Mysteries on the Shores of Lake Michigan

Too heavy to carry home, not sure what I'd do with it anyway.

For Photo Thursday: Metal

Snow Blower

I still haven't sorted through all my blizzard photos. This one caught my eye.

For Thursday Challenge: Cars.

Ghostly Tree

During the great blizzard of 2011.

Thursday Challenge: Trees

Broken

For Thursday Photo Hunt. Glad is wasn't my car.

Path

Crowd Control

I don't know how they stand it. Seen between two barns in Iowa.

Thursday Challenge--Pink

Pink Monkeyflower seen last year in the North Cascades mountains, Washington.

Thursday Challenge--Winter

Tuesday Challenge--Scales

Are You Saved?

This is one photo from an ongoing project of mine which is to document the small storefront churches of the south side of Chicago.

Thursday Challenge--Shopping

Some of the products at a local Mexican grocery store. It's a great place to shop. Probably the best avocados in town and lots of other good stuff.

Thursday Challenge--Scary

I wouldn't want to meet these characters in a dark alley! Come to think of it they are in a dark alley. Continuing this week's graffiti theme.

Thursday Challenge--Purple

OK the shot is not exactly a work of art but I did think it was a curious paint job for a church. Actually I'm not sure what object would look good in that particular color. Note the color-coordinated car in front. Seen on the west side of Chicago.

Thursday Challenge--yellow

So many yellow flowers, so little time, so hard to identify. Except this one is pretty recognizable. It is a tansy.



I like this photo viewed large.

Fire Drop

Turns out I have internet after all.
This is for Thursday Challenge--"Skill."



A helicopter dropping supplies for fire crews at a Washington State forest fire.



After the drop.

Thursday Challenge--Blue

Blue House in San German, Puerto Rico

Food, glorious food

This photo is submitted to Thursday Photo Challenge--Food.

While traveling in Puerto Rico, I followed a recommendation in a tour guide for a spot to eat. Unlike many tour guide recommendations, the road did not lead to a tourist trap but to an area that was as local as any I have eaten at. Between the beach, Balneario de Luquillo, and the highway, off a frontage road, there were dozens of little kioskos or food stands selling fried fish, cold drinks and sometimes a game of pool or two. There were lots of bright lights and loud music and young people cruising around. It was getting late for families but with the beach right there, I'm sure they were around earlier.



All the kiosks looked about the same with various seafood fritters in glass cases in the front and a seating area with menus on the wall offering seafood salads, cocktails and a soup called asopao. Traveling with a hungry teen means we got to order one of nearly everything.



The food was good and the atmosphere enjoyable if noisy. The proprietor who looked in his sixties but may have been younger was missing a lot of teeth but was very friendly and spoke English. Like nearly everyone we chatted with in Puerto Rico it seemed he had a Chicago connection and in fact had lived there for a bit. He still had a daughter in California and hoped to return to the mainland at some point. Given the number of closed kioskos we saw, life as the owner of one may not have been much of a steady and guaranteed income.



After dinner, we wandered to the now dark beach to let the kids take a dip. It turned out to be a short dip since there were hordes of voracious biting bugs that went for us two non-swimmers.

Thursday Photo Challenge--All Ears

Seen near Zion National Park, Utah

Thursday Challenge--Circle

Here is my official entry to the meme.



Here are my two also rans.





These are at the entrance to the former Chicago Stockyards. Although the slaughterhouses will not be missed it is sad that almost all the old architecture has been replaced with a modern industrial park. The boarded up building is one of the last bits.

Thursday Photo Challenge--Old

Small church in Athens, Greece, called the Little Metropolis (Panayia Gorgoepikoos=Virgin Who Answers Prayers Quickly). Built in 12th Century.