Ice Cave Sunrise

There is so much good ice along the north shore of Lake Superior right now, I'm sort of wishing I didn't have a day job so I could spend all day every day exploring and photographing the ice! This is another shot from yesterday morning's sunrise near Cascade River State Park. This cave wasn't very big. I basically crawled into it head first then turned on my side to make photographs of the sun rising behind the icicles. I sure love the color of the ice as the sun illuminated it from behind. What a beautiful sight!

Hog Heaven~Bike Week in Myrtle Beach

When Austin was about three years old, he was obsessed with Harley's. He could tell if there was a Harley around long before he could even see them. Meaning, he knew one by the sound alone. We'd be driving on the interstate and hear the roar of a bike coming up behind us and he'd shout out, That's a Harley! And he was always correct in his guess. I was, and still am, so impressed by that. The boy has good taste.



Imagine our surprise to land in Myrtle Beach and realize we coordinated our trip with Bike Week/Harley Davidson Bike Week. This has added such a fun dimension to our visit here. They are in the campground we are staying at. They are at the places we stop to visit. And they are on the road whenever we drive.




There is a Harley Davidson dealership right up the road, and each day we've passed by there are tons of bikes there to drool over.







We are in Hog Heaven! Can I show you my favorite?



I had no idea they made pink helmets. That is gonna be me someday, mark my words!



Living the life where we dream to be bikers in NC!

Wow! I've been nominated...

Thank you so much to everyone who nominated Kinexxions for the Family Tree Magazine 40 Best Genealogy Blogs (in the Personal/Family Category)! And congratulations go out to all of the other nominees.

The editorial staff of Family Tree Magazine will be selecting 40 blogs in the various categories for an article scheduled to be published in the May .. issue. Blogs were nominated by readers last month and the voting is now open (and will continue to November 5th) to determine the final 80 blogs that will make the cut.

Blogs were grouped into 10 different categories based on the purpose or intent of the blog: All-around, Personal/Family, Local/Regional, Cemetery, Photos/Heirlooms, Heritage, News/Resources, How-to, Genealogy Companies, and Genetic Genealogy. The Genealogy Insider has more information about the categories.


Caution, shameless plug coming. . . I realize that Kinexxions has been a bit preoccupied with some traveling and hasn't posted much content recently that is related to family history but if you'd care to vote for me I'm near the bottom of the list (hopefully that doesn't really mean anything ;-) in the Personal/Family category. And, hey, you can even vote more than once if you'd like to!

Update October 6th:
I've been informed by Bill West (thanks Bill!) that the list of blogs in each category changes each time you view the poll, so you'll just have to look for the blogs for which you want to vote. Also, the illustrious footnoteMaven (who has been nominated in two categories!) has created a list of links to each of the nominated blogs, which is quite helpful in reviewing the nominees prior to voting.

Old boundaries

On one part of our property, there are three types of boundary markers: surveyor's tape, a barbed wire fence, and these tree blazes. They don't always precisely agree, but are usually within 10 or 20 feet of each other.



I don't know how old the painted markers are. The fence is rusty and has trees over it in a few places. I wonder if previous owners kept cows here... otherwise why bother to put up a fence in such hilly terrain? Nowdays it's not going to keep much of anything in or out, but it does a fairly good job of following the property line.

The ground in this area is extremely rocky, so the trees may be older than they appear.



I know it sounds corny, but - I wish the trees could talk! I'd love to hear their stories.

Aquamarine

We have been staying on Cape Cod since Saturday and will be here till the end of the month. The water is freezing, but the scenery is gorgeous and the bicycle trails are nearby.



Marianne was happy to discover that her aquamarine outfit matched the colourscheme of the landscape.



Come to think of it, so did mine! Yesterday we spotted seals frolicking on this beach, though I failed to capture them on camera.

Center for Great Apes Tour

When we were doing volunteer work for Reach the World, I wrote about a sanctuary that is nearby that houses a famous chimp. Michael Jackson's chimp, Bubbles, lives there now. The kids really got a kick out of that and asked me lots of questions about him. Unfortunately at the time, I couldn't really answer because I hadn't been to the place he lived so I couldn't tell them.



This past week that changed because we not only visited his home, we saw him in person and saw he is doing well. I can't even describe how excited I was to visit where he does live, The Center for Great Apes. It is very close by where we are this winter, but because it is not open to the public, you would never know it was there. It is very discrete and on land that allows a beautiful place for the animals to live in a peaceful environment.



The center was started when it's founder agreed to take in an orangutan and it grew from there. You can read the story here: History of the Center for Great Apes. In short, it is now a sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees.



We had a very small group with us from Thousand Trails that went for a private tour. We rode over with new pickleball friends, Garth and Rosemary. Since our group was so small, it made the visit feel very intimate.



We were allowed to take pictures, but they asked that we not share them on the internet so I won't post them here.



I can share that this was one of my top favorite things to do since we hit the road full time. It was so much better than I ever expected. So many times when we visit places where animals are housed, I have conflicting emotions. I am glad they are safe, but at times it doesn't seem to be a way of life that I'd think is truly enjoyable for an animal. That was not the case here at all. This was the most impressive sanctuary we have ever visited as far as the thoughtfulness they put into the environment for the animals.



On top of all that, we were able to get much closer to the animals than I had expected. So close that it was overwhelming to me at times, because of the emotions that welled up inside of me. I didn't even edit my pictures for a few days because of the swell of emotions that I was still feeling from the visit. If you are in the area, get a group together and GO visit this place! You won't regret it!



We have been enjoying gorgeous weather here this winter which makes things like this even more enjoyable. Living the life in Sunny Florida!

Attack!

I can't help it. Her tail was just too temping. I had to jump on it.