Window with a View

My room's view of Africa. The sun rising over Nelson Mandela Bay (historically Algoa Bay) each and every day. Beautiful.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Once I return to the Nati I will begin to post large numbers of photos but here is a little taste.

Port Elizabeth is a nice large city in a region called the Eastern Cape. It is on the Indian Ocean. This photo is of the beach just a couple miles west of downtown. Students are doing well. Today, we are going to a lion park. Should be fun. We've already petted cheetahs so this may be something similar to that.

Chicago III

Millennium Park in downtown Chicago is an fun to visit. At top and bottom you have faces of Chicagoans filling these large screens looking like they are talking until they begin to spout water. Then there is the Egg, with skyline in background, photo with Soeren on my right, and then Soeren and our friend who works at Loyola University.

Chicago II

Chicaqo I

Whenever you visit Chicago and walk among the towering buildings, you can't help but remember Sandburg's poem, The City of Big Shoulders.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Friends

At a party recently, ladies sporting their stick-on body decorations; next, getting familiar; and finally a great dinner with friends.

Universal Studios

I'm a bit late in posting these photos but while I was visiting my sister and her family in Palm Springs, we went into LA to tour Universal Studios. Entertaining and kinda crazy in that Southern California way. At top was an Irish pub on a set that fortunately sold real beer, next is a crowd scene (lots of people), next is a Simpson's ride featuring Krusty the Clown, next is the scene of the famous Bates Motel from the movies (where a body is being stuffed in the trunk of a car), and at bottom my brother-in-law visits with some comely young ladies.

Poplar Bluff

Last year, Mary McNay, Phil and Anthony Deuster, and me took a drive to Poplar Bluff from Matthews, Missouri. We stopped for a refreshment.

Palm Springs

Had a great visit in Palm Springs for the Christmas break. At top is a photo my having lunch with my sister, Lynn, and nephew Joe to her right. From left are my niece Katie and two visitors from Italy, Angelo, and Francesco. Francesco is a exchange student living with the Fontanas this year and Angelo is a friend of his who came for Christmas. Next is a beautiful flowering bush I saw on my walks around the neighborhood, bougainvillea, I believe. At bottom is beautiful Mt. San Jacinto with snow on the top.

Whisky River

Another foray into the Kentucky whisky trail led to my dipping my own jug of Maker's Mark at the distillery near Bardstown. It was very difficult to hang onto that slippery bottle in the gloves they make you wear - hence the intense concentration.