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THE YEAR IN REVIEW: PHOTO JOURNEY THROUGH 2012

12/31/2012

Whoa! Where have you guys been? Oh, wait! I've been the one off for the last week. Well, I'm back, and ready to rock and roll - I think.

It’s been a struggle writing today’s post (although I think it's the longest post ever for 2012 - lots of pictures!), something along the lines of a tooth extraction. The extraction was undoubtedly a wisdom tooth given my lack of muse. It’s left a huge hole at the back of my six months of otherwise pearly posts. I’ve been running my mind over the hole the holidays left in the order and rhythm of my literary life, unable to reconcile the foreign feel of a blinking curser and all that empty space taunting me.

I’ve decided photos might be more appropriate for my planned “Year in Review” post given it may take a few days before my arthritic bones and muse are back up to speed. I think it’s the lethargy of all the holiday food and family and friends combined with minimal mental and physical exercise. Thankfully the New Year, along with its resolutions, will bring an end to all the lethargy.

It was a beautiful, enchanting world out there that beckoned in 2012. All the history and mystery, the people and places (and the fantastic food) offered a multitude of photo ops that spoke volumes when it came to the world’s gifts and mankind’s imagination. You know you want to check it out!

SEVEN SENSATIONAL SALZBURG SIGHTS

11/27/2012

Paris has her lovers, London her Queen; and New York is one Big bad Apple. For Salzburg, the charming Alpine Austrian city Jim and I got the chance to see three weeks ago, I’d have to say it’s Mozart, and thus music.

Yes, Salzburg has been alive with music long before her most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born in 1756; certainly long before Julie Andrews proclaimed the hills to be alive with music in the opening scene of the award winning 1965 film, The Sound of Music.

Salzburg's mighty acropolis, the Hohensalzburg, has always reigned over her city below.

THANKS! IT'S BUTTERBALLS, FOOTBALL & GOOFBALLS AGAIN

11/21/2012

Today's post is not going to be your typical “thankful” litany of sanguine blessings so popular during this Thanksgiving week. That would be too predictable, boring and altogether out of character for me; at least for the 6th grader inside, my alter ego that without pretense or privilege won the “Funniest Girl” award a few years back (okay, more like decades and decades). It's just a shame my 15 minutes of fame came so early in life.

Jimmy and I can be there in time for dinner. Just point the way.

DOM ST. PETER, REGENSBURG, GERMANY: TOP TEN PHOTOS

11/19/2012

Oh, how I wish I hadn’t slept through those World History lectures in that huge auditorium my freshman year of college. Who in their right mind schedules World History at eight in the morning?

I was hoping to dazzle you today with dates and details about the Holy Roman Empire, the German monk Martin Luther, the Thirty Years Wars, the Reformation and Calvinism. Instead all I have are dazzling images of one of Bavaria’s renowned churches, one that weathered all the aforementioned turmoil quite beautifully.

I hope my top ten photos of Dom St. Peter in Regensburg, Germany will suffice.

REGENSBURG, GERMANY: TOP TEN PHOTOS OF THE CITY

11/6/2012

Location, location, location!

The secret to real estate success is what empires are built on. Just ask Donald Trump. Empires have certainly built on this philosophy be it modern day or medieval. Where would Egypt be without its Nile, or Europe without the Danube? Europe would undoubtedly be minus a few abbeys, cathedrals and castles.

EXPLORE MT RUSHMORE: TOP TEN PHOTOS, BLACK HILLS, SD

9/10/2012

I was awestruck seeing Mount Rushmore in the flesh (okay, stone) for the very first time. Who hasn’t seen pictures, the ones the size of postage stamps in comparison to the sheer enormity of the real deal when it comes to this magnificent monument to democracy.

As Jim and I made our way through the Black Hills of South Dakota to the actual National Park entrance to Mount Rushmore, we rounded a bend in the road and suddenly, there on the face of the mountain, was an unexpected, breathtaking view of the four Presidents recognized as pillars in the birth, expansion, preservation and conservation of the United States.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are my new heroes; and Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor whose fascination with gigantic scale and themes of heroic nationalism was a perfect fit for the 14-year commitment to this icon of unparalleled patriotic proportions.

But enough of my first impressions; my images/postage stamps will have to do for now until you can make your way across the plains of the wild, Wild West to a far corner of South Dakota where granite and history intersect with amazing beauty and might.

SOUTH DAKOTA: GREAT FACES, GREAT PLACES!

9/4/2012

South Dakota is sandwiched between Minnesota and Wyoming running east to west for 410 miles. It’s the wildest, badest (so awesome, it demanded literary license for descriptors) stretch of beautiful, rugged frontier America has to offer.

It’s so bad, there’s 160 square miles alone devoted to a region called the “Badlands”. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Sitting Bull called South Dakota their home. Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame lived there; Tom Brokaw, former NBC Nightly News Host graduated high school in South Dakota; hundreds of dinosaurs roamed the Black Hills of South Dakota 125 million years ago; and thousands of motorcycle bad boys descent on Sturgis, South Dakota every August.

And of course South Dakota is home to four larger than life presidents, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt; and one Crazy Horse Indian still in progress (as in sixty-four years and counting).

What South Dakota lacks in population (a mere 814,000, or 10 people per square mile) she makes up for with the sheer breathing-taking beauty with her often desolate landscape.

My top ten photos hardly do justice when it comes to our 40th state in the union. You get what you pay for (we paid for two nights and three days) as we made our way to Colorado. Next time, a week minimum; so many places; so little time!

LIFES A BEACH: TOP TEN PHOTOS, SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN

8/20/2012

With the finish line in sight, there’s still time to hit the beach for one last fling before Labor Day officially brings it all to an end despite the September 21st deadline. While fall is my favorite when it comes to Mother Nature’s attire, the silky warmth of her touch during summer is heavenly when I'm anywhere near Lake Michigan's beaches.

At the risk of sounding like the Pure Michigan tourism commercial, I’ll just let the facts speak for themselves with my top ten photos of our week in Saugatuck, Michigan in early August.

_____________________________________

1. Gorgeous beaches nestled against pristine sand dunes - what more could you ask for
at Saugatuck's mile-long Oval Beach, except maybe a beautiful sunny day that stretches to
infinity.

I think blue might just be my favorite color after a week at Oval beach.

SEVEN REASONS I LIKE TO TRAVEL (BY BIKE)

8/14/2012

I get a kick out of riding my bike, almost as much as I did as a kid. The disclaimer ‘almost’ is my way of acknowledging my ride is not always as smooth as it used to be (nor is my body), but I have no intention of letting the little girl deep inside know that.

My bike takes me places I can’t always find on a map; afternoons wide open with adventure and new horizons; confidence that comes from pushing past the barriers of expectations and limitations. It’s really my favorite mode of transportation to some awesome destinations.

It's difficult to snap a picture that's not slightly blurry while biking.

You should try it. If you haven’t yet, perhaps my Seven Reasons I Like to Travel (By Bike) will convince you to buck up, get up and gear up. If you are a biker, than I’m singing to the choir.

No thanks necessary. This is a travel blog after all.

LAKE GENEVA: TOP TEN PHOTOS OF THE "NEWPORT OF THE WEST".

7/16/2012

I’m embarrassed to admit that for the first twenty years of my twenty-five years in the Chicago area I knew nothing of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Would it help if I told you I knew Lake Michigan was out there?

I assure you, I wasn’t really living under a rock. I was a transplant from the east coast living the dream in the Midwest, only it was rapidly becoming a nightmare. I was mired in the minutia of dirty diapers, two adolescents (daughters, no less; boys are so much easier), daily lesson plans and a failing marriage. These are not excuses; these are what most modern women out there want (with the exception of the failed marriage), myself included.

Scenic family vacation spots two hours north of Chicago were not exactly a priority. Perhaps they should have been.  Shoulda, coulda, woulda.  It’s all water under the bridge now.

It’s quite a bit of water for Lake Geneva; 5,500 pristine acres and no bridge to speak of.   But there is fishing, swimming, boating and mansions almost the size of the White House up and down the 21 miles of shoreline.

Tomorrow I’ll share the details of my introduction to the “Newport of the West.”   For today, my top ten photos of this legendary lady.

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