Sunday, July 22, 2007

Old and New

I thought I would put up some pictures old and new with some commentary.

This is one of the many turtles hanging around our house. Laurie puts the kitchen scraps at the edge of the woods behind our house, and they come to munch along with deer, racoons, squirrels, snakes, and who knows what else that we don't see.


This is part of the group who attended the super bowl party some months ago at Kris Wangsadiputra's house. Great food, drink, and fun. There are at least 6 countries represented in who you can see here, and a few more not in the photo. Makes for some interesting stories. . .and perspectives.

This is Robin Black, a Scotsman by birth who now lives in Budapest (pronounced Bood-a-pesht as we quickly learned) Hungary and runs Habitat's Europe and Central Asia Office. Here we are visiting a very poor area of Costa Rica, and these kids were following us like puppy dogs. They were fascinated by our digital cameras when we would take their photos and show them the screen. Robin is teaching them how to do the "seperating thumb" trick. They were amazed and amused.






Sunday, July 15, 2007

Go Go Go

I'm just back from Los Angeles. I spent four days working with the LA affiliate on the preparation for the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2007 which takes place in late October. I have grown to love LA after having been there 4 or 5 times now. I'm surprised by my feelings, because I didn't think I would like it there. There is something about the California vibe that fits me well. Anyway, here are a few pics:

This is the port of Los Angeles, where I'm told 40% of the imports entering the US pass through. I held the camera out my hotel window and snapped this shot.



This is a closer shot. The bridge is lit with blue lights at night, and is quite beautiful.


This is the Redondo Beach Pier, which is very cool. It is lined with shops and restaurants, and a lot of people come to fish there. It makes a large "U" shape, so you can walk out and around. There are probably 20 restaurants of all types and levels, and as many gift shops.

This is a night shot of the restaurant where I had dinner on Friday evening. We had a seat on the patio where we could watch the sun set and hear the waves crashing in as we ate. I had cedar wrapped smoked scallops with shrimp and crab, spinach and new potatos. MMMM!