Sunset

Camera Phone City Shots

At top: Cincinnati, looking back behind Great American Ballpark.
At bottom: Louisville, looking from a line of stopped cars on the I-65 bridge coming from Indiana over the Ohio River.

Greenville

Charleston

Above - a view of the new Arthur Ravenel (Cooper River) Bridge in Charleston a week after it opened. Below - a couple of shots in the harbor.

The Thompson Family

The Thompson family - great friends of ours in Charleston whom we spent a night with while down that way.Above - Benjamin. Below - Keri holding Eden Grace
The whole family - Heathear, Eden Grace, Rayn, Benjamin.

Hilton Head SC

The picture above and several that follow below were taken on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina while on vacation there. It seems odd now that I don't have any picture from the beach itself - but it was a bit of a walk to get there, I didn't want the camera to get sandy sitting around there, and it was too hot to walk down there without planning to stay and hang out for a while (ie too hot to just go take a picture or two).

Test

This is a test post to make sure the blog still works.

Gulf Shores

The sun sets over the Gulf Coast.

We spent the last weekend of January at my Uncle Jim and Aunt Joanie's house in Gulf Shores for a family get together. We had a great time. You may recall Hurricane Ivan, the 3rd in a spate of hurricanes that ravaged the coast late last summer. Ivan, a Category 4 hurricane, burst upon the Gulf Coast and just mauled much of the coast from Pensacola to Mobile Bay. The eye actually passed right over Gulf Shores. Below are some pictures I took along the coast of the damage. Keep in mind that these pictures were taken 4 months after the storm...

Not quite what it used to be I imagine

What can you say? 

What's missing? Well, parts of that pier, of course. But also sand dunes! Totally gone for the most part, except for those parts that had vegetation, which kept them in place. 

More. 

It's just amazing how many sites like this exist along the coast 4 months later. There's just so much to clean up, and there is a labor shortage. Imagine the scene in the days immediately after the hurricane. 

These old cheap condos will hopefully be replaced by some nicer new development. The good side of Hurricane Ivan is that there is now a serious real estate and development boom in the area, which is being managed well by the city council. Gulf Shores should be really really nice in a couple of years. 

Damaged house - I think there used to be houses on either side of it. 

The back porch of my uncle and aunt's house in Gulf Shores, where we stayed. Really great house - loved the porch.