The 366 Project: December

 

This is the last month of my 366 project - yes, I did it. I took at least one photo each day of the leap year that 2024 was (hence 366 and not 365). Many days it wasn't difficult at all, especially while traveling, but on some days I struggled and sometimes even only remembered to take a photo shortly before I went to bed.  I'm glad that I kept at it, but I'm also sure that I won't do any project similar to this anytime soon.

So, here's December:

As you can see, the month started with rather familiar images like the winter lights on our home,

and fall vibes we still enjoyed in the first month of winter.

On two Saturdays I worked as a substitute teacher in my old class which was a lot of fun. And then, when we were talking about whether we want to invite friends for New Year's Eve, the Geek came up with an "alternative idea", as he called it - why not a road trip to the American Southwest like we so often did in winter years ago and haven't done since 2014? It was a crazy, spontaneous idea, and of course we went for it.

We took Highway 50 through Nevada, the "loneliest highway in the US" and into Utah where we visited beautiful national parks like stunning Bryce Canyon,

crowded Arches (first in fog that eventually gave way to sun),

beautiful Canyonlands (this is the Needles District),

enjoyed the last sunset of the year over Grand Canyon in Arizona,

and visited state parks like Cathedral Gorge, Kodachrome Basin, Gobelin Valley and Dead Horse Point as well as Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

More about this in much later posts, because I would like to continue sharing more of our trip to Europe.

But I do need a drink for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Can you believe that I didn't take a single shot of a drink in December? So I need to turn to the jerk - unfortunately, when you go to national parks you also can't avoid a lot of jerks. One of them we saw on the last day of the year at Grand Canyon. While most people enjoyed the sunset quietly from the viewpoint, this guy went to the top of the rim, unfolded his camping chair in front of allof us and set there for everyone to witness how he drank his can of beer and being a - well, jerk. That's my drink contribution this time - I wish it was without the jerk.

Since I was away from Blogland for more than two weeks, I didn't have the chance to wish you a happy new year. All my best wishes to you for an enjoyable and healthy 2025.