Upside Ann

 I have something near a million photos from RMNP.  It is hard to pick which one? eight-hundred twenty-one thousand six hundred seven? to put in my blog. I have a few panographic photos I took with my iPhone.  I don't think I actually understand how to do it correctly so that I don't create a bowl-shape in the near distance.  Maybe it is inevitable? Maybe I should watch that hour-long video on YouTube about how to take them?  Even with that funky element, I really like the feeling of expanse that the approach captures in a landscape.  (Maybe I even like the feeling that the observer is at the center of the world?) There will be more photos from Estes Park to come.  On Tuesdays I'm just going back through time and last summer we only spent part of one day in the park.  The bulk of my photos were taken in 2024.  As time moves forward it is likely that my Tuesday Travel start to move along with it.  I cannot stay here in Chicken-town foreve...

 Last year in Colorado - back when my shoes were new - but still quite dusty from all the dry areas we'd walked.  Not as dry as my friend's footstep here... It is probably a velociraptor.  My only hope of outrunning him was giving him was to give him a 70 million year head start!

I was taking the moment I had this fine Sunday morning to prepare my Monday post.  I'll PROBABLY have time on Monday, but I do have time today.  Anyway- I used the term head start (spoiler) and I was unsure whether that would be a compound word or two words.  Spell check to the rescue! (Hmmm - now I am remembering that little paperclip guy who would pop-up to give Microsoft hints - pause for google search - there he is, "Clippy"!  I wonder what became of him...) As it turns out head start can be one compound word when referencing the early education program: HeadStart.  It gets two capitalized letters - wow!  But I was not making that reference. Spell check offered a third option which I really need to find a way to use: heads tart!  I want to write about that but not eat it.  And.....why?

 

  We've gone to RMNP twice now, each summer we are in Colorado.  The top photo with the ground squirrel enjoying the view was from the first lookout we stopped at on our first visit.  Not the greatest photo in the world, but he amused me.  I was not the only tourist taking photos of him that morning.     Ground squirrels are very prevalent and along some of the hikes, especially where people might stop and have a snack to share, they are brave little fellows.  I did use my zoom lens to get the couple in the second photo.  I likely could have approached closer.   My animal bucket list did not contain rodents, however.  I wanted to see elk and moose.  Elk are not too hard to come by.  They tend to come out in herds near suppertime.  The photo of Mr. Elk with his impressive rack, however, was the first one we saw.  "Everyone" was stopping along the side of a road - something you are NOT supposed to do.  So,...

  Portrait by Zupe of his "Star Wars" Rey doll.  I think he is in love.