Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography
This blog is for my insights on life, the Bible, hiking adventures with my grandson and whatever is important to me
Orange Rest Stop Flowers
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Near San Francisco; Rest Stop; Along Pacific Coast Highway, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Pathways and/or Passages
According the Oxford Dictionary, a Pathway is a path which you can walk along or a route you can take and a Passage is a way of exit or entrance; the act or process of moving through, under, over, or past something on the way from one place to another.
This week I am combining Cee’s Which Way with Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge doing it My Way. I have chosen to post pathways and/or passages at Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara, California.
Aerial Views of
Pathways at
Marriott’s Great America
Pathways Around the Shops
and Places to
Pull Up a Seat
at Marriott’s Great America
Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge 2024-Week 28
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Marriott’s Great America, Santa Clara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
For Judy’s “The Numbers Game #30”Today’s number is 151. To play along, go to your photos file and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find under that number and include a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title.
California Adventures
Since I have been working on digitizing my dad’s old slides more than photographing outdoors in our extreme heat, I decided to share some of my dad’s slides and my memories from our California adventures with all y’all.
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved; #6 of my dad taken by Fred Giese ( family friend) with my dad’s camera.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Locations: 1-5) San Francisco, California; 6-9) Sequoia National Forest Campground; Three Rivers, Tulare County, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. Sharing memories are precious and a delight to behold. I appreciate y’all very much.
Catalina Island
Jez’s Water Water Everywhere #227
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Santa Catalina Island; View from Los Angeles, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge- Red, White, and Blue
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Port O Call; Los Angeles, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Horseshoe Bay
and
Alcatraz Island
Jez’s Water Water Everywhere #227
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Horseshoe Bay; San Francisco Bay; San Francisco, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Since the Opening of California’s Marriott’s Great America in 1976, the park featured appearances from Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters. Some of the Looney Tunes characters included Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and Yosemite Sam. The Looney Tunes characters would roam around the park greeting visitors as well as putting on a fun entertaining show.
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Marriott’s Great America, Santa Clara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
This week I’m continuing Cee’s Which Way Challenge doing it My Way. Therefore for this the second week of July, I have chosen a theme of Any Roadways or Pathways with Cars and/or People. Remember signs are always welcome. I welcome anyone who desires to join me on this week’s Which Way Challenge.
Here is my entry for this week. These are from a trip to Solvang, California back in September of 1978. Solvang is known as “Danish Capital of America” because of its Danish heritage and European-inspired culture, architecture, and museums.
Solvang is a sun-soaked slice of Danish culture in the Santa Ynez Valley, where California wine cellars mix with European bakeries and shops. It’s where you can drink, dine and shop like a Dane without ever leaving the California sunshine.
The name Solvang means “sunny fields” in Danish. The city of Solvang was founded in 1911 by a group of Danish immigrants who purchased 9’000 acres of land near the Old Mission Santa Inés and built a community to preserve and promote Danish culture.
An interesting note (especially for Hallmark fans), A still from “A Very Charming Christmas Town,” the Lifetime Christmas movie set in Solvang.
Photo Credit: ©️1978 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Solvang, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. Take Care Cee! Chris thank you for taking good care of our friend. I appreciate y’all very much.
This week PR from the blog Flights of the Soul is hosting Monochrome Madness with the theme of Sculptures. Let’s see y’all’s monochrome sculptures and don’t forget to link to Flights of the Soul’s blog.
My selections for this week’s challenge were captured on film in 1978 in Solvang, California many years ago.
This Statue is a milestone marker indicating the distance from Solvang to Copenhagen, Denmark, a mere 11270 kilometers apart.
The Bronze Statue of Hans Christian Andersen is located in Hans Christian Andersen Park in Solvang, California. This Park is a tribute to the renowned Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen and was founded in 1970.
Solvang is known as the “Danish Capital of America” with its strong Danish heritage and European-inspired culture. It was founded in 1911. It wasn’t incorporated as a city until May 1, 1985.
Besides the Statue of Hans Christian Andersen there is a museum dedicated to him you might be interested in visiting. The monument of Hans Christian Andersen Denmark’s renowned Fairy Tale Writer was created by Henry Luckow Nielsen of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Photo Credit: ©️1978 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Solvang, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. Take Care Cee! Chris, thank you for taking good care of our friend. I appreciate y’all very much.
Flags at Marriott’s
Great America
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Marriott’s Great America; Santa Clara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.
California Marriott’s
Great America Addition #1
Pull Up a Seat on Willard’s Whizzer …
The Whizzer is a steel roller coaster located in the Hometown Square section of Marriott’s Great America. This one pictured here was taken at The California Marriott’s Great America amusement park in April of 1979.
The Whizzer, originally named “Willard’s Whizzer,” was one of two identical roller coasters built for each of the Marriott’s Great America parks. The Whizzer roller coasters made their debut when the parks opened in May of 1976.
The California Great America Whizzer operated from 1976-1988. My family visited the California location of Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara, California in April of 1979. I am not sure if I actually Pulled Up a Seat and ride the roller coaster or not (I’m not too keen on large high-speed roller coasters.) The second location for Marriott’s Great America (currently known as Six Flags Great America) is in Gurnee, Illinois.
From the very beginning, both versions of Whizzer suffered with problems surrounding the braking system. The braking system would sometimes allow the trains to collide in the station. From 1976-1979, there were at least 11 recorded instances of station collisions on the California’s Great America version, resulting in an unknown number of injuries. The Illinois’ Great America Whizzer also had two station collisions which occurred less than a month apart in 1976. A total of 31 riders were injured in the Gurnee collisions.
The Steel Roller Coasters were manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf of Germany. These two versions of Whizzer were the last “Speedracer” models ever built.
If you want to have a chance to Pull Up a Seat on the Whizzer, you’ll need to visit the Gurnee, Illinois location of Six Flags Great America.
Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge 2024-Week 27
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
A Boy & His Dog
Tippy & Ray
Photo Credit:©️1972 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Ceanothus ‘Julia Phelps’
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Santa Barbara, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.
Brian from bushboy.blog asks us to share each month what photos are the Last on the Card or Last on our smartphones or tablets.
This month is going to be a little different for me since I haven’t been anywhere to use my camera this month. I have been busy digitizing my dad’s old slides. I hope it’s alright to post the last picture from the last roll of his I converted to digital format.
From my Dad’s Minolta XG-7 35mm:
From my iPhone 14 Pro Max:
Photo Credit: 1) ©️1980 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved; 2) ©️2024 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm and iPhone 14 Pro Max
God Bless. Thank you for sharing your Last on the Card with us. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.
CosPhoChal
Art for Art’s Sake
For this CosPhoChal, Dale has challenged us to post photos depicting Art for Art’s Sake. I chose to continue on our tour of Hearst Castle by allowing you to see some of the art and sculptures we saw when we were there that day. I formatted the pictures into a slideshow, while I was blogging on this post, for enhanced view and entertainment. Relax and enjoy the show.
Cosmic Photo Challenge-Art for Art’s Sake
Photo Credit: ©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: Hearst Castle; Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument; San Simeon, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for visiting and watching our slideshow. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts about my blogging posts. I appreciate y’all very much.
Bridging the Waters
of Time
Thru Architecture
While on our San Francisco Bay Discovery Cruise we were able to see beautiful views surrounding the Bay. We were able to view unique perspectives of the amazing architectural features of the Bay Area Bridges.
Looking at The Golden Gate Bridge from the waters below …
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula—to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is made up of two (2) bridge segments: a skyway structure/single anchored suspension bridge between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, and a suspension span from the island to San Francisco. The two (2) are connected by the world’s largest diameter bore tunnel.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is the region’s workhorse bridge, carrying more than a third of the traffic of all of the state-owned bridges combined. It is also a jewel along the San Francisco waterfront.
The Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge underwent an extensive replacement renovation to replace a seismically unsound portion of the Bay Bridge with a new self-anchored suspension bridge (SAS) and a pair of viaducts. The span replacement took place between 2002 and 2013, and is the most expensive public works project in California history. The Eastern Span replacement upgrade was part of a plan to make the bridge more seismically sound. The replacement was necessary due to an earthquake of unanticipated magnitude of the horizontal motion caused by the Loma Prieta Earthquake causing significant damage to the Bay Bridge. It also caused section of a major highway along the bay (a portion of it double-decked) to collapse; repairs on these were completed by the late 1990s.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The Bay Bridge is significant for its influence in the California Bay Area.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s multi-modal design is a direct example of the mindset of commuters during the 1930s. Constructed in 1936, the bridge was used to support the increase of automobiles and public transit lines in the early half of the 20th century.
Today the Bridge continues to pay a vital role in transportation as it serves as a major freeway connector for many who travel to and from the Bay Area.
Looking through the my dad’s old slides the photos of these Bridges reminds me of a 70’s song by Simon and Garfunkel called “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Cee’s Which Way Challenge -June Week 2
Lens-Artists Challenge #303 – Connections
Whatsoever Is Lovely Challenge-2024 Week 23
Jez’s Water Water Everywhere #224
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35mm
Location: San Francisco Bay; San Francisco, California, USA
God Bless. Thank you for connecting with us and sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.
Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography 