Prepare, before you leave home, to photograph the Northern Lights When Blonde received a call, in early July, to go see the Northern Lights in Iceland in February she immediately agreed and fantasized about how she would take amazing photos of the Northern Lights. She would become an admired and sought-after photographer, silencing any naysayers who may have criticized her … [Read more...]
Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life
We haven't participated in a weekly photo challenge in a while but this topic was intriguing. We don't do a lot of street scenes because we aren't very good at getting them (we're looking for our cameras and the whole thing is already over) and we're more likely to be in settings such as beaches, deserts, glaciers and gardens that don't have street life. But in thinking about … [Read more...]
Capture the Color Photo Essay Contest
For a change we will try to leave the speaking (primarily) to the photographs: White: We were visiting Turkey but had no plan to see whirling dervishes. We thought they would just be cheesy shows put on for tourists. But our guide took us to an evening show at a caravanserai outside Cappadocia. There was nothing cheesy or fake in any way as we watched in fascination as … [Read more...]
Places we’ve loved: The Garden Route, South Africa
This post was going to be about Hermanus, South Africa. But Hermanus is just one of several spots along The Garden Route with eyegasm-inducing scenery, charming cafes and and enough whales and dolphins for an entire season of Mammal Planet. Prior to leaving on our trip to South Africa we announced that we were going to rent a car and drive from Cape Town along The Garden … [Read more...]
The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is as advertised – grand!
On a recent trip to Dubai Blonde and Brunette's itinerary included a day trip to Abu Dhabi. This was a guided tour which is generally something we avoid the same way we do Donald Trump and poisonous spiders.But the price was right and Dubai didn't sound like a good place to "wing it" for two very Western sisters, one with a decided tendency to not behave demurely. For several … [Read more...]
Phangna Bay and James Bond Island, Thailand
Back when Roger Moore was James Bond and making the 10th Bond movie, “The Man with the Golden Gun”, it was filmed, in part, on an island near Phuket, Thailand. Even though the film was shot close to 40 years ago, was a critical dud and one of the lowest ranked films of the Bond franchise, the rock is somehow still a major tourism draw. The gun may not have been golden but the … [Read more...]
Lost in Dubai
Sorry we have temporarily vanished while we're out exploring and collecting new material for you! Right now we are in Dubai gawking at people who are gawking at us. Here are a few photos from today so you can tell we're really here and to get you to wait anxiously for our next real post! … [Read more...]
Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details
These weekly photo "challenges" are generally a fairly easy way to generate a post. But this week the theme generated ideas for selecting pictures but not much for generating prose. Mulling this existential conundrum (not that it's really either) on a flight from Pittsburgh to Boston this afternoon helped Blonde gain some insight into the difficulty of the assignment. Neither … [Read more...]
Places we’ve loved: Binibeca Vell, Menorca, Spain
Binibeca Vell is Blonde's location version of an ideal date: attractive, well groomed, friendly but not intrusive and doesn't expect you to spend the night after enjoying its pleasures. When Blonde and Brunette went to Spain for the TBEX Travel Bloggers' Conference we managed to turn a three day conference into a three week trip. Five days were spent on Menorca, one of … [Read more...]
Sushi for (some) one in Marco Island, Florida
Many days the thought of coming up with new content for the blog is so taxing that the stress can only be alleviated by consuming chocolate and wine. Today our blog topic was figuratively dropped into our laps and literally dropped into our swimming pool. The way to recognize that good fortune turned out to also be with chocolate and wine but with a celebratory, not consoling, … [Read more...]