Long Beach, CA with Photos

The last time I was in Long Beach, CA was in 2005 for the same conference - the National Emergency Number Association Annual Conference and Trade Show. Did not spend much time walking around in 2005.
This time I had a little more time, and the weather was great, so I took a walk. From the hotel room window I could see a Lighthouse in the distance. I have taken pictures of Lighthouses in several coastal states and I was not going to pass up this opportunity.

This Lighthouse gives some terrific views of the Long Beach skyline -

In addition this spot overlooks (though still a ways away) the Queen Mary, which permanently docked here in about 1967.

Getting to the Lighthouse requires a walk through the Shoreline Village area that includes Bubba Gumps, the Aquarium and other shops and a marina.

There is a lot to do and see in Long Beach. But the lighthouse, known as the "Lions Lighthouse For Sight" and dedicated in December of 2000 was my point of interest.

On the way home from Long Beach, CA

Returning from sending three days at a conference in Long Beach, CA. Will post some pictures in a couple days. Stayed next to the Conference Center, in walking distance of the waterfront. Got a good view of the Queen Mary, from across the bay. Found some great eating establishments. The weather was very nice, much cooler than in Texas. More about it soon with pictures.

Solar Eclipse - 2012

Since we live just North and East of the center line of the eclipse viewing area, I decided to take a drive a little South and West to see if I could get some pictures. I travelled to the small town of Ropesville, about 20 miles SW of Lubbock. Shortly after entering the city limits there is a large parking area next to a couple of grain elevators. This made a great spot to watch the eclipse. I had previously searched Lubbock and found a #12 Welders helmet filter glass. This would go on my camera lens. I was limited on my camera to the 200MM of my lens, but that is what I had to work with. If I had done some pre-planning (paid more attention to this event and where it could be seen) I would have gotten one of those inexpensive mirrored 500MM lenses.
Following some directions I found on the Internet, I secured the filter to the lens with rubber bands around the lens hood which I had on backwards. The filter glass is green, so everything had a slight green tint to it. Below is one of the eclipse shots:

Due to the short lens length it looks a long way away.
I had the camera on a tripod and connected to a laptop with a USB cable. I was able to control the camera from the laptop. I could change all the setting on the camera, and view the live image, but did not have to stare at the sun, thus averting eye damage.
While I was sitting there, a family pulled up behind me and the father/husband came up and asked if I needed a pair of Solar Eclipse glasses. These special glasses do the same thing that the filter glass on the lens does. I told him that I did not as I could not find any in Lubbock. He stated that he had purchased his off the Internet and had a spare pair that I could have. This made the viewing easier as I could confirm what the camera was seeing. The gentleman went on to tell me that he had brought his whole family down from Oklahoma just to see this. It was an event that they may never have the opportunity to see again.
The eclipse continued in slow motion, I took a photo every couple of minutes that kind of shows the progress.  The pictures were all similar to the one above, a circle of light with the dark circle coming over it. Well, what did I expect. Of course the weather did not cooperate fully. There were some intermittent clouds during the course of the eclipse which limited the visibility, like this one at the start.

That lower cirle is a reflection of light in the lens, a reduction of the f-stop, or opening in the lens caused it to go away, but then you lost the clouds.
The best pictures were actually right at sun set. I was able to remove the filter glass and take the pictures below.

If you look close at the pictures you will see a blurred something going vertically and off to slight angles. It took me a little bit to figure out that this was tall grass that was immediately in front of the camera. With the lens open as wide as it was and the slow exposure times, the grass just shows as blurred lines. Note to self, remember that as the sun goes down, tall things in front of your camera will get in the way and ruin everything.

Getting ready for Grapevine

We are sure looking forward to our annual trip to the Vineyards Campground in Grapevine, TX. This is one of the nicest RV facilities around, especially for being owned by a municipality. This year we have a little change as one of our group could not get reservations for Thursday night, so they have invited us to their house for the Thursday night Hamburger BBQ. Since they live less than 15 miles from the campground it is a great invite. Then we have a golf outing scheduled for Friday morning (finally all of us are over our ailements and are able to play), then a trip to the Grapevine Opry one night, Great Wolf Lodge for brunch and a bunch of time sittin' around jawin'. There is a post from last year that shows the campground (RV Park) in case you missed those. The travel season is finally upon us .

Gazebo after a year

I had a comment (question) asked about the Gazebo the other day, so I thought I would provide an update. The Gazebo is still standing and looks "like new" despite having been through dirt/windstorms with gusts in excess of 70 MPH, hailstorms 100+ degree temperatures and an occasional rain storm. I had sod put in the yard in March of this year to hopefully generate some grass, and the crack that was in the concrete patio has closed up. This might be due to the added watering for the grass (ground re-inflated). Still have a 6x13 section to do. Looking at pavers, but concrete may win - less work and about the same cost.

Yes, I was in Dallas - April 3, 2012

As you have probably read, there were several tornadoes in and around Dallas and Fort Worth yesterday. I, along with about 300 9-1-1 professionals were at a conference in downtown Dallas. The staff of the Fairmont Hotel did a wonderful job in informing everyone of what was going on. We all were moved into interior rooms that did not have exterior windows.  It was interesting the impact on the wireless/cellular network this event had. Text messages which would normally be almost instant were taking several minutes to be received. We were lucky, many others that live in the effected area were not so lucky.

Mustang Island - Port Aransas

Been a long time since I posted, but we have been busy with several different projects. One of them is the laying of sod in the backyard. But before that happens (or happened) we took a trip to Mustang Island on the Texas Gulf Coast.
This was our annual winter/spring trip and instead of leaving the State like we have for the last couple of years, we decided just to visit the Texas Gulf Coast. Mustang Island is located in the area of Corpus Christi. If you look out in the gulf from Corpus Christi, you can almost see Mustang Island. Port Aransas is on the very end of Mustang Island, the far end, across the bay from Aransas Pass.
The RV Resort we chose we had visited but never stayed in a couple years prior.

Some friends of ours have stayed here in the past and not only recommended it, they joined us for this week long trip.
The resort, Gulf Waters RV Resort, is a condominium resort, where most of the spaces are owned, and then rented when the owners are not present.

A large number of the spaces or lots are centered around ponds, thus giving the owner or renter a pleasant "out the front window" view of water, greenery and birds. The lots are all concrete, paved roads and the "developed" sites feature things like tables, benches, outdoor cooking areas and many other options. The Resort also has the usual amenities like a swimming pool, spa, laundry and shower facilities. The beach is just a short walk across a wooden "boardwalk." Here you have several miles of beach which you can drive on or walk on.

One of our travelling companions and I even got a chance to play a round of golf at an Arnold Palmer designed course (Newport Dunes) on the Island. Very beautiful course with lots of water and bunkers. A trip to the King Ranch Museum in Kingsville was also accomplished. The museum does a great job in providing the history of the ranch and its impact on the local area.

Since Corpus Christi/Mustang Island is almost 600 miles south of Lubbock, we spent one night in San Antonio on the way down, where we made a short visit to the river walk, and spent one night on the way back in Fredericksburg, where we visited the downtown area and had terrific German food.

We plan on returning to all three locations to spend some time in the future.