Dolls

Carol and I collect dolls. Carol has a large and varied collection. I have a few Asian Ball Jointed dolls that feature in some of my photography. While visiting here, we went to the doll and toy museum.

Antique Dolls

The Toy and Doll Museum has this early Sasha in their collection. We couldn’t tell if it’s a Trendon or a Goetz Carol has several Sashas so we always like to see if there is one in a museum we visit.

This is a kitchen in one of the dollhouses in the museum.

Finally here is one of my boys I brought along as a travel doll. Here he is out by the pool.

Tom

Cave Creek

is a Western themed collection of shops a bit North of Phoenix/Scottsdale. This sign alerted us that it was time to stop.

and another sign to tell us just where “here” is.

It’s an interesting shopping district with several old buildings and other vendors under canvas. They offered everything from cheesy cowboy hats

to high end art.

Carol looked at some Navaho jewelry but we didn’t find anything we needed badly enough to purchase.

We ate at a restaurant there and were on our way home at sunset.

Tom

Cruise on Canyon Lake

Last year when Carol and I were out here we drove Apache Trail. We saw this “steamboat” cruise but it is always fully booked so we couldn’t get tickets. This year we got them in advance so were able to go.

This is one of the cliffs along the lake. The fisherman and his boat give a  sense of scale.

Whenever you take one of these trips the narrator points out “pictures” in the rock walls. This mastodon was fairly obvious but I took the liberty to outline it anyway

The Mastodon.

As this lake is in the Sonoran Desert wherever there is vegetation it is typical of the region.

Lakeside Saguaro cactus

Tom

On the Road

We’re on our way down to Arizona and we’ll be there a week or so.

Yesterday and today we were just driving down I-5. On our driving days we don’t spend much time stopping for photo ops though there are a couple of scenic overlooks we routinely stop at. The first is near Mt Shasta.

Shasta, like Mt Hood has much less snow than we expect to see this time of year.

California Central Valley.

Last year a this time these hillsides were all sere brown. These hills and valleys are beautiful when green as they are now.

Tom & Carol

Raquette Lake

Raquette Lake is the largest lake in the Adirondacks.

It has a surface area of nearly 10 sq miles and a shoreline of 99 miles. Only 12 miles of shoreline are accessible by automobile. Until 1933 transportation in this area was provided by railway and steamship but  when the highway was built in 1931 it killed off the older modes of transport.

We took a scenic cruise on the lake on a boat patterned after the older vessels.

This church is on the original townsite. It has been restored and regular services are held here again.

There are a boys camp and a girls camp on the lake. They have been in operation for nearly 100 years and attract campers age 7-16. Tuition is $12,000 FOR THE 7 week season but as uniforms are required the average cost for the summer stay is $15,000.

This is the boys camp.

At the other extreme of the camping experience are those who take a canoe into the wild and sleep under the stars…

Tomorrow we’ll be starting home. We’re taking the I routes and pretty much driving through so I don’t plan many photo stops. Thank you all for coming along with us.

Tom

Adirondacks

Our niece Danicia and her husband own a small resort in Inlet, NY on Fourth Lake in The Adirondack Mountains. We arrived Monday and are leaving Saturday for the long drive home.

This is their lakefront taken in the early morning with the fog still blanketing the lake.

This is the cabin we’re staying in. It is their off season we got the best one.

Yesterday we took two short hikes. The first was to Ferd’s Bog

Then we walked part of the trail to Budd and Sis Lakes. We didn’t go all the way to the lakes but the trail followed a mostly dry streambed through the Eastern Hardwood woods. This is the sort of woods we had where I grew up and I’ve always loved them. So different from the forests of the Northwest.

Tom

Dollism

This International BJD convention established the timing for this trip. One of the highlights of any BJD convention is the photo backdrop area where you can pose your dolls and photograph them in the settings and props provided.

Here Jon and Shayla pose in the woodland setting.

Like in the Sasha Festival there is a costuming contest. BJD costumes tend to be more extreme than Sasha costumes.

Lots of dolls for sale. BJDs are all about customization. Wigs change, eyes change and when you purchase one new you have choices of skin color, body type and if you buy it blank you can have a custom face up… Dollmore was showing these two Alexias. This is exactly the same doll. Different wigs.

Tomorrow Dollism winds up and we’ll be off to the Adirondacks Monday morning.

Tom