My photos from Canada are finally online. We spent 5 days waking around Montreal and exploring the sites. All of the kilometers that we walked were offset by eating tons of amazing French food at a variety of sidewalk cafes. After 5 days of enjoying Québécois hospitality we rented a car and drove to Ottawa where we got to experience the British ceremonial and political side of Canada. I honestly did not how much there was that I didn’t know about Canada. It was a really educational trip. The last day of our trip was spent in Perth, Ontario, where we wentto the Perth Garlic Festival which was a ton of fun and a delicious experience!

The photos can be found in the photos section of the site.

I’ve been meaning to add Twitter buttons to my site for a while. Yesterday, I finally did it, but since the popularity of Google+ is increasing every day I thought I should add that as well. I’ll have more to say about Google+ soon. Not to give away any spoilers, but if you want in invite to Google+, let me know.

In the meantime, feel free to click my Tweet & +1 buttons as you read the site!

I just uploaded two new albums to the Photos section. They may not be as glamorous or stunning as photos of Alaska or Las Vegas, but some of the photos hold a special interest due to a tie to my family. While visiting a friend in Lewes, DE, we took some time to explore downtown Lewes including the waterfront and a historic churchyard cemetery. Those photos can be found in the Lewes album.

We also visited Fort Miles, a historic Army base at in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park. The fort consists of 15 observation towers (11 in Delaware, 4 in New Jersey), 10 gun batteries and other support structures such as barracks, etc. It was built during World War II to defend the mouth of the Delaware Bay from German ships and u-boats that might want to do harm to the vital ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.

This facility holds a special interest for me because the people who assesed incoming vessels and decided whether the Army should blow them out of the water were US Navy sailors. One of those sailors on watch in Fire Control Tower #9 was my grandfather. While visiting Cape Henlopen we were lucky enough to be there on a day when the facilities were open for tours. We climbed tower #7 and toured gun battery 519. We also watched as renactors acted out a battle with the Germans that thankfully never really took place at Fort Miles. These photos can be found in the Fort Miles album.

When you think of Las Vegas, you usually think of gambling, drinking and general debauchery. Before heading there for a long weekend, I researched and found some fun things to do that didn’t involve getting drunk and passing out in the Bellagio fountains. It was supposed to rain on Saturday and Sunday so we ran around on Thursday night and Friday trying to do as much as possible. The only rain (and a little snow) that we got was during the night, but it’s a good thing we got an early start because we barely finished my checklist of places to see before it was time to fly home on Monday!

My photos from the trip are now online in the Photos section of the site.

I just posted the photos that I took at the Mount Holly Fire and Ice Festival. It’s a ice carving competition and chili cook-off. This year is was nice and cold and there was even snow on the ground which made it even more fun than the last time I went four years ago. Check out the photos here.

At long last, I’ve posted the photos from my trip to Alaska. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a week travelling by cruise ship from Vancouver, BC to Seward, AK followed by a week on land ending up in Fairbanks, AK. Some of our stops included Ketchikan, Juneau, Hoonah, Skagway, Hubbard Glacier, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Ruth Glacier. We also spent Canada Day in vancouver prior to leaving and spent one day in Seattle, WA on the way home.

I took over 4,700 photos. Of those, I kept 1,300. About 600 are posted on my website. Click here to view them. I hope you enjoy looking at them a much as I enjoyed taking them!

At long last, I’ve updated the Spyware & Virus Prevention and Removal section of Michael’s Guide. The last update was several years ago and things have changed drastically in the past few years. Malware is nastier than ever. It poses as your anti-virus program, it blocks you from  removing it and much more. Hopefully this updated guide will assist you in preventing and maybe even removing this stuff. One thing that seems to have changed as well is that the average user may not always be able to remove these things without professional help, so prevention is stll the best policy.

You’ll be seeing many more updates to the site in the next few days. I’m slowly bringing it up to date and making it more useful.

When you hear Yanke Candle you think candles, obviously. But Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield, MA makes you realize what a huge empire this compnay has built. You could (and we did) spend the better part of a day wandering through the many sections of the village. The slightly imperfect candles of the discount room are a great deal at half off. OK, so maybe you don’t want an Apple Cider scented candle that red on one side and pitch black on the other, but a tangerine candle that’s filled just a tiny bit too high is a great deal!

My personal favorite was the Bavarian room. $6000 giant German stein anyone? And who wouldn’t love the Black Forrest room where it snows all year long?

The Fall Decorations and events of the Fall Festival made it that much more fun. As usual I took plenty of photos. You can see them right here.

Mount Snow is a ski resort in Vermont, but before the ski season starts German beer, food, music and events take over. I am, of course, describing Oktoberfest. They also had an arts & crafts show and scenic ski lift rides to the top of the mountain. Despite rain on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be a very nice cold day. As expected, the Fall foliage was impressive to say the least. It also gave me a chance to really test out my new camera. It turns out that shooting photos while hanging on for dear life to the ski lift isn’t easy. But that’s what a love for photography and a terrible fear of heights will get you!

The photos are posted in my Photos section.

I just added 2 new albums to my Photos section. The first is from Orange County Choppers in Newburgh, NY. You probably recognize the name from the Discovery show American Chopper. I stopped by the Teutels new “world headquarters” on the way to Vermont last week. They have a retail store which is fairly over-priced, but I did shell out for a keychain anyway. The best part of it is the bikes that are on display. They have many of the theme bikes they built on the show on display. There’s also a viewing area where you can see into the shop area.

I also added a small album of photos from the Bordentown, NJ Cranberry festival. Thrown in with that album are also a few shots from the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival in Gloucester Township and my backyard all from the same day.

Another important note… these are the first photos I’ve posted that were taken with my new Nikon D90!

Check out them all out here.

I was scheduled to be in Newport for a week on business but the trip wound up being unexpectedly extended into a second week. I used the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing on the weekend. Besides walking about 10 miles, I took tours of two mansions (The Breakers & Marble House), toured the Breaker’s stables & carriage house, walked part of the Cliff Walk and did some shopping. If you have to unexpectedly get stuck somewhere, Newport is a good choice!

Check out the photos here.

I just added 3 new photo albums. They are all from my trip to Western Maryland and West Virginia. We visited the Spruce Forest Artisan Village & Penn Alps restaurant. The bulk of our trip was spent in Frostburg & Cumberland, where we took a ride on the Western maryland Scenic Railroad. On the way home we spent 2 days in Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry. It was a fun couple of days. It was nice to send time in some very old, very small towns for a change and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is one of the most interesting NPS sites I’ve been to.

Since more and more my blog posts seem to be about adding new photos to my site, I’ve now added a new Photography category to the blog.

Instead of my blog creating post of all of my tweets each day, it will instead wait until the end of the week to gather all my my tweets for the week from my Twitter account. I’m hoping this will cut down on the burying of my real posts. I also went back and consolidated my previous tweet posts. I guess this also means I should post to my blog more often!

I finally posted my photos from my week in Jacksonville, Florida. As i say on the photo album page, I spent most of the week indoors at a conference, but did get outside to take a few quick photos.

Check them out here.