Tag: Vacation

Some iconic sights of Italy

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation14 Comments

Brett and I recently spent 2 weeks in Italy for the first time.  We spent a week in Rome with one day in Naples and a week on a tour through Tuscany. We were traveling light with only a small carry-on and backpack each and I didn’t bring any of my camera equipment so all of my shots are with my phone. These are all just highlights of the iconic sights that we saw. The lines to get in the Colosseum were wrapped around the building. People were waiting hours to get in and that was with a ticket or tour so we didn’t go inside.

The Pantheon in Rome.

The Trevi Fountain. The crowds in Rome and Florence were insane and we were there during the supposed “shoulder-season” (which doesn’t exist here anymore). People told me to get to the fountain early to avoid the crowds but the only time it’s only lightly crowded was between 3am and 5am.

Florence from outside the walls.

The Duomo church in Florence.

The Cathedral of Pisa (next to the Leaning Tower) was completed in 1092.

The iconic Leaning Tower.

One of the 3 villages in the Cinque Terre that we visited. I think this was my favorite day. It was beautiful!

Mount Vesuvius (seen from the waterfront in Naples) that erupted on Pompeii in 79AD.

Not so iconic but this is Monticatini Terme where our hotel was during our stay in Tuscany. It’s near Florence and centrally located to many of the best Tuscan cities. We fell in love with this small town. The crowds were not there, the people were so nice and it was quiet and charming.

I’ll go into more details later when I get through my 1300+ pictures I took.

SkyWatch Friday

Destruction and a sunset

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation4 Comments

Brett and I spent 3 nights in Fort Lauderdale while on our “no power” road trip. Since we still didn’t have power back home we left our rented condo in Fort Lauderdale and headed to Vero Beach for 2 nights. We had never been there and found a rental in a renovated barn on a working farm. We thought it would fun and something different.

We started on the highway but decided to take back roads near the beach as we got closer to Vero Beach. Just outside of Vero we came across a lot of destruction. Houses with roofs off and trees all torn up. We were wondering if Hurricane Milton made it this far east but after doing some research online we found out that 2 tornadoes had hit the area as Milton was approaching the western part of the state including one of the three F3 tornadoes that hit Florida. Before Milton flooded the eastern half of the state over four dozen tornadoes hit the state with most in the western part.

Parts of Vero Beach were completely devasted and other parts were fine. The beach was beautiful as we stopped for a quick walk before heading to our rental.

We had some time before we could check in so we stopped at a park along the causeway.

We saw a lot of big lizards (or small iguanas?) at the park. When we stopped for gas Brett pulled off the nozzle and this guy was taking a nap underneath it.

We had an early dinner at a cute seafood restaurant on the intercoastal right next to the bridge back to the mainland. As we walked on the fishing pier under the bridge the moon was coming up over the restaurant.

After dinner we took a long walk along the pier that ran under the bridge. It was a perfect spot to see the sunset.

The next day was a busy one with a walk through a botanical gardens and a sunset dolphin tour. More on those later.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

Happy Birthday to my hubby

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation7 Comments

Brett has a birthday coming up this weekend. I don’t show a lot of pictures of him. He hates having his picture taken and doesn’t often let me take one. I usually take them when he isn’t paying attention. Occasionally he lets me get a shot of us together. The top one was while hiking the Grand Canyon, the 2nd was at Red Rock Amphitheatre.

Brett recently started working part time from home but for a many years he had a job where he worked all of the time. Even on vacation he would take calls to quickly answer questions and answer emails so he wouldn’t get too far behind. Most of the time it worked out because while I was busy chasing a bird or butterfly he would patiently be on his phone. He didn’t mind sitting for half an hour while I was looking for a critter, he could answer an email or two.

Checking his email while I was climbing up trying to get pictures of a waterfall in Utah.

On the phone while we were resting after hiking at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia (his niece and nephew were hiking with us that morning).

Taking a minute to check emails while hiking at Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado while I was trying to get pictures of the western scrub jay.

Checking messages while taking a break after we snowmobiled to the top of a mountain near Park City, Utah.

Checking messages while I was running around taking pictures of butterflies in Key West. Since he was standing still the butterflies were landing on him.

He looked up and was taking a picture of me while I was hiking up the waterfall at Helen Hunt Falls in Colorado.

He does take the time to look around and enjoy where we are. Above we were hiking in Utah.

Giving me a grumpy look as I took the above as he walked away to go snowboarding in Park City, Utah.

Walking with his uncle in Wynwood Walls, Miami. We walked all around looking at the murals and he didn’t look at his phone once.

Enjoying the ride on our dolphin tour in Manasota Key last December. His phone doesn’t come out much anymore on our trips which is nice for both of us.

SkyWatch Fridaylinkup party

Staycation on a new beach

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation4 Comments

Brett and I had a week long staycation in mid-December. We drove 2 hours south to Manasota Key, a barrier island off Englewood (south of Venice, Florida). We rented a old condo right on the beach and spent the week just hanging out. We got down there too early to go to the condo so we took a long walk next door at Stump Pass Beach State Park. The weather was mild, around 60 degrees, and we had the park almost to ourselves.

Someone had made a shell tree.

On the beach side looking towards town. It’s weird seeing an empty beach. The shelling was pretty good and I came home with a jar full of shells.

We hiked down the beach and then back up the backside of the barrier island.

When we got to our condo we spent some time just chilling on the beach.

We were going to have an early dinner but I told Brett we couldn’t leave until sunset and I’m glad we waited. This was the only night we had one. This was the view from our condo.

As the sun went down I ran out to the beach to shoot the above with my phone.

This was taken from our living room.

We spent some time reading on the beach and went for long walks. We went on a long dolphin tour but more on that later.

One morning we drove up to Venice and walked along Caspersen Beach, know for a good place to find shark teeth. There were many people here with sifters looking along the rocks for them.

We then went to the Venice fishing pier and had lunch nearby. It was a little chilly this morning as we walked on the pier.

The last day we were there was sunny and warmer so we spent some time hanging out on the beach and walking around the area.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

 

Red, pink and orange in November

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta, Vacation4 Comments

The Atlanta Botanical Gardens still had a lot of color blooming when I was there in early November. Atlanta hadn’t gotten a lot of cold weather yet and it was warm the morning I was there. We were hoping we would get to wear our jackets on this trip but that wasn’t the case.

Beauty in the gardens including the blooming lady statue behind the waterfall.

The trees also had a lot of color. I took a ton of pictures with my phone so more to come on this visit.

Inspire Me Monday

Road trip to look for color

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta, Vacation4 Comments

It was time for a road trip. We headed up to Atlanta for a long weekend to visit friends. I was also hoping to see some fall leaves but we may have just missed the peak season. 

Along the way we passed miles of cotton fields that were ready to be picked. It almost looked like the ground was covered in snow as we whizzed by. 

As we got closer to Atlanta I could see lots of color. There was still a lot of yellow, orange and red in the trees so we didn’t miss the season completely.

Passing by the iconic Olympic torch tower. This replica was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics that was held here. At the time you were able to climb the stairs and see all around Atlanta but it has since been closed. We were living here at the time and my sister and I spent many nights down at the Olympic park during the games. 

The parking lot at our hotel was like a fairy tale with all of the bright colors.

An early morning walk before heading out for the day.

We stopped at a friend’s house for lunch and her camellia bushes were still blooming. 

She also had some little green critters hiding in her garage. 

More to come on those fall leaves.

SkyWatch Friday

Fun at the New England Aquarium

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation8 Comments

The penguins were so much fun to watch.

Up close with some pretty fish.

The best was the octopus. It was awake and moving around. I’ve only ever seen them balled up in a corner. This one was right on the glass, looking at us.

The seals were our favorite though. I think that one seal was making faces at us, telling us what he thinks about us. The seal exhibit is outside with a view of the harbor. They were probably saying “Break that glass lady and let us out.”

Since we were a 10 minute walk to the aquarium in Boston, we spent a few hours visiting before dinner.

My Corner of the World

More from our Boston vacation

On By dinajohnstonIn Vacation4 Comments

Fall colors in the city.

More shots from Boston.

This big mural was near our hotel. It was beautiful to see it up close.

We finally stood in line at Boston’s famous Mike’s Pastry Shop for dessert one night. This was not a long line. We only waited about 15 minutes. Besides all of the cannoli flavors they had listed across the wall, there were cases of other desserts as well. Brett got several different cannolis and I got a slice of Nutella cheesecake. It was awesome!

SkyWatch Friday