“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
― Jo Walton

Sunset at Cape San Blas!

Sunset in Portland, ME!

Sixth Bucket List Item: Watch a sunset.  Check and Check.

“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
― Jo Walton

Sunrise at Cape San Blas!

Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain!

Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain!

Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain!

Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain!

Fun Fact: Cadillac Mountain is located in the Acadia National Park in Maine.  It is considered to be the first spot the sunrises in North America, although the spot actually changes according to the Earth’s seasonal tilt.

Fifth Bucket List Item: Watch a sunrise.  Check and Check.

My fur baby loves the water. I mean, she REALLY LOVES to swim. Both sets of her “grandparents” have pools and lakes, and, when we visit, we cannot keep her out of the water. It doesn’t matter how cold it is or how tired she is, she cannot resist a little swim. So, Hubby and I have been talking since she was a puppy about taking her to beach. We really wanted to see what she would do with waves of water on the beach. In 2011, we got serious about turning all of this talk into reality. We started researching dog-friendly beaches. A lot of beaches allow dogs but only for certain hours or with strict leash laws. We also started thinking about how our fur baby would do with swarms of people and *gasp* other four-legged friends. You see, Stinkerbell is a sweet, sweet girl, but she is much more a “people” dog than a dog’s dog. She has a few dog friends, but she’s not keen on meeting new dogs on walks or at the park. So, we decided off-season would probably be best for us. Our anniversary is in October, so what a perfect celebration!

Then, we stumbled upon Cape San Blas. It just kept coming up in our search over and over. We heard from various people what a relaxing and quiet place it was. Perfect for us! We found a pretty good deal on a townhome right on the beach and decided to go for it. We packed up the car and road-tripped down to the gulf – with Stinkerbell on my lap for most of the ride!

She loved the sand and the water, although she didn’t really get the concept of riding waves. Her favorite part, though – the BIRDS! She is a hunting dog by breed, and she definitely enjoyed making those birds fly!

While on our beach trip, I was also able to cross off two other items on the bucket list – Five and Six.

Stinkerbell digs Cape San Blas:

All packed and ready to go! And, this is before Bambino! Stinkerbell barely had a seat in the back, although she didn’t really need it. She is very much a lap dog!

First Steps!

Enjoying the view!

Life’s a beach!

Family Photo Op – Christmas Card 2011

Fourth Bucket List Item: Take Stinkerbell to the beach.  Check.

Back in 2010, I got the bright idea to undertake the.largest.project.ever. Hubby’s grandma was turning 80 years young, and we were trying to come up with something to commemorate the event. My MIL had planned a big surprise party with family coming in from all over. We knew she didn’t need anymore “stuff” and would enjoy a more sentimental gift. So, we came up with the photo slideshow idea.

We have long talked about organizing all of our pictures. When we got married, we put together a slideshow of some of our favorites of us growing up. But, that just doesn’t begin to cover two families’ combined photo history. We dug up boxes from my in-laws’ and started scanning. We found some great memories and put together a slideshow 8 songs long. We had scanned a lot of photos.

Unfortunately, the quality just wasn’t up to par. We presented the gift with the promise to improve the image quality, and of course, add more pictures ☺ We researched, we tried new programs, and we just figured there had to be an easier way.

In the midst of the slideshow project, we were also in the process of backing up all of our photos. You know, the ones that we had scanned when we got married AND the ones that we had just spent hours upon hours over the previous year scanning. After sending back a malfunctioning external hard drive not once, but twice, we finally thought we were making progress. Until that horrible noise and the even more horrible screen. You know which one I’m talking about. The screen that all computer-users know. The Black Screen of Death. It happened all of a sudden, without any warning, and BEFORE the external hard drive was recognized. We took the computer to the store, and we were told there was no hope for an easy recovery. The computer was vintage. I mean, it was just about 7 years old. ANCIENT! We had to call in the pros. The Apple store recommended a company that could possibly extract the data from our hard drive, but it would be expensive. As in, the-cost-of-a-new-computer expensive. It was worth every penny! All of our irreplaceable memories saved. We did buy a new computer, too, and with it, I discovered that the Apple store gives workshops. For free. Finally, we could figure out this slideshow thing!

So, one Saturday morning, Hubby and I sat through the “introduction to mac” workshop. And, although a lot of the information covered was a review since we have been personal mac users for about 7 years, we did learn some new tricks. Plus, a lot changes in 7 years, so we learned that our new computer had some neat features that our “ancient” laptop did not.

All in all, it was informational and, being free, I would definitely recommend a workshop to anyone who just wants to take advantage of all that these computers have to offer.

On a side-note, I was relieved and a little annoyed to learn that with the updated iPhoto version now available, the slideshow project was much simpler than we had made it out to be. I did continue to spend a lot of time retouching scanned photos, but the actual exporting and burning to a DVD process through iDVD went smoothly AND image quality was retained.

Third Bucket List Item: Take an Apple Workshop. Check.

https://www.apple.com/retail/learn/