My Favourite Five

My friend Roger and fellow blogger from Auckland, New Zealand, recently posted a challenge on his blog  “All Things Rogey!” for us to post the 5 favorites pictures of 2011.
The rules are:

Post your five favourite photos of 2011.  Tell us why you like them.  It could just be you like the pic or it could be more personal or of great meaning to you.  The only rule is that you have to have been the one who took them, and there must be at least one of you

I take a lot of pictures but I decided to post pictures that have a special meaning to me in 2011, not necessarily good pictures, just special.   It was difficult to select the 5 photos but here are mine and why they are special to me.
In order of occurrence.

This one is special because in 2011 I celebrated my 50th birthday.  It was super special because I was able to celebrate with high school friends I hadn't seen in 26 years. My friend Mario on the left also celebrated his birthday, 49th, 9 days before me. We left NY on a cruise to the Caribbean on his birthday and had my party 9 days later as we left the Caribbean on the return trip.  My wife surprised me with this special dinner in one of the gourmet restaurants on the ship, she even managed to get authorization to decorate the corner table in the restaurant.

This one is special because my son turned 21 and we were able to have our first beer together.  He is attending college and I'm sure it was not the first beer he had but at least it was the first beer I paid for and he was legally allowed to have it.

My beautiful daughter graduated middle school and is now in high school, I'm getting old...
She's an adorable young lady but still dad's girl.  To see her in the red gown accepting the diploma was very special.

My first adventure off-road on my new Yamaha Super Ténéré.  As you all know I waited a long time for this bike and I bought it exactly for these kind of roads.  It was only a short ride off-road to test the capabilities of the traction control and ABS but it was nevertheless special to me.  I just love this photo. I plan on going to Alaska with this bike and have lots of plans for the future.

Technically I took this picture since I was alone and put the camera on top of a wooden pole I saw on the side of the road.  Timer counts, doesn't it?  I just love this photo because it represents what I love most, the spirit of adventure, not knowing what's around the corner.  I'm always prepared to discover new things and places and I hope the future will allow me to do lots of adventures.  Now if I could convince my wife to get an adventure bike too, life would be perfect.