OLP 2013 – 7 – Riptide

Yay Riptide! I like that photographer in front, too.

Here’s what the Riptide looks like in a shorter exposure:

I think that’ll do us for this year’s Our Lady of Peace festival. ‘Til next year!

OLP 2013 – 6 – Run rabbit run

I still get a kick out of non-horse mounts on carousels.

OLP 2013 – 5 – Dragon Loops

The Dragon Loops are a new one for me. Apparently they’re a variant of the Loop-O-Plane ride.

Here’s what they look like in a shorter exposure:

OLP 2013 – 4 – Himalaya

The Himalaya is apparently so named for the chilly blast of air in your face as you speedily go ’round and ’round. It’s based on German Caterpillar rides from the early 20th century.

As far as I can tell, it’s one of the only modern rides that uses a DJ— or I guess technically it’s a “manual operator,” but he/she controls the music and talks to the riders (“Do you want to go faster?!”).

It’s charmingly old-school, which I guess could be said for all amusement rides.
But in contrast, this year, the Gravitron and Monkey House both had automated voice recordings to deliver safety admonitions, which I don’t remember from years past.
I still like to hear the voices of real humans sometimes.

OLP 2013 – 3 – Ferris wheel

Ferris wheels are fun.

Hats off to George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. for designing them. Thanks man.

I got nothin’ beyond that.

OLP 2013 – 2 – Swing ride

I’ve never actually been on a swing ride… or any other carnival ride, actually, come to think of it. It looks like fun, though! What’s your favorite amusement ride?

OLP 2013

New Providence’s Our Lady of Peace Festival was this week, culminating in tonight’s festivities, all very exciting.

I’m trying to go through all the photos I took and weed out the REALLY bad ones… but I’m falling asleep on my keyboard. This’ll do for tonight, eh?

Broken bones

Sometimes I find bones in the woods! I thought this was a femur at first glance, but upon closer inspection, I’m not really sure what it is… maybe a tibia? Probably from a deer or something.

Stumptown

I’ll be honest: I don’t have much to say about stumps.

The word “stumptown” popped into my head while I was considering this fact.

I couldn’t quite place the word, so I Googled it.

I, being a comics nerd, was probably thinking of Stumptown Comics Fest (April 27-28 in Portland, OR), one of the well-known comics festivals around North America. But it’s also the name of a coffee company and some other things.

None of this has anything to do with New Jersey or, in particular, this stump, but so it goes.

Spot of sunshine

It seems that we skipped from late winter directly to early summer this past week— temperatures went from just above freezing this past weekend to nearly 80F yesterday. Sheeeesh! Two days! Maybe three.

I keep hoping I can squeeze another week or two out of my tweed blazers before packing them away, but I should probably give up the fight at this point.

Usually I enjoy spring, but this year it feels like nothing but the inevitable looming of summer. (I do not like summer.)

On the other hand, I’ll finally have the opportunity to jam-pack this blog with bazillions of clichéd but amusing flower macros (like these little crocuses!).