Misc Photos
Yawn
Can you tell we’ve been to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia recently? Yesterday was the Valve Store’s Family Fun Day and instead of the usual picnic on the front lawn and handing out tickets to the Eastern Carolina Fair, the company gave everyone and their extended family tickets to the zoo and served us lunch there. Donna and I got there just as the gates opened and caught some of the animals before they had a chance to put on their game faces.
Orange Bow
This cargo ship was right behind the Spirit of the Low Country at the dock this morning.
United States Custom House at Dusk
Wandering around Charleston, South Carolina looking for just the right restaurant to buy a $100 dinner for two in to celebrate our 40th Anniversary.
4 Hours & 41 Minutes
We watched the sun come up while waiting to board our 8:20 AM flight and when we arrived at our destination 4 hours and 41 minutes later it was not even 10:00AM. That’s how long you have to sit in an airline seat to get from Atlanta to San Diego. We checked in, unpacked our suitcase and walked across the street to get our second lunch of the day. From there we walked a couple blocks south to visit the U.S.S. Midway.
It has been 40 years since I was last aboard and when I walked into the entrance area that led to the hanger deck I noticed it still smelled the same. We didn’t bother with the self guided tour and just wandered around on the tour route.
The only place that was really familiar was the mess deck, but that was mostly because the places that were open to the public were the surface Navy areas where I didn’t spend a lot of time in. Our berthing area was never always in the same spot each time aboard because our little detachment was only part of the Air Wing some of the time. I would have liked to think I could have found our little Maintenance Shack because it was in the same spot all the time, but I’m not so sure. But it didn’t matter as most of the aviation areas were not open to the public anyway.
We did take the guided tour of the island to to get to see the Bridge, the Chart House and PriFly (the airport tower.) Very interesting. The only time I was ever in the island while on board was to pass through on the way up to Vulture’s Row or the Crow’s Nest to take pictures of flight ops. Last stop was the Gift Shop on the fantail where I bought a hat and some postcards.
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- EKA-3B
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- Flight Deck & Skyline
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- Flight Deck From PriFly
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- Flight Deck Gang
59,000 Books in the Palm of My Hand
And a cheap camera too.
Way back on Black Friday, Amazon was offering their their new bottom of the line tablet, the Kindle Fire, for a mere $35 instead of the usual $50. I thought, thirty-five is near impulse buy territory, but I was perfectly happy with the Kindle Paperwhite, so I passed.
The following week I was chatting with a co-worker about the near purchase, when she mentioned that she bought two of them. Curious, I asked why, knowing she has and has had several. “To give as Christmas gifts of course” she said. There were a couple of young relations in mind, one she knew was fine, but for the other she was unsure whether the mother would let her give it to her daughter.
I said if it doesn’t work out I’d give her thirty for it. She countered with forty. We agreed on the $35 she spent on it. I forgot all about it until last Friday when she asked me if I still wanted it. Taking this as some sort sign, I said yes. So now I’m the proud owner of a small Android based tablet locked in the orbit of the planet Amazon.
The above picture is a small portion the interior of the Purple Whale through some lens flare cropped from a larger image. I took it with built in camera on the Fire while waiting for Donna to come out from getting her allergy shot. Yesterday the Sonata passed the 59,000 mile mark while on a bagel run.