The grand, nostalgic tour!

It's taken a while, but I'm finally getting around to finishing the tour of my new place with y'all! For a long time, I've wanted to get some of my photos developed onto canvas as wall art, but up until now the walls of my residences have been a mish-mash of my photos in random frames. I got them all done through a website called Canvas Love. I had gone through them previously for a print of a surfboard fence I had taken in Maui and was very happy with the finished product, so I decided to do the rest of my collection from them.

This is the view of my living room from the dining/kitchen area. I love my new furniture- this sofa & love seat represent the first "set" of living room furniture I've ever owned!

The close-ups of the canvas prints don't look great in these pics because the flash from the camera reflects off of them, but you get the gist. Although you can't really see her in this picture of the print, that speck on the road is Suzanne on her motorcycle! I took this pic of her when she, David and I made a weekend riding trip out to Ouray, CO last summer. I felt like this was the perfect representation of all the great memories I have of riding out in Colorado; where my love affair with two wheels began. That perfectly smooth, open highway winding into the mountains with Suzanne riding on it almost makes me feel the road rolling out under me as I look at.

The prints over the sofa are (clockwise from the top left corner)- 1) NAS North Island perimeter fence on Coronado Island, CA 2) island of Diego Garcia, 3) Great Wall of China, 4) Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO and 5) one of the villages of Cinque Terre, Italy.

The ocean pics are obvious choices for the beach/water lover that I am, but each one evokes a different feeling of moving water for me. 1) The fence on Coronado was the turn-around point on my morning runs when I lived in California. Every time I would run up to it, whether it was a bright sunny day or a rolling fog day on the beach, I was always moved by the composition of the scene. 2) The pic of Diego Garcia will forever represent the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. "Dodge" was my first Navy deployment and first trip "overseas". 3) Although China is not a place I desire to return to, it truly was an awesome experience to stand on the Great Wall half-way around the world from where I grew up. 4) Garden of the Gods is just so majestic, I love the contrasts of colors and textures in this shot. 5) Had I not hiked to the Cinque Terre village of Manarola on an overcast, churning-water day in March between the Olympics & Paralympic Games, I would've never gotten this great shot of the Italian cliff-side village. It reminds me to take advantage of even the less-than-perfect opportunities that present themselves.

To continue the tour and give you some perspective, this is a shot of the living room taken from the front door. You can see the bedroom through the opening in the hall.





These are the pics over the bookshelf- 1) Hania Harbor on Crete, Greece 2) Aspen trees in the fall in Colorado, 3) a patio in Morocco and 4) boats docked in Cinque Terre, Italy.

1) The shot of Hania was taken from the lighthouse on the opposite end of the harbor looking back on the restaurants and shops that line the water. I spent a lot of time down in the harbor area with Jim, Dave, Rob and the rest of "my boys". I use the term "boys" tongue-in-cheek to describe the men with whom I spent hundreds of hours flying missions and men whom I am honored to call close friends. Hania will always represent some of the happiest times of my life. 2) The picture of Aspen trees were taken on a hike up to Pikes Peak on a team-building outing with the USOC. The turning leaves were one of the rare things I appreciated about the crazy climate of Colorado. 3) The one next to it is from one of the trips I made to Tangier, Morocco when I was stationed in Rota, Spain. It's an hour ferry-ride from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to get to the North African port city for great food and a different version of "sweet tea"! 4) The dry-docked boats scene was taken in the Cinque Terre village of Riomaggiore on a summer trip. I've hiked between the five Cinque Terre villages a couple of times, but a return trip is certainly on my list!

After everyone voted for the beach shot of Waimae Bay, HI to be hung in my bedroom, I discovered that the digital photo file was too small to get blown up that big. I always shoot with my camera on the highest resolution, so I have no idea why the one picture I wanted to get printed HUGE was one of the smallest photo files I have! Murphy's Law I guess!! So, I went with the top two vote-getters and had them both done, just a little smaller! They both elicit the calming effect I was going for, so no complaints!



I'm using the second bedroom as an office/junk room, so I didn't take pics of that for y'all!

One of my favorite areas in any house is finally is adorned with canvases of some of my favorites food pics! Being Cajun, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen/dining area, so it was important to me to have some familiar pics in there as well.




On the large wall behind the table is- 1) Greek salad on Crete, Greece 2) chocolates in Blois, France 3) Chinese spices in a market in Beijing, 4) beignets & cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, LA and 5) Italian gelato in Torino, Italy.

1) Although it's too small of a pic to see here, the Greek salad is sitting on a beach-side table accompanied by a hunk of feta cheese drizzled with olive oil. That meal represents endless summer days on the Greek Island of Crete hanging out and enjoying the crystal clear Mediterranean waters. We worked really hard back in those days, but we played just as hard too! 2) The chocolates are from the backpacking trip I made with Andy and Alexis to France & England and were oh-so yummy! 3) The open tubs of Chinese spices instantly bring me back to the pungent, exotic experience of foods in the Far East. 4) For anyone whose ever experienced beignets & cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, that picture requires no explanation! Ever since Andy was little, I'd take him to New Orleans for beignets sometimes when I was home on leave. I'd always wait until he had the beignet right up to his face to take a bite and then I'd blow on the powdered sugar so it would cover his face! Childish I know, but I loved laughing and spending time with him while he was growing up. 5) Between Navy and USOC trips to Italy, I'm sure I've eaten at least my weight times 3 of rich, creamy gelato! Man that stuff is divine!!!

Now you know I couldn't live without pics of Louisiana seafood adorning the walls of where I eat! They look much crisper hanging on the wall; these pics just don't do the prints justice! The top one is of boiled shrimp, crabs & crawfish taken at one of the countless seafood boils at my parents' house- my favorite meal in the world!!! The bottom one is of live, Louisiana blue-claw crabs!!! Mmmmmm, makes my mouth water and my heart long for home every time I look at those two pics!

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane disguised as a tour of my new home with me! Hopefully a few of you recognized some of these scenes and that it brought back fond memories for you too.

That's it for now. I'll do another post this week when I get a chance. Hope everyone had a great weekend and is re-charged for a new work week!