Category: Photography

Pensacola

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 16, 2020

During my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip I visited Florida’s westernmost city – Pensacola. Over 50,000 call Pensacola home, and over 500,000 live in the metro area. I live almost 700 miles away in the far southeastern corner of Florida. This was my very first visit to Pensacola. I had previously only driven along I-10 north of the city limits. (A small portion of the city actually crosses over I-10 to the north side.)

This side-visit to Pensacola was planned in advance. I spent the night at a hotel very near their airport, and then the next morning I drove in to the historic downtown district to walk around, take lots of photos (coming soon to a blog near you), and visit two of their biggest museums. (Most of their smaller museums and other historic buildings were actually closed due to COVID-19. They are slowly reopening some of these other facilities.)

It was a fun 2½-hour visit on a hot and sunny Saturday morning. Had everything been opened for visitors I could have easily spent all day there, and maybe even part of the next day. I’ll have to consider a future visit the next time I drive to and from North Texas to visit my family.

Pensacola is considered to be the “icebox” of Florida. Their weather is just like the rest of the state from about April to October – hot and humid with scattered showers and thunderstorms. But in the wintertime – watch out – because it gets cold there, and it can even sleet, ice, and snow there. I wouldn’t want to live there when I retire, but it’s a nice city to visit for a day or two.

Tags Florida, Pensacola

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Fort Morgan

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 9, 2020

This past Sunday I wrote all about my fun adventures just outside the big city of Mobile Alabama. I praised, worshipped, and celebrated Christ at my friends’ church. I enjoyed a delicious Thai Lunch. I walked a family farm with goats. Sunday was my fun day away from my family on this family vacation.

The next day – Monday – was supposed to be a fun family visit to the local zoo in Gulf Shores. I had planned on this day for many weeks. I was really looking forward to it. I soon realized that (aside from myself) nobody else was really interested in going to the zoo – not even my two nieces (ages 10 and 7). I was a little bit heartbroken about that.

I decided to simply go to the zoo by myself. As I was looking for a coupon to the zoo in a tourist magazine I stumbled across a full-page color ad for a place I had never heard of before – Fort Morgan. It’s an old war fort at the far-western tip of the barrier island that Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are located on about 30 miles away. It sits at the mouth of Mobile Bay where it meets the Gulf Of Mexico. It’s an Alabama State Historic Site and a U.S. National Historic Landmark. It’s on the U.S. National Register Of Historic Places. The brave soldiers that served at this site protected our nation during the War Of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, and World War 2.

In lieu of the zoo I went to the fort by myself early last Tuesday morning. When I arrived at the entrance gate I was immediately greeted and recognized as a Veteran. I was admitted for free. That was a nice surprise. I spent a couple of hours touring the site. It was bigger and better than I expected. I took 44 photos of the 200+ years of history all around me. I’ve already posted over a dozen of these photos on my Flickr site, and you can also see the last 5 photos posted here on my blog site. Here’s one I haven’t posted yet:

This visit – planned just hours in advance – turned out to be one of the highlights of my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip vacation. I’m glad I discovered it in a tourist magazine. I’ll be talking about this place for years to come.

Tags Alabama, Fort Morgan

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Home Sweet Home

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 26, 2020

Home Is Where The Heart Is

That’s right, and I’ll be at home for awhile. My kitchen is now my professional workplace. Due to the current real-world conditions I brought my job home with me earlier this week, and it will stay here at home indefinitely. It could be a few weeks. It could be a few months. But I’m determined to continue working here at home in my kitchen to support the mission – whatever that mission may be. (I don’t discuss my job in public other than the fact that I’m a 35-year employee of the United States Air Force.)

Incidentally this is a COVID-19-free blog. I won’t talk about it on here in any way because this is also a political-free blog, and you can’t talk about COVID-19 without getting political.

My goal over these next few weeks (or months) is to – believe it or not – lose a few pounds (by eating less), and get more physically fit by engaging in my favorite exercise – walking. This past Sunday morning at dawn I actually did something for the first time in a little over 3 years. I walked around the entire perimeter of my own neighborhood – 1.37 miles in 23 minutes and 21 seconds. I hope to do more neighborhood walks early in the morning, as long as weather conditions permit.

Well this is my spontaneous Thursday at 3 AM blog post. I have no idea what I plan to write until I actually write it. My Friday, Sunday, and Monday blog posts are programmed. You pretty much know what you’re gonna get from me on those 3 days. Incidentally this upcoming Sunday I’ll present Part 2 of my multi-part sermon titled “Faces & Heels”. Part 2 will pick-up where Part 1 left-off this past Sunday. This is shaping-up to be a 4-part sermon, so it will culminate on Easter Sunday (April 12TH).

Over on my Flickr site I’m posting photos of my January 19TH 2020 visit to the Edison And Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers Florida. I love that place. If I lived over there in that region I’d probably hang out there on a regular basis if not volunteer there and give guided tours. It’s one of the coolest museums that I’ve ever visited – even cooler than the last museum that I volunteered at inside Everglades National Park.

Well this concludes my Thursday blog post. I’ll be back again tomorrow morning for my weekly RETRO. This week I’ll be looking back at Sunday March 25TH 1990. A 19-year-old had the # 1 smash on my chart, and it eventually hit # 1 nationwide on Billboard’s Hot 100. He got help on the song from the hottest band in the world at the time. Find out who he is when I turn the page on a new day.

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Take A Picture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 27, 2020

(Good song by Filter from early-2000.)

Well Happy Thursday February 27TH 2020 my friends. It’s the final Thursday of February, and it’s the start of another blogging weekend for me. But this weekend will be curtailed. In lieu of the usual 4 new blog posts I’m only publishing 2 – this one right here -and tomorrow’s RETRO. After that I’m going on hiatus for a little over a week to hang out with church pastors, preachers, planters, ministers, leaders, and disciples up the road in Orlando. I’ll also be singing and dancing in the middle of the Hertz Arena in Estero Florida with MercyMe and Jeremy Camp performing their greatest hits. That’s how I “Spring Break” at nearly 53 !

So here’s where that Title above (“Take A Picture”) is significant. Last weekend (Friday in fact) I posted original material on Facebook for the first time in 13 months. It was actually quite benign (or so I thought). I swapped out my profile picture. That’s it. I replaced a picture from 2018 with a picture from 2012. It’s a picture of me up on stage with my former church family with a wireless mic hosting a Sunday morning service. I didn’t think anything of it really when I posted it. Some friends recently asked me to change the picture, so I did. In the next few days it garnered 35 likes and loves and 15 comments. It’s one of my most reacted-to Facebook posts ever (since I created my account in 2013).

Incidentally – other than the occasional profile picture and cover photo swap – I don’t post much on Facebook anymore. I still have friends (lots of them) who are only on Facebook, so I keep in touch with them on there and sometimes post a comment on something that they have posted. But this is where I really live on social media – right here on my own blog.

And so – here’s that profile picture that went viral on my Facebook account for a few days. Enjoy, and I’ll be back tomorrow for my Winter Season Finale.

LPC 20120205