This is my entry in the Photo Friday challenge for this week: Infinity. This photo was taken from the top of Maeve’s Tomb in County Sligo, Ireland when Dan and I visited there in 2003. It was a breezy day and a stray hair blew across the lens just as I was taking the photo, so that’s what that is, not some kind of weird colorless rainbow

And those little black specks in the field are cows. Ireland is filled with cows and sheep. Pork is eaten everywhere, but I never saw pigs out and about, just cows and sheep.

PhotoFriday’s photo challenge this week is Wholesome. Is there anything more wholesome than an adorable kid playing on the playground? This is my nephew Patrick, who lives in Oak Park, IL, with his dad, my brother Brad, his mom Barbara, and his sister Katharine. Dan and I just spent the weekend with them and I have dozens of pix of the kids, as well as downtown Chicago. I love this one.

For this edition of the PhotoFriday event, with the theme of “Old,” I dug up this photo from my trip to Turkey in 2001 with my mom, her sister and brother-in-law, and two other couples who are friends of theirs. This is the base of an Egyptian obelisk, one of the ancient artifacts in the Hippodrome, the Roman-style arena in the center of Istanbul, where sporting events, bazaars, weddings, political events, and royal appearances took place. It is almost 3,500 years old.

Belated Happy New Year to you! What with finishing my class at ODU, the holidays, traveling to Florida to visit the in-laws for Christmas, I’ve completely gotten away from the blog. But here for your enjoyment is my submission to Photo Friday’s weekly photo challenge. This week’s topic is Peaceful.

This was taken from the balcony of my dad’s house in the Sierra Nevada mountains in March 2006.

Here’s my entry for the PhotoFriday challenge. This week’s theme is Innocence. It was great watching these kids running through the water fountain. Boulder is a beautiful city.

Well, it was a tough call between this photo and one of the Capitol dome from the inside, in Washington, D.C., for a circle, but this one has brighter colors, so it won.

This is the ceiling of the lobby of the all-inclusive hotel where we stayed in Playa del Carmen, Mexico - the Mayan Riviera. That was a fabulous trip - we took a day trip to Chichen Itza, a famous Mayan city ruin, and another trip to the ruined fortress of Tulum, on the coast. And it was our first all-inclusive experience, which was fantastic. Three meals a day, plus all drinks, plus trips, all for one price. Not a cheap price, but it was great. I highly recommend it.

This is my submission for the Photo Friday challenge for this week: Friend.

Barbara and I went to visit Liz, who was living in Fort Collins, CO, for two months, working on her Ph.D. While there, we took a horseback ride to the Continental Divide, 8,400 feet up. Great fun

This was the view behind us:

Also in July, when Hannah, our former exchange student, and her family were visiting us, we went whitewater rafting on the James River in Richmond. It was a blast It’s known as the “best urban whitewater” in the country. I will get some more pix of that posted soon.

In the meantime, here is a photo I took in June of some rafters heading down the James toward the Pipeline - this is the beginning of the whitewater rafting trip.

I’m late for last week’s PhotoFriday, but here it is anyway. The topic was “Warmth.”

I took this about a week ago, of a tree at the corner near our house. It’s a gorgeous tree this time of year, and I took this photo late in the afternoon, with the sun shining on it. Right after its peak color, it drops its leaves really fast, like in two days. It’s almost bare now.

Here’s my entry for PhotoFriday’s challenge for this week: Burn

This was taken when we were sailing last Friday, 9/23, on the Elizabeth River between Portsmouth and Norfolk. It was a beautiful night, even though we apparently couldn’t figure out what the race course was supposed to be. Oh well, better luck tomorrow

Update 10/1: re: the race course last week, we were right and all the rest of the boats were wrong! So the race was scrubbed and not counted. Geez. That’s a lesson to go with your gut.