Boring vacation pictures

Posted on July 11, 2019 by dinajohnston

View of the beach from the Naples pier before sunset.

Shots above are from the Naples beach at the hotel we stayed at. All private condos on both sides of our hotel so the beach was pretty quiet.

View from our room. Watching the sun come up in the morning and then the storms roll in during the afternoon before dinner. We didn’t splurge for a beach view since we live in Tampa and spend a fair amount of time on the beach. If you are coming from up north, I highly recommend getting the beach view anywhere you stay if possible. We stayed at the Edgewater Beach Resort which was nice and quiet while we were there.

Our view eating lunch at the Tin City marina.

Back at our hotel after dinner. One night the storms came in so no sunset.

The last night we were there, a huge fire had been burning close by and covered the sunset in smoke.

Hiking Deer Valley

Posted on December 17, 2018 by dinajohnston

The sun was just about to come over the mountain early in the morning. It was very quiet and was weird to see those ski lifts just sitting there.

Hiking the trail behind our hotel in Deer Valley.

I ran into a few birds along the trail. A junco, a few robins and a mountain chickadee. The best was the little chipmunk who was very skittish.

The view from the top of the hill behind our hotel. I zigzagged along the trail on the side of the mountain and ended up at the top of the ski slope.

A rainbow of leaves

Posted on December 4, 2018 by dinajohnston

I found all of the colors of the rainbow while hiking the area behind our hotel in Park City. The trails that zigzag across from one ski slope to another were full of leaves changing colors. Yellow, red and orange were the usual colors to see in fall but many of the bushes were changing to pink. It was amazing to see so many different colors in one place.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.

My first trip to Park City, Utah.

Posted on November 19, 2018 by dinajohnston

On our first day in Utah, we spent the afternoon at Antelope Island State Park. Then we headed over to Park City to spend a few days. It’s a quick ride from Salt Lake City and the driving through the mountain was pretty amazing.

We were staying in a hotel in Deer Valley and had to take a tram half way up the mountain from the parking area to our hotel. Great views of the fall leaves and bare ski slopes all around.

The hotel was very quiet and it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.

The next morning we were wide awake very early so I took a walk around the hotel property and watched the sun come up over the mountain. I stopped to take a few pictures and a magpie landed right next to me.

We had dinner the night before in Park City and wandered up and down the main street, going into shops after eating.

The next afternoon after hiking all morning we walked around some more and had lunch.

The road to Cripple Creek

Posted on November 20, 2017 by dinajohnston

Woke up to another dismal morning at the hotel in Cheyenne Mountain. What to do when it rains? The lady at the front desk when we checked in said there was a pretty scenic drive that we could drive to get on a train for a short ride. At least we would be in the car.

Off we went to Cripple Creek, about an hour from Colorado Springs. About 20 minutes later we saw blue skies.

There was so many cool things to see on the road to Cripple Creek. We started to see the yellow aspen trees. I kept making Brett stop so I could take pictures. It took us over 2 hours to get to Cripple Creek with all of the stops. So glad I paid attention to the lady at the front desk.

Our first day in Colorado

Posted on November 6, 2017 by dinajohnston

All above were taken from our balcony at our hotel in Colorado Springs. As I was taking a picture of the mountain with the fog rolling in a magpie flew on to the balcony above us. I leaned over to get a blurry shot of him with a big bug. I then realized the trees near us also had magpies in them. This was my first timing seeing these. They are in the crow family but are much prettier than our fish crows back home.

I took a quick walk around the property before we headed out for the day and saw all of the above.

I had read that there was lots of wildlife on the hotel property but when I got to the lake there were the same ole birds I see at home. I thought “Really, I flew halfway across the country to see gulls, mallards and cormorants?” I get those in my backyard at home. But I did see a few different things over the week.

Over the river and through the woods….

Posted on September 7, 2017 by dinajohnston

to Daytona Beach we go. On the east coast of Florida. This was our first trip and we were staying over for one night to visit friends who were visiting for the week from Georgia.

The view from our room on the 14th floor. I zoomed in with my phone on the last one. Our hotel was next door to a small amusement park.

We met up with our friends who were staying near the Ponce Inlet and spent some time walking around the lighthouse before heading to dinner.

We had dinner at a fun little restaurant next to the lighthouse that was right on the water.

View from our table.

It was a quick short trip to have dinner with our friends. I was traveling light so all of the above were taken with my phone.

Fun stuff at our Key West hotel

Posted on May 31, 2015 by dinajohnston

Our hotel in Key West was right in the heart of all the action. Blocks from Mallory Square, feet from Duval street and the marina a few blocks over. You would not think there was a little oasis in the middle of the hotel grounds. I spent an hour walking around taking pictures of the stuff near the pool. It was fun seeing iguanas walking around but I know they are a nuisance. The gardens were blooming, the turtle and fish pond were calming but that green heron catching the lizard next to the pool was perfect. We stayed at the Pier House Resort.