Minnesota

A recent business trip had me driving all over Minnesota.  Luckily it was in late July and not December!  The weather was perfect and the views were gorgeous.

Downtown Minneapolis

So many greats on one wall!

Where Prince played and also filmed Purple Rain

<sigh>

The Mississippi River

Along one of my long road trips to a doctor's office

Food Truck Friday - downtown Minneapolis

Pretty colors at the farmer's market

The overlook at the Guthrie Theater

Lisa checking out Mr. Guthrie

View of the Mississippi from the Guthrie

Now that would be a tricky fire escape!

More roadside photos

Blurry eagle (I didn't have a good zoom lens)

Sunset on Upper Hay Lake

More roadside photo-ops, driving from an appointment in Aitkin, MN

These guys were just begging for a photo!

Walker Sculpture Garden - Arikidea by Mark di Suvero

Ordovician Pore by Tony Crag

Hare on Bell on Portland Stone Piers by Barry Flanagan

Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen

Molecule by Mark di Suvero

Back of Without Words by Judith Shea

Front of Without Words by Judith Shea

Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge by Siah Armajani; poem by John Ashbery

And now I cannot remember how I would have had it.
It is not a conduit (confluence?) but a place.
The place, of movement and an order.
The place of old order.
But the tail end of the movement is new.
Driving us to say what we are thinking.
It is so much like a beach after all, where you stand
and think of going no further.
And it is good when you get to no further.
It is like a reason that picks you up and
places you where you always wanted to be.
This far, it is fair to be crossing, to have crossed.
Then there is no promise in the other.
Here it is. Steel and air, a mottled presence,
small panacea
and lucky for us.
And then it got very cool.

—John Ashbery

Grand Canyon Through a Grand Lens

In preparation for our upcoming African safari, I rented a couple of super-telephoto lenses for the weekend and headed up to the Grand Canyon.  Granted, the HUGE Grand Canyon wasn't necessarily the best place to try out the Canon 100-400mm, but the Sigma 50-500 was "amazeballs"!!  Again, not that I really needed the 500mm's for the Grand Canyon, but I was lucky to see a peregrine falcon, some elk, and an osprey (that we first thought was an eagle) where I was able to push it to it's limits!

This was my 3rd visit to the Grand Canyon and I feel as if I can never quite capture the true beauty of it.  The colors and the massiveness of it just do not convey.  I hope you enjoy the photos, but do yourself a favor...if you haven't been, go see this natural wonder of the world!

This was actually along the way to the Grand Canyon at a lookout stop

Little Colorado River

First view of the Grand Canyon

Love the clouds

The next few photos are of the Watchtower (there is a DMB cover song called All Along the Watchtower...just sayin')

Partial wall adjacent to the Watchtower

Looking up at the structure by architect and designer, Mary Colter

The Grand Canyon and the Watchtower

Taken at another outlook, you can still see the Watchtower in the distance

 

Using my Sigma 50-500 to capture a peregrine falcon perched inside the Canyon

Falcon looking back at us

You can see the Colorado River snaking through the canyon

A little squirrel came to say hello, Lisa Sandbo!

All the reds...so beautiful

At another lookout point

See the man on the ledge?!  And the river visible between the rock formations

In person, this was one of the most beautiful views I have seen of the Grand Canyon

Peaks and valleys

 

Bored of these yet?

Okay then, last one.  :0)

And then we saw the female elk...which to me, looked like a horse

Hungry girls!

And then, on the ride home, Eric somehow spots this nest high up in the tree on the side of the road.

And I get to put my Sigma lens to it's best test yet!

Now, at the time we thought this was an eagle...

But after Googling, we are 99% sure it's an osprey

She started singing

And then looked me right in the eye!  Great ending to a great day!

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." ~Albert Einstein