Dress Barn

One of my wife's favorite places to shop is Dress Barn.  The first Dress Barn was opened in 1962 in Stamford, Connecticut.  There are now over 800 locations in the U.S.

We live in a small town in rural Arkansas with limited shopping opportunities.  When we do go shopping we make a day of it and travel to either Fort Smith or Hot Springs which are both over 80 miles away.  When we make these shopping trips my wife likes to stop at Dress Barn.  I enjoy not going in to the store and instead like to sit in the car in the parking lot.

One day while I was sitting in the parking lot, I took a photo of the Dress Barn Store and posted it to Facebook and said, I'm at my favorite place - The Dress Barn Parking Lot.  I received many likes and comments.  It became expected for me to comment on my favorite thing.  Comments such as, "who needs the NFL playoff games when you have the Dress Barn parking lot" and "no place I would rather be than the Dress Barn parking lot.

Last fall we attended our 40th high school reunion.  While we were visiting with old friends, they insisted that we go to the Dress Barn and take photos.  We really didn't have time but we did it.

When we are travelling I make sure to stop by any Dress Barns that we come across.  This year I have been to Dress Barn parking lots in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and Oregon.  My dear wife puts up with my little obsession even though many of the Dress Barns we have stopped at she hasn't even been inside.  During a recent visit to Oregon I stopped at three Dress Barns but she didn't shop at any of them.

While in Oregon we stayed at Glenedon Beach near Lincoln City.  I had several Facebook friends point out that there was a Dress Barn in Lincoln City.  I posted a beautiful sunrise photo and got the comment, "What, no Dress Barn in the proximity?!?!"

How many Dress Barn parking lots will I eventually visit?  I don't know. With over 800 locations I will be kept busy for a long time.

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Oregon Coast

A couple of years ago, my wife and I took a trip to the Oregon Coast for a family reunion. We flew out of Tulsa, Oklahoma in an ice storm. Our plane was late taking off and we had to jog through the airport in Denver to make our connecting flight. We just made it on the plane, but our suitcases didn't. The rest of the flight to Portland was uneventful.



It had been more than 10 years since I had visited the Northwest and the Oregon Coast. Although we had one very rainy day while we were there, the weather was lovely and we had one day of absolutely perfect weather with beautiful blue skies. We spent the day visiting Depoe Bay and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.


DEPOE BAY, OREGON


YAQUINA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE


COBBLE BEACH

On Friday even though the weather was bad we had a great time. The stormy weather made the ocean very turbulent and it was great watching the waves splash at the spouting horns in Depoe Bay.


SPOUTING HORNS - DEPOE BAY, OREGON

Because of the wet weather we decided that it would be a good day to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The aquarium is excellent and we had a great time there.


JELLYFISH


SHARK TANK


FEEDING THE SHARKS


TIDE POOLS

Every morning I enjoyed walking along the beach as the sun rose. Our condo that was so graciously provided for us by the Boyds had beach access. I love the sights and sounds of the ocean.


FOOTPRINTS ON THE BEACH


WAVES AS THE SUN COMES UP


EARLY MORNING MOON OVER THE OCEAN

The only thing more beautiful than the beach and waves rolling in first thing in the morning is seeing the beautiful sunsets over the ocean as the sun is going down.


THE BEACH AT SUNSET

We had a wonderful time for the four days we were able to spend on the Oregon coast. My wife and I both love the ocean. The family reunion was lovely and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Everyone we met made us feel welcome; well almost everyone.


TOURIST SEASON

Here is a video montage of our trip to the Oregon Coast. The music is Take Me Away by Helen Austin. You can check out her music here.




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ABC - G Is For Glass

The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs. This week the letter is G.  G is for glass. I install Auto Glass for a living, so I see a lot of glass. This is a shot of a badly broken windshield


SHATTERED WINDSHIELD

As I take photographs I am intrigued with windows. Each window provides it's own view of the world. This photo was take from the inside of an old church at the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The stained glass was homemade by painting the glass. One pane had been replaced with clear glass providing a glimpse of the outdoors.


RURAL LIFE MUSEUM

This photo was taken from the inside of the cafeteria at Ozark Adventist Academy in Gentry, Arkansas.


CAFETERIA VIEW


I find that the reflections in glass can make a very interesting photo. This shot was taken of a store window display in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.


EUREKA SPRINGS WINDOW

This store front in the old downtown of Hot Springs, Arkansas seems out of place. The juxtaposition of old and modern, traditional and liberal make it interesting for me.


NO CLOTHES

Whenever I am in a church with stained glass windows I am impressed by the beauty. Here are two examples, one very traditional and one modern.


ST. AGNES CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MENA, ARKANSAS


SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN KEENE, TEXAS

In January 2011, My wife Gina and I took a trip to Lincoln City, Oregon for a reunion of her siblings. One of the things that we did while we were there was to visit The Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio.

The glass blowing artists have some of their work on display in the studio.  We met Kelly Howard, and she explained some of the process of producing these beautiful fish that are some of her signature pieces.


One of the things that the studio offers is the chance to blow your own glass.  You can make a Float, Fluted Bowl, Paperweight, Starfish, Heart or Jumbo Float.  They supply everything you need and have expert artists help you.  You can get up close and personal with the process of creating Art Glass.  Friendly instructors guide you through a creative process that has been handed down from generation to generation through the centuries.  Gina wanted to experience blowing glass, and decided to make a sea float.



Her instructor was Andrew Kogle.  He was right with her for each step and made sure everything was done correctly while letting her do as much of the process as possible.







To view a slideshow of Andrew helping a customer make a float click here.

Gina really enjoyed the experience of working with the glass, and the float that she created was beautiful.  She was really proud of her float.



Here is some video of the glass blowing process starring Gina and Andrew.



The beautiful float is now displayed prominently in our entryway for everyone to see when they enter our home.