The Sound of Music

While traveling along the Eastern part of the U.S. of A. I heard about a place that I knew my wife would love to visit. It is located in Stowe Vermont. It is the Trappp Family lodge. This was the family that was portrayed in “The Sound of Music” movie many years ago.

SONY DSC — One of many signs along the way

I had scheduled dinner reservations ahead of time. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere was very relaxing and very beautiful. There was a gentleman that was playing the piano and selling some of his cd’s, he was a very talented individual. We also went on a wagon ride of the property which was relaxing.

We went during the fall (Early Oct.) so the trees were all very nice and bright.

We did not stay the night there, as we had other travel plans, but many people were. If your travels take you through Vermont I would recommend this place to visit, especially if you or someone who your traveling with enjoys that movie.

Alaska wild animal Sancutary

So if you get to Anchorage Alaska, and want to go for a drive and possibly see some wildlife, take highway 1 south about 30 miles and right across from Whittier. It’s at mile marker 79. There is an amazing wildlife sanctuary.

They have almost any animal that you may see in the wild parts of Alaska, moose, brown bears, reindeer, elk and many others. During the summer I believe they are open every day and during the winter they are open on weekends. You can drive around the area or I suggest to see the animals the best and to get some incredible pictures park your car and walk around the area. The animals are behind fences, but nothing like a zoo.

This is definitely a place to take the kids, and they will enjoy it. If you go let me know what you thought. Then when your done you could drive to the Portage Glacier which is very close and also worth seeing.

Their web site is: https://www.alaskawildlife.org/

Crab Boat Tour Ketchikan AK

One of the tours that many people go on, while in Ketchikan is the crab boat tour. It’s about a 3.5 to 4 hour tour. I have been on it 4 or 5 times, usually taking someone who is visiting us. The ship is the Aleutian Ballad. The crew takes you out, shows you how crab pots work, they have some preset ones that they pull you for you. They show you different types of crab also from small ones to kings. The tour is very informative and the crew is very friendly.

At one point they attract some bald eagles. I have seen over 30 flying around the ship and feeding from the water, but toward the end of the season I have seen less than 10. They give you the opportunity to hold various sea creatures, if you want. This is a rain or shine tour. Best place is on top deck to get some good eagle pictures, on the bottom deck if you want to handle stuff. I believe that there are age restrictions for small kids.

Crazy Talk 7 program

I recently bought the “Crazy Talk 7” program from Reallusion, after watching videos and reviews from Youtube. After installing it I could not get it to work, so I contacted the help desk and they were very patient, friendly and helpful. They got the program working for me. Turns out my video driver was out of date, so some annimations would not play correctly. The program has so many possibilities. It came with another program, “Face filter 3”. This program allows you to add professional makeup to your pictures as an after effect. I haven’t really played with it very much. I wanted to help get the word out on things that I use and believe in. You can get both of these great programs on sale now for $29 at https://www.photowhoa.com/?ap_id=66725167. Hope you like them as much as I do. Please share some of your animations with me, I would love to see what others are doing with Crazytalk.

This is my picture that I made the bear from.

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This is my first clip/animation.

The possibility of annimation is really up to ones imagination.

Legoland CA

Who hasn’t played with Lego’s at least once ? Most kids in the USA I would guess either have some or know someone who has some. A few years ago I found out that Lego’s aren’t just for kids. We took some of our family to S. CA and one of the stops was Legoland in Carlsbad. SONY DSC

There was so much to see there, especially the miniature section. They had New Orleans, San Francisco, New York, and many other places all made out of Legos.

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They also had a Star Wars Section when we were there.

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It was a place definitely on my must-see-list. They even had their own water park and aquarium.

Saratoga Springs NY

In our travels, a few years ago, we went to Saratoga Springs in New York and stayed a few days. We had never been there before. Saratoga Springs is wildly known for its mineral springs all over he town.

And for it’s famous horse racing.

Near the horse racing track are some old big mansions that were very photo worthy.

There were many many more interesting and incredible places to view and see there. I don’t know if we will ever make it back there, but we enjoyed our time there and would recommend visiting there if you get a chance.

A Day in Ketchikan

So living in a tourist is nice in some ways, and not so in others. If you take an Alaskan inside passage cruise usually Ketchikan is one of your stops, either your first stop if your going North or your last if your going South. I made a DVD a few years ago, because it was something I really wanted to do. The DVD, “A day in Ketchikan”, displays several of the local sites and places to go. I sold some at a yearly craft fair called the Blueberry Festival. Others I sold in a few of the local shops for up to $15 each. Below are a few of the sections from it, one about bears and the other about eagles. Both contain some pictures that I took here. I just uploaded a digital cop of the DVD for only $4.99. If your interested please click the link below. Thank you.