Finally...Biltmore 2.0

I have finally got around to finish editting pictures from the Mother's Day weekend daytrip to the Biltmore Estate with Abby & Mom. It was fun. We received a nice gloomy gift of rain while we were walking around the inside for the tour, which added to the effect given off by the huge house. When we were finished with the inside, the rain cleared up for the usual humid afternoon. As usual, Abby was up to no good! Check out the pictures on flickr.

Fee-Free Weekends In Our National Parks

America’s Best Idea – the national parks – gets even better this summer with three fee-free weekends at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees*.

Mark your calendars for fee-free weekends this summer:

• June 20-21, 2009 (Father’s Day weekend)

• July 18-19, 2009

• August 15-16, 2009

And to make the fun even more affordable, many national park concessioners are joining the National Park Service in welcoming visitors on this summer’s fee free weekends with the their own special offers.

Here’s a tip – many national parks never charge an entrance fee, so you can plan inexpensive visits year round!

For a list of family fun activities this summer, visit National Parks: The Place to Be for Family Fun.

*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.

Biltmore Estate Photos

It's been close on two weeks and I'm still working on the pictures from my first trip to the Biltmore. There are still lots left to see and I will have them up soon...

A Week Away

I'll be out of town for the next entire week until the 19th...will be in Cleveland, OH on company related stuff. Everyone be safe and stay away from the dangerous malls or at least away from the out of control under-aged and overstimulated drivers.

Out of The Hill Country

Back from Sylva & the backwoods part of NC...got back in Fayetteville just in time for Hanna to dump plenty of rain around here. While up in the mountains, there were plenty of things to take pictures of. Check out the September Album or The Nifty HDR additions from the old paper mill near downtown Sylva. Time is flying by towards the house closing...very exciting!

Mountain Work

Next week I have the pleasure of heading to the Great Smokey Mountains to work up at another account. I'll be in tiny Sylva, the small place to the right. Maybe the good views will be a plus to the slow moving town...and hopefully back in time for the big wedding in Pinehurst. Weddings = Food, so priority #1 takes into effect.

Recuperating is key

Back from California & glad to be back. After getting to see SanFran, the Yosemite day trip on Saturday was really saving the best for last, and I don't know why more people I know haven't taken the time to go there. It started out at 3am heading out of Stockton with the terrible cold & getting to Yosemite by 5 or so, just in time for the sun to come up with the surroundings. Being above the clouds & feeling 50 degrees and below was a good change from this terrible TX weather. You can see the pictures at My Picasa Account. I'll add some more panoramics later.

Can't be forever

Just finished the training portion today, so the rest of the time is going to be getting over this small cold acquired by the San Francisco day trip(it was quite cold which was good) and heading out to Yosemite to see as much as possible. Everyone have a good weekend.

Some things cannot be celebrated the same anymore

I've been here in CA since Sunday afternoon. It's going fine, learning things, and definitely enjoying the 50 degree weather each morning. Tomorrow I'm taking Elton, another Aramark employee, out to see Oakland & San Francisco since he's never been there before. It should be a nice drive out there, seeing all the turbines again, especially in the Mustang that the Hertz guy was nice enough to give me at the same price. So, I'll get to take good pictures this time of San Fran, this time with a digital camera...Lumbard Street, the Exploritorium, the Oakland Bay Bridge, and of course the Golden Gate.

Dave, glad you're getting into the ECPI program. I hope you stick with it & learn a lot. Mr. Hamby will show you tons. Make sure he tells you about his new color creation. Oh, Mike said you were fat.

Today is Matt's birthday. He is 28, just a little too far away to tell.

Traveling = best

Good catching up with you today Mike. I'll make that date next year for the wedding. We'll see if we can get Dave completely out of the woods for good. Or, we'll start to call him monkey boy or something. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Stockton, CA, for 7 days on Aramark stuff. On the 26th I'll be heading to Yosemite. Night world.

Here's to any type of travel

The week is going by pretty well. Plans were put in today for my business venture out in California. I'll be out of Abilene from August 20th-27th in the city of Stockton. Coming back on Sunday allows me an extra day to go where I want. Yosemite will most likely be the choice of place to visit on that Saturday. Seeing it one time definitely wasn't enough. This time I will have the digital camera tied around my neck for tons of good pictures. When Matt & I were there years ago, digital cameras weren't too widespread, so the 35mm pieces were used. Despite California's terrible reputation as a state, their parks make up for it.

Here are some pictures I took last night. I didn't get my camera back outside in time to get the best part of the sunset, but it's still awesome just the same. The pictures of the bird...well there was a bird just sitting on a fence post next to where I pulled off on the side of the road. He didn't move the entire time. I was able to get about 3 feet from him with my camera until he finally flew off. Check them out.

Good to have tar on my heels once again

So I arrived in Charlotte around 4pm after a flight delay in Abilene. Yea, apparently they needed to perform a "wing replacement" on the plane that was suppose to fly me to Dallas. After an hour & a half delay, I made to Dallas. It's ok though, at least I made it here. Once out of the airport, the humidity hit me when the doors opened...definitely was not used to that. Even in Texas when it's 100 it's not all that bad. I'm going to try to make time see all you important people that notice old Cress is back in town. Other than that, I'm here until Sunday 3pm. Charlie, nice 50 cent pinata...what a buy! Thank you mom for the fruit bowl/chocolate thing. Now I can eat.

...someday when I'm older.