The aforementioned pictures

I finally figured out how to resize my photos without Photoshop, and now I can finally post some of them to the blog. These were from a camping trip I took in South Dakota with a good friend of mine. We spent one afternoon walking some of the trails in the park we were tenting in, and the flora and fauna were incredible.

I wonder sometimes how much of life we really experience and how much of it we simply miss because we are flying by too fast, or thinking about too many things to see what is right in front of us. I love going camping because for me, it is a chance to escape some of the "noise" of city life - both sound noise and visual noise. Camping opens up a completely different realm of life, and almost begs you to be more aware of your surroundings. How many times can you say you saw and heard a rainstorm come across a lake, noticed a frog sitting on your car, or just laid out in a field and stared at the stars? I live for moments like those...and wish I got to experience them more often.

A gorgeous monarch...I had to chase after this one for a while before it stopped flitting around long enough to let me take its picture.

One thing that thunderstorms are definitely good for are spectacular sunsets...the way this tree was silhouetted against the sky only added to the beauty.

My friend the frog...he was so tiny!