Magnificent Morning !

Wow !

We started this morning off with a visual feast of some of the most breathtaking beauty I've ever seen.

As we journeyed toward Walhalla at about 6:30 this morning, the sight of an enlarged, glowing harvest moon softly setting in the west captured our attention. After turning and heading west, this spectacular sight of the 'moonset' was playing out right before our eyes...right over the center of the road.

As I took this fantastic photograph of one of nature's beautiful, but rare, displays...I turned to the east and clicked the shutter again to show the stunning contrast, and beauty, of the morning sky.
Linda and I agreed that we were truly fortunate to have witnessed such a 'magnificent morning'.

My emotions have already been running rampant this month, as September has been very busy, exciting, and yet, difficult.
Two of our three children left for far off lands earlier this month and I'm still trying to adjust to them being so far away. Rob, who has been working with us at our photography studio, decided it was time to 'see the world' and departed for Bali, Indonesia with just a backpack, a computer and a camera. He plans to write and share photographs of all the wonderful places he will see. So far we've followed his progress on www.roamingrob.com and his adventures have been fascinating....like reading a good novel, where you just can't wait for the next chapter to begin. Only words so far, as pictures have been difficult to upload with the limited Internet capabilities in the region he is in.


Meanwhile, Abby, our youngest, accepted an offer to move to Logrono, Spain for a year and teach English to the Spanish students. She and her boyfriend, Ben, who is in the same program, left from the Minneapolis airport 10 days ago and I must admit, I had a pretty big 'lump' in my throat. I think the opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture and, not only teach, but learn, will be wonderful for both of them.



Rob's cat, Otis (who, by the way, did not go with in the backpack) seems confused. We keep leaving the house with a family member and coming home without them. I think he understands that they will eventually return but I know he misses them.


Thank goodness our oldest, Tony, and his wife April are still in the area (if you can call Minneapolis the 'area'). If fact they will be joining us in Duluth this weekend for our first travel-ography.com adventure. Tony was the first to leave the 'nest' a few years back when he accepted a position in St. Louis. At the time, that seemed like such a far away place.

Actually, as we watched our three children grow, we always hoped they would turn out confident and independent young adults. I guess they all three did. Quite ironic coming from a dad whose favorite moments found the five of us packed in our minivan traveling the country. In fact, we encouraged them to travel and see the world.

Please feel free to follow both Rob and Abby's exploits in the coming months. The websites are abbyinspain.com and roamingrob.com .

A couple words about the Duluth and North Shore Drive trip this weekend....I can't wait !!!

I think we'll have a great time, get some fantastic photographs, and make some new friends.

And, besides colorful trees, big ships, waterfalls and lighthouses, if my memory serves me correctly, we'll see hundreds of sea gulls.


There are sea gulls everywhere, even immortalized in artistic statues.


It should be a 'cool' trip.

Steve