Gotta love vacations!

We are heading out to eastern Tennessee tomorrow for ten days.  I am so looking forward to getting away and I've rented a 70-200mm lens for the trip.  Hopefully, I'll have some great images to post when I get back.  In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy these, from the May portfolio book.

April portfolio book

Portfolio books

I have recently discovered these, having purchased a lens from Adorama.  They sent me a coupon code for a free 8x8 photo book, so I've been making one a month since March.  Some of these may be repetitive, but I thought I'd showcase them and draw even more attention to myself!

These are from March, 2011:

Take a hike

We went up to Tilden Park the other day to find some fire roads that might make decent walking trails.  Did we pay attention to the fact that trails in Tilden, being located in the East Bay Hills, would very likely have some ups and downs to them?  Of course not!  What's a little hill between friends?  Quite a lot apparently, seeing as I think we got about a half-mile up a very gentle slope before giving up and turning around.  Of course, we blamed it all on the gnats and the ticks, which made it "unbearable" to be out there any longer.  Oh, we are such out-of-shape wimps!!!  I did get a couple of decent photos, though.

Safari West

My friend Amy reminded me that I had not posted this adventure here yet.  At the end of April, on a perfect Spring day, my sisters, my nieces, and my parents joined us for a Safari West Adventure.  For the uninitiated, and I'm sure there are a few, Safari West is a large ranch outside of Santa Rosa, in Northern California, which has become a home for all kinds of wildlife that you normally don't see in this country.  Except in zoos.  Which I guess this sort of is, except for the wide open spaces.  If you've been to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, it's similar to that.

After a short walking tour amongst the flamingos, the cheetahs, the primates, and the birds, we all piled onto a jeep that would take us to see the larger animals.

The Jeep took us into an enclosure with all kinds of four-legged beasts, including a very friendly giraffe named Bulldozer (Dozer, for short).  He followed us along the rail, stopped when we did, and even kissed my niece who was sitting on top of the Jeep! 

They also had a pair of Northern white rhinos, which are apparently on the verge of extinction in the wild.  It's very sad, but these two were obviously very good friends.

There were a multitude of varieties of antelope, pronghorn, and other related creatures, including a zebra with two different shades of stripes that I had never seen before.

We finished off the day with a barbecue lunch and champagne.  It was awesome!