Photo Contest

Luann entered one of our pictures from an 'Urban Decay' photoshoot we did on the 4th of July in a photo judging contest based upon that very topic. Of all of the images sent in, we were selected amongst the top 40 of them. Click here and scroll about 3-quarters of the way down to see the image we took of the sugar mill and the other images that were selected.

This image was part of a series we posted on our weblog. Boy, were we surprised to see that we actually made it into the top 40 against so many professional photographers...

Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

As I had mentioned in a previous post, we decided to do something different this year by getting the family together and having a camp-out for Thanksgiving.

So, here we are after our first night of sleeping under the stars, but as usual, I get ahead of myself...

Let me rewind a bit and "catch you up".

Wednesday evening.

We left work a bit early to get out here before it got dark, but the best laid plans can easily fall apart. After having to bolt south into Saint Petersburg to pick up our traditional cache of stone crab claws, we turned around to head north and ran smack into 'stop & stop' traffic. It took us 45 minutes to get across the bridge which means we didn't get to Karen's house until 6:30, and of course, things weren't going smoothly for her, so she was still busy gettting her boys together when we arrived.

We finally got to the campsite by 8:30PM to see that other tents had been pitched next to Karen's and we could see a couple of LED lanterns waving around. Well, I'm glad I brought the Coleman fuel lanterns, because we needed some serious light on the spot and those guys did the job. You can see the difference between the blue-ish LED lantern and the Coleman one in this picture. The tan colored 'thing' at the bottom of the picture is Romeo, one of Karen's 2 dogs.

We also brought the fire pit that was in use at last year's Thanksgiving. You can bet there will be quite a few S'mores and toasted marshmallows being created on this thing this weekend. You can see that the boys are already settling into the camping life as they huddle around to watch the gameplay on a portable video game unit. Nothing like getting the complete outdoors, camping experience.

Yep, that is fire... And it is hot too... I watched her do this several times this evening. And yes, the boys are still Game-Boy engrossed (or whatever the game unit was called).

I had to partially unpack the van so we could blow up an inflatable matress to sleep inside. I was wondering why Karen wanted to bring her black steel shepard's-crook stands because it seemed rediculous to me, but boy, was I wrong. Those things came in handy for all kinds of tasks, from holding the lanterns, tying dog leashes to them, holding up our colorful umbrella and steadying the projection screen for the movies we showed. As for the drink containers on the ground, I was stacking up the things I was taking out of the van on my little Coleman table when the juice box magically appeared on it.

When I discovered who did it and asked the member of the family responsible for the act to move it out of the way so I could continue my work of stacking things on the table, she just stared at me. So, I simply flicked the mostly-full container out of the way so I could put the load I was holding, onto the table. She said "Hey!", picked it up and put it back on the table. After a stern look from me, she then repositioned the juice box on the ground where you see it in the picture. The funny thing about this is that when I took this picture later on, a cup seemed to appear and gravitated over to its side. Come to find out, anybody trying to use the table was advised by the initial perpetrator to place their container there, as it would be considered to be a safe spot.

Here is Willy, Kim and Sharon, working on blowing up the tallest inflatable matress I have ever seen. It was funny watching them as they stuffed this big beast through the door opening of Sharon's tent.

Thursday morning.

Ah, dawn on Thanksgiving morning after our first night of sleeping under the stars. I got up early to walk around the site and photograph the foggy conditions. Here is a shot of the campsite, located on the northeast side of the property.

I heard a tapping sound and saw that a red-cap woodpecker was working on the top of the power pole. And nobody else is up to see this...

Ah, the sun is rising, which makes it look like the building is on fire in the distance.

This was a neat visual of the fog settling across the fields while the sun is rising.

It was really foggy around the campsite and everything was damp. Yep, the cup and the juice box are still there...

This is Lex, one of the resident cats. He likes to hide in this weedy section while the birds are on the power wires above him so he can pounce on them if they land in the yard.

Here is a northward view of the campsite. I think the 3-dome unit is gonna have some problems if it rains, because it is on the down-slope and the doorway is facing uphill.

In the middle of the campsite this morning. It is calm and quiet except for the occasional snoring...

The next thing I know, Karen came out of Sharon's tent to let her dogs out. She had a rough night because the foggy dew caused Sharon's tent to become saturated and then the tent sagged down onto her face as she slept on the big inflatable matress. She said it was like trying to sleep with a big, soggy towel laying across her face. As you can tell by the look on her face, I'm about to get into trouble for taking this picture.

Yep, I was right.... Meanwhile, Romeo was making his getaway.

A couple of minutes later, I heard this whirring noise and saw that Cody and Gabriel were taking a drive around the area.

I decided that I needed to have some kind of cover for the stuff I stacked up on the table, so I pitched this screen-tent to put our junk in.

By the way, here is the second resident cat that they call Crybaby, because he's constantly whining about something. I tell you, it was tough to get a picture of him with his mouth closed.

We were wondering who was going to end up having the usual family get-together injury and whaddaya know? It looks like it was Colton's turn this year. Apparently, he broke his ankle when he stepped into a hole while he was running.

Time for cooking! I steamed the stone crab claws in the silver and black cooker, dumped the water out, put oil in the tank and started deep-frying the turkey. The turkey was different this year because I brined the turkey for a day in salt, maple syrup, brown sugar, rosemary, peppercorns, orange and lemon slices and liquid smoke. It tasted great, but I did learn that the carmelized sugars turned dark in the 350 degree oil, so the skin on the turkey looked burned, even though it wasn't and actually tasted great.

Friday morning.

We decided to go geocaching and several family members were going to go with us, until the family members that were staying at a hotel nearby dropped in and said they were going to take the kids to the movies. Well, it didn't take long before the family members going geocaching were Luann, Karen, Cody, Kaitlyn, their mother Amy and myself heading for the park.

This picture shows the first find with a gentleman frog statuette, which looks alot like the one Kylor was holding up last week.

♫♪ He ain't heavy... He's my brother! ♫♪

At this point, we paused so Cody could show his mother his 'treasure box' finds.

It looks like Aunt Karen is impressed!

One of the benefits of geocaching in a park (or in the woods) is that we come across all kinds of wildlife, such as these wild turkeys. Since it's the day after Thanksgiving, they're safe for now, but they better watch out come Christmas time!

Ah-Hah! It looks like Cody found another treasure-box / geocache.

Since he was a little scared of reaching into the base of the tree to grab the box, Kaitlyn picked it up for him and brought it to this clearing to take a look at the contents. It looks like Kaitlyn found something that caught her attention.

In our travels, we came across a couple of armadillos, and this one was nice enough to position himself for a nice side shot.

When we stopped to look for a geocache in this area, Karen decided to let her hair down...

...and turn herself into a version of "Cousin It" from the Addams Family. Too funny!

At some point, I lifted the lid of a trashcan to throw away an empty soda can and this little arachnid came crawling out. It might look big, but actually, he was the size of my thumbnail.

Well, that was about it for geocaches in the park (and a moderate dose of sprinkling rain), so we decided to go over to the playground and have some fun, which was Cody's idea.

We tried out the swings and Karen got a little out of shape while Amy & I watched.

Hi Cody! Such a ham...

It looks like Karen was giving instructions on how to ride this 'spring-pony' to Kaitlyn.

And when she climbed aboard, it looks like she was having some difficulty with the little bucking bronco... (I love the hand guards).

After surviving the 'riding instruments of death', it was time to lounge on this really laid-back tree.

Which was also a great appliance for setting up this shot. Nice...

And the main part of the tree was great for posing for some pictures too.

See? Too bad we didn't have Brianna here too (Amy's other daughter), but she chose to go to the movies. Oh well, her loss.

After we returned home, the girls went out to the nearby mall to do some shopping (after all, it is Black Friday), and Karen decided to have some fun with the local 'finery'.

Yep, she's all duded-up for that Sunday-Go-To-Meetin' affair...
Mahalo!

And then there was the green, fingerless gloves that seemed to be completely pointless...

With all of the goofy clothes here, it's enough to boggle your mind while wearing a beret...

Well, that's about all of the pictures we have of our Thanksgiving Camp-O-Ree because we were so busy, that we forgot to grab the camera and take pictures during Thanksgiving dinner time, the movies we showed that night and the breakfast we made on the Coleman griddle at the campsite the next morning. Not only that, we were wanting to get a family photo like we did last year, but there wasn't a time where everyboody was at the property at the same time where we could do it.

Oh well, maybe next time...

The Final Coin Is placed In Our Geocoin Contest

Well, our geocacher Zodiac Coin Contest is winding down, so we had the drop-off of the last coin at a park near our house. Here are the pictures of our top-9 competitors, most of whom have participated in playing all 12 of the coins over the year. Since we are posting their pictures here, it wouldn't be right to be giving out their geo-names with getting permission first.

1st Place. He joined our Geo-Gem Contest last year and came in at 4th place. This time, he put some fire into his efforts and finished with 55 points (lowest score wins).

2nd Place at 72 points. This is the son and granddaughter of our first place winner. This was the first time they entered into one of our contests. For a while there, it was a toss-up between him and his father as to who would post the first find after we dropped a coin off.

3rd Place at 80 points. They are new to our contests too. It took some hard work on their part to finish where they did, even with flying to Nevada right in the middle of one of our coin drops.

4th Place at 88 points. You may have seen his picture in our weblogs. If he wasn't leading the race at some point in this contest, then he was stirring it up for his fellow competitors, sometimes as the Tampa Bay Mystery Monkey. This made for some real interesting episodes thoughout the year.

5th Place at 98 points. They definitely went above and beyond the 'call of the contest'. For their bravery in action, we are working on a special trophy for the lady on the left. It seems she was looking at a spot where one of the geocoins might be and disturbed a hornet's nest, which precipitated the need to go to the emergency room. Wow, that's dedication...

6th Place at 149 points. Our 3rd place winners from last year's contest. They spent more time chasing down the coins than finding them, mainly because the contest moves so quickly whenever a coin was dropped in the field of play and the coin didn't seem to stay in any one place for very long.

7th Place at 153 points. He didn't show up in time to pose for a picture with me for the final drop-off, so I used a picture somebody else took of him as he was taking his picture in order to fulfill the requirements of the contest. At one point in the middle of our contest, we stopped by a park on the way home from work to check on one of our coins and he showed up minutes afterwards, trying to claim his prize. I shouted to Luann that I found it as he was coming around the bend, as if I were one of his competitors. Ooooh, the look on his face was priceless...

8th Place at 168 points. A very dedicated team that worked hard to complete the contest. We were pleased that they finished the contest with finding almost every one of the 12 coins.

9th Place at 229 points. She came in a little late to the game, but seemed to be one of the craftier ones in where she would place a coin after she found it. Some of her drop-offs made her competitors have to stretch their 'geocaching wings', so to speak. It made for flurries of emails being sent to us, but they were legal moves.

After the 'meet-n-greet' was over, we did a little hunting for a couple of geocaches in the park, then I dropped the last zodiac contest coin in one of them in order to continue the game until it ends on December 21st. We'll post more about the awards ceremony on December 26th at Starkey Park.