Photo Board Assignment: Summer Scavenger Hunt, June-September, 2012

[My2Qtz0205]

Non-Chickadee Goldfinch munching on some Noshery, coneflower seeds

How about this Fiberoptic Mohawk? Perfect!

Would this count as Lightning?

A very, very large Bumblebee

And an equally large Ladybug

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Tadpole, seen in here with the other life cycles of a frog

 

[pednurse]

Antiquated: An old car along the original Route 66, where it used to cut through the Painted Desert in the Petrified Forest National Park

In the Kitchen: My DH making pie crust dough in our friends' kitchen when we stopped in for a visit while on our vacation (he was greatly missing a full-sized kitchen at this point after spending 3 1/2 weeks in the RV!)

Navajo: The Four Corners Monument, USA---where 4 states meet in one location. It's on a Navajo reservation & booths with Navajo products surround the monument.

Ozark: We drove through the edge of the Ozarks on our trip---the mountains in the distance in this picture

Welcome: The Welcome sign at the Four Corners

 

[pednurse]

Lazy, Hazy: While definitely not lazy when driving through a sandstorm, it was certainly very hazy as it reduced visibility to almost nothing! Scary!

Century: Arizona is celebrating 100 years of statehood this year

Tourist Map: The first is the map on the door of our RV that shows where we've been---all this summer on our grand adventure! The second is a US map showing the route we took (circles indicate places along the way where we stopped & toured)

 

[Twigs]

Wow! What a great vacation Pednurse!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I agree!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pednurse - Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics. That is one heck of a road trip and I'm totally envious. How long did it take you to do that trek?

 

[kofslinky]

I am still enjoying everyone's pictures!

Kofslinky I am so jealous of your lightning shot! I have been trying to get one all summer. Last summer and the one before we just had storms where the lightning lit up the sky, but there wasn't a bolt that you could see. This summer we have had so many, but I just haven't gotten the timing right, or I was aiming a a spot and then the lightning was moving with the storm.

Thanks so much Twigs! It was pure luck on my part. This was the first summer I had a dSLR and I was really excited to try and get some shots. Now I'm hooked and can't wait for another storm to roll around!

Great shots everyone! I'm really enjoying them all, and now I'm starting to get excited for the nest Hunt. (It probably helps that I'll be back in WDW at the beginning of October, and I'm hoping to get all sorts of neat shots while I'm there... )

 

[Cafeen]

I gotta say, I'm a bit jealous of the big tour around the states. I'm lucky that I can get off for a week (and a couple days) in September ><. One of these days...

On another note, I may very well have some more "What my [region] is known for" pics coming soon. Issac is bearing down on us and the track keeps shifting between the central panhandle of FL (about 100 miles to my east) and right now is centered on Biloxi, MS (about 50 miles to my west). We'll have to see how things go, but at least it's not supposed to be that strong. Wish me luck! (As a note, I live in a solid apartment building, about 10-15 miles inland and uphill, across the street from a major hospital, so everything on that end will be fine).

 

[pednurse]

Thanks! Glad everyone's enjoyed the pics (this is only the tip of the iceberg---I took 3,136 pics! oh my! lol). This trip was a couple of years in the planning---we've never done anything like it before. I'm a school nurse, so have the summers off. DH saved up his vacation time over a couple of years to the max allowed. We left June 1st (amusingly, due to an unexpected problem with our water pump that we needed to stop to fix, our first day we only made it ~10 miles up the road to Prophetstown State Park for our first night's stay), and returned July 1st. The final stats are 6583 miles, 31 days, 20 states, 9 national parks & monuments, 4 time zones.....& more money spent on gas than I want to think about! LOL Our kids are 14 & 10, and for the most part did very well.....no big fights between them until week 3. LOL The long stretch from the Four Corners to Arkansas was a bit brutal & the kids decided they were mad at us & moved to the back of the RV---the quietest part of the entire trip!

 

[Twigs]

Stay safe Cafeen!

Pednurse that surely is a trip your kids will remember forever! We took a long trip when my boys were 11, it wasn't nearly as long as yours, but its one we still talk about. We flew to San Francisco, then went to Yosemite Nat'l Park, Sequoia Nat'l Park, Anaheim (had to go to disneyland!!), San Diego to the Grand Canyon then to Las Vegas to fly home.


Here are some mire I got for the hunt:

Welcome

Welcome and Tourist Map

Noshery

The Elbow Room below has the greatest marinated steaks and is called the elbow room, because it is small inside and the tables are very close together, and it is always crowded.

Grapevine you can see the grapes are getting ready to be picked

 

[Twigs]

Tall Ship

Yachts

Anchor

What is it?

An Osprey landing in its nest and another sitting on a pole on Shelter Island

Lazy

Splash

Best Friend is In the Kitchen

Best Friends

 

[Twigs]

Mohawk

Hazy

Fair Food - a Decadent burrito!

Irate - my poor Gizzi has to go to the vet every 3 days for sub-cutaneous fluids as she has end stage kidney disease. She is doing really well right now, but hates to go!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Allan - Stay safe.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Something Your City is Known For....Festivals and Major Events


This weekend's festival was the kick-off for the Spring Events.

The Wattle Festival celebrates the bloom of those golden puffs of delights and heralds in Spring!

And there are always plenty to see and enjoy.

As always, festivals such as these bring a wealth of scav hunt bounty! Some of which, I don't even have to stretch!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Wattle Festival Food

Decadent

Peppermint

 

[PrincessInOz]

I even found me some categories I have yet to find in Melbourne.....


Arrowhead

Double Decker

Suspension Bridge

 

[PrincessInOz]

Things for sale?


Hot Air Balloon candle holders

LadyBug hooks

Zig Zag patterned quilts

I even found some candles, complete with Bumble Bee

 

[PrincessInOz]

There were a number of Antique vehicles on display.

For the hunt regulars....I couldn't resist taking this picture of the motorcycle with sidecar.

And I didn't even bother fighting this stretching urge.....Pet Riding Shotgun, complete with the Patriotic flag.

 

[PrincessInOz]

A couple more categories....

This dream catcher might fit under Navajo

I'm going with the Soulful Chickadee with this one.