Candle Power

Last January I posted my first 'favorite pictures of the year' entry.  For no other reason than having a good excuse to flip through last year's memories, here is a collection of some of my selections from 2013. Twenty-thirteen didn't have blockbuster excursions as the year before, but some nice pictures came out mainly due to the sheer number of the pictures taken.

The first picture is from the Smooth Criminal dance my daughter Alex's team performed.  I really liked this frozen in time moment.  They girls look like they are levitating above the stage.  Alex is the one just to the right of the sign and she is looking to the right.

Smooth Criminal - Premier Dance Team - FDF

The next picture comes courtesy of the fourth of July and the vantage point of the patio roof top of Randy's Steakhouse.  This picture illustrates the the power of cropping the original picture.  The result is the very top of the grand finale.

Fourth of July coming to a bright close

While the next picture isn't incredible exciting I selected this picture since I was trying get the picture of the little red finch with a shallow depth of field so the background would be out of focus.  Out of all of the pictures I snapped at Williamsburg, this is the one that I've selected to share.  This pictures was taken along the moss covered wall that surrounds the Capitol.  I was pretty happy that I was able to pull off this snapshot, now if I could only remember how to do it again.

Red finch in artsy shot

The next picture was actually taken by Jill as she was trying out her new Nikon.  I really love this picture taken during the December Dallas Ice-a-gedin.  The picture is from the backyard looking back through the crate myrtles to the patio with the lights hanging off the pergola.  The picture seems to invite you into the very middle of the picture.

Light the way home - Photo:  Jill Steele

The next two pictures are linked together in purpose.  The first is more of a cheap parlor photography trick taking advantage of the collection of votives being prepared for Christmas Eve luminary display.  I like the picture for the geometric symmetry that it delivers making the middle seem to bulge out from the rest.

wait, let me take a picture before we bag'em

The second picture is the culmination of an idea I've had for the past ten years.  I've wanted to line the meandering sidewalk across the street from the house with luminaries for years.  The sidewalk runs along the canal and provides a great chance to provide a Christmas candle powered gift to all that might drive by.  Some years we were out of town and other years the north Texas winds were just not fire friendly enough. This year however the stars aligned and with the help of my three home bound assistants, we lit 80 luminaries on Christmas eve. This picture just captures about a third of the luminaries that were placed.  It was fun watching cars turn onto the street and suddenly slow down and pass by the whole length of the display very slowly.  I was lighting the last of the candles at one end when a car at the other end stopped and thanked Jill for this 'magical display'.   Gift mission accomplished. 

Candle light magic on the 24th

I've saved my favorite picture for last again this year.   After many years of working towards a new, formal church, our congregation dedicated our new St. Francis of Assisi this past December.  One advantage of being the current parish council chair was being able to get into the church the days before the dedication for a picture shoot.  I had already taken many pictures, most of the grandness of the church and the symmetry of it's interior.  I was just about to pack up and leave when the stain glass window of Our Lady of Sorrows caught my eye.  While the whole window is beautiful, I was really taken by her face and the way the light was coming through the glass at that moment.

Our Lady of Sorrows - St France of Assisi

I hope you have enjoyed this year's version of 'look what happened last year'.

Das Boots

I received one of the best Christmas presents that I could have received.  Ok, truth be told, I bought the gift myself over Thanksgiving, but the sentiment was there.  During the latest trip to the Burgh I journeyed to the REI store determined to replace my boots from 1995.   After looking around and staring at the boot display and getting over the sticker shock I found a pair that spoke to me on a front display table.  After slipping them on and trying out the pho-rock in the store the sales guy asked if he could help me.  Like a kid getting a new toy, “I’ll take these in a nine.” I said and the reply was ‘you’re wearing my only 9’,  to that I said, ‘I’ll wear these out the door then’, lifting one foot to emphasis the point.

Franze Joseph Glacier, NZ

This pair of boots has some pretty big shoes to fill.  The last pair lasted 18 years and countless miles around this big blue marble.  It all started with a friend I’ve known since elementary school saying he was going to New Zealand and wanted to know if I wanted to tag along.   New Zealand had long been on my bucket list, even before the term was even coined by Hollywood.  Something about standing on the opposite side of the planet has always intrigued me.   To get ready for the trip I took the first steps and made it to my local REI store.  Just walking into that store puts me in a good mood.  I ponied upped and bought a good pair of Timberland boots.   Paying for a good pair of boots was heartburn for me given my frugal nature, but it’s an investment that has gone way past protecting my ten toes.  These boots were in actuality a ticket to adventures in locations far and wide.

While in New Zealand we navigated the two islands seeing much of the landscape that is spectacular when not blanketed by the long-white-cloud.   While I didn’t bungee jump off of Skippers Bridge, my boots and I managed to get off the beat and path, tramping at the base of Mt Cook, spelunking through the Waitomo Haggas Honking Holes,  jet boating up the Shotover Canyon and hiking on the Franze Joseph glacier.   The mammoth scale of the glacier was a deep blue impressive experience.  That is the guide in the red jacket and shorts.  Never mess with a guide holding a ice axe which she is using to cut the steps you are going to use to traverse the glacier. 

Walter's Wiggles Zion NP (view from top)

My boots and I followed up the kiwi trip with a hike around the national parks of the southwest the following year.   I remember getting back home from the trip and seeing the layers of dust on my boots and smiling since the dirt reminded me of all of the switchbacks I had traveled.  The boots made it up the nearly vertical climb of Walter Wiggles hike in Zion NP and then made a full-moon, midnight hike into Bryce Canyon.  

South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon NP

Bryce Canyon with it’s crystal clear air and a full moon made the hoodoo landscape seem like another planet.   If you believe in foreshadowing, it was at the visitors center waiting to sign up for the ranger led night hike that I met a couple and their two daughters hitting the national parks for adventures.  I was so impressed that they had set out across the country with no agenda or time table other than the date they had to be back home.   The trip ended with a hike to Phantom Ranch on the floor of the Grand Canyon.  Here is a picture of me on the South Kaibab trail descending into the canyon.  You do more smiling going down than on the reverse trip.  My boots got a rest at bottom as I took them off to cool my feet in the Bright Angel Creek since it was 105 in the shade down there.   The canyon is a fantastic place to feel small.

Cascade Trail, Grand Teton NP

My three year tri-fecta of great trips was topped off with my first visit to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.  The Tetons are my favorite place on the planet.   Seeing the sunrise against the mountains defines purple mountains majesty in a real life watercolor that lasts a fleeting 15 minutes.  My boots and I made it to lake Solitude, an alpine lake at the top of the Cascade Trail, a hike that spanned 8am to 6pm and a 150 bpm heart rate.   

A perfect way to kick back and take a load off is found on the porch of Roosevelt Lodge in northern Yellowstone.   Built a hundred years ago as celebration to Roosevelt’s visits to the park, the front porch has dozens of rocking chairs where people from around the world sit and rock and share stories of the day and the wildlife they encountered.  Here is a picture of my boots and my brother-in-law and I kicking back at the lodge enjoying a Moose Drool libation. 

Boots up and end of the day spirits, Roosevelt Lodge YNP

On our first anniversary trip, Jill and I went to western Canada.  I was sure to remembered my boots, but forgot my jacket at home.   I’m not a smart man.  We drove north and went on the Columbia Ice field in the Jasper NP.   After trekking around the glacier and up and down other trails, Jill suggested that I take a day and relax playing a round of golf at the Banff Springs resort.  When I asked what she would do while I was golfing she sheepishly said, “I thought I’d spend a little time at the spa.”   By the way, when you hit a drive that ends up 10 yards from a bull elk, that is where your ball stays on that hole.    

Hitchin' a ride, YNP

After a number of years went by, I was so excited to share my Teton and Yellowstone adventures with my girls.  The rule on that trip was the DVD players had to be put away anytime inside a park.  I think moving forward the rule will be expanded to cell phones.  There are so many connections to make in the world and none of them include little rectangles, apps and ear buds.  The same pair of boots made this family trip, but on this go around sometimes the boots had to carry two of us.   Here Sarah gets a ride on the path near the Upper Falls of Yellowstone.

After visiting the other side of the planet and hiking through a dozen or so national parks, my boots circa 1995 had given their all.  Their final act was tramping through Pine Cove camp as a chaperon for my daughter’s fifth grade trip.   The soles long worn smooth and now pulling apart from the rest of the boot, they had no more adventures in them.   

So on to my new boots.  The salesman at REI was impressed by the tattered and well worn membership card as I checked out.  I left the store with a huge smile knowing that I hadn’t just bought new pair of boots, but I had really purchased set of foot passports for many trips to go on.

Adventures come in many forms and sometimes can even be discovered in a snow covered backyard.  Here is the first adventure of the new boots, sled riding with Sarah at my sister’s place over Thanksgiving vacation.

Approaching land speed record for flexible fliers

I hope you find a sturdy set of boots and let them lead you to great memories.

For my daughters – “No, flip flops are not boots!’