Our 45th Wedding Anniversary trip to Dodge City, Kansas

Welcome back to our Smith Ranch blog! I am happy to post the first blog since I have been unable to since February 2021. That may be another post.

Click here to view our 45th wedding anniversary trip in Dodge City.  Most of these images were taken with my iPhone on the very back seat of a bumpy tour bus!  I regret not getting a picture of us that day... never even thought of it. 🙃  This is my first slideshow done on my MacBook Pro, so it's nothing fancy.  Enjoy!

A floral paradise!

My husband and I took a short trip to Branson and we stayed at our favorite hotel, The Savannah House.  I took my mirrorless camera with macro lens in case I had some time to take images of their beautiful flower garden.  Fortunately, I was able to capture some of their flowers that were still in bloom and also included an image of the waterfall in their flower garden.  My favorites from the flower garden are included for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Our daily visitors....

Since my hubby built a post to hang a bird feeder, we have been enjoying our daily visitors.  Our first visitors were red birds called the House Finch.  Next came the American Goldfinch birds.  The male is bright yellow while the female is a dull yellow.  Then we decided to change out the bird feeder since the birds made such a mess on the ground.  We changed to an older feeder we had in storage that had a tray on the bottom to catch some of the seeds. 

It was exciting to see the different color birds and when the Red-winged Blackbirds arrived, I was privileged to get three of them on the feeder at the same time!  I had a camera set up on a tripod in our master bedroom to get most of the images.  Below are my favorite images taken since we had our bird feeder installed in May.  Enjoy!

 

Our silly Rat Terriers!

On my last blogpost when we burned pasture, I omitted pictures of our dogs.  They also enjoyed standing outside atop our rock wall while I watched the ordeal.  I'm glad that the pasture finally turned green because Maryland enjoyed rolling in the soot.  In the third image below, you can see how dirty she got from rolling in the soot.

Recently on a windy day, I took a few pics of Maryland enjoying the wind blowing in her face while Charlie is looking for some lizards to catch.  Enjoy!

Enjoyable fire!

Since I've always been involved with pasture burning, I missed the opportunity to photograph burning pasture.  This year it was nice to be able to watch, listen, and photograph a pasture fire from the comforts of a lounge chair!  Don't worry, I was quite a distance away from the fire as I used a very long camera lens to capture these images.  My favorite fire images are included below for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Sloths and Canoe Ride in Costa Rica

Our excursion to the Sloth Sanctuary included meeting the sloths and a canoe ride on the Estrella River.  Can you believe the sloths fall in the same order as the armadillos and anteaters? It was interesting to learn about the sloths at this sanctuary.

We discovered that sloths are not lazy but are energy-saving mammals taking life at a slow pace to avoid the rush and tumble or food, while subscribing the movement patterns that help them avoid being identified as prey.

This was our first experience in a rain forest.  Here is a skyward view from our canoe ride. We were there during Costa Rica's dry season as their wet season starts in April.  The pretty leaves from the orange tree in the picture were constantly falling.  One ended up landing right in my shirt pocket!

There were 24 of us on this canoe ride so 6 each fit into 4 canoes along with our experienced boatman.

Though they are somewhat hidden by the leaves, there are at least five monkeys in this image.

This was also a first--seeing a banana tree!

This is a second--a coconut tree, as I saw plenty of coconut trees during a cruise to Mexico.

My, what long legs and tail this striped lizard has!

And last but not least two turtles basking in the Costa Rican sun during our canoe trip on the Estrella River.  I couldn't help but ask our tour guide if anyone had ever fallen off the canoe and he said, no one ever had!

Panama Canal and Gatun Lake

We passed the Atlantic Bridge around 6:30 on the morning of March 14.  The Atlantic Bridge is the third bridge over the Panama Canal.  I was so thankful the weather was perfect!

This boat rode alongside our cruise ship as we were about to enter the locks.  Now it is going away from us to who knows where!

Our ship approaches the lower chamber of the canal locks.  I downloaded an audio app to my iPhone and recorded the ringing of the bells while going through the canal. (You'll need to click the start button to hear the bells ringing.)

While we are entering the locks, another ship is exiting the locks on the other side.

This is a closeup of the ship across from our ship exiting the locks. 

Gatun Lake is very large and was hard to capture in one shot.

While exiting the locks, one of the machines attached to our ship broke down. You can see two individuals walking on top of the locks in this image.  I estimate it took them about 30 minutes to make the repairs.

While eating breakfast, I was able to view inside the locks chamber from the dining area.

They said everyone that went outside on deck to view the locks was served a Panama roll.  I was able to eat the same roll in the dining area! It was delicious!