Hi

Hi - I'm new to Blogging and this is my 1st attempt at it. WELCOME to my  humble ABODE.  Please bear with me until I get this stuff figured out. The reason I created this blog is because I was informed (very nicely I might add)  that it would be appropriate for me to have a blog in order to participate in the Accretionary Wedge, since it is a carnival of geology blogs. So here it is.

About me:  I LOVE to READ, I STRUGGLE with WRITING.  I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best at writing. I love reading the blogs in the geology blog world, and for the most part I'm very content just reading them.  I think you all do a great job.  But occasionally I do want to make a comment or add a bit of wisdom to some other blog. To follow the rules I am attempting to create this blog. Who knows if I get the hang of blogging I might even add some other bits of wisdom here and there on other things non geology related but I still care about. 

Right now I'm a stay at home mom, and have been out of the geology world for a long long time. I have a BS (78) and MS in geology (81) from Ohio U. Geology has always been a passion of mine.  And quite frankly I miss it.  That's why I was so thrilled to find the geology blogs sphere.  

I live in Louisiana, and by the shear fact that I live here, admit to being slightly crazy at times. The other thing that convinced me I maybe crazy was the fact that I went into geology. The one thing I observed at Cleveland State University (where I did some undergrad studying) and Ohio U was that in both places the Geology departments were in the same building as the psych departments, and not the chemistry, physics or biology buildings. The psych majors were always coming and getting us geology majors to do research on. I once asked 'why' and the researcher said it was because we were crazy and would do most things asked of us. Here I was thinking it was because we were conveniently located there next to them and they didn't have to go far to get us. Oh well, I may be slightly crazy but I consider myself harmless because I love people and would never intentionally hurt anyone and I love living in this world. The one thing about me is I do like to have fun. That's why I live in LA - it has the reputation of being one of the happiest places to live in the United States.  From what I can tell it is a well justified reputation to have.  
That's enough for now, since this is just my first attempt.

 (11-4-10) I'm now trying to see if I can add video to my blog.  I picked this one so you can see some of the crazy things I do.  Most of it is pretty fun stuff.  I'm only in one of the slides because I took a lot of these pictures.  It's kinda hard to be in the picture and take an action shot at the same time. Its on YouTube @ St. Lukes Youth UMC  Summer 09. Well lets see if it works.



St. Lukes 

Eureka!! I finally figured it out. 
Here's the other one too
  Owl Retreat

Vancouver- May 2007

I didn't start this blog in 2007, but I am using it to store my pictures.  I want the pictures to be in a somewhat chronological order and so I have post date this to that time.  Most people come to my site via web searches anyway and so I thought it really wouldn't matter much where I put this.

Vancouver Canada, May 2007

 These were the pictures I took back in May 9-13, 2007.  My husband had a business meeting and we decided to go ahead and make a vacation of it too by taking a couple of extra days to do some sightseeing things.

The easiest way to see a place is to see if they have city tour buses and of course Vancouver does.  We took that and one of the first places they took us was to this city park- I think it may have been Stanley Park, but its been so long I'm not sure. 

 They drove around some and then proceeded up into the mountain's where we could get these incredible views.  We were fortunate that day because it was so clear.

 Finally we got to the point were we could not see the city anymore but just the majestic mountain views.  We stopped at a dam, and it was so long ago I can't remember names.   Its a good reason to go back and get better notes.

 We did go to this place too where there is a deep gorge and we got to walk across it on this bridge.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge.  (the only reason I remember this is because we got a t-shirt for my son.- So that wasn't a waste of money.)

Capilano Suspension Bridge, British Columbia, Canada - May 2007

Here's the Wikipedia link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capilano_Suspension_Bridge

The Capilano river as seen from the suspension bridge May 2007

 Then we were up in the mountains and saw all this snow.  Being from the southern United States we don't get to see snow like this very often and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Just look at how much snow there was. 

 We did see these bears but they were still pretty listless.  I was surprised they were moving around, I thought they would still be hibernating with all that snow.

 We took our lunch break at the ski resort and got to have views like this while we sat and ate.

 This is the same area but more to the left.

 and this was from a different balcony but still spectacular.

 The next day we decide we wanted to see Victoria.  We took a fairy over there and got these pictures.

Victoria- May 2007

 

Victoria

 The main thing we wanted to see was the Butchart Gardens.   Everyone told us they were just spectacular and they weren't wrong. (Wikipedia link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butchart_Gardens  )

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

Isn't this just lovely its been one of my favorite pictures for a long time.

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

Butchart Gardens, Victoria  BC Canada- May 2007

 Then the last thing of fun we did a whale watching tour.  We had to come back to Victoria to do that again.   Do to time constrains we ended up flying over to Victoria and then took a fairy back.

 They had us get into these wet suits that made you sweat even though it was cold out there.

 I just thought this was pretty.- I also was curious if this was volcanic rock.

 We were enjoying the scenery waiting for the whales when we saw this head off in the distance.

 It kept on flowing us or I should say we started to follow it.

 It was head to all of these birds.  They said that is where the fish were.

 I thought it so cute when he poked his head up through the birds and chased them away.

seal with sea gulls.

 Finally we was a whale

 It was so exciting to see it.  And it actually drove under our boat. 

 Then it met up with another one.

 We watched them frolic in the water for quite awhile.  It was sure fun and exciting to observe.

 Then it was back to the harbor and back to home. Oh What a trip that was and I will always have such fond memories of it.

Some day I plan to come back here and add some geology information.  I finally got a book or two on the area about it but haven't had the time to read it.