there's a quarter mile path to the castle on the fourth side.

In Memory of my sister-in-law Beverly Jean (Holweger) Stryker, who loved seagull photos:

NEXT: Hopefully we’ll be traveling soon.

Victoria to Begin the Holidays

Victoria Parliament Building Decked Out for the Holidays

Holiday Harbour Lights

For the past three years we’ve gone to Victoria, BC, around the beginning of December as a way of celebrating our anniversary (Nov. 23) and getting a good start on the Christmas season. This year we added visiting with our good friends, Nick and Kathryn Delany, 

Kathryn and Anne in a small gallery in Sidney with Kathryn's art on the wall.

who have recently moved to a beautiful home in a development at Brentwood Bay near Butchart Gardens. 

View from the Delany's front window.

This year’s plan was to stay two nights with the Delanys after taking an early ferry from Port Angeles, then moving to our timeshare at Worldmark Victoria on the harbour and near town. 

Worldmark Victoria

The view of Fisherman's Wharf from our Worldmark balcony.

The Delanys, both outstanding photographers, planned a day of photo touring around their area as well as some outstanding meal, including rack of lamb for an American Thanksgiving in Canada. When in Victoria we planned some touring, some dining at our favorite spots, and lots of shopping.

Rather than a chronological narrative for this post, I thought I’d present the trip in topical fashion: food, photo touring, shopping, and…

We’re Lucky We Didn’t Gain a Bunch

We always eat well on our trips and this trip was no exception. Good meals started in Port Angeles our first night of the trip. We decided to try something different and we’d seen good reviews for Coyote BBQ Pub near the ferry terminal.

The restaurant is owned by the same people as Kokopelli Cafe, always a top rated restaurant in Port Angeles. Coyote BBQ was more cafe-style than a pub but the brisket sandwich was wonderful with a nice choice of house-made BBQ sauces. Our trip was off to a good beginning. I’ve mentioned the great meals we had at the Delanys, but they also took us to a fun find for lunch. Between photo stops we lunched at the Italian Kitchen at Grove Hall Farm in Duncan. Besides a specialty Italian market, the Kitchen serves delicious pizza and other Italian delights.  Another market to mention is in James Bay (one of the “neighborhoods” of Victoria). James Bay Thrifty is an upscale neighborhood grocery always crowded with locals and tourists (especially timeshare holidayers). Its butcher shop is superior—we stock up on the double-smoked bacon so we can bring a few pounds home—

Anne shopping for produce at James Bay Thrifty.

and the bakery and produce sections are both top notch. Even with the great food from Thrifty we still went out to the Beagle Pub in the Cook Street neighborhood. We've been to the Beagle several times before and know it has an interesting menu and serves good portions—it was a bonus that we could gets halves of cider instead of drinks too big for us weaklings.

We mostly ate bacon and sausage from Thrifty for breakfast, but we did go out once. Jam Cafe near Victoria’s Chinatown is a cafe not to miss. Funky atmosphere, good service, and a wild menu make this spot uber popular—check out the menu at www.jamcafes.com. 

Funky JAM Cafe

One last lunch needs to be mentioned. We met Nick and Katheryn again in our stay for a trip to Afternoon Tea at White Heather Tearoom in the Oak Bay Area.  The tearoom is quaint and nicely decorated with tea pots and cups. The Christmas Wee Bite is quite a spread. First, we needed to select our tea from about 25 choices—I had Mountain Berry. Next we had a three tiered (course) lunch brought to the table—scones, sandwiches, sweets. 

Afternoon Tea at White Heather Tearoom

The egg salad sandwiches on the second tier we the best, although everything was good.

It was more than any of us could eat, so much of the sweets tray was sent home with us.  At White Heather the Tea wasn’t as fancy a lunch as we’ve had at The Empress Hotel in downtown, but the food was as good, as plentiful, and half the price. We’ve been three times and they remembered us. Check them out at www.whiteheather-tearoom.com.

A Photo Tour of Victoria

Nick and Kathryn took us to two special photo stops in their area of the island. First, we drove to Goldstream Provincial Park—a large park on the west side of the island (16 km from downtown) with hiking trails, waterfalls, trees (mostly fir and red cedar), birds, and fish. The stream has a noted annual salmon run which attracts gulls and eagles which attract crowds of tourists. We were about a week late to see the eagles dining on the salmon, 

but it was both fascinating and gruesome to watch the gulls attack the dead fish. Along one of the trails and again near the entrance of the park we did get views of eagles in the trees,

but sadly no closeups.

About 40 km from Goldstream Park we did get up close and personal with mighty birds at The Raptors in Duncan. This is a sanctuary raising raptors in captivity and caring for the recovery of injured birds. 

Raptors such as bald eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, and owls are available for viewing on perches and in cages. Daily at 1:30 there is a flying demonstration designed both as informative and a photo op. 

The eagle has landed...on her arm.

Nick, Kathryn and I (as well as a couple of other photographers) had a great time trying  to photograph the beautiful birds in flight with our big lenses, while other audience had Bald Eagles, Harris Hawks, Great Horned Owls, Black Vultures, and Blue Falcons flying right over their heads. 

The staff control the flight of the birds most of the time—the owl went off script when it saw a bunny run from one bush to another. The owl went for the extra meal and the bunny barely escaped—a real wildlife moment. You can find out more about The Raptors at www.pnwraptors.com. 

Later in the week Anne and I visited Fort Rodd & Fisgard Lighthouse in Colwood, north of downtown. The fort is a 19th century artillery fort where we could walk among the the buildings, but they are only open for display on the weekends during off season. 

Fisgard Lighthouse from the fort.

Next to the fort is the 1860 built Fisgard Lighthouse. It’s available for viewing, but also is only open on weekends. The lighthouse was automated in 1929 and has a lovely location on an island connected to land by a walkable causeway. The light sits at the entrance of Esquimalt harbour  

A real Canadian Goose in Canada.

Our last photo tour was of the Royal BC Museum next to Parliament in Victoria. The museum hosted a special Maya Exhibit and Nick and Kathryn drove up to meet us there before Afternoon Tea. 

Portions of Mayan texts.

The Maya exhibit was interesting, but there was almost too much information to take in on one visit. 

Mask in the First People's exhibit.

Though, it was fun to photograph both it and the museum’s First Peoples exhibit.

A Grand Place for Christmas Shopping

Anne and I love shopping in Victoria, especially around Christmas time. The downtown stores are interesting and festive and we have fun finding Christmas presents for each other. 

Ann trying on a hat in the Irish Shop. She got this one for Christmas.

This year we each got hats from the Irish shop, Anne found earrings in couple of places, 

Downtown Victoria window display.

Victoria Street Artist

I got a great deal on a photo book, and we both got special Lamy rollerball pens.  We also enjoy wandering the shops in the neighborhood such as Cook Street Village and Oak Bay Street. 

Latte and pasty at Demitasse Cafe in Oak Bay neighborhood.

Oh Dear Me! Those deer aren't statues.

Wild meat sticks in a local butcher shop. All we had were delicious, though the crocodile had quite a bite.

In fact, while shopping in the James Bay neighborhood I saw an ad for a concert on Sunday afternoon at the Oak Bay United Church. It turned out that the 3:00 concert called “Gathered by the Fire—Ancient Music Celebrating Yule” featuring the Banquo Folk Ensemble was one of the highlights of our week. 

The group, formed in 1998, consists of five members who sing and play early instruments including recorders, guitars, hardy gurdies, citterns, bag pipes, and a variety of percussives (if that’s a word). The small church was a perfect  venue for the group and sound was glorious.

The Finest at Sea food cart near Fisherman's Wharf serves great fish tacos.

The entire trip was enjoyable as usual. We were blessed with good friends, good food,  decent weather, and a smattering of good photos.

WE WISH A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO READ THE BLOG. MAY 2020 BE A GREAT YEAR FOR US ALL.

NEXT: I’ll be working to find interesting photos and topics for the 165th post to this blog which will begin its 7th year of publishing.