My first trip to NYC

SM and I took the Bolt Bus from DC to NYC.    The following are some photos from some of the sights I saw on my first day in New York.  I have to add that I was overwhelmed by all the people, the smells, the noise and the huge visual affects.  But it was amazing!

We spent a couple hours walking around, checking out the touristy sights.  It was fun for me because I've only seen these views on TV and now I was there in person!

Rockefeller Center

SM found the Lego Store.  We enjoyed going in and taking a look. 

And here is a close-up photo of the Lego sign...those little pieces are Lego men, white men, black men, yellow men and red men, all used to make the Lego sign.

More Lego statues!

I'm not sure of the name of this building with the clock on it.  It was near the corner of Broadway and 25th Street and near our hotel. 

Colored Pencil 1st picture

I know it has been years since I bought my colored pencils but I finally pulled them out and with my "How to use colored pencils" book, I tried them for the first time.  I really like how the flower turned out though I'm not sold on using watercolor paper.  I used cold press paper rather than hot press and I've read that hot press is better...so I may have to go buy some and try it.  This paper had so much tooth on it that I felt like in some areas I was pressing color into the paper.

But I am pleased with my very first picture using colored pencils.  I hope I do at least one more picture before we move.   I've been taking so many photos of flowers this spring that I should have a lot to choose from to be my models.  ENJOY!

Photos from Georgia

Last weekend we were able to visit the heart of Georgia, Macon.  I didn't take a lot of photos but got some picturesque photos of the area.  Here is the Ocmulgee River, a very slow flowing, shallow river that runs near downtown Macon.

This is the trail to the side of the Ocmulgee River.  Isn't it beautiful?  That light post is actually a very tall pole but when the trees loom so much higher above the light pole it's hard to tell how tall everything really is...unless I put SM in the photo.

So I did take a photo of SM near the trees...that adds perspective, huh?!

And here I am singing with Otis Redding.  We are singing "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay."  When we got close to the statue an automatic recording started talking about Otis Redding.  It was a bit startling but interesting to listen to and soon the recording played some of his music.  It was neat!

We walked on the campus of the Mercer University.  A very beautiful campus with huge trees and interesting buildings.  And by "interesting" I mean that they were kind of cool and each one was different yet similar.  Oh, it's hard to explain.  I guess you'll just have to visit to see for yourselves.

Corner Stone of Mercer University.  Founded in 1838 at Penfeld, Ga.  Moved 1876 to Macon, Ga.

And I love cool trees.  This photo and the following photo are just photos of two beautiful trees on Mercer's campus.  So awesome!

I got a photo with SM in it...but you can barely see him.  But it does show how large the building really is...cool, huh?!

A final photo from Mercer's campus.  I almost felt like this was a modern castle.  BEAUTIFUL!

And I got a photo of this church from the car as SM was driving past.  It doesn't do justice to it and I'll have to get more photos of it at a later date but look at that building.  Wow!

Cutting the grass

I decided that we needed to cut our grass this week.  The problem is that we only have a very small amount of grass and we do have a lawn mower but we want to keep the gas tank of the mower empty since we will be moving in a couple months.  So, instead of going to Home Depot and buying a weed-eater, I took my scissors to the front grass.

I'm not crazy.  It does take a little longer than using a lawn mower or weed-eater, and it gives me a blister, but it looks so nice when it's done.  In fact, the owner of the townhome was here this week and she mentioned that she needed to talk to the HOA about our neighbor who hasn't done anything with his grass.

The day after I cut the grass it rained and the grass looks awesome.  The photo above makes the grass look like it is in shock, and I suppose it is.  The rain really helped it look really healthy.

I've also enjoyed the white azalea bush and the cherry blossoms from that shorter tree.  I love Springtime!

Charlottesville Half Marathon

Saturday April 7, 2012 SM and I ran the Charlottesville Half Marathon.  The marathon began at 6:30 am and it was still dark and cold outside.  I pushed my shoulders down before the picture was taken so that I didn't look as cold as I really was.

Here is SM before the marathon.  We were both really excited and ready for this half marathon, though we knew it was going to be hard because of all the hills.  We drove as much of the course the night before to know what we were getting into, and it wasn't going to be easy.

We ran with friends from our ward.  Marcia and I ran together the whole way.  We didn't plan on running together but we just started together and kept going.  It was my first time running with someone and I really enjoyed it.

I took my camera with me on the half marathon and took this photo.  We were running through a small canyon and there were a few houses along the road.  This place had azaleas in bloom and I just wanted to share the beauty of the run with you all.

And here I am taking my own photo...and you can see Marcia right behind me.  I was hoping when I took the photo that Marcia would also be in the photo.

And here we all are at the end of the race!  SM beat his own personal record (PR) and did it in 1:39:38.  I was running just for fun but also broke my own PR with 2:04:53.  What a great race...of course, it was really a hard but I think that's one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.  I definitely had a runners' high.

Here are our medals and bibs.

The running medal was designed in Ogden Utah and made in China.  Interesting, huh?!  I'm so glad to have the opportunity to have run this race with SM and our friends.  We had a great weekend in Charlottesville Virginia!

Monticello - Home of Thomas Jefferson

This is Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and oh what a home!  You cannot see the majority of the house from the front.  The house was also really changed during the life of Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson spent a few years in France and came home with architectural ideas and really changed his house.  He was also an inventor and had some cool ideas applied in the house.  He also had huge gardens and over 330 varieties of some 99 species of vegetables and herbs.

Here's the back of the house.  Now I included this photo because the house is not just the bump behind my head but includes the walkways to the side of the house and down to the small rooms on both sides.  The reason it includes the walkways is because there are rooms under those pathways.  Yep, the house is like a giant upside down "U."  Some of the storage rooms, kitchen, slave quarters and privies are all under the walkways.

Yep, me and Jefferson...and he was a bit taller than me.

Here's one of those walkways from the house and so under the walkway is another hall and lead to storage rooms and slave quarters.  Another neat thing about these walkways was the way they were constructed.  The top wooden pieces allowed rain water to drain through them into a ribbed portion that gathered the rain and sent in down gutters and then was collected.  All of was one of Jefferson's inventions/ideas.

Here's the view of the rooms under the walkways...see the railing above.  This side contained a kitchen, the cook's room, the smokehouse (another really cool invention), a couple slave quarters, a dairy and the south pavilion cellar.

And then there are the gardens.  As I said above, Jefferson had gardens and grew many varieties of plants.  The two-acre garden included 24 growing beds.  He also had a six-acre orchard for all his fruit trees and berries.

Do you see how Monticello was up on a hill and overlooked so much?  On beautiful days you can see for miles and miles.  It's very lovely.

The only other hill in the area is the one in this picture.  SM and I walked through the whole garden trying to identify all the veggies and herbs.  In 1811 Jefferson said "No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."  I agree...I love growing plants.

Here's a look at some grapes, a few fruit trees and some berries of some kind.

Jefferson was buried on the property along with a lot of family members.  Here's the family cemetery.

Here's the head stone for Thomas Jefferson and his wife, Martha.

Yep, that's me.  I was checking out my foot.  It was bothering me as we were hiking around.  I found a small blister, which didn't surprise me since I ran the Charlottesville Half Marathon earlier that morning.  That's when I usually get blisters.  If my sock rubs wrong I get a blister.

SM and I loved our trip to Monticello and learning more about Thomas Jefferson.  After drafting/writing the Declaration of Independence, he spent the next 33 years in public life, serving as a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly and to Congress, as governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, vice president, and president from 1801 to 1809.  In his retirement he founded and designed the University of Virginia. 

Montpelier - Home of James Madison

This last weekend, SM and I visited Montpelier (near Orange VA), the former home of James Madison.  It was here that he was raised.  Here he did his important research and writing.  He brought his former Quaker wife, Dolley Madison to the house, and it was here he retired after his presidency.  He also died in the house.

James Madison was not a tall man, in fact he was shorter than me and his wife, Dolly.  Dolly was an asset to James Madison.  She was a politically astute partner, a charming and gracious hostess, and a flamboyantly fashionable trendsetter.  She famously saved the portrait of George Washington From the British in the War of 1812.

On the estate, James had this "temple" built.  Underneath was the ice house where ice from the river was kept all year long.  Currently you can't access the ice room but on the estate there were archaeologists working and answering questions.  They were trying to find things about what the estate was like during the time of James Madison.

We couldn't take any photos in the house but I loved the garden area.  Take a look at those two marble lions.  Aren't they cute?  Usually stone lions are kind of fierce and scary looking but these were almost cuddly.  I enjoyed the herb garden, especially identifying the herbs that I knew and, of course, there were a few that I didn't know.

The Madison's were buried on the property.  Here's the headstone honoring their lives.  Now just a little bit more information I learned about the Madisons.  Dolly was a widow when she married James.  She brought her toddler son and a sister with her after she married James.  They shared the house with his parents...the house was more like a duplex with two front doors and a wall separating the two households.  The toddler was named Payne Todd and he grew up to be a gambler and playboy...which was too bad because Dolly and James were never able to have children and Payne Todd was disappointment.

A view of the front lawn from the house.  On each side of the house on the second level, there were balconies.  It was fun to view the area and "mountains."  It is such beautiful country.  One of the other cool things about the house is that it currently is housing dressses of Dolly Madison.  They aren't her real dresses but they are dresses that were made for an actress that played Dolly in a movie made just recently.  But they are made as authentically as possible.  There were probably ten different dresses along with hats and gloves.  They were amazing and it was too bad I couldn't take any photos of the dresses.

And here is a view of the backyard from that same balcony.  I loved being able to go to Montpelier and learn about James Madison and his family.  He was one of the founding fathers of our nation. "As a leader in the first Congress, he helped shape the new government, introduced the Bill of Rights, and ensured its passage.  As president, he guided the new nation through its first war, demonstrating that Constitutional government could survive a national crisis." (I got the quote from the pamphlet at Montpelier).