Sunday, October 16, 2011

PORTAL IRISH CONCERT AT PORTAL PEAK LODGE


Portal Peak Lodge where Irish Concert was held.

Irish Concert Stage at Portal Peal Lodge.

     On Saturday night October 15, 2011 there was the first Portal Irish Concert at the Portal Peak Lodge.
The music was nice as the viewing crowd enjoyed themselves. 
     The setting for the event was outdoors and the environment and temperatures were perfect for the event!!
This was part of a week long event of instruction and workshops and was kicked off nicely with the nights concert event. Portal Peak Lodge put on a nice event with a buffet and refreshments outdoors as well for purchase. I had a killer chocolate cake!!

     After the concert there were two sessions of Irish Dance Lessons. Fortunately I was in the first secession so no pictures of me having fun making a fool of myself with others. Those dance steps and not easy to do!! 
When the second group took the dance floor there steps were even more complicated so glad I was not part of that group!!
Concert Viewers.

Dancing!

Dancing in the dark!!

More Dancing.

     One thing that was interesting when I downloaded my pictures was that a few also included interesting Orbs seeming to also partake in the dance. I guess the spirits of Portal also enjoyed the Irish Concert. What was interesting was all pictures of the dancing was taken from the same location and the camera settings were all the same so it is unknown why some pictures of the dancing were filled with various sizes of Orbs and yet other pictures have very few or none at all. Orbs are an interesting paranormal phenomena! First time I have ever experienced capturing them in pictures. Thought I post a few here.

Orbs enjoying the dance!! 

I haven't a clue what is going on here!! 

     The Irish Concert was a big hit and look forward to the next one next year!! - Roger

All pictures by Roger McKasson.

October 13 Hike

Greg, Morgan, Pat, Roger and Madison the dog!

     There were two hiking groups on this date. One went up top on a long 15 mile hike and the group I was on did some of the lower trails for around a 5+ mile hike. We all started and ended our hikes at Linda and Paul's home and the weather for the day turned out to be near perfect.  When we started our hike the temperature was 39F degrees but when we finished it was 89F degrees. A 50F degree change in temperature from start to finish!!  
     The hike was nice but not as pretty as in the past as the wildflowers are mostly spent now and the grasses are drying up as well. Fall is definitely making itself known in the area with the cooler night time temperatures bringing an end to the growth of the flowers and grasses for the rest of the year. The hikers for both hikes still enjoyed themselves as nothing beats just being outside in the fresh mountain air on a Fall day!! All in all it was a nice day to be out with friends enjoying a bit of exercise and socializing!! 

Break by falls.

Hiking up the trail out of Ashe Springs.

     It was nice to see that the campgrounds are now opening back up again. Not all are open yet but won't be long until they are. Hopefully with the forest and campgrounds opening up again tourists will start to come back to the Portal, AZ/Rodeo, NM area again and start the economic comeback! - Roger

All pictures by  Roger McKasson