San Francisco Treat

I found this picture of San Francisco that I took years ago. It's still beautiful. I love that you can see the Golden Gate in the background as the fog starts to roll into the bay. This is the view from Fisherman's Wharf and don't ask me what pier number because I don't remember. I'm guessing it's Pier 39 which is pretty much the main tourist pier.

♫ If you're going to San Francisco Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ♫

Birds of MN

One thing that's nice on the lake in Minnesota is all the birds that are on the lake. It's fun to just sit on the boat and see what you can see.

I got to see a red cardinal, but that little guy was so fast that I couldn't get a picture. They really are beautiful birds.

The first bird we saw on the lake was a Bald Eagle. When I was growing up I don't ever remember seeing them, but in the last couple of years we've been able to see one around the lake. If I hadn't of noticed this guy fly over the water I probably would never have seen him in the tree.

A heron flew over head, they're really pretty when they're just relaxing in the shallow water. I like how the look like their on stilts. But in the air they're just as pretty.

This year there were tons of Canadian geese. I especially like this picture with the baby geese, goslings, that still have their baby feathers. Canadian Geese on parade.

Lots more Canadian Geese - eh!

A tern sitting on top of a buoy.

And then a family favorite, the Loon. I love their coloring. Growing up they were hard to find, but there were lots of them this year. There must be lots of fish in the lake.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I just realized this year that everyone in my family are crazy bird watching people, haha. Everytime a Loon is in sight they all do the "Loon Call"

Cloud Pics from the Midwest

I remember a teacher in high school that looked at the sky one day and said look how beautiful. Ever since then I've noticed the clouds and when I see a cloud formation I love I have to get a picture.

Smooth water and partly cloudy skies.

I love the look of the clouds with the warm orange colors behind it.

Big fluffy white clouds with a rainbow underneath it, it's always special to catch a rainbow.

Just before the storm the clouds were coming in, but luckily a little sun shone through the clouds.

And I saved the best for last, at least in my opinion this was my favorite. I just love the variations of gray along with that bright orange. Wouldn't this be a perfect picture for a room inspiration for wonderful colors. I love it.

Hope you enjoyed my cloud pictures.

Back from the Midwest

I just got back from a trip to the Mid-West. Almost every year I go back to visit extended family and to see the fireworks on the lake. It was SUPER HOT! I don't think I remember a summer where it was pushing 100 degrees everyday.

I wanted to share some pictures this week from my trip. Today I think I'll share some sunset pictures. I always love looking at the pictures, brings me back to the lake.

This was the first night's sunset. It was a beautiful sunset although the water wasn't calm, it got windy every night when the sun went down, but I guess that's normal if the temps go down at night.

All zoomed in like.

Birds flying at sunset.

This was the next day, the moon was orange and I loved it but couldn't get a close up of it.

This day the water was a lot calmer, I love when the suns reflection hits the water and has a trail of color.

This was the last sunset I saw before leaving. If you notice all those clouds, it rained later that night...like poured with lots of lightning! It was actually nice because the temperature dropped.

It's always sad to leave the lake, but it's better to leave on a high note, right? Right.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God. ― G.K. Chesterton

National Parks

I absolutely LOVE National Parks. Yellowstone has to be my favorite, but it's really hard to have a favorite considering there's the Grand Canyon, and Glacier National Park and Zion and Yosemite and Petrified Forest... Yesh, okay maybe I just love them all!

This is a waterfall we hiked to in Yellowstone.


I've really been in the mood to go to a National Park so I wanted to see what was available near me. Most big National Parks seem to be towards the west coast, but I did find one on the list, Acadia. Acadia is in Maine, which really isn't that close to me, however, it's a lot closer to me now that I live in New Jersey. I have never been to Maine but I've always wanted to go and what a great way to visit by checking out their Parks!

This is a time a camper van would be awesome because stopping along the way or checking out the smaller parks would be awesome, but tenting it is fun cause then you can hear all the scary creatures running around outside. haha My sister freaked me out on one camping trip. On another camping trip we could hear coyotes howling at night. One cool thing about being so far north is having the light of day last forever. I love that about summer time in the northern most states.

Well hopefully this trip will come together and I can get some great pictures to share.

Any National Parks you can think of that you enjoy??

How about National Monuments? Mt Rushmore is an amazing thing to see, it's off the highway quite a ways, but I think it's worth seeing and learning about it.

The Philadelphia Story

I went to visit my friends in Philadelphia this weekend. My one friend, who is pregnant, lives there and I took the 1.5 hour drive down and my other friend drove from Pittsburgh. It was fun, we met at King of Prussia Mall and enjoyed a lunch at Legal Sea Foods. I got the crab roll and my friends got the lobster roll and I have to say I should have ordered the lobster roll. It was good though.

Then we walked around that gigantic mall! We played around in Sur La Table, where I bought some pretty napkins that were on sale and a jar of one of my favorite jams from Stonewall Kitchen, called Raspberry Peach Champagne. Doesn't it just sound wonderful?

My friends bought BBQ stuff, which just made me that much more excited about summer. After walking around the mall for a bit my pregnant friend had to go home and lay down. So my other friend and I headed to our hotel room in the city. I have to say there are so many one way streets it can get confusing. But isn't that how every city is?

We finally got our hotel room and then we were off in search of South Street. Which ended up not being too far. We did a lot of walking this weekend, but it we stayed in Center City so it made everything really close. It was fun because we got to know the area. My favorite was the Historic District near the Water front.

For dinner we went to The Continental Mid-town. We got two tapas (which were way bigger than what I consider tapas.) We got the lobster mac n cheese which was divine. We also go the Philly cheese steak egg rolls which were good as well. I didn't get a chance to take pictures because we started eating right away.

They have really good martinis in all different flavors.

During the day, we walked to the Reading Terminal Market.

I bought these lovely chocolate covered pretzels, that I came to love when I used to live in Pittsburgh. I had to get the Easter basket because I thought it was so colorful.

It was a really fun weekend. I need to take another trip there soon.

My Instagrams

I love the App Instagram, it's so fun to give effects to pictures I have taken. These are some of my favorite Instagram pictures.

This is in New York near the Flat Iron building and it's called the Met Life Tower. I love the clock on it and the moon was right next to it so I had to get a picture.

This is last summer on a beautiful lake in Minnesota. I spent a lot of summers there and I have to tell you there is nothing better then being on the lake in the summer.

This was taken in Philadelphia when I was visiting my friend. This is a picture of City Hall with a bronze statue of William Penn on top.

These are the trees in the winter near where I live and the sun going down before 5 o'clock.

Statue of Liberty at sunset. I love Lady Liberty, I take a picture of her every time I go to Battery Park.

This was dusk in a parking lot and the sky color was so pretty.

This was down the shore on the board walk, makes me think of fun times on the boardwalk.