I was all set to do this challenge of a photo per week and my world was dumped upside down with a LOT of travel. Luckily I was driving and all the camera gear could come with me! I am playing catch up now. I had too many photos to choose from! Anyhow, I realize I only had put week one in….and we are in week seven now. So here are weeks 2-6! Eeks! It is already Friday and I need to get a photo done for this week! Okey Dokey! Gotta brainstorm a bit on this one!

Week#6 A bald eagle watching the world go by from his perch on a tree…taken in Omaha, NE

So my husband, as a former Air Force pilot, really loves bald eagles. He can spot them so easily and I have more than once nearly gotten whiplash when he has slammed on the brakes to see if that clump in the trees is actually a bald eagle. Nine out of ten, it is. He has eagle eyes. (see what I did there…) Nebraska actually has a large population of migratory eagles. There are a lot of eagles that nest here in our cold winters (which I guess they prefer). Who knew? There are places in the Omaha metro that you can spot bald eagles. You can also choose to travel to locations with dams especially, that eagles like to hang out at in large groups this time of year. So below I have some photos of bald eagles. Some don’t look like bald eagles because they are fledglings…teenagers. They don’t get their classical look of a white head and tail feathers until they are about 4 years old. Some of these photos were taken locally and many were taken at the Gavin’s Point Dam in Yankton, SD, on the border of Nebraska. All of them were taken in the bitter cold, because that’s when they like to be out and active. I have a very strong telephoto lens that I use for these shots. Obviously it is easier when they are sitting still versus flying!

We have been to Moab before….traveling from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas and back for Black Belt Seminars with karate. However, that was a long time ago and in the heat of the summer…with two active elementary school boys that I had to keep my eyes on or they would fall off a cliff or climb up something they couldn’t get down. Honestly, this was the first 15 years of motherhood with those two. A lot of fun and adventure…heavy on the adventure…and a lot of it a blur. This time it was just Rich and me. It was January. Not the time of year that most people venture out to National Parks. However, I am beginning to be a big fan of winter visits to parks. Although we have a National Parks pass, most of these parks are not manned during the winter. There is just not enough traffic to warrant the man hours. It wasn’t that cold. If you are from Florida, it may have been chilly, but Nebraska weather makes you hearty. We rarely even wore jackets. I didn’t have to wait for people to get out of my shots. That is huge. I do have some people in some of my photos of arches, but I did this by design to show the size of the arch. We stayed for a day and a half and hit Arches a few times (that is where I took the astrophotography photos) and also Canyonlands National Park, which I had never heard of. Both of them have gorgeous vistas and the red rocks with snow on them were particularly stunning, I thought. Of course, I am a winter person! The sunsets were amazing. The first day was crystal clear skies and the second had clouds…so I had a lot of God’s wonderful creation to work with. If you don’t know my husband, Rich, he is a big kid in a 53 year old’s body. He is always up for an adventure and something that makes my heart leap into my throat. On this trip, I met him challenge for challenge of sitting out on a ledge over a several hundred foot drop. I am not fond of heights, but was not going to let him out-do me this time. We were lucky enough to bump into another couple at a gorgeous arch and have them take our picture together. Funny enough, we had met two couples while in Moab and it was so deserted that we bumped into both couples in town and in both parks. If you want a little less stress with a National Park visit, go in the winter! Just make sure the roads are open! Moab is such a great place to go…I felt like we were on another planet a lot of the time.

We quickly stopped in Las Vegas. It was on the way and we could put Lily on a plane to fly back to Nebraska directly so she wouldn’t miss any more school. Rich played in a couple of poker tournaments and Lily and I went for a 6 mile jaunt down the strip and back people watching. We happened on an open mall and they were all decorated for Chinese New Year, so that was a wonderful find. I didn’t carry my camera with me, so most of these were from my phone. We had a good time and were able to put some miles on our legs after being in the car for so many hours. So Lily hopped on a plane headed for home and Rich and I kept driving…on to Moab, Utah for our next stop.

To break up the drive a bit heading back to Nebraska, we stopped at Sequoia National Park (then realized due to a recent snowfall that only 6 miles were open to the public!) and then went on to King’s Canyon National Park to see if we could actually see some giant sequoia trees. We had a great time and although the parks are actually connected, due to snow-packed roads, we couldn’t pass through. We decided the nearly 2 hour drive would be worth it and spent time in both parks. The second day, they had opened Sequoia National Park further, so we went through there again before heading out. Here are some of our photos from those parks and the motel we stayed at. They had sheep and goats and lots of hummingbirds as well as a beautiful hiking path that made me feel like I was in Scotland with all the boulders sticking out of the ground. The weather was pleasant and although we had a lot of fog when we were off the mountains, it really made for some cool photos. We even got to see the sun set above the clouds on our last day, which was absolutely gorgeous. I am a sucker for old barn photos and there were several on our way back and forth between parks. Tons of fruit and nut tree orchards as well. Interesting fact….we found HUGE pinecones and figured they were from the giant sequoia trees. Nope! They have small, tight cones. The large cone from the smaller sugar pine. The redwood trees actually have even tinier pinecones than the sequoias. I have a photo of Lily holding a sequoia cone. Sorry for the amount of photos…but know for each one, there is 5-10 I am not showing you. I had such a marvelous time!

My youngest son, Tim, has really been on the move the last two years! 18 months ago Rich and Lily dropped him off in Fort Collins, CO. He was there for a year before we moved him to Morgantown, West Virginia. Six months later, he is on the move again to California. Each time I leave him off at a new place where he knows no one…and doesn’t know his way around, etc., it makes my heart squeeze for him. I have done that so many times in my life, but I usually had family with me to help ease the awkwardness of moving to a new place. He does not, and although I know he is doing what he loves, I always have that hopeful momma voice in me, hoping he’ll quickly make connections and get into a routine that will allow him to start to feel at home faster.

Tim had been doing a lot of work online trying to sublet his apartment in West Virginia (his lease isn’t up until July) and then finding a place he could afford near Stanford University. That was the real kicker. Do you know how expensive it is to live in towns around Stanford University? Think basic studio apartment…now think of a cost in your mind….living two towns away…a 20-30 minute drive was $2500. Yikes. Not in the budget! He managed to find a website where he could apply to rent a room in a house…and found one in East Palo Alto (about a 15 minute drive to his building on campus) He is paying $1000/month to rent a room in this beautiful home. He really isn’t there much as he has settled into a routine of leaving around 5:15 each morning and returning home around 6:30 or 7:00 each evening. He has some free time in the afternoons but tends to use that time to take a walk or work out so he doesn’t have to leave the campus. Gas is expensive too…as high as $5.29/gallon which is INSANE. We got him settled in his new digs and then drove to Stanford University to get a look at the campus. It is very old and very big. It is also very beautiful. Tim purchased a Stanford U shirt to wear for his first day of work the next day. Since he was hitting the ground running the next day, and we couldn’t find an inexpensive place to stay, we rounded out the day building a daybed frame and bookshelves and helping him unpack most of his belongings. We had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Caribbean food place nearby which was SO YUMMY once we finally found it! We then took off for our next stop near Sequoiah and Kings Canyon National Parks. Here are some photos of Stanford plus a few coming into the area on our drive in the fog.

I told you before that after Tim and I took a 2-day break and let a snow storm pass by, we gathered up Lily and Rich and then tag-teamed it to Park City, Utah. That was another long drive…13 hours. We stayed the next day to allow Rich and Tim to ski and Lily and I went to the Ice Castle nearby and to photograph some places nearby I had heard about. One is the White Barn (or McPolin barn) and then nearer to the ice castle, Tate Barn. I had a great day tootling around the area with Lily. We ate at a little hole in the wall place that had an entire wall of painted chalk board filled with all the sandwich selections. I tried something different. It isn’t something that I would make at home necessarily, but it was different. Take a slice of brown whole wheat bread, put some thinly sliced turkey on it, top with thinly sliced green Granny Smith apples (raw) and top it with provolone cheese and put it in a toaster oven until the cheese is all melty. Very interesting taste and texture. Not bad…just different. We all had a great day and a much-needed break from the car! The first few shots are from our drive from Nebraska to Utah.

Most of the states I had to travel through to get to Tim and back home I call the vowel states. You know….Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio….gotta throw in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but I was barely in those states! Anyhow, Tim had some errands to run during the day and a half I was there, so I went out and about searching for something interesting to photograph. Other photos are from the vowels states I drove through and random cool things I saw on the drive….which was really long! I had to stop due to white out conditions on the way out there…but we drove the whole way back in one day to beat a snow storm in Nebraska. He only spent 6 months in Morgantown, West Virginia, but he worked very hard, came out with a master’s degree and a job offer at Stanford, CA!

One of my goals this year was to try my hand at astrophotography…taking photos of the dark sky and try to capture stars and the milky way. I figured a balmy night out in a Nebraska field somewhere would be where it would happen. However, while we were in Moab on our trip back to Nebraska from California, I read that Arches National Park is one of the designated Dark Sky photography places in the world. We were there for 2 nights. We went the first night….thankfully, as the next evening had clouds (great for sunset photography….not for astrophotography!) It was cold and so so so quiet as we were the only ones in the park taking night photos. It takes about 30 seconds for each photo….then you have to tweak things, so it is a long process. You are also doing everything in the dark….you are only supposed to use red lights if you need to illuminate anything. I took a lot of photos and Rich was really patient and helpful. Only a few turned out decent as I wasn’t really prepared for doing this, but wanted to jump on the opportunity to try. There were so many stars out! It felt I was a first grade art project and someone was sprinkling glitter over me. It was like nothing I have ever seen. I am so glad I got to share that with Rich. It was just so amazing. Most of what you are seeing here was visible to the naked eye. Here’s my starter astrophotography shots! I will try it again!

Today is my 51st birthday! If you have followed me long enough, you know that making it to 50 was one of my life goals. I managed to do that and now each birthday is just gravy….something special. I am thankful for not just each birthday, but each day that I am allowed to live.

My oldest son, Joe, came up from Kansas City last night to surprise me with a 24 hour Valentine and birthday visit. The weather is supposed to be stellar today – 63 degrees (compared to last year’s -15). I think we’ll head out for a nice walk around a lake this afternoon before he has to head back.

I need to make another short-term goal. Rich managed to get tickets to the opening Husker game against Northwestern at the end of August. That will be it. Why is this so special? Well, if you aren’t a Nebraskan, you might not know. First off, Husker football is a religion here. Even if they haven’t had a winning season in several years. Second off…and most importantly….this game is being played in Dublin, Ireland! Rich and I have never been to Ireland and I can’t wait! My camera is itching to take it all in! We may even make a quick stop in Norway to see some old stomping grounds and some friends!

I do have a long term goal….to be able to see Lily graduate from high school in May of 2023 and to move to our home in Montana shortly thereafter. We are in the process of buying CAD drawings now and meeting with architects to tweak a few things before getting bids from local builders. Can’t wait to have a plan and a timeline! It won’t be a palace, but all my kids can visit at the same time and each have a room…so that is the plan! It will have gorgeous views of mountains and be a 25 minute drive to the west entrance of Glacier National Park….so there will be room for visitors to come and enjoy the beauty of it all.

Very short term goal for me is to get my photographs uploaded from my trip to and fro last month and my field excursions to photograph eagles in our region. I am finally caught up processing them and will start sharing shortly!

Thanks to everyone who made this birthday wonderful already! I started getting messages from friends from Singapore last night….from England and Germany and Norway during the night….and so many texts and messages from all over the U.S. already this morning. I am feeling the love and really appreciate all the heartfelt messages. I am truly blessed to have lived such a wonderful life and been surrounded by such wonderful people. My cup overflows!