Chasing the Eclipse again

Posted on by Ian C.

Back in 2017 we traveled to South Carolina to see the Total Eclipse; and for this years Total Eclipse we once again went traveling, though this time a longer drive of over 1100 miles in Arkansas. We’d originally planned to catch it in north Texas / Oklahoma but cloudy weather sent us further north eventually to a little town of Plainview that was having a little Eclipse event including live music! Here we had clear skies and a perfect view of the four minute totality …

I used my same Nikon high-zoom camera and solar eclipse filter, hand-held, and again I’m very pleased with the results!

For the next Total Eclipse, we might not need to travel – an eclipse predicted for 2045 will go right across central Florida!

London at Christmas

Posted on by Ian C.

Unexpectedly we were back in England recently, and spent a few days in London. We did lots of touristy stuff, starting with an evening walk along the River Thames past the Houses of Parliament and as far as the London Eye, when we first arrived …

The next morning we took the same walk back to the London Eye, and rode it for great views over London:

We also walked to Buckingham Palace (it’s not open for visiting at this time of year!):

In the evening we toured Regent Street and nearby, checking out the Christmas lights (we also took of tour bus but the views from that were not great) …

Our last day in London, we visited the recently converted Battersea Power Station, now a big indoor shopping mall, with a lift ride up one of the chimneys for another set of great views over the city! Growing up about ten miles away this building was iconic – fascinating to learn that for the early years it had only two chimneys!

Morocco 2023: Marrakesh

Posted on by Ian C.

Today was a guided tour to some of Marrakesh, beginning with the beautiful Bahia Palace, followed by the just as lovely Majorelle Garden. Many photos of these two attractions!

We also spent time in the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa, the Marrakesh market square – which was surprisingly quiet on the Saturday afternoon that we were there!

Almost 33 years ago when Margaret and I were new together, our first vacation was to Morocco and we took a coach trip to Marrakesh and to the same Jemaa el-Fnaa square … I tried to take a photo to match one I had from that long ago trip:

We had a second day in Marrakesh after this one, available to “add on” experiences but we chose mostly to have a quiet day, just taking a walk to a good nearby lunch … in the evening was a quite unpleasant last night dinner with the group, at an expensive restaurant ($10 for a bottle of water!) that allowed people to smoke at their table, and was stuffed full of our and many other noisy tour groups. Yes there was some “fire entertainment” and dancers, but the smoke and noise spoiled everything else.