This last weekend found myself, my Step Son and Son in law to be out getting muddy and having a blast! I managed to keep up with them and also managed to keep the bike under me most of the time...
Nothing like a good romp in the mud to bring out the kid in an old fellow. The only down side is all the aches and pains I don`t remember having when I was a kid! LOL
I had to go into the city yesterday for some parts that aren't available to us country dwellers. It was 88 degrees with 70% humidity and not a cloud in the sky. I really felt sorry for this guy!
I don't know what it is about clouds, but they just draw my attention. Maybe I day dream too much!
I came across these two bucks battling it out in the woods early one morning. I shot the photo at a slower shutter speed thinking that although it was a little slow, it should be fast enough to freeze the action. As you can see, I was wrong but I thought it was an interesting photo even with the blur. Not every shot has to be "perfect".
Arizona is a great place to do some hiking and see the scenery but if you are planning a hike I would definitely go during the winter months. They say the summer heat is a "dry heat" but dry or not, 110 is 110!
I don't want everyone getting bored with Hawaii so I have jumped back to the mainland, Arizona to be specific. But don't worry, I will post some more Hawaii photos again. I just can't help myself.
Penguins in Paradise? Why not? The resort where my wife and I stayed at on Maui had several animals around the property to keep the "stupid tourists" interested. It seemed to work well with me! These are an African penguin who prefer the warmer climate to the cold. Can't say that I blame them, If I had a choice of living on an ice shelf or in Maui it would take me about a milli-second to make that decision!
When you are in Hawaii the photo opportunities are endless. The green areas can be as good if not better than the ocean for photos as Paul has shown us in his last post. Getting off the beaten path can give you the opportunities that some of the other tourists never get. 
Even the green spaces in Hawaii have their own unique beauty. This was a mostly undeveloped portion of Nuuanu stream with almost no access except a steep narrow dirt path from the nearby road. I couldn't help myself, I had to climb down and take a couple of pictures.
I am still stuck in Hawaii. This first photo was taken just as the sun was peeking over the mountain behind the hotel and the first light was catching the palm trees. The yellow that you see in the palm trees is the sun hitting the trees just as it gets high enough in the sky to catch the tree tops.
I've been thinking about Hawaii lately so I thought I would put up a few more photos of my favorite place in the world. This photo was taken on Maui near Honokeana Bay looking back towards Lana'i. The black rock is from the volcanic rock of the island that is slowly being beaten into black sand by the ocean.
OK, I wasn't actually sitting on the dock and I wasn't even really at the bay. I was sitting on my lanai having a cup of coffee and watching the early morning activities on the island. And I don't really think I was wasting time, just taking in the scenery and the mood of the island. There's nothing like island time!
These two male elk weren't banging heads, just trying to push each other around a little bit. It did make for a good photo opportunity though.
This 2 ply roll of toilet paper was no match for our Vortex Brand Paper Shredder (AKA "Little Miss") ...LOL
This was taken on a mountain above the town looking back across the top of the town. I was near one of the famous vortexes when I took this photo.
I guess the deer in Oklahoma don't swim. They just lay in the shade trying to hide from the humans. You can't see it well in the photo but there is a second buck just behind and a little left of the first buck hiding in the shadows under the tree.
This time I had my camera and saw 2 bucks and a doe heading across the inlet. Where they were crossing was 3/4 of a mile from shore to shore.
Deer swim suprisingly well! I don't think I could have kept up had I been in the water swiming with them.
I was out for a hike yesterday and just as I was getting ready to enter the area I was going to this scissortail came flying by. He landed on the fence wire a little ways from me and I got a few more photos but I didn't think they were as good as the in-flight photo.
I couldn't resist taking a few photos of some tropical birds that were on display in our hotel. You just can't pass up the colors.
This was taken somewhere along the West Maui Coast, I think near Napili with a Minolta 35mm camera. It was just one of those spots where no one else was around and you could sit in the shade and listen to the ocean. I guess I should have been paying more attention to where I was but hey, it's an island, how am I going to get lost?
It looks like we are going back to Hawai'i, my favorite place!
You will recall the picture of the Byodo-in Temple I posted, well this is a small portion of a clump of bamboo that covers about a half an acre behind the Temple and stands 40 ish feet tall! I would love to get a cutting of this for the yard... (I left the "stupid tourist" in the picture to give an idea of the scale of these things).
So here it is, my first and probably only video blog posting... It only took about 25 minutes to upload this 5 second clip. By the way this is D90 "Hi Definition" video...
I came across these swans a few days ago at a "pond" in the city. I guess one of those city boys wanted some live yard art for his big yard.
