Shalom!

Greetings from Israel!

I am having a wonderful time here, although I haven't had much time to write on my blog. I have so many stories and pictures - so hopefully one day (probably after I am back home) I will share them here. I have had trips around the country, seeing so many amazing sights and eating, eating, and more eating of wonderful food. I think if there is a place on earth that I could gain some weight... this would be it.
Also I must send a Happy Birthday to my blogs biggest fan. Happy Birthday Mama Honey! I am so confused with time zones that maybe it is still the birthday somewhere on this planet. Who knows. I am probably late - but I will call it "extending the celebration".
Well - love to all and I hope to write and share my stories soon.

leaving on a jetplane

For those of you who don't know, I am about to leave the country for a couple of weeks!  I am very excited and a little nervous.  I am leaving later today and I still have some packing to do for my big vacation.  Not only have I had this trip coming up, but I moved to a different apartment over the past few days - so I have been very busy.  When I do things, I like to do them all, I guess!

I don't know exactly what my internet situation will be, but most likely my next post, which happens to be my 100th post on this blog, will be from Israel.

 I am looking forward to seeing the sacred sites of Jerusalem as well as relax on the beautiful beaches of Tel Aviv.  Until next time, Shalom!

 

another one bites the dust

Sadly, I didn't get to try any potatoes, but I was there!

beastly sightings

One thing that we saw quite a few of in Yellowstone Park was Bison (aka Buffalo). The first one that we saw happened to be strolling down the main road through the park. Yes, the bison was the one strolling down the road. Cars pulled over, out of the way, and he walked right on past. He didn't seem to mind the people at all. He knew it was his territory and I think it probably gave him a little ego boost to feel like he was being attacked by the paparazzi. Shutters were snapping left and right. Here he comes:

And there he goes:

These are pretty massive animals, as you can see in comparison to the cars. The park even supplied us with a flier warning that "Many visitors have been gored by buffalo. They can weigh 2000 pounds and sprint 30 mph." I had that in mind as I took those pictures from INSIDE that car. Karen, on the other hand, who was a runner back in the day, took her chances and got some great pictures from outside the vehicle.
Here is another buffalo that we saw. He was not such an attention hog. He stayed a bit away from the road and snacked on some grass. Nice buffalo, he was.

Home (not) On the Range

After quite a long day, I arrived at my apartment in New York late this afternoon. I should not complain. My original flight was supposed to leave Montana around 7 at night, arriving tomorrow morning somewhere in the 6:00 hour. The rest of the family was leaving at 6AM and I had to go to the airport with them - so I smiled and begged and forked over some money and got on a flight this morning. Whew - I was not wanting to sit in that little airport for over 12 hours. Not my top choice of how to spend a day. But I took back my Monday and busted my way back to the east coast.

Seeing as I took over 500 pictures on the trip, I have plenty to blog about. Hopefully I will stay focused and share many of those pictures and stories over the next week. As long as the New York busy-bee monster doesn't pull me under.

As I was browsing through my pictures this evening, the following picture stood out to me.
This picture seems so relaxing after a long day. When I look at it I can almost feel the warmth of the sun as it lowers to the horizon. The light is calming and the air is clean. I played around with cropping the picture a few different ways which also made nice pictures, but I like the little bug flying away to the left. I had to leave it as it was. Enjoy this one and stay tuned for more stories from the trip!

Wild Wild West

I am in Montana! Met up with the family yesterday after a powerless night with little sleep and a long day in flight. Today we drifted over to Yellowstone National Park. I made my first venture into Wyoming, so I will have to update my "states visited" map.



We are planning on seeing Old Faithful gyser tomorrow, but I did see a lot of spewing and bubbling heat today. The first hydrothermal activity that we experienced kind of reminded me of a natural hot tub. The water was HOT! Make some coffee out of that thing!

Running?

Am I completely out of my mind? I think I may be. Sure, there are several reasons why someone may venture to call me a little crazy, but most recently it is because I have started "running". Maybe I should give myself some credit and really call in running, but I'm not quite there yet. Where did this new thing come from? Well - I think I am hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Bad influences - encouraging something like this.

Well, I bought myself some running shoes and a couple of running outfits thinking that would turn me into a runner. I must admit - those shoes are pretty nice. They feel like I am walking on little clouds compared to the nonsupporting shoes I wear most of the time. At first they almost felt like little trampolines pushing me along....of course that feeling quickly went away.

I live close to a track, so that is where the running incidents took place. I like the track so I can monitor my distance (or lack thereof). There is also a pretty nice view of Manhattan across the river from the track. I kind of like that. The first time I went running I did a little over 2 miles. I was super impressed that I made it that far. I thought surely I would die after the first lap. My body is not used to physical activity - unless you count shopping and fast walking on the sidewalks. This run left me with some pretty nice leg cramps. What is that saying about no pain, no gain? I was gaining, let me tell you.
Second attempt: was pushed to "up the anty" but that didn't happen. I barely clocked in my two miles before I could think of nothing more than WALKING back to my apartment and ordering a big pizza... which I did. :)
The legs are feeling better now and maybe I will get out there one more time this week. We'll see. I guess it would be nice to get some use out of my new shoes! Baby steps, right???

what a view...

This picture jumped out at me today. It was taken in the summer of 2006, when I visited Alaska for the first time with Brian. This is from the beautiful Alyeska Ski Resort. Such amazing views from the top of the mountain. I especially enjoyed the old, rusty-looking ski lift, resting in the summer. Such a peaceful place.

twisted tree tuesday

I really like this tree in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I love how it twists out. This picture was taken before the leaves and flowers were really in bloom. I wonder how it looks now?

Wild and Wonderful

Happy West Virginia Day!!!

What's in a name???

I am up too late, doing random things on my computer. Okay - I've actually spent the past hour or so looking online for apartments. Definitely NOT my most favorite thing to do. If anyone out there knows of an amazing, beautiful, inexpensive apartment at a great location in New York City (Brooklyn included), please let me know ASAP! Thanks!
Since my brain is turned to mush from the apartment hunt I decided to do something random, like see how many people in the US have my name. Low and behold, howmanyofme.com can tell me something like that!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 7 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Tada!!! This site also tells me that my first name, the 292nd most popular name, is 99.9% female. Okay -- I'd like to meet that .1% male with my name. Hmmm....
I did the search on my immediate family names too. Out of all of us Mom is the only one that doesn't have a few duplicates running around out there somewhere. In fact, she is one of a kind: an original. How cool is that?
Go see how many people you share your name with!

Way out West!

Next week Dave is coming for a visit! I am really looking forward to hanging out with him because I have not seen him in about a year! I hate that part of growing up and making friends in so many different places. We get spread out and rarely get to see each other. On the other hand, it makes it nice when I have a chance to travel because I have good friends scattered about, so I always have someone to go visit.
Last year Dave took me to California. It was my first time to California and we had a wonderful time. I got to see his family, meet his friends, and see some friends that we had not seen in a while. Here is a picture of us at Yosemite National Park by a huge uprooted tree.

And here I am under a tree called the "clothespin". You can't see the top of the tree in the picture because the tree is HUGE. But can't you see how it got its name?

Yosemite was so beautiful. I love seeing all the wonderful parks and sights across the country. Even Frisson, my traveling penguin, wanted get a slice of the photo action!