I’ve been blogging under the name “Tea, Sugar, a Dream” since October 2007. That’s three and a half years. Wow! I’m not sure how many blogs I’ve written. You would think I would have kept track, since the accountant in me likes numbers. But nonetheless, a big thank you to all my readers over the years, whether you have read one blog, all of them, or some number in between.

Through my stories and photos, I have taken you to places like The Galapagos Islands:

Vietnam:

Europe:

The Wonderland Trail:

Just to name a few. I will continue to blog about all of these places, plus future trips planned, such my upcoming travels to Bhutan.

If you are an email and/or RSS subscriber to my “Tea, Sugar, a Dream” blogs, please renew your subscription on “Debby’s Departures.”

I hope that you will continue to read my blogs and join me as I depart on new journeys!

Sweet Travels!

Well, it is not really a technique, but an art form. Well, it is not really an art form either. But it is a way of proving that you are somewhere, especially when you are traveling alone and no one is around to take your picture at some particular fabulous location. Or, even if others are around, taking pictures of your feet can be fun anyway.

Here is a small photographic journey of my shoes and feet. Note that occasionally, my youngest sister was with me on a travel adventure, so her feet are included as well.

The Piazzas and Squares of Europe make for a scenic city backdrop to my feet. These photos of my walking shoes are in Siena, Italy (sorry for the bad exposure), and Tallinn, Estonia, respectively.

Rushing rivers while hiking make for scenic outdoorsy backgrounds for my feet. Here my hiking boots are shown along the Savage River during a day-hike in Denali National Park in Alaska, as well as on a three-day tramp (“hike” in New Zealand terminology) on the Routeburn Track.

Beaches and the ocean are perfect places for footsie portraits. My bare feet are relaxing on this beach in Falconara, Italy. My sister’s feet and mine are gazing at the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Iceland.

More outdoor locations include looking down at my hiking boot while backpacking on the Wonderland Trail of Mt. Rainier, and showing off the crampons on our feet when my sister and I were taking a walk on Solhelmajokull Glacier in Iceland.

Grass is another pleasant place for a picturesque foot snapshot, such as this one in Hyde Park in London, with my black walking shoes.

And finally, the Galapagos Islands make for a variety of bare feet photos.

So next time you feel like you need an image of yourself to prove that you are somewhere, or if you just want a different type of picture for your photo album and to show all your friends, you can always take a photograph of your shoes and feet!

Sweet Travels!

All photos of my feet Copyright Debby Lee 2009.

Awww! Isn’t that the cutest baby bird you ever saw? Of course, I say that about lots of birds that I see – the Penguin and the Blue-Footed Booby, to name a few. But this cute baby was actually about a foot and a half tall, maybe even two feet – larger than many adult birds. This is a Waved Albatross chick. And I was thrilled to encounter him!

He was standing just a few feet from a path that I, my fellow yacht passengers, and our guide were walking on in Espanola, one of the Galapagos Islands. You might be able to see in the photos that this baby’s fluffy feathers were starting to develop into wings, so that one day very soon, he will be able to take flight, and soar for hours upon hours in the skies above the Galapagos. You might also be able to notice that his bill is turning yellow, a distinctive feature of the Waved Albatross when they are adults.

After I took about a dozen pictures of this one particular baby chick, we continued down the path to a place where several pairs of adult Waved Albatross were lounging in the grass in the sun, many of them pruning their feathers. The yellow beaks are indeed quite noticeable.

After I took about another dozen pictures of one pair of adults in particular, we continued down the path to a cliff so that we could watch the amazing flying of these birds. The Waved Albatross are considered “medium-sized” albatross, as their wingspans “only” get to seven and a half feet (that’s still about two and a half feet taller than I am)! This is compared to the “large-sized” Royal Albatross that I saw in New Zealand, whose wingspan measures up to twelve feet in length. Watching either of these albatross in flight is indeed a wonderful, powerful sight!

After my time overlooking the seas below the cliffs, and watching the soaring albatross above, we walked back on the path, where we not only saw more baby chicks (very cute, huh?),

but also a large egg of an albatross,

as well as a chick with one of its parents, feeding.

And then the ultimate that I saw was a baby albatross, an adult albatross and a Blue-Footed Booby, all together, just lounging in the grass in the sun!!

Sweet Travels!

All photos by Debby