9-29-17  Angie and Josh's 10th year anniversary!!!!

10 years ago today we attended their fantastic wedding!  Hard to believe it's been that long ago!!!

Still as beautiful 10 years later---

9-28-17  Shaw Nature Reserve with Karen Fletcher:

My first time here, too!  Karen and I both have a huge love for photography, so it's become a thing that we go out and shoot when I'm in town.  It's always been MOBOT, so today we decided to try somewhere different.  Since I'd never been to Shaw Nature Reserve, she suggested we go there.  And we did---stopping along the way at Subway to pick up a couple sandwiches for a picnic when we got to the Reserve.
 The area was opened in 1925 when pollution from coal smoke in St. Louis threatened the garden's live plant collection, especially the orchid collection. The orchids were moved in 1926, but the pollution in St. Louis decreased with waning use of coal for heat, making it unnecessary to move the rest of the live plant collection. The reserve is currently dedicated to environmental education, to the maintenance and restoration of the region's native flora and fauna, and to public enjoyment of the natural world.

We parked near the Bascom House by the wild flower area.

 Took our lunch and headed into the wild flower garden.

9-26-17 to a Cardinals-Cub game:

I do believe this is the first time I've been to a game between these 2 teams!  Unfortunately the Cubs were looking to win and lock down the National League Central Championship and the Cardinals were trying to hang in for a wild card spot---which meant we had to win all the rest of our games and the Rockies had to lose all theirs.  It was also the only Cardinal game I got to this year.  Turned out to be the right one to go to while we were there.
We picked up Fischers and headed to the ball park about 6pm.  Got there the same time the protesters were starting to assemble.   I wondered if we would hear them in the ball park as the marched up and down Market street, but we fortunately we didn't.  The police were there in force, too, to keep them away from the baseball fans and even got them to disperse by the time the game was over.

 Once in the ball park, we headed to the customer service counter to get a free soda coupon for signing up as designated drivers.  It looked like it wouldn't be very crowded tonight, so we just sat there for awhile----until people showed up wanting their seats.  We moved over a few seats until those people showed up, too.  At that point I suggested we go sit in the empty section on the other side---it was also close to the exit we needed after the game. 

9-25-17  back to St. Charles county:

Today we met with our Prudential agents again.  Won't have to deal with those life insurance policies anymore---at least while we're both alive!  They pushed hard again to take over Ken's pension and invest it for him.  Ken's still too leery to jump.  Fine with me.  It's doing well enough for us right now.
After taking care of business, it was time for lunch---Golden Corral.  The kids think we're nuts, but we do like the senior early bird special.  $7.99/person including drinks---can't cook for that price!  So we enjoyed more St. Charles county countryside as we made our way from the Prudential office to the restaurant.
Love the silos by the church.

 This might be the nicest Golden Corral we go to---really clean, quiet, and not too crowded.

9-24-17  another beautiful Midwest sunset:

This afternoon I met with a bunch of my volleyball buddies.  Hadn't seen most of them in over a year.  We had a great time catching up over lunch.
When it was time for dinner, Ken and I headed to Alton.  Thought we were going to Mamma Mia's, but they were closed.  Ended up at Fast Eddie's---another place we hadn't been to in a while.  It was great as always.
So was the sunset we stopped for in West Alton along the way.  Right before crossing over the Mississippi river there are a couple neat areas to catch a sunset.

 It's also a bird migratory route, but we didn't see any this time.

9-23-17 to Nick's house on The Hill and dinner with Bill, Lena, Nick, Christina, and Jamie.

When we were at Stef's one of the first nights we were there, Bill asked if we wanted to join them on the Hill for dinner Sat.  Sounded good to us!  They were tearing down a Jacuzzi and doing house repairs on Nick's house, so we showed up there and cheered them on.  While Bill was finishing up a few more things, Lena and I went to the Italian market down the street.  Gotta get the kids their cavatelli noodles and Zia's salad dressing!
When it was time to go eat, we decided on Rigazzi's.  I hadn't been there in years and was very happy to go again.  It was even walking distance from Nick's place.
Strange statue along the way

 Rigazzi's

 We even drove through the city on the way home---gave Nick and his friend a ride to the Blue's game.

Great visit, great dinner!

9-22-17  Fredbird Friday:

The super Cardinal fan friend Becky knows how to get free tickets to a lot of Cardinal games.  So when she asked me if I wanted to go with her to get free tickets today, I said sure.  Apparently throughout the season, Fredbird would announce on Thurs. where he was going to be on Friday noonish, and the first 50 people there were get a pair of tickets for a future game.  This time he was going to a Mobil on the Run location in St. Peters.  Becky picked me up about an hour or so early and we headed out there.  Even took lawn chairs and queued up and got $.50 drinks from Mobil on the Run since the Cards had scored 6 runs the night before (even though they lost).  There was a lot of visiting going on.  Apparently a lot of people don't know about this so the same people go to most of them.
Fredbird has arrived!

 Becky and one of her granddaughters----and Fredbird.

 the line behind us. 

We managed to get good tickets.  They were for a day Don was able to go and it was for a Cubs game, so we made plans to go together the next Tues. night.
We even went out to lunch---Pirrone's Pizza buffet.  Yummm! 

9-21-17  sunset walk:

We started the day by having breakfast with Josh's folks.  Always a great visit with them!  From there Ken and I split up---me to get my hair cut and him to visit a scout buddy.  I was somewhat surprised when he wasn't home by 7pm.  So I decided to walk up to Arby's and get a roast beef sandwich.  Hadn't had one in ages.  It was good----as was the sunset I watched on the way back home.

 I'd never realized what a good spot it was between Arby's and our street for watching the sunset!

 Lots of trees and a big open field.

 The hospital the kids were born in use to be here.  But it's been torn down and a health care center has been built in part of the area.

Ken must have had a good time.  He didn't get back until after 8.  Not quite the dinner I had anticipated, but enjoyable none-the-less.

9-20-17  riding around St. Charles:

The first couple days were spent taking care of business---getting a tire fixed on the Escape and getting the Taurus inspected and registered.  Ken later decided to also have the brakes replaced and have the oil changed.  He also had a Dr. appointment.  While he was busy taking care of that stuff, I was busy going through more junk in the house and purging, going to the pool, having lunch with friends, taking a walk or two, even doing a little sewing.  We managed to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner with just about everybody.  It was nice catching up.
One of the times we were in St. Charles, we took a ride to one of our old favorite bike routes.  How I miss those flat paved roads to bike on!

 and checking out the farming changes.

 and the old familiar buildings.

I had hoped to find a bike to leave there.  I would have loved to get out there and ride again.  But with the temps being up in the upper 90's about 10 days and being so busy, I would have only had one chance to go.  Still plan to get another bike to leave there.

9-16-17  off to St. Louis:

Time to make another trip to St. Louis.  No Dr. appointments for me for a change, but Ken had a check up and it was time to get the Taurus inspected and registered again.  So the new car sat in the driveway of our apartment and we were off in the Taurus.
We elected to go down I-85 to I-285 to I-75 this time instead of heading cross country on SR 20.  If there's no accidents---and that's a big if!---Sat. usually flows pretty good that way.  Here's the normal low traffic at Spaghetti Junction (intersection of I-85 and I-285) on Sat. morning.

 One of the landmarks along I-285.

9-15-17  just another Buford sunset!

Looked like it was going to be a good one.  So I walked up to the bridge over the Ivy Creek Greenway and watched the sun go down.

I wasn't disappointed.

9-11-17  Tropical Storm Irma hits Atlanta!

Another 9-11, another disaster!  At least people knew this one was coming and were able to prepare for it.  Before Irma was a tropical storm, she was a Level 5 Hurricane that was about 500 miles across!  That is one HUGE hurricane!  A couple days before landfall, it looked like it was going to make a direct hit Miami.  But it changed coarse a bit and hit around Pine Island in the keys and then made a direct hit on Marco Island and Naples.  But the "dirty" part of the hurricane (the upper right side of the spin) did hit Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, and all the way up the coast really doing a job on Jacksonville.  Then it hit the Georgia coast flooding Tybee Island, Savannah and on up the Carolinas.  Almost the whole state of Florida had an evacuation order and where did they go???----Atlanta!   Traffic was a mess all the way from S. Florida - Atlanta.   The hurricane actually hit S. Florida during the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 9th as a level 4 hurricane (it's run along the East side of Cuba slowed it down a bit).  This was about a week after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston!  Perhaps people from Florida saw what Harvey did to Houston and what Irma did to a few of the Caribbean islands, so most of the 6.5 million people in Florida who were told to evacuate actually did.  82 people died in Harvey.  So far, it looks like "only" 31 over 3 states (8 being in a nursing home days after landfall when electricity was out and the S. Florida heat got to a bunch of the residents of the home).  Irma went right up the spine of Florida.  By the time it reached Georgia, it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm (60+m/h winds).  Atlanta was then under a tropical storm warning which hit Monday, 9-11.  This was the first time Atlanta ever had a tropical storm---aren't we lucky to be here then?!  About a million houses just in Georgia were without electricity (as many as 16,000,000 in Florida).  Fortunately we only lost electricity for a short amount of time (several times---just long enough to make the tv and computers to go through restarts!).
I even took a few videos when the storm first hit us (about 3pm).  Here's my first attempt at adding one to my blog:

Lots of trees were downed around the area.  I'm really surprised there weren't many down around our complex.  Just a lot of leaves and branches.  Here's what our Taurus looked like the next day:

We also got about 3 inches of rain---which we needed.  All in all, we came through pretty well.  Wish I could say the same for everyone else!

9-7-2017  on to DeSoto Falls Recreation Area:

After a beautiful walk through Gibb's Garden, we decided to head into the mountains and find a waterfall or 2.  I had read that DeSoto Falls Recreation Area had 2 waterfalls in 2 miles, so that sounded appealing to me.  Of course we were out of data range and our car navigator system never heard of DeSoto Falls Recreation Area---so I plugged in Cleveland, Ga., and hoped we'd get in data range before we got that far.  When we stopped for lunch at Huddle House, I was able to get wi-fi.  It verified that there was indeed a DeSoto Falls Recreation Area and that it was nearer Dahlonega, but my phone couldn't figure out where we were.  I was able to plug in Dahlonega into the car navigator and we headed that way.  It was about an hour ride, but another pretty one.  With a few fun things to take pictures of as we rode by.

9-7-2017  Gibb's Garden:

Been awhile since I've been to Gibb's Garden.  And it'll be awhile before we have the chance to take a sight seeing day trip for awhile.  So---I suggested to Ken that we go somewhere.  It was a beautiful unseasonably cool day (about 77 and low humidity).  He had no objections, so about 11:30, we hit the road.
First we headed about an hour West to Gibb's Garden.  I have a season pass there and haven't been there in the summer yet.  It's billed as the Season of Color.  So off we went----
Our journey took us along SR 20 to Cumming.  They're still working on it, but it was flowing well today.  Probably by the time they finish the road work, we will have moved.

 Finally made it to the Gardens.  It's beautiful drive into the grounds.

 There certainly was a lot of color there.   Maybe not many flowers, but sure are a lot of colorful leaves.

9-2-17  walk into Mill Creek Nature Center and Ivy Creek Greenway:

For over a year now I've been referring to all my walks through the preserve adjacent to our apartment complex as walks on the Ivy Creek Greenway.  Today I actually realized that the area off the Greenway, where the Boyscouts have made trails, boardwalks, and bridges, and some viewing platforms, is actually Mill Creek Nature Center.  I haven't often gone into the Nature Center since it is about a 2 mile walk just to get there, but I have discovered it is pretty nice in there.  I was going to group my walks in the Greenway pretty much by month now, but I took my Olympus TG-4 with me today and took a bunch more pictures then I usually do, so am making this a post by itself.
This guys was actually still in the apartment complex grounds as I was walking to the greenway.  I had to watch him awhile to make sure he really wasn't just a leaf. 

 When I got to the Greenway, I headed East.    This Gulf Fritillary posed for me.

8-31-17  photography presentation at Buford library:

I've been going to the GNPA monthly meetings, so when I saw that they were doing a "nature" presentation at the local library, I decided to go check it out.  From what I read, it was going to show photos of some national parks and discuss techniques. 

 The 2 guys doing the presentation had a bunch of their equipment out.  This photo also rendered itself as appropriate for my 7 day b and w challenge since photography is also a BIG part of my life!

I was a bit disappointed.  It was more a lesson on camera equipment and understanding aperture, shutter, and such---but nothing really specific about nature photography.  I guess I was expecting more info on specific settings for such things as eclipse photography, or settings for blurring water, or lapse photography, or ... .  I'll have to admit I knew everything they discussed.  But it got me out of the apartment for a couple hours and around people with similar interests.  That in itself made it worthwhile!