....sunsets!

I L.O.V.E sunsets! When I was in high school, my best friend and I would drive across town, through the hills and down a country road in hope to catch the sun slipping past the mountains at just the right moment.  This passion/hobby of mine stayed with me way past those great sunset adventures in high school (truthfully, we still get caught up in the moment and have been known to go on a little sunset chase when we're together) and to this day I will grab my camera and jump in the car hoping to see a great sunset. In fact, throughout the day I'll check to see what the clouds in the west are doing as I try to determine if there will be a good sunset that evening. 

In this post I thought I'd share some of my favorite sunset photos and I'm warning you here - they are all my favorite so get ready to see lots of orange sky.  Speaking of an orange sky, a former pastor of mine likes to say that "orange is God's favorite color" because that's the color He made the sunset.

Many of these photos were taken just around the corner from where we live, but as you'll see I've included some of the favorites from our travels.  I hope you enjoy my obsession with sunsets! 
Love 
Amy 

This was taken from Point Fermin Park which is near where we live.  

Taken from White Point Park, also close to where we live.  

Sometimes I miss a really great ocean view of the sunset, so this was taken from our backyard.  

At Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes, CA 

Pt. Fermin Park 

I took this photo from the public trails on a resort property called Terranea. 

While the sunset isn't the best in this photo, I thought it was so interesting to see the contrast of the dark rain and the bright sun.  

Last year my husband and I travelled to Alabama for work and I took this photo from the hotel where we stayed. 

This photo was also taken in Alabama; if you could brave the humidity the sunsets were beautiful! 

The Grand Canyon has some amazing sunsets and you can take a shuttle bus way out to the rim and watch the sun go down! 

This photo was taken in Kauai, Hawaii 

Also taken in Kauai, Hawaii. Believe it or not, there are very few places on this island where you can clearly see the sun slip past the horizon.  

This was take in Virginia on one of my sunset adventures with my best friend.  We were coming back from a vacation and she made a little detour so I could grab this shot.  

There is a beach on the central coast of California where you can just drive onto the sand (hence the tire tracks) and that is where I snapped this pic.  It is magical to watch a sunset there.  

The same beach as the previous photo - Pismo Beach, CA 

Also at Pismo Beach, where you can find horses too! 

My mom took this photo in Morro Bay, CA and I just love it! She is a talented photographer and I love the colors and the composition in this shot.  

Another great photo taken by my mom! 

My mom snapped this beautiful photo by the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle.  Isn't is neat how you can see the sunset through the pillars? 

A gorgeous Maryland sunset adventure with my best friend, Kim.  

This photo was taken earlier this week around the corner from where we live! 

.......Port of L.A. STRIKE!

We live next door the the Port of Los Angeles, one of the biggest shipping ports on the west coast, maybe even the world.  This means that when the LA smog has cleared and we can see everything, we are treated to a parade of ocean traffic.  One day I would love to sit on one of the many benches here on base and just watch the boats and sea faring vessels slowly come into port.  Most of the ocean travelers we see are large vessels; cargo ships, cruise boats, oil tankers etc.... but the occasional tall ship or sail boat drifts by every once in a while.  Recently, as you may have heard, there has been a strike and as a result most of the commercial port traffic came to a screeching halt.  In case you haven't heard about this strike you can read about it in the articles listed below. 

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2015/02/09/17894/ports-of-la-and-long-beach-see-worst-congestion-si/


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports-labor-20150218-story.html#page=1


http://www.wsj.com/articles/los-angeles-port-workers-community-rebound-after-labor-strife-ends-1424803103

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my photos from the Port of Los Angeles and the traffic jam of container vessels we can see from our neighborhood.  

Normally (that is, pre-strike) the port and Pacific Ocean beyond the breakwater look like this.  Generally peaceful, save for a few renegade waves and those pesky oil rigs in the distance.  I took this picture with my long lens just a few steps away from our backyard.  

A little over a year ago, we took a cruise and sailed out of the Port of L.A. to this incredible view.  Notice the one lonely container vessel on the horizon.  It is not uncommon to see one of two ships waiting offshore to get called into port, after all L.A. is a very big shipping port, but the strike brought the number of waiting ships way up.  

Here you can see the numbers beginning to pile up.  I took this photo before Christmas.  

The following photos are all taken from various spots around the Port of Los Angeles and San Pedro (where we live) and show just how many ships are parked off shore.  The fuzzier photos were taken on typical smoggy L.A. days.  

Some of these vessels have been waiting offshore for weeks now and I often wonder how the crew of each ship is doing.  The majority of the ships are from overseas, so I find myself asking if the people onboard have enough food, fuel and other supplies.  After all, when this whole mess started most of the ships were halfway across the pacific- it isn't as though they could suddenly pull up to a ocean-side rest stop and ask for a BigMac! 

Here are a couple of up close and personal photos - I'm always amazed at the sheer size of these things! Amazing to think something that large and heavy can be powered across oceans.  Of course, when you are in the middle of an ocean on a cruise ship, you quickly realize that the once gigantic looking ship you're on, suddenly is a tiny speck compared to the vastness of the sea.  

These are some of my favorite photos from my chronicling of recent port activity.  I love the night shot because the port really does look vibrant and alive when all the hard machinery and sturdy steel is basking in a fluorescent glow. 

If you look closely in the shot below you can see just how many ships are still waiting at sea, and this photo was taken just today! 

Well I hope you've enjoyed my little recap of the activity down here at the Port of Los Angeles! 

Love,

Amy 

........Canada Part 2

Hello readers! Well, the holidays came in with a rush and out with a rush, hence my lack of posts.  So now, I'm back and I'll pick up right where we left off! 

One of the main things Canada boasted about was wildlife sightings. Seriously, almost every highway and scenic by-way (which is basically any road in the Banff area) had signs about "possible wildlife viewing" and all the tour guides and brochures had similar promises.  We were so excited! Unfortunately, it took us a while to find the Canadian animals we heard tell of. We even took an 5+ hour road trip just to see a moose! Just kidding - we went to see waterfalls, glaciers, lakes and then happened upon a moose! Anyway, enjoy these photos of the marvelous Canadian wildlife we enjoyed while up north.  

Love,
Amy 

On our way to the airport we took a side trip through another part of Canmore, and we were rewarded when we happened across a herd of elk! This little guy was just hanging out waiting for us! 

These huge ravens were everywhere! 

Canadian traffic jam.  

This group of big horn sheep blocked our way for a little bit. Watching them navigate the mountain cliff next to our car was incredible! 

During our longest road trip, we finally saw a moose! We saw four actually, this was the best photo I got.  There was momma moose with her baby and later down the road we saw a bull moose and his lady friend.  These animals are HUGE! 

One day while I was driving around Banff, I saw an elk grazing- just hanging out .  I watched him for a bit and then he walked into a bunch of trees and just sat down! I was able to use my telephoto lens to capture this photo from the car.  If I hadn't seen him sit down in the trees, I never would have noticed him there.   

This was taken right off the highway at dusk when you can see herds of elk grazing by the road.  The fence visible in the photo lines the highway so animals don't cross the road and get hit.  

We got to see this special display just as we were leaving town! 

Elk have the run of the town in Banff and this photo is exhibit A.  This guy was at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel! We ran into him as we were leaving, he was just on his was up some stairs to rub his antlers on this tree - oh, Canada.  

This photo has a story behind it.  The very first day we explored Banff, we saw this majestic animal grazing close to downtown.  We quickly pulled over, rolled down the windows and started snapping photos - we were like wildlife paparazzi.  For a while he was content to be the center of attention and then all of a sudden he snorted at us with a great puff of air and turned around! What nerve! It was very dramatic as you could could see his breath when he snorted - if this scene was in a movie, it would have been in slow motion.  This whole incident is now a joke between all of us - if we don't like something, we just snort at it and turn around.  

......Canada

I can't believe it's almost been a month since I last posted! I'm so sorry for the delay.  We recently took a vacation to Alberta, Canada where, among other things, I took 1,979 photos so you see, I had a lot of sorting out to do before I started this blog post! 

A while ago our dear friends asked if we'd like to take a vacation with them, they were celebrating a wedding anniversary and decided the more the merrier.  After tossing around ideas we happily landed on Banff in Alberta, Canada.  The photos we saw in advance seemed almost too good to be true; snow capped mountains, fancy hotels, turquoise lakes, wildlife and lakes galore and you know what? It really was all those things and more. Because I have so many photos to share with you I'll get right to it, but first, this post is mainly going to be an overview of our trip and all things Canada - don't worry I'll write several more posts sharing more pictures of mountains, lakes, wildlife, snow - did I mention lakes? 

We took a short and almost empty flight from L.A. to Calgary and after a beautiful drive we ended up in Canmore - a small town outside of Banff.  

This is what most of the drive to Canmore looked like.  Alberta is mainly prairie land and the border between Alberta and British Columbia is where the dramatic mountains are.  

Here we are! Don't we look like a poster for a romantic Canadian mountain vacation? We had a FANTASTIC time! 

Canmore is a cute little town, with gorgeous vistas and quaint shopping.  We traveled in the off season (so much so that many of the seasonal attractions were closed for the season) and enjoyed quiet downtown shopping and virtually empty highways.  

A cute church in downtown Canmore - just walking distance from our condo! 

Canmore had some quirky things too  - like this strange and random head statue. 

We found this guy hanging out in the forest on a hike - funny, eh? 

Canada has several enduring symbols - the maple leaf, the Inuksuk (pictured above) and of course, the beaver! This brings me to Canadian food.  We tried several local "specialties" on vacation, the first being poutine, which kind of sets the stage for the majority of Canadian food.  Poutine is french fries covered in gravy and topped with cheese curds.  Sounds delicious and frightening at the same time, right? All that yummy comfort food OR holy cow that's a lot of starch/carbohydrates/fat.  We sampled this local delicacy at Costco! It was yummy, but once was enough for the whole trip.  Canadians also LOVE their version of Dunkin' Doughnuts - Tim Hortons (pictured below).  Named after a famed hockey player (duh!) this is the quintessential Canadian coffee and doughnuts place.  I'd say it was like Canadian Starbucks, but Starbucks is already well represented in Canada.  Suffice it to say, we ate a lot of doughnuts during this trip and they were delicious - totally worthy of all the hype.  Also, they call the doughnut holes "TimBits," so cute! 

Canadians LOVE ketchup - these were surprisingly really good! 

Remember how earlier I mentioned those Canadian symbols? Well Canadians love their beaver symbol so much they even created a delectable pastry dessert in it's honor! We feasted on these beauties several times during our visit.  Beaver tails (the pastry, not the animal body part) are fried dough topped with almost any sweet thing you want.  We tried cinnamon sugar, apples and maple drizzle on this one.  

When we visited Banff, we checked out the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel (a.k.a.  Castle in the Rockies) and enjoyed afternoon tea.  It is a beautiful, fancy hotel with top rated restaurants and amazing views.  

Banff, Canmore and Calgary were just a few of the places we visited on this trip but seeing that this post is pretty photo laden at the moment, I'll save our other adventures for next time - I promise to post it sooner rather than later.  Here are some more Canadian memories.  

Here is a more realistic photo of us - a silly bunch of great friends who are always up for some adventure - and maybe a funny photo or two.  

More Canada in the next post! 

Amy