Ladee's Travels

These photos were entered in the Arizona State Fair, in the Amateur Photography Division.  This is the last year that I can be in this division and next year will be moved up to the Pros. So I am enjoying any recognition that I get this year because next year the competition will get tougher. This is the Roman Forum.  It was displayed but no ribbon. This is the Sans Souci castle in Pottsdam, Germany.  It was not displayed. This is the pond and bridge at Monet's Garden in Giverny, France. This photo won Honorable Mention. I have an enlarged 20x30 hanging on my wall at home and the colors are amazing. This is the view from inside the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. It was awarded Honorable Mention. I enlarged this photo to 20x30 and it absolutely glows. I also entered four photos in the Black and White division.  I tried some artsy approaches to see if I could catch the judges' eye. It didn't work. This is gatework from a church along the...

Beckett's Table has been open for a few months and I finally had an opportunity to enjoy a wonderful dinner.  We had reservations so our table was ready when we arrived. I have noticed driving by in the past that the parking lot is full, so I recommend reservations so that you won't have to wait.  We made reservations a week in advance because it was "Phoenix Restaurant Week" and this place was bound to be full (and it was!) We split appetizers so that we could have some of both. This was chicken meatballs and smokey tomato sauce, roasted onions, eggplant & peppers, bread crumbs and basil.  Very tasty. We also had a vegetable chop salad, razz cherries, pepitas, cucumber, carrot, fennel, potato, tomato, green beans, celery, red bells, corn, champagne basil vinaigrette.  This was good too. For our entry we both had the same thing: Steamed white bass with farmer's market organics.  The other choices were Fire Roasted green chili pork stew with corn bread, ...

  The sumptuous palace and gardens of Versailles represented both Louis XIV’s celebration of himself and a perfectly balanced integration of art and nature. Millions of tourists have long admired the gardens for their inexhaustible source of new life and enduring mystery. The allées and parterres resonate with memories of pomps and promenades, feasts and follies. As a monument to the Sun King, the solar symbolism of Apollo reigns over both architecture and ornament at Versailles, yet French classicism dominates the gardens, imposing a strict geometrical order on the forest, shaping the flowerbeds and boxwood, and brightening the bosky depths with fountains and statuary.  [Book Description] Photographer Jacques Dubois presents Versailles through the cycle of the seasons and the shifting intensities of their light. His evocative images show the great facades, the stone goddesses, the flowers and pools, the masks, columns, and towering trees transformed by th...

I love to see Pittsburgh from the river.  This Gateway Clipper dinner tour started on the Monongahela River at the docks.  We then headed up the Allegheny River.  Pittsburgh's skyline has a mix of old and new.  The bridges are frequent.  The Heinz Field stadium with Point State Park in the foreground.  Looking at downtown Pittsburgh. Point State Park is in the foreground where the two rivers meet to form the Ohio River.  The evening sunlight is perfect!  We travel along the Allegheny Riverfront and Fort Duquesne Boulevard Park  We passed under the Andy Warhol Bridge, historically known as the 7th Street Bridge.  This is one of the "Three Sisters Bridges", three parallel bridges. The other two are "Roberto Clemente" and "Rachel Carson" bridges.  The US Steel Building is tall in the background as we approach the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.  The railroad bridge.  The David McCollough Bridge in h...