2025 NE Cruise - Portland Yacht

Old with the new...  Saw this yacht gliding into port on our way back to the ship.  Really sleek, probably cost in the neighborhood of $10 million or so.  It's easy to conclude that the older man with white hair perched on the bow is the owner (click on the photo to expand), literally watching his "ship come in" as it is guided by his staff.  I guess that if you're a gazillionaire something like this would be a tempting purchase.

If you have the money, why not spend it?  A fair question, but then you think of so much good that could've been done to aid the homeless, fund research to fight a disease, etc.  This concept is brought into sharp focus by a billionaire in another country who bought a super yacht for something like $150 million.  Thing was, he did not like boats or being on the water, so all he did with it was use it as a breakfast room.  Yes, he would descend from his penthouse apartment on the shoreside, walk across the street and get on his boat to eat breakfast.  Then return to his apartment or wherever else he was going for the day.

Pic below of same as it neared its berth on the other side of the ferry:

2025 NE Cruise - Portland, Fence Segment with Locks

Interesting that city officials - or somebody - had cut a segment of this fence and installed it as a standalone sculpture.  As mentioned in other places in the blog, affixing locks to a fence like this in other places has created no small problems.  Perhaps putting them on display served to appease the public while not able to allow its practice on city infrastructure.

2025 NE Cruise - Portland, Lighthouse Statue with Clock

While we were in town...

2025 NE Cruise - Portland Cityscapes

We have always wanted to go to Maine, and one of the reasons for selecting a New England cruise was this first stop in Portland.  Though just here for a day we made the most of it and explored what we could within walking distance from the terminal.  Before deboarding, however, I took the time to snap a couple of cityscapes...

2025 NE Cruise - Boats in Boston Harbor / Brainless YouTube Commercials

Some boats of interest in the harbor...the police, a pilot, and what looks to be a tug based out of New York.

I watch YouTube a lot...probably more than I should.  We don't subscribe to the premium, which means we are stuck with watching at least the beginning of a lot of brainless commercials.  As a result, I hereby refuse to listen to any commercial, much less buy their products, if it contains any of these words:

     brilliant

     NASA

     revolutionary

     by storm

     trick

     experts agree

     cutting edge

     incredible

     genius

     doctor

     obsolete

     game changer

     magic

     everybody

     nobody

     Did you know...

     You need to...

     secret

     shocking

     ...don't want you to know

     (any bad word)

2025 NE Cruise - Boston Harbor Lighthouse

...and what would New England be without lighthouses?  The first of many encountered on our cruise, this guy was captured toward the end of the Harbor as we sailed north.

Caught this second peek-a-boo shot just a little further out:

2025 NE Cruise - Old Building on Boston Harbor Shoreline

Zoomed in a bit to capture this old building along the shoreline; full composition below.  In the pic above, note how some space was cut between two sets of windows.

2025 NE Cruise - Boston Harbor Shorescape

Thanks to the large sensor of the Bigger Cahoona, coupled with its high-resolution of 48 megapixels, cropped-in shorescape pics like this can resemble much larger panoramas.

2025 NE Cruise - Boston Harbor, Infrastructure Circles

The first official morning of the cruise was August 30th.  We endured the check-in process and boarded in time for a quick lunch before sailing.  We had a balcony cabin, and stood there to watch the world go by as the ship slowly made its way through the harbor.  I've always been intrigued by the infrastructure of major seaports, and these circles caught my eye...

2025 NE Cruise - Boston Cityscape

The wife and I went on our first cruise to explore New England.  We'd been on many in the Caribbean, which got boring (we're not beach people).  One in Alaska, which was great and one that we'd like to repeat and expand on later sometime, Lord willing.  And now for the first time we're in New England.  Started out in Boston, flying there the night before the cruise departed.

And what we saw was surprising.  While the population of the city itself is almost 700k it retains something of a small-town feel.  Must be because of the large number of colleges and universities there.  At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised at the coziness and positive vibe we experienced in the city.

Did not take the Bigger Cahoona out for our exploratory walk that first night, but did consider the photo above, captured with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, to be a keeper.

First Visit to Phoenix - Giveaway Chair in Chandler

Saw this on a neighborhood walk...

And this is all for our first visit to Phoenix.  Our objectives were met during the 5-day visit there - we scoped out the lay of the land, explored some of the sites nearby, and experienced first-hand the infernal heat that everyone talks about.  Now we are a little more prepared for our next, more extended visit in September when, Lord willing, we'll be here to help out with Allison's NEW BABY!  Meanwhile, between now and then there's a 10-day New England cruise to cover in the blog.  By the grace of God we've been allowed this travel time during our early retirement years, and are looking forwarded to share those adventures with you.

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing Trip, Saguaro Looking East

Once down the road a bit we stopped and, looking east, saw this scene.  It would have been easy to remove the holes and blemishes on the saguaro, but most do in fact look like this so decided to keep it natural.

Well, what the heck...here's the same with a somewhat cleaned-up saguaro.  On a larger screen, click on the photo and use your arrow keys to swap back and forth for comparison:

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing Trip, Silhouette Looking West

We decided to head back toward the end of dusk when, looking west, I saw the opportunity for a silhouette featuring some saguaro on the hilltop.  There were some electric lines cutting through the middle of the scene, but the newest version of Photoshop took care of that with two clicks of the mouse.

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing Trip, Shoreline Reflection Shot

We were hanging out on the riverbank, sort of hoping that wild horses would emerge from the vegetation on the opposite shore for a drink, when I saw this opportunity for a reflection shot.  No horses, but think the pic turned out OK...

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing Trip, Rock Formation Through Overhang

Picture taken of the same rock formation through this overhang of tree branches.

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing, Reflected Rock Formation

While the family did some fishing the Bigger Cahoona & I worked on other important matters, such as this reflection shot taken from their favorite spot along the river.

First Visit to Phoenix - Bird's Nest in Cactus

But guess what DOESN'T mind getting in the middle of these awful cacti.  This is a cactus wren's nest, captured next to a house in Allison's neighborhood.  Suppose there's no better protection...

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River, Scary Cactus

Needleless to say (as opposed to needless, a pun), when hiking along any trail out in the Old West one has to go slowly in the underbrush and be very vigilant for the many different cacti growing wild everywhere.  Hard to imagine what it'd be like to tussle with one of these guys...

Glowing Edges effect applied below:

First Visit to Phoenix - Salt River Fishing, Trial Etiquette Sign

One of the other activities planned for us was a fishing trip on the Salt River, about a hour's drive from Chandler.  This is still the Old West in a lot of ways, as there are herds of wild horses roaming the landscape that occasionally stop to drink at the river, to the delight of anyone fishing nearby.  We didn't see any on that day, but our son-in-law caught a little fish, which was memorialized with a quick snap of the Bigger Cahoona:

First Visit to Phoenix - Downtown Chandler Art

 

The kids actually live in Chandler, a town to the southeast of the Phoenix metroplex.  One day we went downtown where I found this affixed to a wall.  Immediately I thought of this post captured in Taiwan some years ago...

First Visit to Phoenix - Gilbert Riparian Preserve, Bird with Blue Feet

There was lots of wildlife in this preserve, but it was all under cover or in the shade due to the tremendous heat.  What we did find was very interesting to us East Texans, including this guy with blue feet (closeup below):

First Visit to Phoenix - Gilbert Riparian Preserve, Hanging Cross

 

There is a cross hanging in this picture, a pendant that someone left who knows when.  It's hard to see, but as a hint, it's in the middle just below one of the sunrays on the green stem, in front of the biggest branch.  Closeup below:

First Visit to Phoenix - Gilbert Riparian Preserve, Signage Through Reeds

 

Heretofore all the pics posted from our first visit to Phoenix were captured with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which actually turned out pretty well.  I did bring the Bigger Cahoona, however, and brought it along on a few excursions.  The first of these was a trip to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.  It was hot, hot, hot that day but we managed to clock in a mile or so around its famous ponds and lakes.  Didn't get too many passable pics due to the full afternoon sun, but found a few that were interesting, including this sign captured through the reeds.

First Visit to Phoenix - Stained Glass

 

First Visit to Phoenix - Aqua Mural

A big mural...didn't know what to do with the busy background, so just blacked it over.

This area reminded me a little of Montrose in Houston, where there are pockets of art-inspired enclaves.  On our walk we went into a shop that sold old timey woodblock-printed posters.  The kind proprietors gave us a little tour and printed a custom poster to demonstrate the process.

First Visit to Phoenix - Dressed Up Tree #2

Another one...with grapes.

First Visit to Phoenix - Dressed Up Trees #1

 

First Visit to Phoenix - Sunset Shot #4

 

In spite of the unbearable heat (for us), we walked a ways into the desert, enabling a capture of these rock formations against a sunset sky.  This was a terrific way to become introduced to the region's beauty on our first visit to the "Valley", as they call the desert floor on which Phoenix and its suburban communities sit.  In subsequent days we explored parts of the city plus a remote fishing spot on the Salt River, which will be feature in future posts.

First Visit to Phoenix - Sunset Shot #3

 

Could not resist this silhouette of a tree that, though it was summer, looked as if winter had stripped it of its leaves...

First Visit to Phoenix - Sunset Shots #2

 ...and I stepped over a few more paces to create a loner silhouette shot of the same tree.

Below are a couple more sunset pics taken that evening:

First Visit to Phoenix - Sunset Shots #1

 

Our daughter, Allison, and her relatively new husband, DeQuan, carted off to Phoenix to begin the first phase of his chosen career.  The wife and I decided to pay them a visit to get the lay of the land.  We were excited at the opportunity, as they both love the area and were eager to share its wonders with us.

On the very evening of our arrival we drove to the western edge of the metroplex in time to catch their fabled sunsets, and as can be seen from this and the following few posts we were not disappointed.

By the way, did I mention that this was in July?  Yes, in the heat of the summer we flew right into the middle of the searing Sonoran desert where the temp rose to 110+ most days of our 5-day visit.  Folks typically say, "But it's a dry heat!".  Those temperatures, though, dry or no dry, are unmercifully hot and there's nothing you can do to escape them except to remain ensconced in a nice air conditioned space.

For this first foray into the outskirts we were in such a hurry to catch the sunset in time that I left the Bigger Cahoona at their house.  Thus, these sunset pics were all captured with the iPhone, which didn't do a bad job.

Stepping to the left a few paces yielded the composition below:

Taiwan 2025 - Daoist Temple, Blankets of Green (last post of series)

The temple was way up in one of the mountains surrounding Taipei, and afforded a good view of the valley below.  This is a subject that we've seen a million times riding the Metro, but I never really took the time to capture a forest of trees covered in vines so thick it looks as though someone gently laid a blanket of green over them all.  Life in the jungles of Formosa...

And my gosh, have we finally come to the end of this series on our latest journey to Taiwan?  273 photos in 188 posts...might be a record.  It's currently June 30, 2025, so I'm more than six months ahead.  Now it's time to do more writing, cleaning up paperwork at the house, and visiting with grandkids! 

Taiwan 2025 - Daoist Temple, Flower Shots #4

These guys were in a nice pond, but looked better isolated against a black background...
 

Taiwan 2025 - Daoist Temple, Flower Shots #3

 These brightly-colored flowers must be viewed against a black background...