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March 23, 2010

TESTING THIS BLURB APPLICATION FOR BOOK PREVIEWS. THIS ONE IS MY TRAVELS TO SPAIN IN OCTOBER 2007

This book was made shortly after we arrived home in late October 2007 and is chronologically organized covering all aspects of our trip beginning at our home with the stuff we packed. It goes through the airport and travel phases and finally into Spain. We arrived in Madrid in the morning dog tired from too many hours of travel and had to navigate using Spanish language signs through Madrid’s Barajas Airport to the rail line to the subway and then to the high-speed train from Madrid to Toledo where we have booked our first night.

The photos will show how tired we were. All through the rail portion of the first day, we were totally beat and on edge. Once we arrived in Toledo and checked in, we had been up close to 24 hours. We decided to stay up until 9 PM so we could sync up with the local time. We ended up wondering around the streets of the old city for hours, climbing and descending the steep stone streets before finally ending up at a restaurant & bar across the street from our hotel. We ate jamon and drank Spanish beer and wine until we collapsed into our room at 9 pm. There was an open air ‘rock’ concert in the Plaza de Toros which reverberated around the city that night and actually helped us fall asleep with the cool breeze falling into the bedroom from the ancient open window of our room above the stone courtyard of the hotel and apartments. Enjoy if this www.blurb.com widget works well enough.

This book was preliminary and I am looking to re-publish with tighter editing. Cheers, Yarbz

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March 8, 2010

SOME TRAVEL SCAMS TO WATCH FOR… I’VE SEEN SOME OF THESE

There is also the one I got stung with in NYC where you’re getting in a cab and somebody is looking for change for a hundred. He did change my hundred but for $0…

THE FLAT TIRE SCAM:

Not all moving vehicle scams involve taxi drivers, suggests Robert Siciliano, head of IDTheftSecurity.com. “My wife was traveling in Spain and stopped at a red light,” he recounts. “Someone knocked on her passenger window and kept pointing towards [the car] and saying ‘tire flat, tire flat.’ She got out of the car to look and they opened up the passenger door and took her purse off the seat.”

THE TROJAN HORSE SCAM:

Tour guide Ann Lombardi of the Trip Chicks says she “recently watched a schemer in action in Frankfurt Germany train station” perform the classic hollow suitcase with rollers and frame trick, which Lombardi says works thusly: “A distracted tourist takes his eyes off his bag for a second. Behind the tourist lurks a guy with an enormous suitcase. In a flash, the thief lifts the enormous hollow luggage, puts it over the tourist’s bag, and calmly wheels away with his prized catch.” Avoid such schemers by always protecting your luggage between your legs while in crowded transportation areas, she says.

THE BASKSHEESH SCAM:
(more…)

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January 7, 2010

Autumn Chainsawing Pays Off

click the link to see how things are going at the Feste Family Green Mountain Retreat

Feste and Mrs. Feste in backyard glades
How I Love Winter!!!!!!

December 16, 2009

A pic from warmer times

miniFeste with Fish
I was uploading pics from a recent ski vacation, and found this pic of my boy and one of his first fish.
Busy busy in the new job. Never in front of the computer anymore.

October 18, 2009

Some pics from visiting fb and saluki

Here are a few from our time with FB and Saluki… There are more coming…

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A mouse suddenly appeared on our windshield which we beleive fell from a highway bridge. At 70 mph is became airborn and likley found another windshield… We didn’t notice this thing until we were on I-55…

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The other dog with a golf ball in his mouth that he had just pulled from the stream behind FB’s house…

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FB’s new dog Bailey…

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FB con perros

August 7, 2009

MORE PICS FROM YESTERDAY

Various and sundry images from Balboa Pennisula and Laguna.

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TWO MORE OF MANY NEW PICS… CLICK TO ENLARGE:

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Newport Beach, CA

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Laguna Beach, CA

August 4, 2009

MISCELLANEOUS PICS FROM CALIFORNIA PART 2

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This is a shot of Shaun… Shaun is a flipper of birds. This is at a little hole in the wall Mexican joint that was absolutely fantastic.

The images below are from the Goat Hill Tavern in Costa Mesa. I have been gong there for years and always make a trip or three there when in town. It’s the most fantastic beer bar in the world as far as I am concerned because it has atmosphere in addition to the beer. There is a place across the street that has a lot of beer too but it’s boring and sterile. This time my camera peaked the interest of the bartender and he took me into the keg room. The pictures that follow are all different directions and not duplicate kegs with the exception of the one with the bartender. This is “Chilly Heaven”…

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Here is a pic of Los Angeles with some hiking folks from Kenneth Hahn Park in the Baldwin Hills…

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My pizza from Oggi’s near my parents place. It was double roasted garlic, goat cheese, pine nuts, artichoke hearts and kalamata olives. One of the best pizza’s I have had…

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My dad shooting Los Angeles from Kenneth Hahn Park.

August 2, 2009

MISCELLANEOUS PICS FROM CALIFORNIA

Various pics from the last few days…

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One of the street numbers on a building on Pacific Avenue in Long Beach, CA…

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Long Beach, CA driveway markings…

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I went to Camp Pendleton in California with my father the Marine Colonel and photographed the returned 1st Battalion, 1st Marines from Afghanistan other ‘special’ places… The families were quite happy as you can imagine…

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An apartment in Long Beach, CA

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The number plate of an old apartment in Long Beach, CA…

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Some apartment in Long Beach, CA…

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The luxurious Pacific Sands… How about a little upkeep you cheesy bastards! Lots of run down stuff from a one time pristine area…

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A park in Long Beach where I spied some lady under a tree watching the harbor…

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I have no idea what the hell this means… It was on an apartment buildings mail box.

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Shaun is reflected in the sunglasses of some lady who started taling to us about our cameras and photography while we were shooting in Long Beach.

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Shaun the nutjob driving his Jeep thingy during our photo and beer trip.

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A building on the beach in Long Beach, CA

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Mariann’s favorite subject, sandles and flip flops… Taken at Long Beach.

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This is the jogging, walking and bike trail from a small street off Pacific Avenue…

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This is a guy we met in a bar and who will be one of the initial portraits of a photo project that Shaun and I will do called “The Bird Book”… It will be people from many walks of like flipping us the bird…

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