O is for Oceanfront View on ABC Wednesday

View from the Hotel Del Coronado

View from La Jolla Cove

View from Waikiki Beach

View from our hotel room in Penang

I love the ocean. The relaxing sounds of the waves, the soft breezes, the cool & wet sand below my feet, the cries of the seagulls, and sun beating above. In my younger days, I would take annual trips to the beach and just enjoy the afternoon there with my book.

- AV

Wednesday Hero

Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas R. Anderson
21 years old from Sauk City, Wisconsin
1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force
March 13, 2006


Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson lost his life after the Humvee he was riding in rolled over as a group of Marines pursued a suspicious vehicle near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He suffered head injuries in the crash and died as he was being transported to a hospital.

Nicholas Anderson joined the Marines in January 2005 and began a six-month tour of Afghanistan two months ago with the 3rd Marines Weapons Platoon, his father, James Anderson said.

"I just know that he died fighting for what he believed in," he said. "He wanted to be a Marine and even though it was a major risk he just wanted to go."

James Anderson said his son, a 2003 Sauk Prairie High School graduate, enjoyed riding his motorcycle, lifting weights, going fishing and hanging out with friends.

He joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard when he was 18, but an injured shoulder forced him to drop out. He then enlisted in the Marines.

"I was very nervous when he first joined the Marines because two words jumped into my head: Afghanistan and Iraq," his father said. "I just supported him and prayed that it would end before he had to go over."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

A Little Thief

It's been a busy week and I apologize for taking so long to post again. I'm currently in San Diego again and can't always get an internet connection.

Although my airline tickets were purchased well in advanced, I was wondering if it was a good time to go there with all the recent fires. Other than seeing lots of unusual haze while flying in, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

I visited Coronado and had lunch at the historic Hotel del Coronado Resort. Here's the beach and ocean view from my seat.

I had a vegetarian Mushroom Burger which was pretty tasty, but it wasn't healthy with those fries.

While eating, a courageous little bird dropped by and started spying my unfinished food. When I was busy trying to photograph him, his other bird accomplice sneaked in from the other side of the table and stole some of my fries. Unfortunately, he was too fast for me to photograph.

Here's the little thief going for my food...

...and flying away with it.

- AV

N is for Nature Scenes on ABC Wednesday

Japanese Garden in Portland, OR

On the road to Lake Tahoe during an April snowstorm

Rancho San Antonio Park in Los Altos, CA

I had several choices for N photos this week and I finally decided on different Nature Scenes I have photographed through the years.

Fellow ABC Wednesday Photograhers, we are now on the 14th letter of the alphabet. I hope we keep this going even after the last letter.

- AV

Wednesday Hero

This Week's Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Lt. Michael P. Murphy
29 years old from Patchogue, New York
SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1
June 28, 2005


On Monday, Lt. Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. His father was the one who accepted the award. Lt. Murphy will receive the award for his extraordinary, selfless heroism and steadfast courage while leading a four-man, special reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan June 27 to 28, 2005

"We are thrilled by the President's announcement today, especially because there is now a public recognition of what we knew all along about Michael's loyalty, devotion and sacrifice to his friends, family, country, and especially his SEAL teammates," the Murphy family said in a statement released earlier in the month. "The honor is not just about Michael, it is about his teammates and those who lost their lives that same day."

Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded. The SEALs fought with everything they had. despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.

Eight more SEALs and eight Army "Nightstalker" special operations personnel comprising the initial reinforcement also lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down before they could engage the enemy.

Murphy was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon during a ceremony yesterday. His name was engraved beside the names of some 3,400 other service members who have also been awarded the nation’s highest honor.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

History Park in San Jose

Red Cross Disaster Preparedness Fair

Maggie, the Search Dog. Poor Maggie was thirsty so my friend and I gave her water to drink. Notice the wet floor.

This is a 237 foot replica of San Jose's first light tower. The hope was to make the night as bright as day in the downtown area. The original tower collapsed in 1915 after operating for 33 years.

O'Brien's Ice Cream Parlor & Candy Shop was founded in 1868 and the first place to service ice cream west of Detroit.

This is a replica of the original Pacific Hotel built in 1880 where rooms started at $1 per night.

This Associated Oil Gas Stations was built in 1927 when people started exchanging their horse carriages for the affordable automobiles.

I went to a Red Cross Disaster Preparedness fair this past weekend. It was held at the unique venue called History Park. Instead of being demolished, many historical buildings and landmarks throughout San Jose were moved or reconstructed at this 14 acre park to make it essentially a town of museums.

I have not been here in over 10 years and the place is always fun to visit and photograph. Above is just a few examples of the 27 landmarks I took with my camera phone.

- AV

MizPee.com - When You Gotta Go

I'm sure most of us appreciate finding a clean public bathroom when we're on the road. Here's a website, mizpee.com, I recently discovered that helps you locate one via your cell phone. Just enter your street address and it is suppose to point you towards the closes stalls.

The listed bathrooms are rated by rolls of toilet paper. 5 rolls signify a clean bathroom and 1, well, do you really want to use one with a 1 rating?

Currently, the website only locates bathrooms in major U.S. cities, so if you live outside these areas, you'll have to hold your bladder and continue to do the dance.

- AV

M is for Meerkats on ABC Wednesdays

With their own television program on the Animal Planet channel, these meerkats have become very popular creatures.

On a recent trip to the San Diego Zoo, I stood there and watched these delightful animals play and interact with each other for hours in their habitat. If there are any strange noises, they would all stand alert and look around for danger. When they are convinced no prey is within range, they go back to their business.

In the 3rd picture, a large plane was flying overhead and one meerkat got immediately suspicious. Before I knew it, the whole colony was looking towards the sky for the threat.

- AV

Wednesday Hero

Sgt. Robert M. McDowell
30 years old from Deer Park, Texas
2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
April 01, 2007


Sgt. Robert M. McDowell was a military police noncommissioned officer assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

Originally from Deer Park, Texas, he joined the Army in February 1998 and completed training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In June 1998 he was assigned to Fort Hood where he served until being reassigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment at Katterbach Kaserne in Germany in January 2003. While a member of 1st Infantry Division, he served as an AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter repairman.

McDowell was assigned to Fort Drum in March 2006 after completing military police reclassification training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

He was deployed to Bosnia from February to September 1999.

His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Valorous Unit Award, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal, Combat Action Badge and the Army Aviator Badge.

Sgt. McDowell was killed when and IED struck his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq. He is survived by his wife and son, of Evans Mills, N.Y., and a daughter, Madison McDowell, of New Mexico.

Also killed in the attack were Staff Sgt. David A. Mejias, Staff Sgt. Eric R. Vick and Sgt. William G. Bowling. You can find more information about them at this site.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Pumpkins & Scarecrows

Pumpkins in the Park festival

Bat Crow

Beauty School Dropout Crow

Devil Dog Crow

Family Crow

Witch Crow

I went to the local Pumpkin in the Park festival today and took some pictures of interesting scarecrows. I don't know if these will scare crows or attract them.

- AV

Big Brothers Are Monitoring Me, And ...

I'm allowing it!

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Arbitron, the marketing and media research firm, to ask me and my husband to be on their panel. They specialize in measuring the public's radio listening and television watching habits. Today, I received this huge box with instructions, portable meters, rechargers, and the "Collector".





My husband and I are each assigned a portable meter and we are suppose to wear it every day so it can record what radio & television broadcasts we are exposed to throughout the day. During the evening, we plug our portable meters into a recharger so in the middle of the night, the "Collector" will automatically dial out and download our data to their central server somewhere.

Why are we doing this? Well, as a kid, I always wanted to be part of the Neilsen Ratings because I watched so much tv. Now, I find out I could get paid to be on their panel and have a small say on what I like to hear & watch.

- AV

L is for Light on ABC Wednesday

Outline of the Victoria BC Government Parliament buildings

Neon light fixture outside a Las Vegas restaurant

Colorful light fixture from a local store

Lantern taken at the recent Autumn Moon Festival

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth

Her name is Holly Holeman. Her job is working at a flower shop. And her mission to make sure soldiers are never forgotten. Which is why she's out at Arlington National Cemetery every week putting flowers around the headstones. She usually does this alone, but on a bitter cold day in February of 2007 she was met with family members of fallen soldiers buried in Section 60 of the cemetery who helped her to place the roses.

To read the rest of Holly's story, you can go here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Doggy Party Bus

Society Dog's pet & human transport

Interior of the Society Dog Bus

Pampered dog I saw over the weekend riding in its own transport

I took Maverick to a pet event to raise money for a future Humane Society location. The Society Dog Bus was there to transport people and pets between the event and their cars. I really wanted to get on the bus with Maverick to see what the interior was like, but when I was waiting in line, Maverick decided to "do his business". By the time, I got it cleaned up, the bus was already full and we missed our chance and I didn't want to wait until it came around again. The interior photo taken from their website looks really cool.

In any case, if I have a dog bus membership, Maverick and I can ride it to various local pet-friendly social events in the future. It's something worth investigating.

- AV

Halloween Costume

I don't know how many of you celebrate Halloween. Do people outside the United States observe this commercialized holiday?

As a kid, I never got dressed up in costume nor did I go trick-or-treating. It was just not allowed in my household. As I grew up, the whole ordeal of dressing up to get candy or attending a party in costume was not appealing to me. After avoiding this all these years, we got invited to a Halloween costume party last month which my husband RSVP'd us to attend.

I anxiously went online to find a costume. After a few days of furious searching, I kind of found one I could live with. It's a rabbit in a big black hat costume. Now I was ready.

Soon after, we received another party invitation for the week prior to the first one. Now I had to come up with another costume because the invitees will be the same at both parties. The invitation read "Costume is required to attend; otherwise, suffer the consequences." I guess I could wear the same costume, but what's the fun in that.

I got smarter the second time around, I actually put together a costume that could be worn again. I'm going to be a Hawaiian tourist wearing a straw hat, a flowery Hawaiian top, a hula skirt, sandals, and carrying a big camera.

What's your costume this year?

- AV

K is for Kuala Lumpur on ABC Wednesday

The Petronas Towers

Base of the Towers is a shopping center

Windows from the 42nd floor Skybridge looking down

On the Skybridge looking from one end to the other


Sorry, I have more travel photos this week.

I was fascinated with Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers after seeing it in the 1999 movie Entrapment. In 2002, my dream came true when I had a chance to travel to Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur and take a tour of the Towers' Skybridge. I arrived to the city at night and saw the Towers lit up from my hotel window. It was a breathtaking sight and I couldn't believe I travled halfway around the world to see it.

At that time, it was the tallest buildings in the world. I had to lie on the ground so I could capture the whole building with my camera.

Even after more than a year following Sept. 11th, I felt anxious visiting such a tall structure. Soldiers with machine guns were still seen patroling its interior. Tourists were allowed to take the elevator to the building's Skybridge which link the 2 Towers together on the 42nd floor. We were allowed to stay up there for a maximum of 15 minutes before we were ushered into the elevator to make room for the next group of tourists.

- AV

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Greta, Who Is Herself A Solders' Angel

May Not Solder Go Unloved

Back in 2003, self-described "ordinary mother", Patti Patton-Bader, started an organization called Solders' Angels because her son, Sgt. Brandon Varn, wrote her a letter from Iraq in which he showed concern that some of the brave men and women there weren't receiving any mail or support from back home. Well, she wasn't going to allow this. She called a few friends and family asking them if they would write to some of the soldiers. They'd never met them. Didn't know who they were, but they wrote. And in a few short months, Solders' Angles went from an idea an "ordinary mother" had to having chapters all over the country and thousands of angels all over the world letting soldiers know that they were loved and respected by writing hundreds of thousands of letters, sending care packages, medical supplies, body armor and lending comfort and support to military families. Solder's Angels and the people who run and support it are heroes in the truest sense.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.