Back again

I have returned to the land of fog from a short excursion to the other side of the Big Pond. For those of you who think, "He has gone comatose again, hasn't he?" I really have only this to say. Not This Time, Thank You! So, from the land 'o fog...

Yet, the places traveled are also known for some fog. You can see some here at the mountain tops. This was taken at Aurlandsfjord which is a small branch of the Sognefjord in Western Norway.

 And another place known for its fog and rainy weather is depicted here. Because I seem to live a charmed life when traveling there were some of the nicest conditions the locals had seen this year, at least from what they told me.This is the Tower Bridge over the Thames River in Jolly Olde London.

What would a bumpkin like myself be doing in such surroundings? Good question, but with a simple answer. Virtually all of my extended family lives in these places as they are the countries of my origin. The exceptions to this are my wife, aka "The Cooker", my brother, and a few close friends like "Stitch" who I consider family.

The only unfortunate thing is that I can only go there once every 5 or 10 years. I really adore my family here and there and it generally sucks that I can't be two places at once.

I was, however, able to balance the unfortunate with something equally fortunate. I was able to travel with probably the most amazing person I have met in decades, Stitch's BFF Andie. She kept me focused and out of trouble for nearly two weeks while being my constant companion. Even after all that inseparable time we are still friends (to the best of my knowledge, anyway). How many people can do that? It must be my good fortune to align myself with strong, smart, and fiercely independent women who will tolerate me and snap me back to reality with "the look" if I start getting stupid. It's good to be lucky with things like that. The fact that they trust me that much is a bit of an ego booster and I only hope I can be useful enough to them to repay their trust and kindness. I'll do my best.

I took over 1100 photos, some of which are pretty good and Andie took a couple of hundred, I think, along with some video segments. I have also adopted her as my tech adviser and consultant since I have gotten to know her better.
  
This is us crossing the street at Abbey Road. She called (woke up?) a friend in the U.S. to get online and watch us and do a screen capture. She coached the process from her cell phone. No less than amazing in my world.

I shot photos of places, landscapes, relatives, street scenes and strangers and had a blast. This is a shot of the child of one of my cousins sitting at the edge of the Oslofjord on top of the Italian marble of the Opera house. She is holding a delicious pastry.

 In this pics a Siren is calling me to her at the edge of the waterfall. It's a good thing Andie knew enough to tie me to the mast until the danger passed.

Despite my human weakness, I have survived another adventure to become stronger with a desire to do it all again. But as Lou Grant once said," You're born, you live, and then you die. The rest is just filler."
Here's to enjoying the hell out of the filler.