By this Author: littlesam1

A path. It can be a beginning. It can be an ending. It can be a road. An alley. It could be a winding river. A bridge perhaps. Even an abandoned rail road track. There are many ways to define a path. And there are many ways to look at them. I took this photo above in Denmark, in the city of Helsingor. I did not know then that it would inspire me to look for other paths to photograph. It was just an interesting side street that I walked past. I had recently joined the photo web site Flickr when I took this photo. I was posting all of my travel photos there for my own enjoyment and for a back up storage. I never really thought much about the fact that many people might see my photos on Flickr. I posted this photo and labeled it Small Alley in Helsingor. And suddenly I started to get comments on the photo. I was invited to add it to a group in Flickr just called Paths. In a short time the photo had 351 views. I was amazed. People even sent me messages about the photo. And this started my interest in looking for paths to photograph. The photo itself became a path. It lead me to photograph many other streets and alleys. And even now 17 years later I am still fascinated with taking photos of paths.

This path was at the end of a dirt road in Hawaii on the island of Mau'i. The dirt road itself was a path that led me to this beautiful path. At the end of the dirt road we found a secluded little beach. There are many quiet and inspiring locations like this in the tourist heavy islands of Hawaii. We look for these when we visit there.

Some paths can tell you a story. This interesting little crosswalk in Littleton, New Hampshire has a history and a story. The Disney movie Pollyanna was based on the novel Pollyanna which was written in this little town. The novel was a little darker than the Disney movie. It ends with the little girl Pollyanna getting hit by a car. This sign in the crosswalk has Pollyanna pictured waving and tells you to stop on the corner, Look, then wave and cross the street. Each time I see my photo here the path leds me to memories of the seeing the movie as a child, and also now it leads to memories of an excellent brewery named Schilling Brewery at the end of this street.

Some small paths are in big cities and lead you to beautiful churches. This small side street in Montmartre in Paris led me to the beautiful Sacre Couer. The photograph though focuses on the path with the huge over powering cathedral waiting to be discovered later in the background.

It took a long journey for me to find this path. It started in a junior high school English class where I was taught Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey and ended here in Wales at the actual Abbey over fifty years later. That small sidewalk is the culmination of a life long journey the see this historic Abbey. Looking at that path in the photo I am immediately transported back to my English class and learning to appreciate Wordsworth and then finally walking this path to the Abbey many years later.

Many paths are simple. Just a narrow dirt path and a small stone wall. Yet they are magical in their own way. This path led to an isolated beach in Maui. No crowds. No tourists. Just a quiet beautiful cove

I belong to several groups in Flickr that are just for paths or trails. Several require no people in the photo. They want just a path to tell the story. But for me sometimes people are as much a part of the story as the path itself. I can look at a photo of the Colosseum and immediate know it's Rome. And I have a lot of photos of the Colosseum. But to really feel or experience Rome all I need is a simple photo of a path with people dining in a narrow street. This immediately transports me to Rome. I don't need the crowds at the Spanish Steps or the throngs of tourists throwing coins in a fountain to transport me. I need a simple path.

Another path. Another country. County Wicklow in Ireland. Not a fancy or elaborate photo. But the path transports me once more. This one brings back childhood memories going with my grandmother to see the Walt Disney film Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It's a great memory because my grandmother did not go the movies ever. But for some reason she and I ended up at our little small town theater watching Darby O'Gill. And there are parts of that movie that are terrifying for a young child. But my grandmother was with me and it became a favorite memory. Not of fear from from the scary scenes, but a memory of being with her doing something special for me. That's the journey I take when I see this photo of the path in Wicklow.

I have a several photos I took of Chateau Aigle in Switzerland. It is one of my favorite locations I have visited. The Chateau is surrounded by a beautiful vineyard. I walked from the village of Aigle to the Chateau. I sat inside the Chateau and had a glass of wine made from the vineyards surrounding the Chateau. Just me, by myself. A wonderful quiet moment. But then I look at this photo of this small road that led me to the Chateau and that memory completes the experience for me.

A path can be part of a beautiful bright blue day.

A path can take you to a quiet reflective moment on the water front.

A path can take you out of a bustling tourist filled city center to a quiet hillside view.

And a path can lead you home.

I have not traveled since Covid happened. I have missed flying. I have missed seeing new and exciting places. But most of all I have missed the paths that take me away. Things are opening up now. People are traveling once more. And we have some travel plans for the very near future. Enjoy your journeys. But most of all take time to reflect on the paths that take you there.

I reread my 2020 year end blog before starting to write my new one for 2021. I ended last year in isolation, staying at home, and being anxious about Covid. The vaccines were not quite available yet. It was scary to even think about going out any place. I started the new year with hopes of getting a vaccine and getting my life back to normal. I soon realized I had no idea what normal was any more. We were not getting a new year. It was going to be 2020 the 21 variant.

I grew a Covid beard in 2020 and had planned to clean it up in the new year. But we never really got that new year and the beard remains. I have kept it trimmed and not long. But this is still a first for me and I have grown to appreciate it. I have a feeling it will still be here at the end of 2022 also

I spent most of January and February still in lock down but not just because of Covid. Our dog Tallulah had been hit by a car in December 2020. She had surgery on December 23, 2020 and the emergency vet tried to save her front leg. We brought her home on Christmas Eve 2020. She was under complete sedation and was not supposed to move at all. We found out eight weeks later that the surgery was not successful and she would need her front leg amputated. So I remained at home with her for her recovery from the amputation which was just as well as I had not received a my Covid shot yet and should not have been out anyway.

My daughters and Mark were all concerned that I should get my Covid Vax as soon as I was eligible. My age group was opened in March for the shot. Katie drove me down to the Raven's Football stadium where the state of Maryland was doing mass vaccinations.

I was glad to get the vaccination hoping it would allow me to get back to some sort of normalcy. But as I mentioned above I was soon to find out I still had no idea what normal really was any more. Three days after getting the vaccine I woke up to find that I had no sense of taste of smell. I knew what that meant! I had Covid. I went to the nearest test location at my local CVS Pharmacy to do a drive through test. One day later I had my response. I tested positive for Covid. This was certainly not part of my plane. I was still home with a recuperating dog and now I was concerned about getting ill from Covid. I was very fortunate. My case was very mild, thanks to the vaccine I had taken right before being diagnosed. I had no other symptoms other than no taste or smell. No fever. No weakness. And within the week my taste and smell has returned. But we still had to stay quarantined for a full ten days. I spoke with my personal physician by way of a Zoom meeting. He said I could assume I caught it while in line for the shot at the mass distribution site and that in his opinion my vaccination worked because I had such a light case.

April the fourth was a big day for me this year. I felt some sense of things returning to some kind of normal.

I was a fully vaccinated Covid surviving member of society and I returned to favorite bar, Racers, and had my first beer back inside the bar.

Now for the next big step. Mark was finally qualified to be vaccinated. So now we were wondering if we would be to do some traveling. Nothing big, nothing out of the country. We had really wanted to go to Hawaii again but that was just not possible. So instead I found a wonderful beach rental on the Outer Banks. Tallulah was doing well with only three legs but we could not see ourselves leaving her at a kennel just yet. Luckily the house I found to rent had handicap access ramps. It was perfect.

Tallulah loved the beach house and spent a lot of time on the deck watching the neighbors. This had to be one of our best vacations in a long time. We were still somewhat isolated but it could not have been more relaxing.

We were able to do some more local traveling in September over the Labor Day weekend. Oh how we wanted it to be Hawaii again but that still just was not happening for us. Plane travel was still sketchy. People were fighting on planes over mask mandates. Flight schedules were not dependable. And honestly Hawaii was not being too open to tourists returning yet anyway and who can blame them. And due to the unvaccinated Covid just kept growing. After some initial Google searches we were able to find a log cabin to rent in New Hampshire in the same area we vacationed in 2020. So the 2021 varient year of 2020 continued for us.

We enjoyed New England as much this year as we did in 2020. And the blending of the years continued. Writing now it's difficult to remember did that happen in 2020 or was it 2021. It's almost liked we have blotted out 2020 and just jumped from 2019 right into 2021. It's still difficult even going through photos to tell the story of this year to differentiate what happened and when. And to make it even more bizarre I am currently researching plans for a return this spring to New England.

We found out that Tallulah does travel well. She managed the both trips in the car with no real issues. She was more relaxed than at home. At home she is on constant guard duty guarding our house and yard growling and barking at everything and anything that moves. But on the vacations she seemed to be on vacation also. She ignored most of the dogs at the rest stops. She did not bark at any of the neighboring vacationers at either location. She pretty much became a some what normal dog. And then we returned home and she went back to her self appointed guard dog duties.

Our cabin was isolated and on a dirt road. We were surround by beautiful lakes, trails, mountains and wild turkeys! The only time Tallulah got really animated was when a large group of wild turkeys decided to visit out yard. She also got a little agitated one evening and the next morning I saw a paw print that might have been from a small bear in our back yard. But other than the wild life there was nothing there bother us and we had one of our most relaxed vacations in years. We hiked. We photographed lakes. We saw lighthouses and cliff climbers. We drove to Maine and my daughter from Massachusetts drove up to see us for a day also.

The year progressed to a slow end by December. I saw some friends get sick. I saw some friends die. I got angry at Covid. I got angry at the unvaxxed who continue to make this pandemic a political argument while I tried to avoid political arguments. And I spent a lot of time at my local bar. Day drinking at Racers was my one refuge. With Covid and the restrictions, depleted staff, and the general malaise of the year they survived. Many places closed permanently. Some closed temporarily. But my favorite bar survived. Monday mornings this was where you would find me. It was never crowded. There was no real concern of getting infected from people who were not there. It was just me and my bartenders this year. Roxy, Mariam, Bernard, John, Eric, and Brooks kept me entertained and hopefully I didn't bore them too much with my old man stories. And I thank the manager Emily for her kindness to an old man with free tickets to a local beer event this year and many free samples of the newest beers on draft. And Monday regulars Lou, Chris, Roger all properly vaxxed. All feeling safe. And all glad for the escape. They all helped me keep my sanity this year.

Ending this year I am glad t to have had my family together all at the same time over the Christmas holidays this. I am grateful for the vaccinations and the boosters being available. I am thankful they are all vaccinated and have received their boosters. I am thankful to have survived a very minor Covid infection. I am thankful for a year with strong leadership from our President and no longer going to bed angry or fearful each night from the actions of his predecessor. And I am looking forward to a new year. Will it be 2020 variant 22 this year? Will we all adjust to the new normal? It's difficult to say. I do know I will miss those good friends and family who did not survive this year. I dread hitting the big 70 this year but grateful to have been able to make it this far.

And Tallulah is looking forward to another vacation from her guard duties and returning to her mountain retreat.

The dog in the photo above is terrified. I know this dogs expression and body language now. She has anxiety. And she has no idea what happened to her family. Her name was Pantera, Spanish for panther. She was abandoned at a kill shelter in San Antonio, Texas. Our fourteen year black lab had just passed on. We were doing a rescue dog search one week later. Our house was empty without a dog. We looked at several dogs online. We put in several requests for adoptions. And this was the first one that answered us.

It's been a long year. We renamed her Tallulah. She moved into our home with much anxiety and energy. Two weeks after bringing her home last November she darted out of our side door and was hit by a car in front of our home. After two surgeries, having a leg amputated, and many many dollars she returned home to us and recuperated for the next eight weeks. She was sedated and sleeping on our couch most of that time. So we did not really get to know her true personality even after sharing our home with her for ten weeks.

The two photos above are from her return home after the first emergency pet er visit. There is still a lot of fear in eyes. She is in a strange house, in pain, and no idea what is going on. But she did recover and won over our hearts completely. We would not trade her for anything..

My blogs are usually travel blogs. And although we were still under the influence of Covid-19 for another year this year we did take two vacations. And Tallulah learned to travel with us. At home Tallulah proved to be a watch dog. The minute she goes outside the door she goes on duty, barking, growling and all the neighbors and anyone within eye sight to stay out of her yard and away from her house. She can not relax when out in the yard. He ears are up at attention. Her tail is up in the air and not wagging. And she is watching everything around her. If you knock on our door or come into our house she is in defense mode until you win her over. So travelling with her was a major concern for us. We had no idea how she would react to a different house and setting. We were concerned how she would behave in a new neighborhood. Here she is at home. She is not relaxed outside. She is on guard duty.

We rented a beach house this past summer on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is one of our favorite vacation destinations. Our previous dog, Delilah, loved the beach and going to beach house each year. But how would the guard dog Tallulah react was our question. We rented a house with handicap ramps so she would not have any issues climbing the tall steps on Outer Banks homes with only three legs. She was well behaved in the car on the drive down the North Carolina. When we arrived we had problems getting her to walk up the handicap ramps. And once inside the house she took some time to sniff around the property and then she completely relaxed. She was not on guard duty. She was not snarling out of the windows at the neighbors. She just completely relaxed. She was not working. She was on vacation.

Tallulah relaxing on the porch of the beach house watching the lake across the street .

We were amazed with her behavior while on vacation in May. In September we took a second holiday and drove to New Hampshire, another favorite vacation spot. We rented a cabin in the woods. It was very secluded and comfortable. We relaxed in the wooded development and so did Tallulah once more. She loved the cabin. She loved walking down the dirt roads and sniffing all the natural scents around her. The only time she was agitated or excited was one afternoon when a group of wild turkeys walked across our yard. She was very curious and wanted to know what those big birds were doing in the yard. But for the most part she took a vacation from her guard duties and had a wonderful relaxed vacation.

Here she is below completely relaxed on the couch in the cabin

Although she looks like a black lab she is in reality a Patterdale Terrier/Black Lab mix. Her attitude is pure terrier so we basically have a fifty pound terrier to control and handle, But she is all heart and we love her so much. She has spent the past year stealing our hearts and making her home with us.

I call her my Mornin' Girl and sing to her the old song from the 70's Mornin' Girl each morning. And then our new day begins.
As we start a new year with her our only wish is to have many more trips around the sun with her. We had Delilah for twelve years and she died at age fourteen. May we have just as many or more with Tallulah. We live in any area named Carney. We call her Tallulah Countess of Carney. And she truly is the Countess.

Beware Bond. The Patterdale is on guard duty.

People who know me from Facebook or other online sites just assume I have always been a traveler. I have posted hundreds of travel photos. I talk about travel a lot. If you look up my hobbies it will say photography and travel. But to many friends surprise I never traveled abroad until the year 2000 when I was 48 years old. I grew up with fantasies of travel. It was always something I wanted to do but it was always of my reach. I traveled through the movies. At the age of ten I saw my first James Bond, Dr No movie and was amazed at all of the exotic locations that were thousands of miles from my small town in Maryland.

Yes, that's me in the photo above standing spell bound at my first look at the Eiffel Tower in 2000. I was so enthralled I was not even aware my photo was being taken. I had to keep reminding myself I was really in Paris. I was really in France. It did not seem possible. If anyone had asked me where would you like to travel I would have said Paris. It was always a dream destination. We were offered French or Spanish in high school. There was no choice for me. It had to be French. If a movie was about France I wanted to see it. If you asked me what was my favorite childhood movie starring Judy Garland was my answer would have been Gay Purr-ee. Never would I have said The Wizard of Oz. It was set in Kansas not Paris. And the Wizard of Oz co starred Ray Bolger not Robert Goulet as in Gay Purr-ee. But that's another story.

So how did I get to Paris this first time? That's an interesting question. I was in a relationship with someone at the time who was a scientist. He was scheduled to attend a medical convention in Marseille. Paris was not even part of his itinerary. He asked if I would like to travel with him to Marseille. My immediate answer was YES of course. Marseille sounded much more exotic and exciting than Catonsville, Maryland where we lived. Who would say no? So we started to plan the trip. Keep in mind this was in 2000. There was no Google yet. We were still using Yahoo and Alta Vista for search engines. There was no Facebook. We were using AOL to "surf the web". Trip Advisor was just being founded in 2000. So it was a different world planning a European trip in 2000. We booked our airfare using Cheap Tickets.com. We searched for hotels through Yahoo and Alta Vista. But I agreed to go on one condition. We had to stop and see Paris. This did not go over well immediately. It was much cheaper to buy tickets to Marseille and fly home from Marseille. There was no time or reason to stop in Paris. But there was a reason. I said firmly I am not going to France and not see Paris. That was reason enough. So it was reluctantly agreed we would spend three days in Paris before moving on to Marseille.

I had no idea about traveling, I didn't even have a passport. I didn't know what to pack. How much to pack. Did I need to buy maps? A guide book? Should I use traveler's check or trust my credit card? There were so many decisions to make. And I was excited about all of it. We had purchased the airline tickets. We looked at hotels but no decisions were made yet. Then he came home from work the next afternoon looking very sad. He said he had some bad news. The trip was cancelled. The woman who was sponsoring the medical convention had died and they were cancelling the meeting. We could get the tickets refunded with no problems. I was speechless. And I must have had the saddest expression ever. He went to work the next day and sent me an email to my my job. It said to not cancel my time off. We were still going! I asked how was this possible. The answer was I could not come home and look at that sad expression of yours again tonight. We are going. He had arranged the airline tickets so we agreed I would work on finding our accommodations. I had a lot to learn.

Searching Yahoo I found the Modern Hotel in Paris. Great name I thought. And it was in the Pere Lachaise neighborhood which I thought was a plus as I wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave in the cemetery located there.

The sign said Modern Hotel. But novice traveler here had no idea what the two stars meant. I thought it was just a decoration on the sign. Nope. It was a two star rated hotel on a kind of run down street. This my was my view from the hotel window. There was no Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe any where in site. But there was a rather ratty looking bed in a dismal room that I planned to be in as little as possible so it did not really matter. And yes if you look closely I was wearing some really ugly glasses in 2000.

I did not have a cell phone at this time. I did not have a digital camera. No computer. I had no way to make contact other than a phone in case of an emergency. And this was not a bad thing. My photos were awful. I really had a lot to learn about travel photography. My photos were developed when I got home and were also digitized on a disc for me. But the photo quality was terrible on the digital disc. But looking back at the photos now the memories are very vivid and that's what it's all about really. Traveling. Making memories. Writing a travel diary. And reliving it years later.

I got to see a lot. I was a true tourist.

I saw the Statue of Liberty in Paris.

The Sacre Couer

And the Venus de Milo of course. I felt just like Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face.

Arc de Triomphe

If you could pose by it I have a photo of it.

I learned to take better photos. In 2002 I joined the Virtual Tourist online group. I learned to write travel advice there. And I learned a lot about taking travel photos from the many great photographer there. But there is something special about being a first time novice traveler. I learned a lot from that experience also.

I guess you noticed there are no photos of my ex included here. And that is by choice. As Bogart said in Casablance "We'll always have Paris." but in this blog in my best Bogart voice it should be "I'll always have Paris."

I never got to Jim Morrison's grave on this visit. That had to wait for my next visit this time with my husband Mark. And I can say this time, he and I will always have Paris.

This photo was taken in 2015 and for some reason I am just now writing about it all these years later . And I don't know how I missed posting this. Mark and I were with our friend Gillian on holiday in Lisbon. Our last day there we were having lunch in an outdoor restaurant and noticed this girl with a bird hanging on her shoulder. At first we thought it was a dead bird which we found a bit odd. But then it moved. She was wearing a live bird on her blouse. It was just sitting there and not bothering to fly away. I love odd travel moments like this.

Mark and I have known our friend Gillian for almost 14 years now. We are more family than we are just friends. Gillian visits us often. And we travel together frequently. She makes frequent guest appearances in blogs because when we are all together trouble usually ensues. I am not sure why. Perhaps it's because we tend to drink a bit when we are all together. Gillian will deny this of course. But trust me. It's a fact. From time to time she and I remember this girl. We always say she is part of a novel that should be written. Or we say that one of us really needs to write a blog about it. But it has not happened until tonight. Gillian, her time in the spot light has arrived. I hope I do her proud.

Times are tough. To complain about it makes you look juvenile. Everyone, world wide, knows times are bad. There is nothing you can say about it that everyone doesn't already realize for themselves. We are sharing this pandemic world wide. When 400,000 people have died in your country it seems selfish and callous to say how much you miss travel. Or it seems insensitive to say I wish I could go out to my pub. And then it really seems childish to complain that you have nothing to write about in your travel blog. There are far more serious things to be concerned about. I talked to two good friends today and both told me they have tested positive for COVID. That's very serious. I prayed for them both tonight. I can't sleep. Stress has robbed me of sleep for weeks now. So while I sit here fighting insomnia the unfinished blog about the girl with bird on her boob came to mind this evening.

Mark and I love Lisbon. It was never a place on our bucket list to visit. But once we arrived there it captured our imagination. We have now been to Portugal twice and would love to again. We have some travel friends who live in Lisbon that we enjoy visiting.

And the wines in Portugal are some of the best in the world. The food is very good also,

And then there is the mesmerizing Fado music that we learned to love. Having some wine and listening to Fado music is one of our favorite experiences when we visit Portugal. This is the Fado bar we visied in a back alley in Lisbon. There is a young girl dressed in black singing the melancholy fado music.

And yet the girl with the bird on her boob seems to be my one haunting memory. When I think of my time in Lisbon I almost always go back to that last day and seeing her. It was odd. This was to be our last day in Lisbon. We were to leave for the airport in the morning to bid goodbye to Gillian and start our flight home. But we wanted a good meal and a few laughs on our last day. We really wanted something that we would be able to remember and talk about for years to come. And there she was. Leaning against a wall behind our table. An attractive young girl with a bird sitting on her breast. It caught my attention and then Gillian saw it also. We tapped Mark and motioned for him to turn around and look behind himself and then he too saw what we saw. There was no point trying to explain it to him. It was easier just to tell him to look. So we all looked.

Our first thought was why does this girl have a dead bird attached to her blouse. So we started making up reasons why the bird was attached to her. None of them made any sense at all but it didn't matter. We were just confused. And then the birds head moved. It was alive! Then we wondered why and how she had attached it to her blouse. Was she cruel and stapled it to her shirt? No, the birds foot moved and it repositioned itself a little. It was just sitting there hanging on to her blouse. And it never left her or flew away. Finally she pet its head, took it off of her blouse and put it in a small box. Then she went inside the restaurant and to our surprise was working there as a waitress and was going on her shift. She handed the box to a waiter who was going off shift and he kept it for her. It almost felt like Woody Allen should be narrating this in one of movies set in Europe. I could almost hear his voice introducing the girl as the main character in his movie and her love interest who shared the bird with her. And then suddenly everything changed. Again Gillian and I noticed something else odd and we were transported from the world of Woody Allen characters to a John Waters movie. Just across the street from where we were sitting we saw a man, a true John Waters character. He was standing by a wall relieving himself right in eyesite of our table. Well if it was a Woody Allen character we would say relieving. But this had turned into a John Waters movie so this man was pissing against the wall. Directly in front of us. Did I take a photo? Of course I did.

I knew I would be telling this story one day. And I knew I needed an ending. And this man provided the ending for me. So now in January 2021 when I am stuck home quarantining from the pandemic and fighting with stress and insomnia I finally am writing this blog from the summer of 2015. You never know how a story will end. I assumed the girl with the bird would be the entire story. And then man started urinating. So there's the end of the story.

When this mess we are in is over we will travel again. And we will see more strange things happening around us. And yes, I will document them with photos and tell you all about them in due time.