Barcelona visit
The city of Barcelona is a “must see” visit if you go to Europe. Architecture, arts, food, markets, street life… it has everything! So our recent 4 day visit, while short, yielded many pictures which I will try to reduce to a few albums. This one is on the city itself and it’s many picturesque venues.
Approaching Barcelona after a long flight
City overview
Ah yes, the always busy La Rambla
Daylight on the La Rambla
Lots of eating options
Street mimes are quite good, actually
John Wayne in Barcelona?
Give money, watch him peddle
No camera, no problem.. have a drawing made
Early evenings and the crowds arenot there yet
Inside passage
Many statues
Even lamp posts are decorative
Palace on the hill
Communication tower from last Olympics
Part of Olympic Village
Castle on the hill
At one time the city was defended from sea attacks
Inside architecture
Harbor at dusk
Dusk in the city
Columbus at dusk…
… and at night, still pointing the wrong way!
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
This is our third visit to Barcelona, and our third visit to the Sagrada Familia. You could go here 100 times and never see the end, just a fabulous structure. Under construction for some 120 years, it looks like another 100 before it is finished. Simply amazing!
Main entrance, south side
The north entrance is kind of foreboding
Looking up inside the church
Some of the stained glass windows
Sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows on one of the columns
There are carvings everywhere
The pulpit canopy
Form, color and light
Halloween party!
Stacy and Dallas thew a most excellent Halloween Party! We all had a great time, as may be seen from these photos:
Romola
Shane and Tanya
Tanya, Romola, Dallas, Stacy
John, Boone, Shane
Romola and John
Boone and Allison
Kurt, Tanya, Shane and Romola
Dallas, playing with fire
Alex, Dallas, Ahni
Stephanie, Jenny
Lyric
Mike and Kurt
Heidi, Stephanie, Jenny
Stacy and Mike
Mike and Lyric, newlyweds
Heidi, Jenny, Dallas, Stephanie (seated)
Alex, Link, Ahni, Nikita
Dallas, Stacy, Mike and Lyric
Machelle, Boone (Romola in Background)
Romola and Shane
Chinese Lantern Festival
The Chinese Lantern Festival has become an annual event in Dallas. This was our second year to visit it, and it was as spectacular as ever. Can’t fathom how much work went into the design, production, and setup of these very complicated show pieces. Pictures below.
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A day at the arboretum
We joined the Dallas Arboretum this year, and with the weather being just about perfect, we spent a day in the Arboretum. Fall is approaching, but right now the focus is on Halloween. Pumpkins everywhere, and the dominant color is orange. But there were enough of the old exhibits still there to keep it balanced overall. Nice day for pictures!
A wall of purple
The new Arboretum logo in pumpkins — 4,000 of them
Using pumpkins to make a design
A house built from multicolored pumpkins
A variety of pumpkins
Water lilies
Drops of water on a leaf
Looking over the reflection pond
A colorful gerbera daisy
The old homestead
Alliance Air Show
Alliance puts on a free air show that was most enjoyable. The weather was great, the price was right, and we had a great day. We are still amazed at the ability of the stunt pilots. Almost a controlled cash without crashing!
The Tora! Tora! Tora! was the most spectacular, I don’t know where they got all those Zero aircraft. The pyrotechnics that accompanied the display was awesome as well. And, as usual, the Shockwave jet truck (powered by three (!) jet engines) was a crowd pleaser.
Several parachute demos helped open the show
Spectacular biplane stunts
Wait! Which way is up?
That just looks impossible
A low slow speed pass, on edge
Hard to know how they keep their horizons
The Shockwave Jet truck in full force
Lots of noise and speed
Busienss end of the jet truck
An old timer on static display
Here comes Tora! Tora! Tora!
A Zero on a pass
A Nakajima B5N torpedo bomber
Almost frightening, watching the “attack”
A Nakajima B5N with torpedo
Thunderbolt A-47
Beautiful aircraft
Beuatiful P-51 Mustang
From my youth: a Mig 17
Two guys in flying suits
Black Diamond in formation
Black Diamond on a pass
A day at the Fair
We took the train to the Texas State Fair, and had a great day. It’s been a while since we’ve been, and were again impressed by the activities and things to look at. And not to forget, the fair food! I didn’t know you can deep fry beer….
On the Dallas Rapid Transit train. Just like Europe!
A Superman exhibit in the Car Show building
Lots of walking at the fair!
Of course, animals… here sheep being shorn
Gotta have a cow at the fair
Lots of chances to buy stuff, here “worlds best pots and pans”.
Going for a ride on the Midway
Boo hoo – she took my fry!
Just an interesting picture
Big Texas Fair wheel
Big Tex is back
One of the main reasons to go — Turkey Leg!
This scultpure looks like it came from the 1950’s
Original fair sculpture
Quiet scene at the Women’s Building
Harvesting corn in Illinois
We visited Romola’s classmate Jan Knollenberg, who we hadn’t seen for many years. They had a great time catching up. Meanwhile, Jan’s husband Jack invited me to ride along in his new combine, harvesting corn. Jack farms some 1,400 acres of corn and soy beans. I was most pleased to take this ride, and I learned a lot. One thing I learned that farmers are high tech risk takers, and gamble much of their their existence every year on crop outcome.
The combine was new this year (Jack gets a new one every 2 years) and was a technological marvel. From a picking point of view, the corn is cut, picked up, cobs are stripped off, and the kernels are stripped off of the cob. The corn falls in a bin behind the driver, the remnants spread behind the combine, making new compost for one year.
But it is more technical than that. The combine can drive itself, with GPS keeping an accuracy close to one inch. I was amazed at the system that tracks combine movement exactly, the machine drives itself. Plus, it tracks weather, crop moisture, bin contents, what fields have been cut, and so on, all while keeping the cutting heads at the right height and matching ground contours. Pretty amazing.
I forgot my camera, so had to make do with my cell phone camera. Thanks for the informative morning, Jack!
Jack, climbing into the new John Deere combine
Driving to the corn field to be cut
Approaching the corn rows
Here, the cutters grab the corn stalk, and move it into the processing area.
The husked corn kernels fall into the bin behind the driver.
There goes some 275 bushels of corn.
Top of Pikes Peak
We’ve tried to drive to the top of Pikes Peak before, but weather always was an issue. Even today, the road was closed until noon, when the ice melted. And believe me, you don’t want to drive this road when it is slippery! Also, you better not be afraid of heights, as much of the top 12 miles are along sheer cliffs and no shoulder. But the scenery is magnificent!
We were lucky that the leaves were just starting to turn, so we were able to combine driving to the top with color peeping. Certainly a scenic wonder, and based on the number of people, other thought so too.
But don’t think this is an easy ride. On the way down, there is a mandatory brake check, where they measure the temperature of your brakes. If it is too hot, you have to pull off and wait before continuing. I guess that is better than losing your brakes….
It is hard to realize that the record for the 12 mile climb (During the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb) to the top is 8 minutes… almost 90 mph average! Crazy!
Colorful quaking aspens
Pikes Peak in the background, colors below
Looking down shows you just how steep the road is
A great overlook
Now that is a hairpin turn!
The very top is now in sight
Looking from the top
Colorado Springs, from 14,140 feet up
Of course, you could take the Cogg train…
Mandatory brake temperature check
Despite recent rains, the lakes are still low
Driving back down amongst the colorful aspens
Garden of the Gods
There are some wonderful geologic features in Garden of the Gods, and it is very popular with locals and tourists. But we decided to skip the touristy inner trails, and take the loop trail around the Garden. Gives a very different perspective on the Garden, and some solitude while hiking.
Pikes Peak looms between some of the Garden’s rocks
Same shape, different colors
Pikes Peak from behind the Garden of the Gods
A pine cone, bursting open to expose the seeds inside
Very rugged terrain
A little sunlight play on distant hills
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