February Blog:
A Local Tourist

A friend flew in from Germany earlier this month. On one of the days she was here we decided to take a stroll along the board walk at Virginia Beach and visit the Cape Henry Lighthouses on Ft Story. A couple of days later we took a road trip to Elizabeth City, NC. Here are a few photos along with some PS play. It was nice to have such nice weather in February.

Virginia Beach Pier

On to Cape Henry and the beach at Ft Story: 

I apologize in advance for the multiple photos of the lighthouse.

Walkway to the beach on Ft Story.

I've gone to the top of the older one a couple of times, but not on this day.

Capen Henry Lighthouses: (background ca. 1792;  foreground: ca. 1881) 

I think the black and white sky and stairway added a different look to the photo.

Lonely pine cone on the beach

Road trip to Elizabeth City:

Downtown Elizabeth City. Still a quaint little town. 

Side view of the long since closed and almost left to ruin"Southern Hotel." When I saw a photo of this building in one of the local galleries and I knew I needed some photos.  It's a beautiful red brick building, but all of the wires distract the eye from the brick (hence why b/w with some color.) 

Corner view of the "Southern Hotel"

Front view of the "Southern Hotel." Too bad the rest of the boarded up windows weren't painted.

I'm not sure what type of tree this is but the blossoms where a very pretty bright red. 

I'm almost certain there was supposed to be another half of the ornament on this gate, but this for some reason caught my eye. 

 After the long hiatus it's good to be back taking photos of random road trips and outings. Go to  Sharleen's page to continue Tell Me a Story blogs.

Tell Me A Story - August

Here are some random photos for the month of August: 

My first grandchild Hadley at 6 months old

Sun setting behind the USS Harry S Truman

 Sun setting over the Chesapeake Bay:

 

Sunrise somewhere off the East Coast

A few photos of Historic Portsmouth, VA

The stories continue on Sharleen Stuart's page

Tell Me a Story - June

Santorini, Greece

 “To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions” ~ Deepak Chopra.

 This quote kind of fits my life so far this year with lots of ups and downs, interesting experiences and bucket list checks. One of the items on my bucket list was to go to Santorini, Greece. While living in Germany I wasn't able to go. However, our last port call for this deployment was Crete, which just so happens is less than a two hour ferry ride to Santorini. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to go. 

The Mill we rented for the night. It was super cute, quiet with a nice view.

Wine tasting at Santos Winery

The sunset as we enjoyed our wine tasting.

Random walk-by shot, which I thought it looked pretty cool in B/W with the focal color.

Go to Arthur's page for more Tell Me a Story photos.

Tell Me a Story - May

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”

~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross.

At Sea

A European Bee Eater that paid a visit to the ship for a few days. As I got closer to take the photo he moved away two steps, but I managed to get about two feet from him in this photo.

Another Sunset over the Persian Gulf. I love the textures of the water against the horizon.

 Replenishments at Sea

Helicopter ferrying supplies from the ship below to our ship

More supplies, specifically fuel, but other goodies as well.

Early evening landing

About to land on the flight deck about three stories about where I'm standing to take this photo

Evening flight operations

Mosque in the Old Souk area in Dubai

View from the Jetty Lounge - Dubai

Mojito with a slice of sunshine

View from Alto Mar Restaurant

Apologies for some of the poor picture quality. They were all taken with my iphone since I didn't have access to my computer to upload the pictures I took with my Canon.


For more photo stories visit Emily Kohl's page