Rural America...in Los Angeles???

OK...so I had to drive out to Santa Clarita to take some jeans back to the Boot Barn...they're one of the few stores that carry longs in my size jeans. On the way I decided to go have lunch at the Halfway House Cafe...a great burger and you name it joint near where some friends of ours live on the "Old Dirt Road"...honestly...that's the name of the road they live on. Well, I thought I turned in the wrong direction so I made a U turn and there was this cool horse boarding ranch on the side of the road. With camera in the car I thought...ooooh...I can take some pictures out here and show how rural it is, even in LA county...so I stopped to take some pics...

Unfortunately, I scared the owner of this beautiful horse because they'd had some people scouting the area with cameras in hand with ne're do well plans of horse theft etc....my apologies to the owner of Chief (yep...that's the horse's name...pretty cool coincidence, eh?) The owner of the Gentle Barn horse boarding was very gracious and offered me the opportunity of coming out sometime and taking some pics in her ranch...an opportunity I would love take her up on!

After confirming that my only intention was to take pics of rural America, while still in Los Angeles County...I took off and headed for the Halfway House Cafe...

You might just recognize this cafe as it has been in numerous movies and TV spots...it's a great location shot...and just about 30 minutes from LA...depending on the traffic...

Haven't had their Bar B Que but their burgers are great!!!

We're taking off again...goin' on a transatlantic repositioning cruise! We'll only be checking the internet occasionally until mid December...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and I'll post again when I get back!!!

The Baltic...a retrospective...

OK...so here's the deal...I'm trying to figure out the new computer and how it organizes it's photos and uploads and all that stuff...iPhoto and My Pictures have virtually nothing in common...and I'm a bit befuddled!!! At any rate...I'm still figuring it all out...and in the meantime...here's a bit of a retrospective...we went to Copenhagen for the Rotary International Conference in 2006...one of the reason's I agreed to my hubby's being President of his club that year was the added bonus that he was expected to attend the international conference...when he told me where it was I told him he absolutely had a responsibility to serve his Rotary community as he'd been called on to do....

(tee hee!!!)

During the conference, we attended an event in Malmo Sweden, just across the Baltic from Copenhagen...it was almost Midsummer's Eve and the Swede's hosting our event entertained us with a traditional Midsummer's Eve dance...and believe it or not...this was taken close to 10:00 in the evening!!!

Sunset was finally around 11:00...

Several of the Rotary clubs arranged for a cruise in the Baltic...we stopped in St. Petersburg, Russia...a special stop for me as that is the birthplace of my paternal grandfather...

This is St. Isaac's Cathedral...one of St. Petersburg's largest cathedrals...

Opulence abounds in historic Russia...quite in contrast with the more current architecture of past the Soviet Union...

This is one of the most photographed churches in St. Petersburg...and you can see why...it's fabulous!!! It is commonly known as the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. It was constructed on the site where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. The actual name is Church of the Resurrection of Christ. Alexander II was known for having freed the Russian serf's in 1861...unfortunately for him, he grew more conservative as his reign continued and as revolution was beginning to foment. He became a target of the revolutionaries and was assassinated.