I ♥ President’s Day

Let me just say that I have a new found love for President’s Day and appreciate every President and was more that happy to celebrate there birthday with a 3 DAY WEEKEND! Nick and I took advantage of our day off and spent some time together in Gatlingburg/Pigeon Forge. Initially I wanted to just do some shopping, but that was not fair to my dear sweet hubby who wanted to hike. So we ended up doing a hiking/shopping/eating day. Everyone was happy!  Win-Win!

We started our day with a short hike to Laurel Falls one of the most popular water falls in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The trail is 1.3 miles 1 way and is paved, making it an easy trek for almost anyone. It was a beautiful day for a hike the temperature was just right and there was a slight breeze, which actual turned into a fierce wind later while we were shopping.

Hiking for us also meant Picture Taking Time!!! I got to get my big fancy camera out for the first time in a long time. I am so hoping to get more photography practice is as the weather get warmer. Here are a few of our favorite shots from the day:

Sun in the trees

Deep Thoughts . . .

At Laurel Falls

Bottom of Laurel Falls (Nick took this)

Laurel Falls again (My pic)

A so-so self portrait

I love the reflections you can see in this pool of water.

After our great hike we hit up Calhoun’s for some yummy ribs. I had actually told Nick when we were driving in that we needed to eat somewhere new this time because we always eat at Calhoun’s. BUT I had a total change of heart when we passed the Calhoun’s sign that said “Best Ribs in America.” Man, there ribs really are FABULOUS and I had to have some.

Once we took in our wonderful lunch we hit 5 Oaks and ended the day with fantastic shopping. 40% off the entire store at Old Navy- Need I say more?!

It was a truly a blessing to have this day off together. We had so much fun! Thanks again to the President’s!

Just a Little Photography Practice

So it has been a while since we have had an update on my progress toward becoming a decent photographer. I regret to say that I have not made as much progress as I would have liked, but I do feel I have a somewhat better grasp on all my camera’s buttons. This has been extremely HELPFUL!

This weekend Nick and I decided to do some practice shoots at Steel Creek Park in Bristol, TN. I had not been there in years and was excited about all of the wonderful possibilities for some creative images. However, my forgetfulness somewhat ruined the outing. A few weeks ago Nick bought me a 16GB high speed SD card for my camera. I had used it to take some picture of my cats and accidently left it in the SD slot in the laptop. So I arrived at Steek Creek memory cardless :(  My sweet and wonderful hubby surrendered his 1GB card so I could get a little practice in, just one of the many reasons that I love him! 

So thanks to Nick here are a few of my images from Steel Creek Park. I am entitling Saturday with Geese.

They had plenty of geese at Steel Creek Park

I have been practicing a lot with moving the focus point on my camera. On this one I focused on the goose walking in the background.

Another goose . . .

That same goose . . .just another perspective

There were things other than geese.

I may have over exposed this a little but I kinda like it.

A tunnel

My model for  the day heading for the tunnel

We found the “Light at the End of the Tunnel.”

 

Bridge

Time for some more geese . . .

 

A goose foot and tail.

And the final goose!

 

With 25 days till our Italy Trip (WHOO HOO) I am not sure if I can get much more practice in, but I feel fairly confident in my capabilities. One thing Nick and I have discussed is not focusing to much on getting a perfect picture but just to enjoy ourselves and make sure to take in EVERYTHING whether we end up with a picture of it our not. That being said I am sure we will have plenty of pics to show good, bad or other wise!

There are a couple of things I would like to practice  going forward. One of those is “people photography.” I have mentioned my intention to do that on a previous blog post and received 1 volunteer. Thanks Nicole! I am still looking for others! I can make no promises on the quality of the photos but they would be FREE and I would give you all the images. Please let me know if you might be interested. If nothing else I can assure you it would be a fun experience! :)

I would also like to take an Adobe Photoshop class so I can do some post processing. If anyone out there knows of any classes or good resources I would welcome your input and suggestions!

I shall leave you now with one final picture and no it IS NOT a GOOSE!

 

A truly wild animal . . .my kitty, Kris!

Our Favorites from CHARLESTON

Last week Nick and I took a wonderful and much needed mini-vacation to Charleston, SC. We had visited Charleston a couple of years ago for a day while we were vacationing in Myrtle Beach. This time we stayed for 3 nights and enjoyed every minute of it! When we decided to head to Charleston for our trip we had a lot of friends who made recommendations for things for us to do and places to eat. Sadly, we were not able to take in everything that was recommended to us, but everything we did do (which was quite a bit) was FABULOUS! So with that in mind I present to you our FAVORITES from this Charleston trip.

Side note: We really enjoyed taking pictures on this trip so bare with me if this blog has one pic to many. It is all in the name of getting used to my camera.

FOLLY BEACH

My parents vacation in Folly Beach just about every year and they absolutely love it. So we knew when we were heading for Charleston that we had to make sure to visit. Folly Beach was actually the 1st place we went before we even checked into our hotel. We drove straight to the Folly Beach Pier from our house in under 5 hours (no we did not even make a pit stop on the way down!) So needless to say when we arrived we were ready for some food and a restroom. Luckily, they had all of that at the pier. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the pier and then walked around for a bit taking in the beach and the down town Folly area. Boy was it HOT (102F to be exact).  Despite the heat which stayed with us for the remainder of the trip we had a great time exploring and have decided that we will be hitting Folly Beach the next time we take a beach vacation!

 

 

 

FORT SUMTER

Nick and I also had the opportunity to visit Fort Sumter,the site where the Civil War began. We took a 3o minute ferry ride out to the Fort where we got to see some of the beautiful Charleston Harbor views and some DOLPHINS (sorry I do not have any pics, it happened too fast). We had an hour to tour Fort Sumter, which really given the size is plenty of time. I am kind of into Civil War History so Fort Sumter was a really neat experience for me, but even if you are not so into the Civil War I would still recommend visiting Fort Sumter. It was truly a neat experience!

Fort Sumter

 

The cannons

 

 

 

 

Nick at Fort Sumter

POOGAN’S PORCH

One place I was determined to eat at in Charleston was Poogan’s Porch.  My dear brother in-law and sister in-law, John & Nicole, actually ate there before they got engaged. So sweet! Anyway, I made a reservation for us at Poogan’s and was so EXCITED! The restaurant is located in an old house in Downtown Charleston, and is very charming. Not to mention that the food was FABULOUS! The jumbo scallops were to die for!  Now we did have one small issue at Poogan’s Porch. While we were eating the ceiling started leaking. Yeah, it was not great but our waiter was mortified and very apologetic AND we got free dessert (BONUS!) So in spite of the leaky ceiling incident I would eat at Poogan’s Porch again!

 

 

Help us Droid, we are lost in Downtown Charleston!

 

 

 

Me in front of the restaurant.

 

Poogan- The dog the restaurant was named for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boone Hall Plantation

Nick and I really enjoyed Boone Hall Plantation, and we took a ton of pics of it. It is the most photographed plantation after all! I think this mostly due to the BEAUTIFUL live oaks that line the drive up to the house (see pics below). There are several different Plantations you can visit in SC and I feel like this one is a pretty good value. Your admission got you access to pretty much everything, house tour, ground tour, Gullah Culture presentation, etc. Some of the other plantations are on more of an a la carte system, which can get kind of pricey. One drawback to Boone Hall is that although the house on the property is really nice, it is not original. On the other hand the plantation is still a working farm, which I think is pretty cool.

 

  

ANGEL OAK

Ohh the Angel Oak, if you ever get anywhere near Charleston you have to go. Simply AMAZING! It is a little bit off the beaten path but so worth it. The Angel Oak is considered to be one of the oldest trees east of the Mississippi River and it is HUGE. I am not really sure if my words can do it justice, so, you guessed it, we’ve got PICTURES!

 

 

 

 

Well, as you can see we covered a lot of ground in Charleston and had a FABULOUS time! It was an A+ mini-vacation. I will leave you now with one last picture . . .

That’s right the GREEN SHIRT made it to Charleston. Gotta love it!