A few months ago I rescued a number of slides my mom was about the trash. This is a slide from 1962. My Mom and Dad on their honeymoon in Niagara Falls.

This scan is from a 1990 trip to Italy. An exterior detail of my favorite ancient Roman building, the Pantheon.

The year is 1968, as best as I can figure it. I'd be 5. Our family has taken a trip out west to visit my mom's relatives in Oklahoma. Because I'm the east coast boy, my uncles seem to think that I need to be schooled in the ways of farming. So inevitably, my uncle Reuben sets me atop a running tractor. Luckily, it'd be a couple of years before they made me actually drive it.

Twenty years ago I was in the UK. It was my first trip abroad and I learned a whole lot from it. Lesson #1: I am not a solo traveler. Lesson #2: Six weeks is a long time for me to be away from home. But I went all over the island with my Britrail Pass, and it was overall very interesting.

One of the surprises I discovered was the Orkney Islands -- they're the ones just off the north coast of Scotland. Nice vibe, no crowds, very bikable. And with a whole lot of prehistoric, uh, history. The above pic is of the Standing Stones of Stenness, A stone circle that's about 5,000 years old - older than Stonehedge. All the stuff like this was pretty much just in someone's back yard. To go into a burial cairn nearby, I had to ring the doorbell of somebody's house to get the key. One of the best parts of the UK for me. Continue reading »

My birthday's around this time of year, so what better way of kicking off Scan-o-rama than with a pic of my 2nd birthday. I'm the one in the blue shirt intently concentrating on my cake. Not sure why mom had a cake and cupcakes, but I'm sure she had her reasons.

A couple of years ago as an exercise in creativity, I posted one photo every day for the 30 days of April: Camerama 06. As I have a No Whining policy on this blog, suffice to say I haven't done that since.

I've lately been scanning old photos, both my pre-digital work and items I recently got from my mom. Being that I have a bit of a backlog now, posting a series hopefully won't kick my butt.

So welcome to Scan-o-rama 2008, the Journey Through the Past! It'll be 15 scans posted almost daily for the next fortnight. And click on those pics if you want it bigger, I just updated the website to be able to do that. Enjoy! Continue reading »

We'd been to Chichen Itza a few years back and really enjoyed it. I knew nothing about Maya history then, but even stumbling ignorantly through ruins left me with a feeling of awe for this seemingly mysterious culture. When we decided upon Guatemala for our destination this year, the ruins at Tikal were among the deciding factors. And determined to not be ignorant as I stumbled through this ancient city, I read just about every book and bought every map I could on Tikal.

And even with my assiduous prep, Tikal was overwhelming. Both the geographic and chronological scales are far beyond Chichen Itza, a comparatively small and short-lived Maya city.

We stayed for two nights: arriving in the afternoon on the first day to take advantage of the free entrance after 15:00, and departing noonish on the third. This gave us about 20 hours of walking-through-the-ruins time. And although we did manage to see most everything that can be seen, it felt rushed.

In addition to the scale, Tikal differs from other Maya sites because it's smack in the jungle. Guatemala established a national park to protect Tikal's wildlife, as well as its archeology. So you got your spider monkeys, your coati mundi -- even more creatures than we saw on our Mirador trek. At sunrise you'll hear the howler monkeys and at sunset you'll see the pairs of parrots flying through the treetops.

So go if you can. And stay at least one night, if not two. Oh you'll be overwhelmed, too. But if have a chance to experience a sunset and a morning, you'll see the beauty as well as the scale.

Tikal Photo Album Continue reading »

Some Cambodian pop from Dengue Fever to heat it up a bit.
One Thousand Tears Of A Taratula:

And some sweet melody from Hem to cool you back down.
Half Acre:

UPDATED: That Dengue Fever song it just too smokin'. Here's some Hooverphonic to help cool things down even more.
No More Sweet Music: