Category: Travel Photography

Thursday Doors- Quaker Steak & Lube

Posted in Doors, Green Doors, Photography, Thursday Doors, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , 51 Comments

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

After several hours of birding my birding partner and I were hungry so went looking for a place fairly close by to have some lunch. We found Quaker Steak & Lube.

This is the only one in FL going by their website. We both had salads and I failed to take a photo of either of them. It was just a Caesar Salad w/grilled chicken. Instead of croutons they served it with Cheese Curds. Now, I thought that sounded gross and would probably just pick them out, but after trying one I gobbled them up! They were warm and slightly gooy and tender on the inside yummy. Mary had the Biker Chick salad. It sounded delicious too, but it was on the sweet side and I was hot and wasn’t in the mood for sweet.

The inside of the restaurant is car themed. Each wing of the interior has a small sports racing car hanging from the ceiling, and lots of car memorabilia like a dividing wall full of MAC tools for fixing cars. I went back a second time for that salad and this time He-Man was with me he said he has some of those tools. Who knew?!

Anyway, I did get photos of the exterior and the doors.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com

Look at the door pulls. I thought they were neat.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com

Most of their restaurants seem to be in OH. Do you have one in your city/state? Have you been there?

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at https://nofacilities.com/2024/09/26/back-at-osv/

Head on over there to see more doors from around the world or join the craze and add a door or two of your own. 😊

more to come…

Whatever Weds- The Stars have It

Posted in Comets, Photography, Stars, Stars and Planets, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 47 Comments

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week He-Man and I had a little get-away for our 43rd anniversary. We didn’t go too far just up to Sparks, NV.

We booked a balcony suite at Hampton Inn & Suites at the marina for the view of Helms Lake, and view of Reno’s skyline. This lake has an interesting beginning.

“The site was once a gravel pit owned by the Helms Construction Corp. (1968-1995) The pit is 100 feet deep. They found petroleum and solvent contamination seeping into the pit in 1987 so it was declared a Super Toxic Sight and clean up began. In 1996 it was declared free of petrochemicals and the site was turned over to the city of Sparks.

Millions of dollars of spill mitigation money was made available to the city, which they used to construct the park and make the pit a recreational pond. They had planned to fill the pit to 30 feet, but in January 1997 the Truckee River overflowed its banks and filled the Helms Pit creating what is now Richard Helms Lake or Sparks Marina Pond.” You can read a little more about how it stays filled at the link. https://www.ndow.org/waters/sparks-marina/

Now for our view-

Our day-time balcony view

It was pretty windy the day we were up there as you can see by the water.

Our Evening View

We both really enjoyed having this evening view when the lights in the city came on.

I had hoped our 4th floor balcony room would afford a great view of the sky so I could also try to photograph Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but alas we had a storm rolling in and cloud cover.

Finally, Monday night April 1st…no joke! We had a clear night so I went out to my front yard and spied the Comet.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with faint tail.
Green Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks cropped in.
Dialing in my focus I got Jupiter and her Moons too.

We had a lovely anniversary walking around the lake both days, and we found a new Indian place we liked a lot for dinner so, we’ll make the drive up for that again when we’re craving Indian food, and we’ll be staying there again when the weather is warmer and we’ll take our kayak up for a paddle around the lake.

I hope the stars have lined up a fantastic week for you.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 80-200mm| iPhone 14 Pro| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Aerial View

Posted in Aerial Views, Nikon, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , , 63 Comments

Copyright ©Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Way back in 2016 a couple of good friends and I took a long week-end trip to Sedona, AZ and during that trip we went to the Grand Canyon and one of the things we did was taking a helicopter tour of the North Rim.

I was just telling someone recently that these images have been marinating on my hard-drive for a long, long time because I really didn’t like the images too much when I got home. My aerial photography “eye” needs a lot more practice. That got me thinking that I hadn’t even looked at these images in years so I dug into my archives to look at the images. With the passing of time I’m not as disappointed in them. Here’s one.

Grand Canyon, North Rim, Aerial View via a Helicopter

I’ll be working on more images from this trip so, you may see more in future posts.

I’ve been staying close to home these last two weeks because while visiting our Grandson’s we took them to the park and Littlest was afraid to go down the tube slide by himself so I went down with him. The second time we were going a bit fast so I tried to slow us down by putting my foot along the wall, but we didn’t slow down my body kept going something went crack and both my knee and ankle hurt. My knee is still tender and I haven’t made it as far as the mailbox and back yet. I may have to go see the doctor if this keeps up.

Did you happen to see the recent full moon? I did but, didn’t photograph it. I did go out to look at the moon close to its setting a couple of mornings later and made this image from my street.

I did go out for a little bit birding yesterday and saw some good birds. I’m still culling images, but will have a few to share in upcoming posts.

That’s all that’s new here. What’s going on with you? I do hope your week is going well!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.2.2

more to come…

Thursday Doors- The Sherlock Holmes

Posted in Photography, Thursday Doors, Travel and Food, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , 69 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Back in 2019 the day after Christmas He-Man, myself, and Big Baby Boy headed to London for a little British Christmas and New Year’s fun.

Early one morning while on our way to…I’ve forgotten which museum we were heading to I spotted this pub and stopped for a quick photo. While the doors are open I’m not really sure if it was open or not. Don’t you love the flower baskets of greenery?

December 29, 2019

I did a quick online search to see if there was any information about the pub and found this,

“”The Sherlock Holmes pub is a traditional English pub serving pints and pub food. As well as a bar and restaurant, the pub has a secret – a complete recreation of Holmes and Watson’s study and sitting room with a large collection of objects and photographs related to the characters from the books and adaptations. The collection was put together for the Festival of Great Britain and moved to this permanent home at the Sherlock Holmes pub in 1957.” ~https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/48927-sherlock-holmes-pub”.

I wish we had gone back this route and stopped in for a drink and lunch! I would have loved to see that interior now that I know what it is.

This post is part of Thursday Doors which is hosted by Dan Antion. His blog is No Facilities. Click here to get to his blog to see many other doors from all over the world that other door lovers have shared this week.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Rock Wren in Red Rocks Park

Posted in Architecture, birding, Colorado, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , 32 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Hi! He-Man and I are home from a trip to the Denver, CO area for a wedding and vacation.

I haven’t uploaded too many images from the week yet, but here’s a little Rock Wren I spied while hiking in Red Rocks Park on the Red Rocks Trail. It was hunting for breakfast in a fenced off maintenance area just off the trail.

Rock Wren

Our last night there we had a lovely sunset …the first one all week actually. I grabbed a quick shot through our hotel room’s window.

Sunset

Then I went down stairs to make an image of the courtyard with an evening blue sky and clouds behind it. I hoped for more sunset color but, it was too cloudy.

We had a great time, and visited several beautiful parks which I’ll be sharing images of soon.

I’ll be catching up with laundry, mail, and your blogs. What have I missed?

Happy Friday and week-end everyone!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm & 16-80mm| PS CC 22.5.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. San Clemente Pier Plus 1 more…

Posted in California Wildflowers, Fuji X-T3, Photography, Travel Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , 38 Comments

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

He-Man and I have been traveling between our children’s homes in April which has been fun, and wonderful. Our latest trip we went to see our son in SoCal for several days. One evening we went down to the pier hoping for a good sunset. It wasn’t bad, but the company was perfect.

San Clemente Pier at Sunset

We dined out in restaurants and it was grand! Really. I missed dining out. We ate in places that we don’t have at home like Thai, Greek, and fresh Seafood. I was bad and didn’t take any images of the food at these places. Sorry!

We took after dinner hikes up in the canyon near Big Baby Boy’s and The Dark Haired Beauty’s place, and it was lovely. Spring wildflowers were in bloom.

Here’s a Sweet Pea of some sort- Sandy Beach or Chaparral? They are the largest flowers in the Pea family I’ve ever seen before.

I only took my Fuji X-T3 and my newest lens for it the Fujinon XF 16-80mm.

I’ve had the lens a couple of months now and really haven’t used it all that much, but this trip it got some love. I think it did a good job and its small, as well as light weight so it made a great travel kit.

There’s a nesting Red-tailed Hawk in a tree at the Golf Course where we live. I am hoping to get some good images of the chick and the parents bringing in food. So far I’ve not been lucky.

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. What’s new with you?

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 16-80mm| PS CC 22.3.0

more to come…

Thursday Doors: Lord John Russell Pub

Posted in iPhone 7 Plus, iphonegraphy, London, UK, Photography, Thursday Doors, Travel and Food, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , 33 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Whist in London over the Holidays I passed this pub on the way to the British Museum and had to stop to get a photo of the lovely Blue Door. I love the hanging sphere plants and that shade of blue. Lord John Russell

I did a quick search to see how long the pub has been there and found it’s been there a LONG TIME! In 1856 a John Russell was in the postal directory at this address.

Here’s the link to the London pub wiki that shares the pub’s history.

To see more doors from around the world visit our favorite Doorlican Norm here!

iPhone 7 Plus| PS CC 21.0.2

more to come…