Even better for me, my holiday weekend almost always involves my birthday as well. Sometimes I get folk together for a big picnic at the park to enjoy the grilling and games that are so common to the weekend. Other times, like this year, I prefer to just do a fun activity myself and keep things simple with no need for elaborate plans or coordination. It's taken almost 40 years to convince people of that! But this year was just a baseball game at the new Target Field with a friend and nothing more.. but it was so beautiful, it even felt like God was saying 'Happy Birthday' and I had to snap this shot of the city skyline at sunset from my seats in the park:
My Memorial Day was just about as classic as you can get without going to the cabin up north. I started in the morning watching one of my young brothers march with the high school marching band in a short parade and play patriotic music at the local cemetary. I spent my time walking amongst the crowd and taking a little time to reflect on why we were all there and the cost someone else paid for all the privileges I enjoy. Here's a few of the shots I got from the morning:
Then it was off to enjoy the freetime of the day. I had planned to bring along my camera and visit a local nature area that is walking distance from my house. I go there often and you never know what you will see - most notably great bird varieties. A few weeks ago, I walked there with my mom and in addition to several species of water fowl (one of which took a couple hours on the internet to identify) and song birds, we saw Bald Eagles, Osprey and other hawks circling overhead. It KILLED me that I didn't have my camera along that day. So the 13 yo budding photographer brother, Ben, and I hauled some gear along and went for a walk.
Who knew that predatory birds ALSO take Memorial Day off?? Nothing.. nada.. no ducks, no cranes, no egrets, no soaring wings in the sky. *sigh* We did find some very pretty wild flowers however.
We were a little bummed that we didn't get to try for the skyward shots on such a gorgeous day but we headed back to my parents' house for a little family meal. Drove into the driveway to find my mom all excited and dancing around her hanging baskets of flowers. A Swallowtail butterfly had decided to pop in for a visit and chose to hang out for awhile.
This one is slightly unusual because with the sun that day, I was able to get a picture of him with backlighting - and even shadows of the blossoms on his wings.
All in all, it was a WONDERFUL holiday weekend.
