Foto Friday Fun 306–every picture tells a story

This week’s Foto Friday Fun features images chosen by six readers including several blasts from the past.

Yogi chose #2222.  Grand Canyon National Park offers some of the most amazing dark skies and every year has a Star Party in June.  On the North Rim at least a dozen amateur astronomers donate their time and set up telescopes on the Lodge verandah for a week.

I choose 22 from his number, a lousy quality scanned from print image from the summer of 1971.  Me with two cousins in front of a restaurant shortly before their parents put me on a plane, my first ever flight, to Sacramento where my grandparents lived and parents were visiting.  I thought I was so cool at age 16, in leather hotpants, boots and too tight sweater, and was sure I’d be served a cocktail.  Didn’t happen.  Instead the 12-year old sitting next to me reassured me while landing in San Francisco when I was sure we’d land in the bay.

Jeff chose #1224, “the Christmas Eve in 1775 Padre Font observed the view from the point that would bear his name, noting in his diary “the sweepings of the earth.”  This is one image from a six shot panorama from a viewpoint not in Anza-Borrego where the Padre name comes from.  This is instead from Sunset View in Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah where there could be more “sweepings of the earth” in a different color.

Diane and Nigel chose #902.  They drove by the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park on the way to Bryce after their visit to me and the North Rim.

I choose the 02 from their number.  Another old scanned print from the summer of 1970 of me in the ‘please don’t take my picture’ look.

Jodee and Bill chose #201.  The view up from the bottom of Grand Canyon on the River trail was rather intimidating on my first rim to rim hike in 2008.  It was Cinco de Mayo and I had nine miles to go up 5000 feet.  My mantra for the last mile was “crusty, salty, margarita…” and then I was too exhausted to drink when I got to the top.

I chose 01 from their number, another scanned print.  My Mom and Dad’s birthdays were three days apart in June.  So in 1974 I took them to Diannas Greek restaurant in Chicago to celebrate.  None of us went to the city much, them less than me.  Dad drove his company Cadillac with me and the current boyfriend Kim and met another couple there.  Had to leave the car keys with the parking lot attendant and Dad was nervous about that.  Dinner at Diannas (sadly closed now) was an all evening event.  Even with reservations there was always at least a 30 minuet wait in the bar.  Now I don’t drink Ouzo but knew my folks would like it and they did.  We all got pretty drunk and by the time we left there were only two cars in the parking lot, no attendant, but Dad’s keys hung on the hook.  He drove out of the lot onto a one-way street with Mom yelling at him and finally got onto the freeway for home in the suburbs.  He had to pull over once for me to get out of the car and puke.  OMG, what a night to remember.

Sue chose #4315, “sorta when we got Mattie.”  This is when I sorta got a shot of a Weaver on its nest while visiting West Coast National Park in South Africa.

I chose #15 from her number for yet another scanned print from 1974.  A camping trip with a boyfriend and another couple to the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.  While cruising backroad in my Mom’s Cadillac we came across this uninhabited log cabin.

Sallie and Bill chose #733.  Hybrid cattle/bison grazing on a meadow in the Kaibab National Forest near the entrance to the North Rim Grand Canyon National Park.

I chose #33 from their number for a final scanned print of Gracie, a bobcat born in captivity at the California Living Museum.  I took this shot when I volunteered as an animal keeper while living in Bakersfield during 1989.

Thank you for playing along with Foto Friday Fun which allows me to share these photographs and memories.  Please join in next week by leaving a number between 1 and 9999 in your comment below.

Do you have a favorite this week?