Picture-A-Week 2024 - Week 04

[pierces]

Pictures taken between Monday, January 22 and Sunday, January 28.

 

It's the last week of January 2024.

 

Do yourself a favor. Take some pictures. Look at them and share the ones that make you smile. Maybe they'll make someone here smile as well.

 

 

Rules: See above

That's it. This isn't a contest.

All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising).

Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize.

The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays.

Post one. Post many. Up to you.

Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

[ski ww]

Sun rise this morning.

[pierces]

Week four found us still enjoying the Birthday cruise on the fantastic Celebrity Apex. After an enjoyable tour in Key West on Sunday, skipping Belize on Tuesday (after checking the State Dept. site to confirm that the note we got about being alert due to “issues” was a good reason to skip), we decided that the heat and humidity that poured into our room when we opened the infinity balcony to see how it worked was enough of a reason to skip Cozumel as well. Instead, we wandered the ship, caught up on news and such on our tablets and generally spent the day doing not a darned thing. Before starting our Wednesday of Rest tour, I snapped this photo of hot, muggy, Cozumel with its strikingly blue waters and three million or so tourist-filled bars.

 

Close Enough

 

 

 

 

Dave

[boeckli]

On 1/30/2024 at 6:37 AM, pierces said:

Week four found us still enjoying the Birthday cruise on the fantastic Celebrity Apex. After an enjoyable tour in Key West on Sunday, skipping Belize on Tuesday (after checking the State Dept. site to confirm that the note we got about being alert due to “issues” was a good reason to skip), we decided that the heat and humidity that poured into our room when we opened the infinity balcony to see how it worked was enough of a reason to skip Cozumel as well. 

 

Hi Dave,  I'd be very interested in your thoughts on and experiences with the infinity balcony.  We have the Edge here down under but from the photos and YouTube walk throughs I've seen I don't think I'd like that balcony.  To me it seems like an OV with a window that you can open ...

Loved your gallery of Apex photos 😀

Edited January 31 by boeckli

[pierces]

2 hours ago, boeckli said:

To me it seems like an OV with a window that you can open ...

That's pretty much it. We really liked it because we are not fans of heat and humidity. The ability to just sit on the balcony with the Infinity window closed and watch the ocean was great. If you want to open it up, the top rolls down and ends up very much like a regular balcony. Something that is not clear in the images is that there's a folding glass door between the balcony and the main room that you can close so you can sit on the open balcony isolated from the room behind you. There is no curtain to close but there is a motorized blind that rolls down from the top to the bottom that can be stopped at any point to limit the amount of light in the room. When closed is a full blackout. We read about all the controversy before going and are glad that we went ahead and got one anyway. Besides, even if the balcony turned out to be a total loss, the trip still would have been worth it. The ship is just beautiful. 

 

Dave

[mskaufman]

 

Hermosa Beach California

[boeckli]

30 minutes ago, pierces said:

That's pretty much it. We really liked it because we are not fans of heat and humidity. The ability to just sit on the balcony with the Infinity window closed and watch the ocean was great. If you want to open it up, the top rolls down and ends up very much like a regular balcony. Something that is not clear in the images is that there's a folding glass door between the balcony and the main room that you can close so you can sit on the open balcony isolated from the room behind you. There is no curtain to close but there is a motorized blind that rolls down from the top to the bottom that can be stopped at any point to limit the amount of light in the room. When closed is a full blackout. We read about all the controversy before going and are glad that we went ahead and got one anyway. Besides, even if the balcony turned out to be a total loss, the trip still would have been worth it. The ship is just beautiful. 

 

Dave

 

Thanks Dave 🙂 I knew about the folding glass door. Full blackout blind definitely wouldn't be my thing 🙄

And heat and humidity ain't much of a problem in this part of the world, especially when you're out on the water 😉

May have to check for some last minute deals at some stage that might make it worthwhile to try out one of these.

Glad to hear you had a great time - ship certainly looks stunning 😃

[boeckli]

[mskaufman]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:45 PM, mskaufman said:

 

Hermosa Beach California

A week later - No blue skies, just rain.

[pierces]

12 hours ago, mskaufman said:

A week later - No blue skies, just rain.

...and more rain. 

 

I miss the drought.

 

Dave

[PurpleHays]

9 hours ago, pierces said:

...and more rain. 

 

I miss the drought.

 

Dave

How much have you gotten so far? My daughter (in the North Bay area) got a little more than 2" as of Sunday with the winds.

[pierces]

12 hours ago, PurpleHays said:

How much have you gotten so far? My daughter (in the North Bay area) got a little more than 2" as of Sunday with the winds.

We've gotten about 7" since Sunday. Our normal here is about twice that for a year. The winds didn't hit us where we are but got up to 60mph or so in the local mountains and passes. The water is much worse than the wind for damage potential. We often get 70-100mph winds coming down through the passes from the high desert, so houses and fences are built with that in mind. Drainage for a half-year of water in two days...not so much. 

 

We have discovered a couple of small leaks which will accelerate our decision about a new roof but we're in no danger of flooding here.

 

Dave

[Mr. Click]

Sunrise behind the wake of Celebrity Beyond on the way back to Ft. Lauderale from the southern Caribbean.   Sony A6400, Sony 18-200mm lens.

[scubacruiserx2]

 Monday January 22nd Glacier cruise in Argentine Patagonia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

Tuesday January 23rd Torres del Paine . Crossing from Argentina to Chile and back . 4 passport stamps in 12 hours . The name means Towers of Granite .

 

 

 

 

As we got closer the wind went up to 62 mph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The towers

 

 

And the horns in black

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the border crossing the sign had blown down since the morning and was now weighted down

 

Edited March 4 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 On Wednesday January 24th we rented a car in Downtown El Calafate since Monday and Tuesday's trips included pick up at the hotel . After renting the car we drove to the Perito Merino Glacier to see the face since the Glacier cruise on Monday only showed us it's backside .

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier

 

 The glacier confuses people since it is advancing . You can drive up to it and walk down a series of walkways and see the glacier face to face . It is 3 miles wide , 200' tall and 19 miles long . A pano shot .

 

 

 

 

 

 So the question was should we walk down the stairs that is quicker and brings you lower and closer , or walk the ramp that is easier on 3 bad knees ?

 

 

 

 

 

We opted for the ramp with hiking poles . The problem is the holes in the grate were larger than the tips on our poles . If you go use your ski tips instead of the hard surface tips . We have been 3 times and the handicapped lift has never worked .

 

 

 

 

 

The crowd where the ice almost meets the land and you can see where the water from the lake runs into the river ( Where the dark blue ice is ) . It's also where most of the calving was .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An ice hole

 

 

We didn't capture any calving this trip so we will show some from previous trips .

 

 

 

Edited March 5 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 3 Stills of calving .

 

 

This chunk of ice was the size of a semi truck

 

 

This piece of dark Blue ice floated up from beneath the glacier 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 We did shoot a quick videoclip of the glacier calving from underwater .