Arizona Road Trip: Day 1

Last week Veteran’s Day was on a Tuesday and my regular day off on Monday gave us the opportunity to take a long weekend away to Arizona. Our general plan was to visit Mike and Danielle, go to their church, head up to Sedona, check out the Grand Canyon, eat at Cracker Barrel and explore anything in between.

So Day 1 we drove out on the 10 and made a stop in Papago Park to check out the Hole in the Rock. Walked around a bit and then headed to the hotel to check in. Priceline’d a nice 3-star Courtyard by Marriott in Chandler. Mike and Danielle were doing a movie in the park outreach that night so we stopped by and then visited at their place. Went back to the hotel and slept in possibly the most comfortable bed ever.

First Christmas On Our Own

This will be our first Christmas on our own and it has led to some interesting developments. I’m down for just sleeping in and having a nice relaxing morning. Anybody have stories about their first married Christmas or adjustments that had to be made in family traditions? And of course our first Christmas tree.

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Macro Mystery #3

Last time was a little too easy. The shape of the tine and the metal gave it away, but if it was just a picture of scratched up metal it would have been too generic. This time there’s no dead giveaway and I got an old 24mm manual focus lens off Ebay to reverse and give me more magnification. Good luck! If you missed the first 2 Macro Mysteries click “Photography” over in the sidebar. If you don’t want to know what it is don’t click through to the comments. I’ll have to devise some way to let people hide their answers so others can comment without it being ruined.

Hawaii Panoramas

Finally got some of the panoramas I took in Hawaii stitched together and there’s 2 I want to share that I really like. The shot of the river was kind of by accident, we were driving on the bypass road south of Lihue and happened up a turnout with a nice view of the Menehune Fishpond and the river going into Nawiliwili Bay. The canyon shot is Waimea canyon over on the west side of Kauai; the drive all the way up is well worth it since it ends in a view of the Napali Coast. Enjoy.

Macro Mystery #2

Hope you are already for another brain buster, just not quite as difficult as the last one. If you missed out on Macro Mystery #1 check it out for a little background on how I actually took the photo. This time around I used a reversing adapter that let’s me mount a 50mm lens backwards, giving me the magnification I need. I also used a tripod so I could fine tune the focus. So here goes.

Update: The image covers about 1/4 inch square and to keep people guessing longer I’ve made the text of correct answers white. So if you get stuck highlight the comments with blank spaces.