We took our first large-ship cruise in July, sailing from Seattle to visit Alaska aboard the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Encore....
Vacation Wildlife
This summer's trip to the Lake Michigan shore in northern Indiana featured some unusual wildlife encounters....
Ocean Waves
… And maybe you prefer your ocean waves unsullied by surfers and surfboards. If so, here’s a video for you:...
Sunday Surfers
Every day, as the morning light began to break over the shore, they were out there. Groups of wetsuit-clad surfers, waiting a few hundred yards or so offshore for just the right waves. For most of the seven days we recently spent in San Diego (Pacific Beach), it seemed like there really weren’t any...
Old Trees, New Trees
These pictures were taken from the same spot on the Gateway Arch grounds, looking north toward the Arch. The top photo was taken in October 2014, just before workers started removing all of the rosehill ash trees that lined the walkways. The ash trees were threatened by the emerald ash borer, and for that and other...
Back To The Arch
They’re making some progress on the Arch grounds. More than a year ago, contractors for CityArchRiver project started cutting down all of the ash trees, and when they did that, they closed off all of the sidewalks that criss-crossed the park. Just in the last couple of weeks, they reopened some of the sidewalks, and...
A Few More Santa Fe Pictures
The church above is the San Miguel Mission, the oldest church structure in the United States. The original adobe walls and altar were built around 1610, and although it was partially destroyed several times during its existence, those walls still stand. There are more beautiful churches in Santa Fe, but none shine under that...
Kasha-Katuwe
With just three days left in his term, the first President Clinton declared seven new “National Monuments” by executive order, setting aside large areas of environmentally sensitive land and ensuring that they would receive federal protection from commercial development. (The move wasn’t popular with some western politicians, who didn’t want to see their states’...
Compton Hill Water Tower
Near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Highway 44 in St. Louis stands the Compton Hill Water Tower, built in the 1890s to improve water delivery to city residents. The “guts” of the tower is actually a 140-foot-tall, six-foot-diameter standpipe. The city found that somewhat unsightly, so the brick and limestone tower was built...
Seagulls And Sunrises
This land belongs to the gullsAnd the gulls to their cryAnd their cry to the windAnd their cry to the wind—David Gray Michigan City. It’s a town of about 30,000 people, nestled in the northwest corner of Indiana, across the bottom of Lake Michigan from Chicago. My family has vacationed there for upwards...