The past two weekends have been particularly good ones for me, which has really helped my stress levels. Last weekend, Hubby and I went to Ohiopyle and visited Cucumber falls, for my first time at that falls. I got to play with my new lens (a wide angle telephoto 17-40 mm), and also with slow shutter speeds to try blurring the water more than I normally do. I think I'm in love with my lens! We stopped up at Kentucky Knob, but decided not to tour the house; instead I took photos of the blossoms on the trees. After we finished there, we headed back home, making a detour to visit a shoppe that featured a lot of homemade jams, soups, breads, pasta, etc and found some goodies. Those goodies were joined with more once we got to the Linn Run area, where a shop that hasn't been open in years is back in business. The shop is a little mart on the road up to Linn Run park, and it played a rather large part in my childhood. When my family would go to the park, we would stop at that shop and get ice cream or other treats; sandwiches, and such and then go picnic at the park itself. Seeing it open again brought back a lot of fun memories for me, and I had the fun of finding some new goodies in the form of red bamboo honey, which I've never had before. Once we got to the park itself, I was lucky enough to find a bunch of red and white trillions, as well as blue, yellow, and purple violets to photograph. Better still, on the way home I had Seamus backtrack for a few minutes after we passed a bunch of blue flowers that I didn't recognize. The trip turned out to be very productive!
This past weekend we went over to Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, for a (rather well planned out) photography trip! We stayed overnight at an adorable B&B right next to one of the waterfalls, and walked over to the park so I could take some night shots of the falls. Dinner was at one of the 20 non-chain restaurants recommended by our hosts, and the choice we made turned out to be very nice. The meals were tasty, the atmosphere relaxed, and Hubby and I were sat at a table that suited us perfectly; we both had our backs to the walls :-) On the way to the restaurant, I had seen some trees I wanted to shoot, and we both wanted to visit a store in the area, so we made note of the location to return the next day during daylight. We got up at 5 am because I had some shots planned to take advantage of the morning mist, so we went over to a marsh and I had the whole scene to myself to figure out what I wanted photos of. Then we went over to the Heron Wayside for more photos, and both Hubby and I learned some new things about herons! I had expected that they would nest in groups; that's pretty typical for waterfowl, but I had not thought they would nest in trees! There were three main trees, all quite large, that held probable about 30-35 nests each in them and were right beside each other. It was still pretty dark, so I was the only person there, and I have to admit I didn't get many shots then because the light level was too low. I did have a lot of fun watching the birds though! I've always liked herons, so it was really nice to be able to watch them and just listen to them vocalize to each other. Hubby finally got me to leave the herons so we could go get some more shots before the crowds showed up, so we went to a small lake for more mist, sunrise, and reflections. After that we swung by town to shoot the trees I'd noticed the night before, and then we went back to the B&B for breakfast. We had a lot of fun talking to the other couple that joined us at the table. I know the inn was full; and there were a lot of cars there, but no one else came to the table with us. After breakfast, the real work of the day began. We visited 4 different waterfalls, the first of which was the same one we had gone to the night before. After the waterfall, we went back to town and went to the shop we'd seen, which specialized in do-it-yourself kits of all varieties. We picked up some short books on drying foods, using sourdough, and also a sourdough starter and a rootbeer brewing kit. Then it was back out to the herons, where I spent again a lot of time watching them, with the added fun of having enough light to catch them in flight. I also got to watch the chicks in the nests; they were not yet fledged, but they were very cute! After I'd had enough of the herons again, we went to the next 2 waterfalls that were reached from the same area. The first fall was about 5 minutes from the lot, and the second falls was 3/4 mile farther away. I had read about the falls online, and knew that we had to cross the stream 3 times to get to the 2nd falls, but that they would be worth it. The notes I'd found said the crossing weren't bad, and that the water was typically low enough to hop across on the stones, however by the time we reached the first crossing, we realized the hopping was probably not going to work. The trail was muddy, and we ended up finding places to go around several mud pits. The stream itself was running high as well, so I ended up taking off my shoes for 2 crossing on the way to the falls, and 1 on the way back. I was very proud of myself though; this path had a numbers of inclines on it, and I stretched myself to get to the falls; I was determined not to give in to my asthma! The falls were beautiful, sliding down about 40 ft across shale; they were worth the walk there and back! I noticed a number of flowers in this area, including a large number of spring beauty flowers, which brought back memories of my grandmother. She would have loved the area!
After the 2 falls together, we were ready for a bit of a break in walking. Luckily the drive to the next area I wanted to shoot took a while, so we had a chance to rest. Unfortunately, the restoration project was closed, but I did get to look at the outside of the house, and found some more flowers that I'd not seen before to photograph. We left the area after taking a breather, and headed to the last falls. This falls was another one that the water slides down a shale face, the fall this time was about 15 ft. Back at the lot, I was treated to having 5 deer walk across the lot, giving my some nice close-ups of them. After this, It was time to head home, as it had been a very long day already.
Things that I have left to clean up from the weekend: I need to process my photos of course, but I also need to figure out what I did to my knee. I either slipped or twisted it a bit going through the streams, and it currently yells at me when I move the wrong way, so I'm stuck trying to take care of it but still be able to move around and get some exercise. I also need to clean up the house, and figure out what needs to be done with all of the items from a prior trip that area currently acting as clutter. All in all though, these trips have been very nice, and I'm glad we did them!
