On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature is for Balloon Juicers who are on the road, travelling, etc. and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades. As the US mainland begins the end of the Earth day as we measure it, many of us rise to read about our friends and their transient locales.
So, please, speak up and share some of your adventures, observations, and sights as you explore, no matter where you are. By concentrating travel updates here, it’s easier for all to keep up-to-date on the adventures of our fellow Commentariat. And it makes finding some travel tips or ideas from 6 months ago so much easier to find…
Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!
Should you have any pictures (tasteful, relevant, etc….) you can email them to [email protected] or just use this nifty link to start an email: Start an Email to send a Picture to Post on Balloon Juice
The skills of photographers on this site are top-notch – with even more examples tonight. Today’s selection are amazing and I feel like I can’t wait to share the pictures on deck for later this week, but I will.
First up, from Peale:
Where it was taken: Boracay, Philippines
When: April 27
Other notes or info about the picture: I’m in a very crowded paradise this week. The first photo I snapped as I was waiting for a sailboat to come and pick me up. I wanted to get the colors right and create the reaction of eyes adjusting to the bright. It is bright and the water is an amazing green. The 2nd photo I snapped from my beach chair as the sun set. Yeah, I know, sunset at the beach. I wish I could come up with a more exciting topic. But it is a nice place to watch a sunset and drink things with mangos, pineapple, calamansi and dalandan. Dalandan margaritas are the best in the world! All praise to the dalandan tree!I’ll post more next week when I go back to Manila to go pearl shopping and other adventures.
Thank you, enjoy the trip and do send more!
Two from Beautifulplummage:
Taken mid-March in Renton (south border of Seattle) before my car died : (
Thought the jackals would appreciate it
Cole has his own blend of granola! A vendor sent the boss this thank you gift – 4/27/17
Thanks, and do send more from your neck of the woods!
And finally, some wonderful diversions from PaulB – CRITTERS!
Where it was taken: Stanley Park, Vancouver, British-Columbia
When: Summer, 2016
Other notes or info about the picture: All of these were taken in Stanley Park, some in the park itself and some in the Vancouver Aquarium. I thought some critters to look at might change things up a bit.
Thank you for that, PaulB and do send more. These are amazing – well done!
Don’t forget – it’s not just places you go on vacation, there are amazing things around all of us that we can share. Pictures of flora, fauna, fungi and slime molds, are very welcome, but also a farmer’s market, neighborhood, rainbow over an intersection, or puddle next to a skyscraper. Let’s see something you see – it doesn’t always have to be exotic.
Elizabelle
Good morning. Beautiful photos, as usual, and I love the critters. Makes my day.
Creature Feature Coffee Hour.
OzarkHillbilly
That first pic made my eyes hurt. ;-)
Like them all, tho it took me awhile to figure out that first otter pick. Looked like a camel’s nose sticking up out of the water at first. All I could think was, “Camel’s swim?”
raven
Back after almost two weeks at the beach. It was fun but the intense winds put a damper on the last few days.
When I see those sea otters I think of when my ex and I were at Orcas Island. We took a sea kayak trip and came across a bunch of them floating on their backs cracking mollusks. The guide told us that if we looked directly at them they would dive underwater but if we looked at them out of the corner of our eye they’d stay up and go on with their eating!!!
JPL
Beautiful pictures!
@OzarkHillbilly: Did you venture out and take pictures of the floods? Hopefully the water has receded.
Quinerly
?
rikyrah
I love these pictures. They all look like that they could be postcards.?
Debbie(aussie)
Beautiful.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: A lot of animals will do that. If they do not perceive a direct threat, they will stay in place.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Yeah, the Meramec crested about noon yesterday. I got pictures but was unable to get to a lot of locations I wanted to because even if a road was a half mile or more away from the river, the water had backed up over the low spots. Low spots I had never realized were all that low. Supposed to start raining again tonight with another 3″ or more expected over 36-48 hours.
Glub glub glub.
MomSense
The pictures from the Philippines look like a dream. So beautiful.
We BJ! Surprised the Cole blend doesn’t have mustard!
Love the photos of the critters — even the gator. Amazing.
Miss Bianca
awesome photos, as always! Love the critter pics!
satby
Late to the party but I LOVE the critter pics! Thanks PaulB!
You sure got close, or have really steady hands with a telephoto lens!
PaulB
@satby: Thank you. It was a little of both. These were taken with a Canon PowerShot S3, with a 12x zoom and decent image stabilization. The chipmunk was a bit wary, so I had to keep my distance. The squirrel, on the other hand, was just as bold as he could be. As you might expect in a park where lots of tourists flock, the squirrels are pretty open about begging for and/or stealing food. The goose didn’t see me, I think, and the rest of the critters were behind glass at the Aquarium.
J R in WV
@raven:
Was walking along the S/W bank of the New River many years ago, and saw a beaver swimming along beside me. Watched for several minutes. Evidently because the river is such big water, they den in the soft banks, rather than building the famolus domes of vegetation.
They also had acclimated well to lots of people walking on the river bank fishing. This full grown adult wasn’t a bit afraid of me up on the bank. I was interested in seeing the beaver’s conventional warning to other beavers that there was an interloper in their turf – the big slap of the flat tail on the water, followed by a splashy dive. So I tossed an acorn near the Beaver… no go so far.
I no longer remember exactly how many acorns I pitched at the busy beaver,or even w but I had to peck him on the back of the head to get any reaction at all. THEN he slapped the water, sending water spraying all around him. No panic dive tho, just a regular submergence into the flat pool of New River near the abandoned mining camp of Terry.
New River is famous for Big White Water taken in rafts, canoes, kayaks or even wooden rowboats. But between rapids, caused by ridges of harder rock damming the water up and causing waterfall quality rapids, the river is glass-like flat smooth water, great for bass fishing.