hey, we have a magazine!

okay, we've had it since January...but I'm just thinking to photograph it today.

Viva La Fiesta (days)

Last weekend in May marks Fiesta Days here in cowtown, USA.
Luckily the weather held out. It rained in the morning then just the clouds remained.
I have to say it's the first Fiesta Days I remember needing a coat.

This is Mikes favorite picture. Ian determined to wrap his mouth around that huge corn dog.

I do love old sign-age. Looks like this one has been painted over a few times.

Ian picking out his 3 ducks.

oooh how I hate the Ferris Wheel. This one was jamming.
You can see the lovely clouds in the background.

Em beat me at my own game...twice! (the water jets in the clowns mouths)
Congrats Emmy...it's twin monkeys!

Day 308 - Merry Christmas to all....

...and to all a good night.

Day 270 - my town...

still has open farm land....so far.

75-300mm lens

1/1000 @ F 5.6/ ISO400

{adj. levels, "Jazz-it-up" action, defog, vignette and frame}

Day 213 - Shiny things...

nothing but chrome....
.....chrome
and chrome-esque looking water.

Day 203 - Black and White; memorial

Day 201 - Doors day 7; Downtown

Bicycle Shop Radio Station
(actually in on the NEW side of town)
leftover, downtown, unused door
Rebekkah Lodge
Mexican Restaurant
Bakery

Day 121 - downtown

Day 84 (end of week 12)

More local landmarks

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The wind farm in Rio Vista (about 20 miles from our house). These windmills produce enough electricity to power 700,000 homes. There are about 700 of them in these leased farm area. The blades measure about 80 feet in length; the towers between 350-400 ft tall.

Interesting side note: This area of the wind farm was built in 2003. When Ian was born and in the NICU, every day we drove to Sacramento to see him and everyday we passed 3 semi trailers each hauling one blade of these windmills.

We always passed the semis on the same stretch of road at the same time of day for 6 weeks.

In the next town, Fairfield (about 10 minutes from our house), is the Budweiser Brewery. I went their for a field trip when I was in Catholic school in the 5th grade (great kids outing huh?).

Visiting hours were over so I had to do some traversing to get these pics. Covert stuff. lol.

You know someone tried to climb it....

Trust me....this looks way cooler at night. It's parallel to I-80.

Buh-bye now!

Right across the way from Budweiser is.....
.....................................................
The Jelly Belly Factory!!
I've accompanied Em on a field trip here and have toured it myself. You do NOT want to tour when they're in production (making candy). The sweet smell is so overwhelming it's sickening.
All decked out for Easter!


The bean mobile...how thrilled does Em look? We actually do see this car driving around town.

I'd drive it!

Day 83

Well...it is a landmark...to us.

These palm trees line the old entrance into CMF; California Medical Facility.

It's a huge, huge prison built way back in 1955. My dad was on staff there for years until he retired in 1986 (three months later he un-retired and worked at Folsom Prison for 5 years, when he finally really retired at 65). I went there a couple of times with my Dad as a kid and it scared the bejeebers out of me. They stamped my hand with ink you could only see with a blue light so I didn't wash my hands the whole time I was there for fear of washing off the stamp.

~~~~-~~~~

Charles Manson spent a large chunk of his sentence here until he "caught on fire" and was later transferred to San Quinten. My Dad remembered dealing with Manson and didn't have much to say about him except that he was a bozo. (I love my Dad's lingo.)

~~~~-~~~~

CMF is, basically, what I see out of my window at work every, single day.

The Vaca Hills....(sigh) I love these hills. When you see a long stretch of them it's almost like someone lay a huge, green blanket over a giant who's sleeping. In this photo the hills are directly behind CMF.

Day 78

a lonely ol' tether ball

in need of repair...

Here's my sign (my town)

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Pardon the poor quality...I took this while driving tonight.