Sony Alpha A7 II

Recently, the trees in our yard were changing to their autumn colors for the fall season, and so on a nice, sunny day I went out to get a few photos. Take a look! This pear tree still had some green leaves left toward the inside, but the outer leaves were bright red. Add in a perfect blue sky and you have quite a colorful photo! Speaking of colorful, these trees behind the horse pasture fence were putting on a colorful show, too.

Kayakers paddle down the Silver River at Silver Springs State Park in Florida, as seen during our October 2023 Florida Trip. We saw lots of kayakers while we were at Silver Springs. But we also saw signs warning of alligators and snakes in the area, and there is not much in a kayak to protect you from either of those. So maybe kayaking is not for us. There were also lots of stand-up paddleboarders, and that looked like fun, too.

A statue of King Kamehameha I stands in front of Aliʻiōlani Hale in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, as seen during our June 2023 Hawaiʻi trip I told about our visit to Aliʻiōlani Hale in Part 9 of the trip report. However, I had taken lots of photos during our visit, and I did not want to clog up the trip report with photos. So I chose to save most of them for a separate post.

Waves crash upon the shore at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Florida. And yes, that is Laura out in the waves. During our October 2023 Florida trip, Laura and I spent a day at Cocoa Beach, one of our favorite places to spend a day. For most of the day it was cloudy and slightly cool, but that did not keep us from getting in the water, and it did not keep us from enjoying our day.

Looking down at the coastline of the island of Oʻahu from the top of Makapuʻu Point during our 2023 Hawaiʻi trip. Yes, if you are keeping score at home, I have posted another photo from this location in addition to the photos in Part 6 of the trip report. But to a guy who has spent most al of his life in flat, dry West Tennessee, I could never get enough of views like this one.

A glass-bottom boat glides over the clear spring water at Silver Springs State Park in Florida, as seen during our October 2023 visit. Silver Springs was for many years a popular roadside attraction park, but its fame declined when the big theme parks moved into the state. Fortunately, some years ago the state of Florida took over the park and turned it into a state park, preserving its natural beauty for years to come.

An angel prays atop a grave marker at the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia. There are all kinds of angel figures at cemeteries, especially older cemeteries. And in some ways, especially as they age and the weather starts to deteriorate some of their features, the angels start to look just a little creepy. So with Halloween just around the corner (at the time of this writing), I thought I would share a few that we saw in Winchester.

The sun sets above the rocks and waves of the Ko Olina lagoons on the first night of our June 2023 Hawaiʻi trip. In the trip report, I shared several sunset photos, but I also intentionally held back several other photos to be able to share later on. One reason was so that I would have more to post throughout the winter. And another reason was that I wanted to spend a little more time working on some of these photos.

During our trip to Winchester, Virginia, and Washington, DC, we visited the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester. If you know much about Laura and me, you know we love a good cemetery. And this one had lots of interesting history. Here is just a little of what we saw. For starters, the Gatehouse at the Mount Hebron Cemetery was an impressive structure. Although you cannot see it well here, you enter the cemetery by driving through an arched opening at the center of the building.

The Diamond Head lighthouse is seen from the top of Diamond Head on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, seen here during our June 2023 visit. From way up here, the lighthouse looks rather small. Named Lēʻahi in Hawaiian, you probably recognize Diamond Head from all those beach photos from Waikīkī, with the volcanic mountain looming in the distance. The lighthouse out in front of the mountain is not as well known, and as you can see, the mountain towers over the lighthouse.