My brother, Bob, and his friend, Inez.


Sister Joyce and her husband, Ken.


Teecie and her husband, Phil (also).


My brother, sisters and I at a Kinlaw "reunion" held in North Carolina April 2005.

 

I'd like you to know my brothers and sisters.

The gentleman above is my brother, Bob, one of my two older brothers. I took this photograph in June of 2006 during a wonderful Kinlaw family "reunion" held in Kentucky. I don't think there's anything much he'd rather do than be playing golf! :-)


My older sister, Joyce, taken during a fun dinner in Florida about a year ago. Joyce is a loving, loyal sister and friend, with an open heart and ready smile. And does she ever love flowers! :-)


Our brother, Jerry, who died in August of 1997, the night before he would have turned 58 years of age. He was a great brother to all of his siblings. (I must confess that the arm and fingers you can see behind his head belong to me. ha)


And my younger sister, Teecie, taken during a weekend she and I spent in New York City...during a blizzard, much to the great delight of both of us southern girls! :-) Teecie is an outstanding hairdresser, and loves her flowers and her animals (horses, cats, dog).....and, of course, her silver Mazda Miata! :-)

Ah....Chicago, how we love this town! I guess it has such meaning because Phil and I met as students at Moody Bible Institute back in the early 1960's; therefore, it's always been a very special city to us. Plus.....it's just a great town! "My kind of town, Chicago is," Frank Sinatra sang. We agree with that....I guess that's obvious since we made the decision to move back here from Arizona. :-)

We're just thankful to be back in the area. We actually live about an hour+ northwest of Chicago, but at least we don't have to fly in on an airplane to get to this fabulous city!

I took the above picture from a side street on the north side of the city...the dark-colored building is the John Hancock Center, now "the" trademark building of the city.



Phil graduated in 1970 from Roosevelt University, located on Michigan Avenue. In front of the school and across the avenue is this beautiful, huge statue of an Indian chief (sorry, I don't know which one) on his horse.


Navy Pier - and a "tree" of impatiens plants during the summer months.


The water shooting up is from Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.

 

Well, after a good weekend at home in Illinois, Phil and I are back in San Francisco at the Marriott right on the bay across from the airport runway.

I took the above photo yesterday....a boater in the area of water between the hotel and runway.


You will recall that the in-and-out activity of the tide flows fascinates me. Obviously (I think), in the above picture the tide is out. This picture is the same as the one above....just with "out" tide instead of "in" tide. :-)



Oh, the sunrises we're treated to every 24 hours!!


It's interesting to note that the spear of light eminating from the rising sun comes toward us over the rippling water, but stops at the point where the water is still and smooth. I need a Physics professor (or anyone who knows why) to explain to me why that is!

In the lower center of the photo above, there are sea gulls feeding over a school of fish.


Morning skies, San Francisco.


Sky trails yesterday........


.....and before sunrise this morning.

 

If you've looked at the volume of pictures I've shared on my blog or my website, you know that I love it when I can capture animals or birds.

The above photo I took last winter in Huntley, IL, where we live. The Canadian geese were sitting in the snow-covered field of cut corn stalks. I asked Phil to stop, and I was able to get this shot from the car.


Another shot from the car....this time on a "back" road in California north of San Francisco, a deer up on a ridge right by the side of the road.


Seals at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.


Kim and Paul's cat, Tater. He looks like he is posing for me, doesn't he?

 

I thought you might enjoy seeing our three daughters, Aimee, Kimberly, and Karma. The above picture was taken circa 1979.


At our townhome in Warrenville, IL, 2000.


At Kim's baby shower at our home in Gilbert, Arizona, 2004.


December, 2004.

 

Yesterday afternoon, Phil and I went out for our (fairly) regular afternoon walk along the waters of the bay here adjacent to the San Francisco Airport. I captured four pictures you might enjoy seeing, and decided to post them this afternoon. (We're enjoying a lazy afternoon in the hotel room, each seated side by side in front of our computers. Doesn't take a lot to make us happy!) ha

The little feathered guy in the picture above was absolutely alone, standing on a piece of pointed rock sticking up out of the water.



I have no idea what this plant is called, but there are many of them along the far-eastern end of the walkway. The stalks are burgundy, and the "flower" end of each stalk is a very soft, furry-feeling thing. We love to touch them.



I love any green plant that has red berries.....always reminds me of Christmas. :-) I noticed day before yesterday on our walk that the blossoms that had previously been on these plants had turned to berries. So pretty!



And, of course, I had to take a picture of a plane coming in! It looks like the moon in the sky, but it's actually an airplane with its lights on. We've been amazed at how powerful the landing lights are.......like a beacon!

 

This morning, I decided to sit down with my camera at the hotel window and capture the moment when the sun appeared over the cloud cover on the horizon. After taking the above picture, I figured it would occur momentarily. Little did I realize that the cloud cover that you can see on the horizon was moving westward also, and its pace was just a tad faster than the sun's.

I took several pictures.....whittled the number down to twelve.....documenting the changes in cloud movement vs. sun "rising." The pictures all follow, without much verbiage.

Don't know if you love sky pictures.......as you can tell, I do! :-)

God bless you today!

 

Just had to interrupt the "flow" of the sun and cloud movements to capture the pigeons as they watched the celestial show.



Also, the flock of pelicans skimming above the surface of the still, early morning waters.



The sun is still trying to outdo the clouds.......but



....the clouds won.