Twin City Photos

Abandoned train station at the Olympic Stadium in Munich.

I often feel ambivalent about graffiti, as in some cases I think it contaminates, while in other cases it seems to add life to something dull and dreary. Case and point just recently the area around Minnehaha Falls was spray painted by vandals. Actually it was more like tagging, which are basically gang markings. Being this is a park and tourist area frequented by families, this clearly is an act of vandalism. It can be quite difficult to remove spray paint, especially in hard to reach areas. On the other hand take this abandoned train stop in the photo. The graffiti does seem to add a bit of life to the scene. Judging by the amount of it, the city appears to tolerate it. Or maybe they’ve just given up.

This is the Kettle River that passes near the seasonal campground where we keep our camper. In case you don’t know around here ‘seasonal campgrounds’ are places where you essentially park your camper for the entire season. It’s sorta between going to a new place every time you go camping, and having a cabin, which most keep for many years if not a life time.

It was our first trip up there for the season to get things opened up. Our main camper which we’ve had for a year now survived the winter just fine. No snow damage, all appliances worked, and no rodent infestation, always a concern when you leave a camper unattended for a long time. Also moved our pop-up camper which is used by our younger kids their friends back to the edge of the woods. It’s a lower area a hundred feet from the Horn River and spring time flooding has occurred there in the past.

Looking forward to many more trips up there, and hope to bring back some interesting photos.

That’s what some of the signs say posted on some beaches at the Olympic National Park in Washington. At first you think it’s some sort of joke, but it only takes one close call to realize they’re not kidding. These logs are what’s left of trees that get washed out into the ocean from the many rivers emptying into the ocean. On the journeys down the rivers, they get scrubbed of branches and bark, and eventually end up piled on top of each other when storms wash them back ashore.

Many of them are quite large, and people end up walking, i.e. balancing on them. It’s seems like fun. Except some logs ocassionally roll off whatever they’re balanced on. Log rollers end up in the water when they fall. Here you may end up under the log, with potentially serious injuries, if not worse.

Before the pyramids we’ve all come to know were built, the Egyptian Pharaohs practiced with step pyramids. This is the Pyramid of Djoser, built 2700 BC at Saqqara, Egypt.

One the overhead suspension cable casings in the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati. As bad as the flaking paint looks, the underlying steel is pretty solid. Just needs a new paint job. Maybe there’ll be some stimulus painting. Till then it will present some interesting photo ops.