Monarch Butterflies are on a migratory path from the Great Lakes to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico. During the month of October, the butterflies continue their path, with stopping points at various locations along the Gulf. They often stop and feed on the nectar of blooming plants along the way. I was lucky enough to witness this first hand while staying at the Grand Marriott Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama.
I only brought one lens so there is no wide angle full-view of the bush, oh well.
What a great date. Only thing that will be better is 11.11.11. I love love love numbers and dates like that. It is just sooo clean!
So I spent the weekend back in Wilmington, tying up a few remaining loose ends. We spent much of the time at the beach, as the weather was upper 80s with sun and blue skies. It may be our last time at the beach this year, so we wanted to make it count!
Started off the day right at Two Guys…healthy salad meets platter of fries! POW!
We got there at low tide but the view was spectacular! Not too crowded…just right.
The water was a bit chilly but still swimmable by all standards. Decent waves were rolling in.
Relaxation
Kite!
Our stomachs were getting the best of us, so we headed down to the pier to grab some lunch. Oceanic on outdoors!
View from our table
Coming back home over the waterway. The sun was hitting the sail boats just right.
The good life!
Right at the middle of Moreland, Euclid and McLendon Avenues in downtown Atlanta is the city’s “melting pot” of different interests – funky, indie, hippie, and eccentric. Hipster emos everywhere!
Bahapante
This 18-wheeler was jacked up and this dude was directing traffic.
I would kill myself if I worked here.
….and I happen to find it. Well, my GPS found it, and I just dumbly followed along. Georgia State Route 400 begins at Interstate 85 just north of Downtown Atlanta and starts as a toll road through Buckhead.
No big deal, couldn’t be that much. Just want to check out Buckhead and hit up the Lenox Square Mall before it closes. I’ve got some gift cards and what not. So I continue to cruise along.
Would you believe me if I said that I could not find a single 50 cents ($0.50) of cash on me or in my car as I was approaching the toll booth? 2 damn quarters!?! Jesus.
So I start to panic. No more exits before the toll booths. Maybe they actually take a credit card (debit to be exact). What kind of idiot tries to pay a 50 cent toll with a credit card? A newly relocated yankee who has a blind trust in his GPS. I approach.
I pull up the “assistance lane”, all the way to the far right. A young girl greets me and I ask if she takes a card…she straight out belly laughed. She clearly thought I was joking. I assured her that I was serious and then she flatly said…”I am going to have to give you a $25 ticket then.” *Stoneface*
She proceeded to exit her booth, walk behind my car, and get greeted by the beautiful NC license. Back to the booth she goes, armed with my tag, when she asks, “You have never driven this before?”. I explained that I had just moved here less than 2 weeks ago, and I was dumb enough to follow my GPS onto the road.
She shook her head, threw two quarters into the basket, and told me to have a good day. I was on my way.
Today wasn’t so bad after all! Needless to say, I have a full stack of quarters in my center console, ripe for the stealing, once my window is broken, and car rummaged through in downtown Atlanta.
I haven’t been in one place for more than a week in about a month due to work. It has me worn down and tired. I could use a vacation. I really didn’t do much after work so I browsed some old pictures of when we traveled to Spain. For whatever reason, I am in a black and white mood. Maybe a tour of the new place I am squatting in tomorrow! Til then…
Everything in ATL seems like it is paved over with blacktop. 8 lanes of highway coming in every direction. Mix that with the summer sun and you have some heat!
Got to spend the evening with my nieces!
They have so many silly bandz…get with it!
Hershey bars got them giddy…
Went into the backyard to play on the swings and get some flowers…
Never leave home without them.
Sahlen’s aka. Yankee Dogs > any other hot dog. Period. (From Buff-A-Loooo!)
This one was checking me out all night…
Strapped.
ps….All photos taken by the Leica D-Lux 4. No DSLR tonight!
The last group of shots from the Canon, still some things to work through from the Leica.
We weathered multiple hail storms while at Minnewanka Lake…
I have been traveling a bunch this past week and will be for weeks to come. These have been on my Flickr for a while now but never did find the energy to post them. So…more vacation pictures!
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