Photos I love

I've been very fortunate to be in some great places and get some photographs I love.  Once in a while, I go back into the files for memories and tonight this is what I came up with.  I hope you enjoy the selections.

This is that momentous moment when the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest ship in the navy, and perhaps the  oldest
commissioned ship sailing in the world, sailed in Boston Harbor for the first time in over 100 years under its own
sail power.  It was under way for about 15 minutes, with no tug connected. Wow!  And I happened to be on the
Harbor Express ferry headed into Boston at that very moment.

Only one in four visitors to Alaska gets to see Mt. McKinley (Mt. Denali).  It is usually hidden by its own weather system.  
Don and I saw it the day before by plane, but this morning we were leaving Denali NP. and this was our final gift from the park. 

And, a bit later, just outside the bus!

Sperwink Trail, near Trinity, Newfoundland. One to the most inspiring and awesome
hikes Susan and I have ever taken together. 

And we finally made it to Niagara Falls!  You know what Oscar Wilde said about Niagara Falls?  That it was the
newly wedded bride's second biggest disappointment!
He was certainly wrong about one thing.

Taughannock Falls, the longest single uninterrupted fall of water on the East Coast.
This in is the lakes region of New York, and what a thrill to come across it, not knowing of
its existence.  This held true for Watkins Glen, a remarkable state park we knew nothing about, and
discovered it on the way back from Niagara Falls, and our stay in the wine district. A trail that wound through several miles of canyon, with dozens of waterfalls. If you are in the area, don't miss it.

This is still, so far, my best shot of a Snowy Owl.  I keep hoping to get one of him flying toward me, eyes like
lasers looking at me.  But I still love this shot, taken on Duxbury Beach.  There have been as many as seven of these magnificent creatures on Duxbury Beach in one day.

This is the Devil's Courthouse, on the Blue Ridge Parkway above Brevard, NC.
I climb this every time I visit my twin in Brevard.  It is a place you can guarantee  hearing, but almost never seeing,
a Winter Wren.  One of our great family stories is of our mother getting lost in these mountains, almost giving up, and then hearing one of those wrens, with their drunk piccolo sounds, and believing it was God telling her to try again.  And she did. And Dad found her.

This is St. Phillips Church in Atlanta.  This is the last pipe organ I helped my father install, and it was also the largest we ever installed.  The organ, Aeolian-Skinner, has gone through some changes, but I believe had been restored to its original glory.  There are a number of great recordings that have been make here, including the Poulenc Concerto for Organ, Strings and Tympani.

This is Looking Glass Rock, one of the great sights on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This is from Pounding Mill Overlook, just south of the Rt.276 crossover above Brevard, NC.  This is the place where both Mom and Dad's ashes have been scattered.  Like "The Bucket List", it is a spot for an eternal view of the mountains they both loved so well.

One of the many great shoreline walks Susan and I have taken.  Her favorite thing in life is a walk on the beach, and this on was on Fogo Island, Newfoundland/

This photo was one of the most magical moments in my life.  I grew up listening to my father's huge collection of pipe organ recordings, and a series he had became my favorite, recordings by Marcel Dupre at St. Sulpice, Paris.  The recordings, all on Mercury "Living Presence" featured a photo of the organ on the front cover of each record,  and I knew every feature of that case.  In 1997 Susan and I went to Paris for the first time, and I got up  the first morning, sick with jet lag, but I was just too anxious to get my first photos of  Paris.  I saw this huge church, walked into the nave, and looking back, recognized the organ!  What a first photo!

Gettysburg, Pa, the field below the stone wall where Pickett's charge took place. The great Southern historian, Shelby Foote, said that every Southern boy ever born since the Civil War wishes he could have walked up that hill into the grapeshot, the highpoint of valour, and the highpoint of the Confederacy.

And, one shot of Tuscany. Ah, what wines.  Even the cheapest of table wines somehow taste better in this sunlight.  The loveliest stone villages in the world.  Well, France has a few, too.  But Monte Benichi was the best.  A long winding climb through olive groves, vineyards, and stone walls.  Paradise.