The Day Giant Butterflies and Orca Whales Attacked our City

One of the totally amazing things about growing up in New Mexico is that for one week every fall, the skies lit up with a rainbow of colors as literally thousands of hot air balloons take flight.  I haven't been to a Balloon Fiesta in about a decade, until this year, when I was able to check out the balloons one misty morning.

A hot air balloon, dissolving into mist

Sometimes a low flying balloon can surprise drivers, making a beautiful road hazard.

Some special shapes begin to take flight.  This one is an accurate representation on how I feel on a Monday morning.

The airspace begins to get crowded.

Helicopters get a pretty good view.  They just have to watch where they are going.

More balloons into the clouds.

Watching the balloons with my mom and dad!

A giant orca whale attacks the city.

Followed by this sperm whale, moments before he crashes into the Earth.  In this picture, he's contemplating if the ground will be his friend (the answer is no).  A point if you can name the other object that is falling with the whale.

Gigantic frightening butterfly.

You know something sinister lies behind those big doe eyes...

A truly angry bird.

What is that weird shape?  It's a basket ball in a hoop!

Watching the balloons.

This balloon would have been so much better if the cat was alive on the other side....

Hay Ride Horror

Happy Halloween!  To celebrate, here's a short film that I made (my first!)  Even better, Joey and Danelle did not know that I was going to edit this into a "film" as I recorded it.  Filmed on location in a corn maze somewhere in Maryland, Danelle leads us into the corn maze - who will make it out alive?

I present - Hay Ride Horror

Venice of the North

There's a lot of water in this country.  Sometimes, there are more canals than there are roads.  Statistically speaking, this sometimes leads to the case when there are no roads at all - just canals.  Welcome to Giethoorn - a town with no roads - also called the Venice of the North.

All of the transportation in Giethoorn is either done by bike, by foot, or by boat on the numerous canals.

A "garage" for boats.

The picturesque bridges of Giethoorn.

When we visited, there was plenty of opportunities to get to know the locals.

...including the black sheep of the family.

And the newborn lambs (ok, yes, I am a bit behind in my posting this year. :)

 

 

The ducks took the opportunity to get to know my dad better, mainly in the fashion of chasing him around the tree, asking for bread.

  

Finally, mom lures them away.  They think she will give them food, but she's actually just trying to get a good picture of them.

 

Take a boat to church, taking the convenient canal to church stairs.

Beautiful thatched roofs on houses along the canals.

You may wonder - why all the canals?  Well, Giethoorn had it's origins almost 800 years ago.  For a point - what one product was produced in Giethoorn, essentially giving the town its modern day characteristic of plentiful canals?

Of course, it is the Netherlands, so bikes are still used.  Here's a nice bike ramp on one of the many bridges over the canals.

Out for a spin.

The canals drain into a large nearby lake.

Mom posing with rose quartz.

Dad on a bridge.

The Rolls-Royce of boats.

And the parking lot!

Something in the Grass

When in Pittsburgh, my brother also took me to the conservatory - a series of greenhouses filled with all sorts of plants, that can be visited any time of year, even in the winter.

There were some strange things growing in the grass.

Some very interesting plants.

And aliens!

They had an orchid room - filled with unique orchids.

This one sort of looks like Gandolf, don't you think?

The funnest place to visit was the butterfly room, where hundreds of butterflies flitted around.   It was fun to stand among them, trying to photograph them with my brother.  Butterflies are shy, so they don't stay in one place long enough to be photographed.  It takes a lot of skill to catch them - luckily, I have that skill.

This one looks like a crunched, dry leaf!

Joey tries to photograph the butterflies.

This giant flower is nicknamed the "corpse flower".  It rarely blooms, but when it does, it smells just like rotting flesh, attracting all sorts of flies and other unsavory insects to come and pollinate it. 

Time for lunch.

My brother enjoys playing in the conservatory.  Here he is, inside the tiny fun-house for kids.

And pushing a cart through India.

Next up - the bonsai room, including this unstable specimen.

An amazing flower - made of glass.

Outside, we find this furry creature, and have fun following him through the bushes trying to get a good shot of him.