My annual visit to Calvary Cemetery here in Nashville, happened today. Even with the rain of the past week and the crazy winds of a few days ago, the leaves there were still just so vivid and amazing! My favorite place to go in town during the Fall!
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So my FALL BREAK this year was outstanding. The first week of it was spent in Chicago with three of my newest favorite people...(all thanks to my new Hillsboro High School job)- Shreyas Patel, Kristen Moon, and Malte Treutmann! We laughed and ate, and laughed and ate the whole time! We all traveled together so well and just had a blast all around! Here's hoping for more trips out of this group!
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Had a great time down in Alabama this past Saturday! It was the first annual Beavers family reunion at my Uncle Jerry's farm. Everyone couldn't make it, but those that did had a great time, and the rain that had been with us for several days, finally let up and let us get outside part of the time and enjoy the lake and the farm!
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Made a trip out to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens on the west side of Nashville. I haven't been there since the Chihuly exhibit a couple of years ago. This was a Bruce Munro exhibit called LIGHT. It was beautiful, but this was one of the hardest things I've ever tried to photograph. Most of the lights were so muted it was virtually impossible to tell what to do with them. It was a gorgeous summer night and there weren't very many people there...so I had time to play with the pictures.
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Made another visit to Paris, France this year for Spring Break. I went with Andrea Hittle and we stayed with Arnaud Viarouge! We had a wonderful time and saw many great things!
Day 1 we mostly spent at the Louvre. I love that place. There's so MUCH to see there! It reminds of me a little of the Smithsonian, because there's no way to see it all...not on one visit anyway.
Day 2 we went to Versailles and got to see how OVER THE TOP the "other 1/2 lived." ha ha. It is really something amazing! The gardens weren't bloomed out since we were probably there about a month too early for that, but they were still quite impressive to say the least.
Day 3 was spent at the Eiffel Tower, Branly Museum of Pre-Historic Cultures, and the Arc De Triomphe...with many places in between. The sun was out for a part of the day and was greatly welcomed after our first few days of overcast weather. Over all we were very lucky with the weather, only experiencing a slight mist one night while there.
Day 4 took started out with a morning visit to the Notre Dame
Cathedral, then on over to Sainte-Chappel and the Conciergerie...then the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pantheon and a view of the Sorbonne. It was a FULL day to say the least.
Day 5 was the last day I had my Pentax with me. I used up the photo card in it...and had to take pics with me phone the last day. We visited the Paris Opera house, the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise (Where Chopin, Jim Morrison...and MANY others are buried), and ended the evening with a view of Paris at night.
It was an outstanding trip! I strongly suggest to people to go to one place/city and STAY there and take in all that ONE city has to offer, instead of running from city to city when you go on a trip. I believe it is so much more fulfilling!
My friend Ralph Smith, gave me a yell and asked if I would be interested in going on a "photography trip" somewhere. "SURE!" Then he did some looking around and came up with the idea of going to New Orleans on the Amtrak train from Birmingham, Alabama to New Orleans! I loved the idea. He booked our train tickets and our hotel and off we went.
It just so happened that my friend Ryan Rose was already down there (he drove down right after Christmas) and so we met up with him for New Years Eve in Jackson Square, and around Frenchman's Street. We had a excellent time! I'm including a link of my photos I took using my phone in addition to the photos here from my regular camera. The top pic is from my camera the bottom pic is from my phone (Using the app TripColor).
This year was a fun Christmas with the two Great Nephews, Preston and Landon running around having a big time! Little Carter will have his chance next year. In spite of the fact that most of Eva's clan had some sort of stomach virus (24 hour), it was a good time. This is probably the last year of having Christmas at this house, since we are trying to sell it and get mom and dad into a smaller house in town (Florence).
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