Longwood Gardens Christmas display 12/01/2011

We visited Longwood Gardens on a weekday to view their Christmas display with much smaller crowds.

This is a slide show of more photos:
http://www.kuhnfamily.com/pictures/Longwood_gardens/120111/index.html

Pemaquid Point Light

These are the stairs in the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. This is the only lighthouse on a U.S. quarter coin.

Southwest Harbor, Maine

Many lobster traps in Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, Maine

Sunrise was viewed from the summit of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, with hundreds of other people. A bagpiper played numerous songs for all the people.

Sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, Maine

Sunrise was viewed from the summit of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, with hundreds of other people. That's a cruise ship coming into Bar Harbor.

Fall colors near Jordan Pond

This is near Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine. The Fall colors were near their prime when we arrived October 9.

Fall colors at Eagle Lake

We walked part way around Eagle Lake, in Acadia National Park, Maine. The Fall colors were near their prime when we arrived October 9.

Sunset at Cadillac Mountain

Sunset at Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, can be beautiful. Hundreds of people were on the mountain for these sunsets.

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

The Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse is located in Acadia National Park, Tremont, Maine. There is a path from the left side of the parking lot that leads to a wooden and stone stairway down the face of the cliff. You will need to carefully climb over rocks to arrive at a prime spot for photography of the lighthouse and cliffs. There is no path over the rocks.
http://lighthouse.cc/bassharbor/

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

The Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse is located in Acadia National Park, Tremont, Maine. There is a path from the left side of the parking lot that leads to a wooden and stone stairway down the face of the cliff. You will need to carefully climb over rocks to arrive at a prime spot for photography of the lighthouse and cliffs. There is no path over the rocks.
http://lighthouse.cc/bassharbor/

Landscapes of War

Blue Hill, Maine.
In this place we remember those lives lost in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
http://www.progressive.org/williams1010.html

Harbor at low tide

Harbor at low tide, Stonington, Maine, October, 2011.

fresh fish

Fresh fish in Camden, Maine.

Pemaquid Point Light

Pemaquid Point Light, near Bristol, Maine, is the only lighthouse to be on a U.S. state quarter coin.

Ram Island Ledge Light

Ram Island Ledge Light, Casco Bay, Maine. The lighthouse keeper doesn't have far to walk.

Portland Breakwater Light

Portland Breakwater Light, in South Portland, Maine. This is also know as the Bug Light.

Cape Elizabeth Light

Cape Elizabeth Light, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, near South Portland.

Portland Head Light - Cape Elizabeth, ME

We saw the Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, ME, at sunset, on our first day in Maine. This is the first of several lighthouses we saw.

Lake Louise sunrise, Alberta, Canada 8/02/11

We stayed in the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, an eloquent hotel. Across the aqua-colored lake is a large glacier that has warm lighting at sunrise.

Icefields Parkway 8/01/11

We drove along the Icefields Parkway, where there are numerous glaciers helping create the natural beauty here. Look at the photo of the Athabasca Glacier. You will see a diagonal line about half-way up the glacier. The several small dark rectangles are the large Snowcoaches shown in the next photo. Their small size in the glacier photo shows the large size of the glacier.

We were able to ride a large Snowcoach to the middle of the Athabasca Glacier, thereby giving us the opportunity of a lifetime to walk on the glacier. Only 23 of these specialized Snowcoaches were made and 22 of them are here (the other one is used at the North Pole for U.S. Arctic research). Prior to driving onto the glacier, the Snowcoaches drive through a pond to clean the tires so as to not bring stones and dirt onto the glacier and cause faster melting.

We also saw the turquoise-colored Peyto lake with the appearance of the head and body of a dog. Each of these gorgeous-weather days brings another magnificent sight of the Canadian Rockies.

Jasper Park 8/01

Our day started with a trip to Maligne Canyon, a scenic limestone canyon with waterfalls. We then had a cruise on Maligne Lake, the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies. It's only source of water is snow melt and glacial melt, so the lake is a beautiful green because of the glacier "flour" runoff. We saw more glaciers, then Spirit Island, with its post-card photo scene. We saw a Big Horned Sheep from the bus. The high temperature is about 70F.

Canadian train 7/29-7/30

We were touring in Vancouver for most of 7/29. After dinner we boarded the VIA Rail Canadian train. Our sleeper unit was very small but contained bunk beds, a toilet, and a sink. We were on the train from 8:30pm (7/29) until 4:15pm (7/30). It was very nice viewing the scenery from a dome car and the panorama car. Although we saw low mountains with forests and streams for most of the train ride, the Canadian Rockies started in the early afternoon of 7/30, with a glacier. The food in the dining car was excellent. We left the train in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. We are at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge for two days.

Vancouver 7/27/11

We had good flights to Vancouver. Today was busy with multiple bus rides, two long ferry rides to/from Vancouver Island (I don't understand the name because the city of Vancouver is not located there), seeing and photographing beautiful butterflies and moths in Victoria Butterfly (indoor) Gardens, and seeing and photographing beautiful flowers and gardens in Butchart Gardens. All of this took 13 1/2 hours and a lot of questions and co-ordinated timing to match-up transportation and activities. Beautiful weather, 70F.

Scandinavian cruise photos

Photos from our recent Scandinavian cruise can be viewed at this link:
http://www.kuhnfamily.com/pictures/Trips/Scandinavia/index.html

Click on any photo to start viewing the photos. The left or right arrows to the right of the green bar are for navigating the photos. You can also use the arrow buttons on your keyboard for navigating the photos. If you click the checker-patterned icon to the left of the green bar, you get back to the page view. If you click the checker-patterned icon again, you get back to the index page for these photos.

Oslo, Norway, June 25

Saturday, June 25. Oslo, Norway. We took a ship excursion to see the Open-Air Folk Museum on the Bygdoy Peninsula, that has an entire village of 150 buildings collected from across Norway. We also saw the Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Park (with 192 statues containing 600 figures, all nude) and the Olympic ski jumping facilities at Holomenkollen. We are now sailing to Copenhagen.