The Wisconsin Dells, Part 2

If you missed my Water Post yesterday, I send you over to read Wisconsin Dells Part 1, before you begin here.

Remember I took yesteday's photo from the bridge overpass? Well this is a photo taken from the opposite side of the train. You can see it is the commercial side of The Wisconsin Dells, which you can read more about, HERE. It reminds me very much of the Lake George area in New York State. An entertainment area and town, that revolves around a natural area of our Country. In this case, the beautiful cliffs that surround the upper and lower Wisconsin River, in an area of our Country, called the Driftless Area.

Being the cliffs are not viewable from the town or the train, you can only see them from boats that ply the river. It is a huge draw to the area. While the people are there, they wander down the main road (which you see in this photo) that is called The Strip.

There are many things to do, shops to go in and of course, river boat tours to be taken. There are also many amusement parks and Water Parks. As a matter of fact, The Wisconsin Dells is known as the water park capitol of the Country.

This last photo shows you the huge Amtrak station at The Dells.

Tiny, isn't it? :-)

To give you perspective, the white building on the far right of the first photo, is also the white building at the far right of this second photo. That is how close we are to where that overpass is, where I took the photo from yesterday and the first photo on today's post. Thus, the overpass is just down the track a few feet, probably by that blue sign, near the Station.

I hope you enjoyed a look at Wisconsin and the Dells. I truly enjoyed learning about the area, when I did the research. It almost makes me want to go back and check it out better. :-)

The Wisconsin Dells, Part 1

My Water Post For Today.

While we were riding the Amtrak through Wisconsin, we came to an area called The Wisconsin Dells. I had no idea what they were, but luckily for us, the station is right after this overpass and so I got to take a few photos of the area. What you are seeing over to the left, is the Wisconsin River. It looks fairly tame in this photo, but an entire resort community has been built around this river.

Today, I send you over to a link that shows areas, that you can only see if you take one of the boat tours, that are all around the area. You can check it out HERE.

More on the Dells, tomorrow.

For today, enjoy the Wisconsin River.

Evening Rituals

OK, someone explain this to me, because I am totally clueless.

Part of my cats evening ritual is that when she sees that I am starting to get ready for bed, she begins to attack my Indian Rug.

I am brushing my teeth and the room looks just fine at the beginning and when I am done, this is what I walk out and see. Makenna has attacked the rug and is laying on it, with an innocent look on her face.

What the heck? :-)

She is incredibly adorable and it doesn't seem to bother the rug, but it is like she loves to see me fix the rug, just before I grab her for a bedtime last hug.

She is a wild and crazy cat...and I love her so much.

The Cathedral Of Saint Paul

When we were in the city of Saint Paul, we were about a half mile from this lovely Church. During the 24 hours we had public transportation, we hopped on the bus to take us up the hill to the Cathedral, because I wanted the full beauty shot. Thankfully, the sun was up, that morning. Trust me, I have so many photos of the Cathedral in the rain, that I consider myself lucky to have such a lovely photo of the structure at all.

It sits on Summit Hill, overlooking the entire lower area of Saint Paul. I am sure it was for several reasons. The first one being that the Mississippi River is only about a mile away from this location and it does flood upon occasion. Being this high ensured the Church would make it through the bad times. The other reason I believe, is that there is a spiritual feeling for a City, when the dominant structure is it's Cathedral. You can read about it HERE, but just a few bullet points.

The outside is granite stone from neighboring St. Cloud.
The Cathedral stands 306 feet tall.
It is laid out like a Greek Cross. A very common design.
The dome itself is 120 feet in circumference.
It is in the Beaux Arts style.

If you do go to their website, check out the 360 degree image of the interior. Very stunning and it makes you feel like you actually went inside the structure. :-)

The City of St. Paul has a worthy Cathedral.

Well, Isn't That Something

This came up on my work screen on Thursday. I was like, what the heck?

This form of communications days are numbered and it has been getting updated less and less. So it was a surprise to me, that it was still putting up random profiles.

We will soon be getting something new and 21st Century, I guess. I am not sure when, though.

Enjoy a peek into the almost past.

16 Days Of Glory! London 2012

It is that time, once again, to fly my Olympic Flag from 1984. You can see the post that explains the flag and how I got it, HERE.

This year's Olympics are going to be held in London. Someone I know, will be the Technical Director for the Beach Volleyball matches.
They will be taking place right in front of the Queen's Home, Buckingham Palace.

Definitely a great gig.

My thoughts on Beach Volleyball in the Beijing Olympics, were posted back in 2008...HERE. I was surprised how much my thoughts about the sport, changed over the course of those 16 days.

My best to the USA!

Sixth Floor At The Pointe

Since I traveled up to the 6th Floor of my work office yesterday, (camera in hand), I finally took a few photos of the Floor itself, in its finished form.

This first photo was taken in the same hallway, that contains the two windows with the views of the Stage A. It is the corridor that leads to, not only the President's Office, but the bull pen of the 6th. Publicity, Development, Program Marketing and Viewer Services, occupy the space. All of this is to my back. To my front, is the door that leads to Legal, HR and Accounting. For some reason that totally escapes me, they now leave the corridor door shut. You can see the Exit sign, glowing green, right by that closed door. Due to the huge chunk of the 6th floor that was taken by the top of the Stage, this corridor is all there is, in the area, besides a conference room directly next to the open Stage area. That is where we have our 10AM daily meeting.

The only other thing we have, is the Atrium/Lobby where our receptionist sits. This is a dramatic space, showing off, through floor to ceiling windows, the NBC lot next door to us. I took this photo from those windows, looking back through the space and toward where the elevators are. You can just barely see that a brown KCET is the first thing the guests leaving the elevators see. The grey looking double doors that you see next to that huge wooden bench, is the "Training Room". We can't call it a Conference Room or Auditorium, due to some stupid regulation, so Training Room it is. That is where we meet, when we have an All Staff, or a Board of Directors meeting.

The other side of the floor is not rented by us, so currently it is empty. If you continued past the just barely seen KCET Sign, you would be at the double doors that lead to that space. So far, we rented it out for a big event we had in June and in order to do that we had to bring in air conditioning. It is literally a bare shell of an office space.

Much as it is lovely up there, I am so glad I ended up on the Production floor. I love Broadcasting and I am right in the middle of it.

As our new season of News and Public Affairs begins, it should get even busier.

Christmas In July - We Finally Christened Stage A

It has been a hard couple of months for us here at work. Getting all the brand new parts talking to each other and operating as they should, has been a trying time for all. We think we have turned a corner and things are starting to come together. We have learned the new systems and how to get around the problem areas. :-)

The last thing we have been waiting for, is to use the showplace of the new location...our 2 story "Old School" Stage A. No Green Screen in sight, it has real, not virtual, props.
It has only taken us 3 months, to get here.

We were shooting some Pledge Breaks utilizing the piano and so we fired up the set for something besides beauty. Our Engineering Department's Christmas decorations were taken out of storage and used to give the set that "Christmas" cheer.

Performer Jim Brickman was the talent and he did breaks for not only his Christmas Show, but for a show we will be airing in August. We figured it was more cost effective to shoot both shows now.

Here is the view from the 6th Floor (AKA the Corporate Floor). When guests come to the station to talk with senior management, they can see the stage, as they walk to the President's Office. I wanted to see how it looked all set up and it is pretty cool.

Yes, that is the Lighting Grid I am shooting through. A window too, of course. I don't know how freaked out the talent gets, if people hang around those windows, which is why I shot my photos during set up.

When I took my son up to the 6th, later on in the afternoon, he really liked those windows up there.

I think everyone does. :-)

Pizza Fino - Kenton, Oregon

Back when we were in Portland, we took a detour north of town, on the MAX Train. We stopped in Kenton and walked around, which I documented on a post, HERE.

The place we finally decided to have a bite to eat at, is called Pizza Fino. If you would like to see more about them, including their menu, you can check out their website HERE.

We had been traveling around for quite a while, when we did come upon this restaurant. We had plans for dinner, later on, so we just wanted a snack type lunch. When we sat down at the bar/counter area, we saw that local brewed beers were highlighted on the chalk board hanging above. We decided to be adventurous and went with one.
I believe we had a IPA Beer. IPA meaning India Pale Ale, a type of beer made originally in England. It was a very different experience then drinking a Bud or a Sam Adam's...Trust me. :-)

Lots of flavor and a bit on the bitter side, but totally different. I can't believe I enjoyed it, but I did.

Along with the beer, we each got a piece of pizza. No big deal and I did not expect much from it. To my total surprise, it was very good and reminded me so much of New York. I mentioned this to the waitress and found out that she was the owner and that she was born and raised in the New York City area.

Who knew I would connect with my NY roots in a sleepy little town just north of Portland, OR.

Thank you Pizza Fino. You set the tone for our entire May vacation.

Bridgeport Year Three

My Water Post For Today.

As you saw yesterday, we are indeed walking around the lake at Bridgeport. They are in the midst of ripping out the overgrown foliage and putting in new stuff. It has made it much cleaner and less overgrown.

It always amazes me how incredibly photogenic this area of Santa Clarita is.

I hope you enjoy.

P08

This light pole is sitting at Bridgeport Lake.

It only took my husband and I three years, to see that this particular pole existed.

You have to realize that we pass this pole twice an evening, when we walk. I guess we are totally involved with checking out the houses, or looking at the flying fish and ducks in the water. It is the only excuse I can come up with.

I thought it was pretty cool and he should totally add it to his P08 blog. :-)

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Update on our home DSL to AT&T U-Verse conversion. Friday went well and we had connectivity. We woke up on Saturday with no connection. We did several things and then finally my Hubby called AT&T directly and they remotely restarted the router. Voila!

Connected, once again.

Flags

This is O'Hare airport in Chicago, back when we flew home in May of this year.

I thought it was pretty cool and took a photo.
Of course, I should have used it for my 4th of July post...but hey.

It is nice to see a bit of patriotic decorating, when traveling. Things are normally so stressful, especially at airports.

Enjoy.

We Join The AT&T U-verse Today

We are losing our DSL service today.

Due to this fact, we may not have Internet Connection here at home. Being I am living in a fishbowl at work, I don't see myself writing a post over there. So there might be a slight disruption in my blogging. We shall see.

We have no choice in what we are going to. Our legacy DSL will become AT&T U-verse, for the same price as what we are currently paying...just for the first year.
We get the updated router free and we figure we will try it out.
See us again in a year, to see where we go and what we do, when this offer runs out.

Of course, please wish us luck.

San Diego Zoo - Part 2

Here we are, Part 2 of our trip to the San Diego Zoo.

This was our favorite part of the experience, the Skyfari.
It has been in service since 1969 and I have ridden it several times. As a matter of fact, it was my most remembered experience, from an earlier visit to the zoo.

The views of Downtown San Diego, Balboa Park and the Zoo itself, are truly breathtaking and worth experiencing, even for one like me, who is afraid of heights.

Since our friends could not take their granddaughter on the Skyfari, we decided to ride it, after we left them for the day. It was the perfect time to do it. The heat of the day had past and the breeze blowing on you as you travel the park, was just right.

Glad we didn't skip this experience.

Next up, is the Elephant exhibit and it is the newest in the park...though it won't be for long. They are building a Koala area, right by the entrance, which will be quite the thing when it opens. :-)

A large part of the Elephant Exhibit, is the Elephant Care Center and we were lucky that they were bringing in an elephant to be cared for.
The first thing they did was they showed us how they take blood from the ear of the elephant. There is a window in the cage, just the right size for the elephant's ear to come out and allow access to the vet. If you wondered, their blood is just as red as ours.
After that was complete, the handler who was helping the vet, rewarded the elephant with this large head of lettuce.
After they rewarded it, they then soaked the elephant's feet in pails of water and finally washed him off.

They take very good care of them and you can see that the elephant enjoy the process. A tribute to the handlers and vets.

I am leaving the animals at this point and highlighting a few photos I took of some of the plants that grace the grounds of the zoo.

This plant was right there by the Elephant Care Center.
I must have taken 6 photos of them. The other members of our group must have thought I was crazy...so what else is new. :-)

I have never seen anything like it and wanted to share.
It may be an ocotillo cactus, or it may be a variation of the saguaro cactus. I am not sure.

All I know is that the plant was just beautiful, unusual and colorful.

This final photo is another plant.

Actually, it is an Herb Wall, made from the bricks that hold up a hillside. I thought it was a very ingenious thing to do and they get crops that they can eat, during the year.

I heartily approve of this green idea, that took absolutely no extra space in the park.

Obviously, I took so many more photos, but this is all I felt like highlighting.
The rest, for the most part, are just normal zoo photos. Seeing animals that are caged, is not my idea of a fun time.
They look so bored, especially the ones in the old style exhibits, where they have just a tiny area to roam in. It is such a shame.

As a plus, please note that the zoo has improved so much since I saw it last and many of the animals on exhibit do look a bit better, then 20 years ago.
So yay for The San Diego Zoo.

I hope you enjoyed the visit.

San Diego Zoo - Part 1

A few weeks ago, we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo.

Our friends from Phoenix had their oldest grandchild with them and gave my Husband and I four options for places to visit. Of those, we decided that the zoo was our best choice. So off to the zoo we all went.

My son not being a zoo fan, it had been literally decades since I saw this zoo and lots had changed. The first thing we did was make a bee line for the Panda Exhibit. It had just recently been renovated, so it was totally new to me.

I have seen Pandas at the LA Zoo, so I was not blown away, seeing one close up and personal. I enjoyed looking at them, because they are a truly beautiful animal.

This one in particular, Gao Gao, had a nice shady spot in the tree, to enjoy life and ignore us. I don't blame him in the least, for ignoring us. :-)

Just out of photo range, they had a fan blowing cool air his way. Yeah, that made this the favorite spot, all right.

After we left the Panda, we walked by some Antelopes. This one I ended up taking many photos of. He obviously did not ignore me in the least and I must admit, I liked that.

Many of the other Antelopes were hiding by a wall, trying to be invisible. That was interesting, too. Trying to pick them out, along the far wall.

Tomorrow more zoo photos.