Monday Macro

Can you guess what these are? Eleanor might remember.

Bumblebee on Chives

Look Out, World!

Cam's on the road! He passed his driver's test (first try)!


Another photo just because:

Black-Eyed Susans

Black-eyed Susans:
Same shot, with texture:

Cam's First Day

Cam's first day of school was today. The bus was scheduled to pick him up at 6:51. I set my alarm for 6:30 and toddled downstairs to find he was already gone, so I hopped in my car and headed down to the main road and took his picture from the car while he was waiting for the bus. So all I got was this bad picture with weird shadows all over his face, but at least I got my first-day-of-school photo.
I put together these little storyboards to compare their first day of kindergarten to today. Who would have thought a couple of years ago that Cam's hair would be shorter today than in kindergaten?

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse

After our five days in Candada, we headed across the bridge to Lubec, Maine and then back home. In Lubec we stopped to see West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, my favorite lighthouse of the trip and one I've wanted to visit for a long time. And I finally got some beautiful blue skies that day!

I was standing as far back against a fence as I could go on this side and couldn't fit the very top of the lighthouse in my frame with my 24-70mm lens at 24mm. I shouldn't have been too lazy to go back to the car for my fisheye; I bet that would have been cool.




It took more days to post my vacation photos than the whole trip took.

First Day of School--Delaney

An extra post today to show Delaney this morning as she headed off for her first day of 8th grade:

We've been spoiled for the previous 11 years, with the bus picking the kids up right at the end of the driveway. This year Delaney has to walk down to the main road, so no bus picture. Instead of watching her get on the bus, I had her text me when she was safely on.

Cam starts school tomorrow and goes for his driver's test on Friday, so he's hoping his bus riding days are coming to an end.

Scenes from a beach, Campobello Island

These were shot at Roosevelt Campobello International Park:

This rock reminds me of a map of Massachusetts:

Delaney on the beach. In the background you can see the bridge between Campobello Island and Lubec, Maine. I think it's funny that it's just a short drive between Campobello and the U.S., but from the Canadian mainland you have to take two ferries to get to Campobello.

Cam on the beach:
Us in front of the cabin we stayed in on Campobello:
And a couple more Campobello sunset shots if you can stand them.

The next morning we headed across the bridge to Lubec, Maine and, after stopping at West Quoddy Head State Park for a peek at the lighthouse there, made our way back home. I'll post photos of the lighthouse tomorrow, and that will be the end of our summer vacation photos. And the end of summer vacation, since Delaney starts school today (Cam starts tomorrow).

Roosevelt Cottage at Campobello

FDR's summer cottage on Campobello Island--his 34-room "cottage"--now part of Roosevelt Campobello International Park:
I love museum homes with their roped off rooms and everything perfectly in its place:

The Roosevelt children's actual dominoes placed just so on the playroom floor to make them look casually abandoned:
Franklin Jr's room:
The pantry:
Another former summer home in the park, next door to the Roosevelt Cottage. We didn't get to go in because there was some type of conference being held that day.

East Quoddy Lighthouse

This is the East Quoddy Lighthouse, also known as Harbour Head Light, at the northern tip of Campobello Island. One website I looked at said it's the most photographed lighthouse in the world, but I'm pretty sure I've seen that claim about other lighthouses too. I wish I'd had better skies to photograph it against.
That's Chris and Delaney in the foreground in this photo:

A little closer view:

Campobello and Passamaquoddy Bay

A few more from out on Passamaquoddy Bay while we were visiting Campobello Island.

In a book I read recently one of the characters calls gulls "nothing but rats with wings." (The book is Lottery by Patricia Wood, and I give it two thumbs up, by the way.) Yeah, they're gross when they're trash picking at the dump or stealing french fries out of your kid's hand on the beach, but I kinda like them out on the water.

Yay, another seal!
Ooh, scuba divers! I think they were harvesting rock weed. Or maybe salmon or sardines from the aquaculture cages we saw out on the bay. Or something. What the heck do I know; maybe they were recovering a body.

Scenes from a whale watch

Here are a few more shots from out on the boat during our whale watch.

To every season tern, tern, tern. When I get a song stuck in my head, I like to share. Sorry about the pun, but it was a song by The Byrds, after all.
Another whale-watching boat. It's a pretty sailboat, but look how crowded it looks. Our group was smaller, just 10 passengers and two crew, and I really liked that. The next morning when we went out fishing with them it was just the four of us and the two crew. I definitely recommend Captain Riddle's if you ever find yourself on Campobello: http://www.finback.com/


This shot was supposed to be in yesterday's post; I'm not sure what happened there:

Whale Watch and Eagles

On our whale watch off Campobello Island we saw a couple of bald eagles. Or maybe it was the same eagle in two different places. Anyway...here it is.
I shot these with my 70-300mm lens at 300mm from a moving boat and then cropped in, so they're not very good, but I wanted to show them anyway because I was excited to see an eagle and get the shots at all.

I was also excited to see an eagle and seals at the same time:
And we successfully saw whales on our whale watch. They weren't breeching or flapping their tales around or anything, so the photos aren't that exciting, but it was a thrill for me just to see them.
This one is from the next morning, when we went back out on the boat to fish. The weather was finally clear and sunny.
Boats in the harbor where we went out:

Seals off Campobello Island

I hope you like seals.






I couldn't decide which photo to post, so I posted them all.
The first thing we did when we got to Campobello Island was go on a whale watch. We did see whales, porpoises, bald eagles (photos coming in the next day or two), and seals. I love seals. I'd love to have one living in my swimming pool, except for the whole poop thing.