Minnesota Views: Bee and Wildflower

Let's get out of winter for just a moment. Here's an image from northwestern Minnesota in the fall. If you were to design a flying machine from scratch, you would not make it round and chubby like a bee. Yet, somehow they maneuver just fine. Go figure.

Travelogue: Caribbean

Here's a fun shot from the island of St Thomas, in the Caribbean, taken in October, 2009. This is the trip where I asked Jan to marry me. At the time I took this picture, mind you, I did not yet realize I was going to ask her. ;0)

Travelogue: New Hampshire

Jan and I took a trip to Vermont and New Hampshire a few years back, to enjoy the fall colors. One of our stops took us to a Shaker Village near Canterbury, NH. Even though it was a cloudy day and the colors were subdued, it was a nice place to visit. Here's one of the images from our visit there.

Travelogue: Boulder, Colorado

So the way the story goes, I was scheduled to take a road trip with a group of high school friends out to Estes Park in Colorado. Our departure date was Saturday, July 14th, 1979. Why do I remember this so clearly? Because the day before was Friday the 13th, and that was the day I had an emergency appendectomy, and missed the trip!

Fast forward nearly 30 years, to January, 2009. I took a trip to Boulder to take part in a week-long banjo camp led by Dr Banjo himself, +Pete Wernick . I flew out first, and Jan joined me mid-week. We took a little time to drive out to Estes Park, so I could finally close the loop on that little chapter of my life story.

Here's a glimpse of the mountains, and a shot from banjo camp for good measure, featuring Charles Holloway on mandolin and Luke Dewhirst on guitar. You can find out more about Charles with his band, the Green Mountain Bluegrass Band, and Luke with his band, The Bluegrass Regulators.

Minnesota Views: Lake Calhoun

An acquaintance invited Jan and me to join him for an evening of sailing on Lake Calhoun. It was his way of thanking me for helping him during his job search. It was a beautiful evening on the lake, and we sailed almost to sunset. I grabbed this silhouette of "Captain Mike" as we headed back to shore.

Travelogue: China #2

When I was in China in 2009, my hosts took me to a venue for some souvenir shopping. There was a fellow doing calligraphy, so through my interpreter I asked him to compose something for me. Jan and I had been together for a couple of years already, so I requested something that would describe my feelings for her.

I'll leave it as a mystery for now exactly what it says... Drop a comment if you think you can interpret it.

Travelogue: Los Angeles

I had to dig through the archives to find this one, and I've dressed it up with a little HDR tonemapping, but here's a fun memory from a trip to Los Angeles back in 2005. I was walking around the "old town" part of LA (did you know there is such a thing?), and stopped for a bite to eat at a little Mexican diner with outdoor seating. Live music was a happy bonus to the delicious food I had there.