Photo Day Redux: Spring Has Sprung

In mid-February, I took my camera and walked around my new hometown, taking some interesting photography.  (link)  I was happy with the results, but looking forward to spring.

Well, 3 months later, I can finally say that Spring has arrived in Eastern Idaho.  In May.  Late May.  Sheesh...

I'm still not used to this '4 seasons' BS.  In California you'd have Summer and Fall, that's about it.  Summer would be March thru mid-October, then fall from about Halloween to Valentine's day.  The remaining 3-4 weeks is just 'meh' weather.

Not in Idaho.  The seasons are distinct.  It takes a little bit of getting used to.

Anyway, I spent Sunday afternoon walking around the Snake River.  Home to where Idaho Falls gets its name (from the falls, get it?  I know, how clever of them...).

See the mormon temple in the background?  I'm convinced they do that on purpose.  You find the most picturesque shot to take, and boom, there it is in the center of the picture.  Granted, it's really far away, but still somewhat distinct.  This way, it's in as many "Hi from Idaho Falls" postcards as possible.

Smart marketing.  Very business-savvy, for a church...

There is a pathway you can walk that takes you on a 3ish mile loop from one side of the river to the other, and back around again.  I took a stroll and decided to take in the spring weather while it lasts.

Oh yeah, another thing about Eastern Idaho.  Apparently it reserves the right to regress into winter whenever it sees fit.  It could be June and still snowing from time to time... (wtf???)

As you can see from the before/after shots, the river is much more fun to look at in the spring.  Granted, seeing a massive body of water completely freeze over is pretty cool, but I prefer the sound of rushing, crashing water.

It's almost inspiring enough to consider trying river rafting sometime this summer.  I wonder if I could cut it?  Or am I too much of a city boy?  We will see.

Walking around, I noticed a lot of signs and touristy crap, telling people about the Oregon Trail, various indigenous wildlife, as well as the different trees planted in this area.  One of my favorites, by far, was the elusive 'invisible maple' tree...

Its fruit, if you can find any, is the sweetest you'll ever taste.  Well, half of it anyway.  The other half is poison. The funny thing is they both look exactly the same.  Good luck in your choice...

For a day that started off so crummy (link) I'm glad my Sunday ended on a nice, relaxing note.  Happy Monday!

Submitted by YOU!

Welcome to Saturday!

As promised here are the photos submitted by YOU, the followers of this blog.  I'm going to post all of these for your consideration, and open up voting for 24 hours.  I will announce the winner on tomorrow's blog, and will try to do something special for the winner.

Aaaaand...go!

This was found on top of a door in the women's restroom in a Japanese Restaurant.  Random???  I think so.

I have seen this before, but it always makes me giggle...

Previewed this one earlier in the week.  Still hilarious!

Every girl I ever dated should have this tattoo'd on her somewhere.  

Imagine being in line with THIS dude!

Don't forget to tip your, um, server....

George Washington lookin like Flavor Flav here...

Not worth taking... just makes you want to take it even more...

I could picture Napoleon driving this bad boy.  HE ATE TEH PIG!!!!

I nostalgia'd when I saw this.  Scratch n Sniff!  And pizza no less!!!

Ok!  Comment to vote!  You can only vote for two, and can't vote for the same one twice, so make them count!  Happy weekend!!!

Raaar! And Wooo! And a challenge.

I couldn't sleep last night, and was playing around in photoshop.  I made this guy as a continuation of yesterday's post.

When I looked at the wall with the a/c vents, and the speakers/doors/etc, this is what I saw in my head.

The vents jutting out like that reminded me of the bushy bushy eyebrows on my Greek grandpa Petros.  You could comb those badboys... maybe even braid them.

~~~~~

Also, a big woooooo to my followers!  There is now over 300 of you, and I am very appreciative of the fact you come to me and let me vent.  I'm going to be making some minor changes to the layout (and maybe URL) of this blog, so sit tight!  Everything will be bigger and better!

~~~~~

Lastly, I would love to challenge my audience.  My bud Rose and Crayons did this earlier, and I loved the concept.

It goes like this.  Grab your cell phone, and send me a picture from it.  As random as you like.  Next Saturday, I will make a collage of pictures, submitted to me by my viewers.  The top 3 will be singled out, and major kudos will be given to you (unless you want to remain anonymous, let me know).

Rules:

- If you send me any R or X rated stuff, it won't make it to the thread.  Trying to keep my blog porn-free, just so the internet police don't get angry.  However, if you DO send me any nudity *wink wink* I won't complain.

- Limit 3 submissions per blogger.

- Let me know in the email if you want to be recognized or anonymous.  I'll keep you private, if you want.  If your email doesn't say anything about your blog, I won't be able to give you props.  I'm not going to say "James Walsh sent me THESE!" or anything...

The two I sent to R&C for her experiment were these:

Gives you an idea of what I'm looking for...

Please send your submissions to lostinidaho@ymail.com.  Results will be shown next Saturday!  Go go go!!!

Photo Day: Some Interesting Sights

Happy weekend, blogville!

Before I begin, I'd like to give a big WOOOO to all my followers.  Thank you for the support.  I'm a hair below 200 followers now, and am enjoying the blogging process in a lot of ways.

Today was a "warm and sunny" 34 degrees today, so I felt compelled to take a walk.  I brought along my camera, and took some interesting photos.

First up was my backyard.

The snow in my backyard is fairly deep.  It's on the North end, so not a lot of sun gets back there to keep snow melting.  Because of this, I can get interesting shots like this...

The snow and ice is slowly sliding off my roof.  I was fortunate enough to take this picture before everything came crashing off.  5 minutes later, it was BLAMMO!  That poor lil red wagon is buried now.

I took a drive downtown because I always wanted to walk around and take pictures.  There are more 'modern' areas of the city, but downtown looks like you've stepped into a time machine, and are back in order times (hence the b&w in some pictures, for the old-timey effect):

A lot of these buildings have been in place for 50+ years.  If you step inside, you can tell that they were never really well-insulated.

The wagon-wheels are making me feel like I'm in the old west.  If it wasn't for the cars and street lights, this could fit into an Oregon Trail video game...

There is a lot of duality when you walk downtown.  Really old buildings, mixed with cars, businesses, and other signs that you're still in the 21st century...

Old building, not-so-old car.

Karen's Bar.  The building has been here since 1895.  I wonder if the bar is that old as well?  From the inside, I wouldn't be surprised...

Ford's Bar.  They have a sign near the entrance that says "Circa 1906."  That's an old bar.

Downtown also runs along the "famous" Snake River.   There are places alongside the river to walk, have picnics, etc.   There are also a lot of different pieces of 'art' along the river, including benches and other stonework.

Apparently not too long ago, the town commissioned a bunch of artists to come and design benches to be placed about town.  These are some of the results.  The music bench made me laugh a little, since I have a musical background.  I have never seen that key before, and the bars don't really follow a proper meter.  But hey, I guess I just don't understand art.

This last piece made me raise an eyebrow a bit.  Yes, the religious folk are everywhere here, and yes, the center of the town is a giant mormon temple, but really??

The plaque below reads "This display is not meant to endorse any particular system of religious beliefs or intrude into matters of religious worship.  As a historical precedent, the Ten Commandments represents one of man's earliest efforts to live by the rule of law.  Many of these ancient pronouncements survive in our jurisprudence today."

I did a little digging online, and that "disclaimer" plaque below was added almost 2 years after the original piece, because of religious protests.  I laughed a little when I read that.

Well, there you go.  I bash a lot of things about this State, but every now and then there are things that make me smile a little.  I enjoyed the walk, and taking these pictures made me smile.  I hope you enjoy them too.