Travel/Vacation Pics

I'm pretty new to this forum but I really appreciate that it's here. There are some really talented photographers here and I appreciate seeing your images and reading your posts. Novices and enthusiasts like me can learn a lot, so thanks.
Photoguy started a contest for images of Charlotte and that's a really good idea. I'm anxious to see the images of the city and I'm sure it will challenge those of you who live there to look at your city differently.
I noticed, in going through that tread that there were a lot of excellent images from other cities. It made me wonder if it might be useful to set up some catagories like travel/vacation, music, nature, kids, etc. in which we can share our images and the less practiced among us can learn from the more experienced photographers here.
With that in mind, I thought I'd offer up a few images I took on a vacation a couple of years ago.
These were taken in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida with a Fuji S7000 digicam. I'd hoped to have the D70 I'd ordered in time for the trip but it was back ordered. Still, I had fun with the Fuji.

 

I love the composition on all three, but they're pretty noisy. I'm not a champ with PP, but I'm betting that'd be easy enough to fix with a noise filter.

 

were you on a bridge for the third shot?

 

from the file name I'd guess a lighthouse.

 

Jugs look kinda nice, got any closer shots?

 

Thanks, Mark.
Here's the lighthouse shots are after noise reduction. It can only clean them up so much. Those shots were taken from the lighthouse at f 22 with a digicam (I'm not a good craftsman yet so it's OK to blame my tools). I probably could have eliminated some of the noise and shortened the exposure on the single sailboat if I had thought to open up the lens. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I was probably wondering how long it would take the paramedics to get a stretcher up and down those steps if I went into cardiac arrest at the top of the lighthouse.
I almost deleted those shots. They really didn't look like much on a 1.8" LCD. I thought they might be some of those shots that seem like a good idea at the time but turn out to be crap when you see them on the computer screen - like this bridge shot.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. It looked good on the LCD and I couldn't wait to get it home and see it full sized. But when I blew it up, it just wasn't what I'd imagined. I think if I could shoot it again, I'd turn the camera and shoot it landscape instead of portrait and at a shorter focal length. I'd try shooting the turret off center yo get a little more of the sky behind it - or maybe it was never as good an idea as I thought it was. In any case, I'm open to suggestions.

 

No, those were from the lighthouse. But I got these from a bridge. Better yet, it was a drawbridge.

 

Tons of them and they're as nice as they look. I hope your wife is well, too.

 

I'm just throwing these in. They're not great shots but for somebody with a little more talent, Castillo de San Marcos would be such a great place to spend a day. I love the light there.
And I don't mean to be their Visitors Bureau, but if you're a shutterbug looking for someplace different, I can't recommend Saint Augustine highly enough. It really is a beautiful little city.
I know you guys have some great pics. I hope you'll share them and maybe there's a city or venue you can recommend.

(Hooray! I figured out how to resize the pictures!)