A Long Walk in Paris

 

On one of my trips to Paris, I took a long walk across town enjoying the sights along the way.  After visiting the gorgeous St. Chapelle church, I walked past the Palais De Justice.

 I crossed one of the many beautiful bridges in Paris while admiring those gorgeous buildings in the background.  I bet the apartments in those buildings are very expensive.

I walked past the Louvre Museum.  I didn't go in this time.  That's a museum that requires a whole day to itself.  

I crossed the busy Place De La Concorde.

I took a short rest in the gardens next the the Champs-Elysees and spent a few minutes watching a few magpies hopping around in the grass.

After my long stroll in the heart of Paris, I made my way back toward my hotel as I watched the sidewalk cafes fill with people.  There is always something see while walking in Paris.

A Visit From My Parents

 

When I had that two year job assignment in Chicago, my parents came to visit me one weekend.  They enjoyed getting a taste of life in a high-rise building with views over the city and Lake Michigan.  

When my mother was a young girl, she spent some time visiting family living in Chicago and later, she and my dad got married at a church in Chicago.  Mom wanted to see if some of the places she remembered were still around.

The first place we found was the church where they were married. Sadly, it was boarded up and looking pretty bad.  However, they still recognized it and they posed for this photo in front of the church just like they had posed on their wedding day.

The other place my mother wanted to see was Maxwell Street.  When she was a kid and stayed with her aunt and uncle, her uncle would take her with him to shop on Maxwell Street.  She described it as crazy busy with every merchant along the street selling things in front of their stores.  I found these images by searching Google.  However, when we visited Maxwell Street it was looking very shabby.  In fact, it was a pretty rough neighborhood.  I understand that is has been greatly improved since we were there in 1999.

This last photo is of my mom enjoying the view from the top of the Hancock Building.  The view was of a much bigger and much more modern city than she remembered as a child.

I really enjoyed showing my mom and dad around the city I had grown to love while I was there.  I also enjoyed looking at these old photos and remembering the occasion.  

Antarctic Inhabitants

 

The sole inhabitants of the Antarctic are the thousands of penguins who have made the land masses and the ice their home.

My good friends Julie and Dave took lots of photos of all the different species of penguins they encountered.  

I think the "chinstrap" penguins were my favorite but they are all so interesting to watch.  They have to be one of the cutest creatures on earth.

They are amazing little birds who seem to thrive in one of the coldest spots on earth.

This photo is of Julie at the Penguin Post Office mailing post cards back home.  In fact, the one she is showing looks like the one she sent me.

It took a whopping 9 weeks to arrive at my home.  It takes a very long time to get mail from the bottom of the earth!

My Friends Went to Antarctica

 

My good friends Julie and Dave went to Antarctica in January and since I won't be going there, I asked if I could share some of the iPhone photos they sent to me.  I got the above photo the day they left Argentina on the Antarctic Airways jet. The rest of the photos here I got after their two weeks on the boat.  There was no internet or cell phone service available while they were exploring that uninhabited and ice covered land mass.

All of these photos are iPhone photos and they show the stark beauty of this wilderness area.  Dave told me this one shows Julie way down there by the shore.  She looks very tiny down there as does the boat they traveled on out there in the water.

He also said that the sun didn't get much lower than this the entire time they were there.  

Here's a photo of Julie all bundled up and enjoying one of the excursions.

 Likewise, here's Dave all bundled up against freezing temperatures and the wind.  

All that ice creates beautiful sculptures all around.

The photos I love the most are the ones with penguins in them.  They are such adorable and unusual creatures.  They got to meet several different kinds of penguins on this trip.  

Next week, I'll show you more of the penguin wildlife.