Magnificent Morning !

Wow !

We started this morning off with a visual feast of some of the most breathtaking beauty I've ever seen.

As we journeyed toward Walhalla at about 6:30 this morning, the sight of an enlarged, glowing harvest moon softly setting in the west captured our attention. After turning and heading west, this spectacular sight of the 'moonset' was playing out right before our eyes...right over the center of the road.

As I took this fantastic photograph of one of nature's beautiful, but rare, displays...I turned to the east and clicked the shutter again to show the stunning contrast, and beauty, of the morning sky.
Linda and I agreed that we were truly fortunate to have witnessed such a 'magnificent morning'.

My emotions have already been running rampant this month, as September has been very busy, exciting, and yet, difficult.
Two of our three children left for far off lands earlier this month and I'm still trying to adjust to them being so far away. Rob, who has been working with us at our photography studio, decided it was time to 'see the world' and departed for Bali, Indonesia with just a backpack, a computer and a camera. He plans to write and share photographs of all the wonderful places he will see. So far we've followed his progress on www.roamingrob.com and his adventures have been fascinating....like reading a good novel, where you just can't wait for the next chapter to begin. Only words so far, as pictures have been difficult to upload with the limited Internet capabilities in the region he is in.


Meanwhile, Abby, our youngest, accepted an offer to move to Logrono, Spain for a year and teach English to the Spanish students. She and her boyfriend, Ben, who is in the same program, left from the Minneapolis airport 10 days ago and I must admit, I had a pretty big 'lump' in my throat. I think the opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture and, not only teach, but learn, will be wonderful for both of them.



Rob's cat, Otis (who, by the way, did not go with in the backpack) seems confused. We keep leaving the house with a family member and coming home without them. I think he understands that they will eventually return but I know he misses them.


Thank goodness our oldest, Tony, and his wife April are still in the area (if you can call Minneapolis the 'area'). If fact they will be joining us in Duluth this weekend for our first travel-ography.com adventure. Tony was the first to leave the 'nest' a few years back when he accepted a position in St. Louis. At the time, that seemed like such a far away place.

Actually, as we watched our three children grow, we always hoped they would turn out confident and independent young adults. I guess they all three did. Quite ironic coming from a dad whose favorite moments found the five of us packed in our minivan traveling the country. In fact, we encouraged them to travel and see the world.

Please feel free to follow both Rob and Abby's exploits in the coming months. The websites are abbyinspain.com and roamingrob.com .

A couple words about the Duluth and North Shore Drive trip this weekend....I can't wait !!!

I think we'll have a great time, get some fantastic photographs, and make some new friends.

And, besides colorful trees, big ships, waterfalls and lighthouses, if my memory serves me correctly, we'll see hundreds of sea gulls.


There are sea gulls everywhere, even immortalized in artistic statues.


It should be a 'cool' trip.

Steve

Keeping our fingers crossed....

Next weekend...the 28th, 29th and 30th of September...our very first travel-ography.com expedition will find us in Duluth and along the North Shore of Lake Superior enjoying the magnificent fall colors.

At least that's what we hope ! I know we can't do anything about 'Mother Nature' and her 'fickle' ways, but we sure are praying for nice weather....even though the long range forecast predicts cloudy, cool and rainy weather for our visit.

We'll have a great time either way !


A week ago, I was concerned that the autumn colors weren't going to cooperate. Then, a few days ago, the colors magically appeared here in Grafton. I took this shot as I was driving through our beautiful park.

Fall really is my favorite season.

Steve

Difficult Days....

I promised on my last post, 13 days ago, that I would mention the changes that were taking place in our lives. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find the right words to explain our situation.

My emotions have run the full spectrum these past two weeks.....and here's why.

Our son, Rob, who after finishing college and pursuing brief careers in several of this countries larger cities, including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Nashville and New York City, decided to return to Grafton and help us bring our photography studio into the 'digital era'.

Not trained in either cameras or computers, Rob immersed himself into available information on both fields, attending seminars, reading books and manuals and spending countless hours on the Internet, digesting a virtual wealth of shared knowledge on both topics.

He helped transform Steve Larson Studio from the limitations of a film based business to the exciting, unconfined world of digital technology. Our clients have been the biggest benefactors of Rob's new found knowledge and creative talents. However, good things don't always last forever.


About a year ago, Rob let us know that he was planning on pursuing a dream of extensive travel to various parts of the world to 'see what's out there'.


After months of intense mental, physical and organizational preparation, Rob was ready to embark on his journey and we dropped him off at the Minneapolis airport on Tuesday, September 4th. His destination was Bali, Indonesia.

It was difficult to say goodbye, but our sadness was tempered with our happiness for Rob and for what he would be seeing and experiencing in his travels. His plans are to record his journey through photographs and writing on his blog site www.roamingrob.com .


He will also serve as a valuable resource, as we expand our travel-ography.com trips to destinations other than the US and Canada. Rob's first two weeks have already been filled with unexpected adventure, as he has encountered difficulty posting to his blog and even emailing in an area of Indonesia that is somewhat 'information challenged'.

In fact, after three days of deep concern for him, as we followed news reports of several serious earthquakes in Indonesia this week, we finally heard from him yesterday and were relieved to learn that, not only was he OK, but he wasn't even aware of the earthquakes that had taken place.

As if Rob's adventure isn't enough to occupy our minds and prayers, we now prepare to drive our daughter, Abby, to Minneapolis this weekend, as she leaves for Spain on Monday. After spending the past year working in Maple Grove, near Minneapolis, she applied for and was offered a position teaching English to Spanish speaking students in Logrono, Spain.

I'll have more on Abby's journey in a later post.

After all this, Duluth seems like a relaxing destination. We're looking forward to our first travel-ography.com adventure on the 28th, 29th and 30th of this month.

Steve

PS...We'll be able to keep up with both Rob and Abby's adventures by following their blogs. www.abbyinspain.com and www.roamingrob.com

Season's Change....

Life moves on....seasons change.

Labor Day weekend has always sent a strong signal to me that things are about to change. Summer is ending as autumn moves in. Crisper air...cool evenings...schools in session...footballs fill the air...and gardens are on their last hurrah.

Oh, and Linda, just today, has taken my 'raspberry picture' off display in our home for another year. I would object, but it wouldn't do any good...and I do like the photograph of beautiful autumn leaves that she put up in its place.

I'll post the raspberry photograph here....so I can go back and look at it on my computer any time, any season, and dream of those beautiful summer evenings and my prolific berry patch.



Change is inevitable...and, mostly, change is good for all of us.

We're facing some big changes in our lives in the next few days. I'll share more on my next post on this blog. Until then, think travel-ography.com and enjoy all that life has to offer!

Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend.

Steve

A Great Group of Travelers...

We have a wonderful group going with us on our first official travel-ography.com adventure....and it's only about one month away! Duluth is our destination and the beautiful north shore of Lake Superior should be spectacular the last few days of September (28th, 29th and 30th to be exact).

We'll see waterfalls, lighthouses, rugged shoreline, a mysterious mansion, and nature's splendor revealed in breathtaking autumn colors. And I really hope we get to see a big ship or two enter or leave the harbor.


About 40 of us will embark on this journey...and if you'd like...we could probably take a couple more of you with us (although, as our wonderful and travel wise 'Aunt Shirley' advised us, we are not going to 'overcrowd' the bus).

If you'd still like to go, call 701-352-1810 as soon as you can. Amazingly, we've easily surpassed our goal of travel companions and we still haven't advertised the trip other than on this website and word of mouth.

The cost of the trip is only $299 per person (based on double occupancy). Included in this price is your choice of a Coffee Table Book, Deluxe Photo Album or DVD Video filled with images of our trip. That's what travel-ography.com is all about!

Steve

Rats ! .....

There's something about rodents, more specifically...rats, that just doesn't sit too well with Linda. In fact, all, or at least most, females have the same reaction when the furry little sewer dwellers are brought up in a conversation. More on this later.

On our recently completed West Coast trip we stayed in wonderful accommodations, mostly. From the upscale Marriott in San Francisco (walking distance from the ballpark) to the luxurious and historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, we were able to get beautiful and comfortable rooms by going 'online' and making reservations just a day or two in advance, as we traveled.

And, as a special bonus, we were able to get most of these rooms at about half the price of their advertised rates, simply by using Internet tools, such as priceline.com etc.

Our good fortune ran out one evening, about half way through our trip, as we wandered along the coastal highway a little too long and ended up pulling into San Luis Obispo later than we would have liked. Most of the motels were full, due to the fact that the state fair was in town. We grew more tired with each passing 'no vacancy' sign, until we finally pulled into the lot of a nice small chain motel on the edge of town.

As luck would have it, two young ladies behind the front desk informed us that one room remained unoccupied. Realizing we were in no position to negotiate a deal, we gladly paid the going rate, got our keys and headed down the hall looking forward to a good night's sleep. After inserting the key and opening the door, we were in for quite a surprise (although not as much as the present occupants). Yes, the room was already rented and the German lady must have said something to that effect, as she jumped up from the bed and tried to shut the door. Her husband, or male companion, was equally intrigued by this late night intrusion, as he raised his voice from the shower wondering what the commotion was all about. We quickly apologized, in English, and hurried down the hallway back to the front desk.

There, an embarrassed young lady, who informed us this was her first week on the job, admitted to making a mistake and giving us a room already occupied. However, if we could tolerate a 'smoking' room, they did have one other room we could rent for the night. Our options were limited, so we decided to abandon or usual standards and accept the 'smoking' room.

As Linda prepared for bed in the bathroom, I dropped a quarter on the floor and it rolled underneath the bed. Upon dropping to my knees to retrieve it, I was shocked to see this little, fresh pile of mouse turds underneath my side of the bed. Quickly and quietly I did a thorough check of the mattress and box spring to see if there were any holes. I also checked under the covers, under the cushions of all the furniture, and along the walls and corners of the room. I even checked in the small fridge and microwave.

Convinced we were in a room without rodents, I decided that if we were to get some sleep, without having to continue our search for accommodations in the middle of the night, it would be better if I didn't tell Linda about my discovery under the bed. We both slept 'OK' but once on the road Linda did tell me that she felt the motel was rather 'dirty'.

In complete contrast, our rooms the rest of the trip were clean and beautiful ...including the most modern room we've ever stayed in at the Marriott 'Gaslamp Quarter' in San Diego...right across the street from the ballpark!

Speaking of ballparks, which were the focus of our trip, Angels Stadium in Anaheim was to be our final stop before returning home. Unbelievably, as we were getting ready in our hotel room in LA that morning, the first local news story on TV was about the 'rat infestation problem' at Angels Stadium. It seems that the food vendors were waiting until the morning after the games to clean up and rats were moving in during the night to take advantage of the situation.

This was rather disturbing to Linda, although she still consented to attend the game with me that evening. However I did notice that after wearing sandals to all the other games on the West Coast, this evening she wore heavy socks and tennis shoes. And, although we both said that we probably would go without any ballpark food after seeing the TV report, we couldn't resist a fresh strawberry malt from a unique vendor called Ruby's Diner.


Only after convincing ourselves that rats probably don't like ice cream.

Steve

Hollywood 'Beauties'...

Hi again.

This week we've been sharing some of the highlights of our recently completed 10 day trip to the West Coast. The primary focus of our travels was to see 5 more big league baseball parks in our quest to see them all (We're at 21 and counting!)

Many people (mostly females) wonder how Linda enjoys using her vacations visiting ball parks. I think she loves it! First of all, we get to the games early and explore as much of the park as we can before taking our seats. Most of these ball parks are absolutely beautiful and are filled with a lot of cool and interesting things.

Me in front of a 'cool' oversized glove in San Francisco.

We always meet interesting people, who find what we're doing quite fascinating and want to hear about the other stadiums we've seen. In fact, just 'people watching' is a rather engaging hobby. And we also explore the area around the ball parks (sometimes not so safe...but we seem to survive).

And...to make our travels even more enjoyable for both of us, we are open minded and enjoy diversity during the day, seeing the sights of the cities we are in.

For example, while in LA, we took a tour of Hollywood and actually saw some 'stars'. While walking along 'Hollywood Boulevard', we stumbled upon a large crowd of very excited people in front of the world famous Kodak Theater (where the Academy Awards are held). Upon joining in the excitement, we found out Michelle Pfeiffer was receiving her 'star' on the prestigious 'walk of fame' right in front of us. We pressed closer and saw her graciously signing autographs for a 'mob' of fans. Suddenly she turned and headed for shelter, while waving to the throng of admirer's. My 'paparazzi instinct' took over and I fired off some shots with my camera, while being jostled about by others with the same idea.


I didn't get any real good 'face shots' (like the one above that somebody else must have taken)...but I did get a shot the tabloids might be interested in, because (as I was told by a young Asian girl, who was quite a Pfeiffer fan...'That guy with a hand on her butt is NOT her husband!). Ahh.... the life of a bodyguard.


We also saw Paris Hilton drive by....and Lou Ferigno (the Incredible Hulk).

But I gave my camera to a couple of young girls from France and was photographed with the most beautiful 'star' I saw in Hollywood......Lucky me !



Only 4 spots left for the Duluth trip....call 701-352-1810 if you'd like to join us.

Steve