Pam's Week 20: Music Makes the People Come Together...

I am slowly but surely catching up on all the things I haven't finished since our arrival back home.  A nap this afternoon after a couple of hours spent with Sharon at the park, however, did nothing to help me get any of my to do list accomplished.  Maybe it will spur me on to be productive this evening?  Doubtful, but we can pretend.

In reviewing this week's topics, I realize that I did think of them while we were on vacation.  I just didn't always successfully find the inspiration I was hoping for or I tended to get distracted and forget I was looking for a specific photo once we were out and about.  I could blame it on the rain like Milli Vanilli did so many years ago now but it was more of a drizzle and really only plagued the first couple of days of our vacation.  I think it's more likely that I sometimes have the focus and memory of a goldfish (perhaps the pregnancy brain lasts a decade).

Anyways, let's see how many vacation photos I can fit into this week's assignments...

Music

This is the one topic I for sure had every intention of snapping a photo of.  While we were in San Diego, I tried to see the Spreckles Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park with this very photo in mind.  Unfortunately, there was no parking nearby and after walking the zoo for 6 hours, I wasn't particularly motivated to drive through the park again to find the parking lot we'd passed a while back and then walk more, in the heat I might add, to snap a photo.  Instead, we elected to head to the beach.  Then while we were at Universal Studios, I was on my way to the restroom when I saw a man playing a piano outside one of the shops and thought I would take his photo upon my exit.  Guess what?  He had covered up his piano and gone on his merry way in the quick little break I took.  I meant to return to see if I could catch sight of him later, but I forgot.

Perhaps a photo of the ocean as the sound of the waves lapping the shore is "music to my ears"...

Although we didn't drive all the way out to the dunes and try it (the extra time in the car and my overwhelming fear of any snakes let alone rattlesnakes convinced me we could take their word for it), it is said that if you run down these dunes, the shifting sand makes music.

Or a photo of Michael Jackson's star on Hollywood Boulevard?  I tried to take a photo of his hand and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre but it was dark out so the photo didn't turn out well.

Leading Lines

I once again knew exactly what I was going to do for this photo but it just didn't work out as planned.  I wanted to take a photo from underneath the Scripps Pier in San Diego.  The problem - I forgot to write down the address and our GPS had no idea what we were talking about.  I tried under a couple of other piers but the tides weren't working in my favour and the extra supports some of them needed for all the buildings atop just didn't have the same appeal.

Here is one of my attempts.  This was a pier along Pacific Beach in La Jolla, California (just outside San Diego).

I also thought I would include a very literal interpretation.  This is the aerial tram at the San Diego Zoo.  Those lines lead you from one area of the zoo to another.

Pastel

Other than the pastel coloured M&M's, I don't seem to have any pastel photos.  Since I posted a photo of the M&M wall in yesterday's blog post, I figure I should try to find something different.  This doesn't seem to be as in focus as I would like (disappointingly seems to be a trend in many of my photos as I look at them on the computer), the inside of Honeyduke's was the closest I could find to pastel colours.

N

I did take a couple of photos this afternoon that I could use for this topic but decided to search high and low through the vacation photos to find one.  The first one was taken at the San Diego Zoo; again, I wish it was in better focus...

This next one is perhaps a bit of a cheat.... It wasn't like I discovered an "N" in the lines of the photo.  It happens to be explicitly written out for me.  The sea lions were so cute though, I couldn't resist.

Hooded

I would love to say that I got a fantastic photo of a hooded animal or even hooded eyes but alas, 'twas not to be.  We're going to go with the literal interpretation...

This Wizard's robe at the Tri-Wizard Tournament was hooded.

Baby Animal

We were at a zoo.  You would think we would have found some baby animals in my photos.  Okay, there are some baby animals in my photos but they're awfully hard to see.  We also went whale watching and were hoping to see mother and calf grey whales migrating north but that did not happen either.  If you look closely, you can see a baby giraffe (or at least a young one) behind Duncan and Danica.

Wildcard

This is a photo from the Sunny Jim Cave in La Jolla.  It's a sea cave that you can enter via The Cave Store.  Apparently, two Chinese men dug the tunnel from the land into the cave back in the early 1900's.  Later, a set of stairs was added so that people could enter the cave.

Now I guess I am caught up on the blog posts from my time away.  I should probably get started on this week's too!