2015 Cruise - Shipboard Dining

Not only do you get all you can eat on a cruise, you get fine dining!  Every day.  If you book it early enough and do some planning ahead...

2015 Cruise - 2015 Cruise, Tug with Barge

What must it be like to make your living - or even to live - on the water?  Met someone while I was teaching down at Clear Creek High School that lived on a boat and they were a unique, fun-loving and adventurous couple.

My dad was one that would have done something like that given a choice.  We always had a boat in the family, and some of my earliest memories are of a week-long vacation that we took on the water, traveling along the intercoastal waterway heading east from Orange, Texas.  There were six of us in our little cabin cruiser - my parents, three of us boys and our German shepherd, Rinnie.  I guess it must have been a little cramped, but to my five-year-old eyes there was plenty of room for us all, as there was a separate bathroom, kitchen area and places for us to sleep.  Dad was a good planner, and had it mapped out where to get gas and enjoy some excursions during our stops.  Very good memories that were very fortunately captured on 8mm film that we watch from time to time.

2015 Cruise - Departing Sights, Working Craft

Moving on to more travel...

In December of 2015 we embarked on a 7-day cruise to destinations in Central America.  Cruises are the perfect way to spend a week vacationing - it's relatively inexpensive for the time you get away from home.  Everything from the food to the entertainment is neatly packaged.  No driving, dishes or any housework.  As long as one stays healthy it's the perfect way to go.

Even before departure it's fun to see things that you don't see every day, such as this whatever-it-is working away in Houston's Ship Channel at Bayport.

Civil War Weekend - Hanging Flower Jar

This is the final photo in the Civil War series on the Liendo Plantation.  Hats off - first to the men and women who served and serve in the military for us all.  Then to these folks who serve to help us remember...

Civil War Weekend - Branches

Speaking of patterns...

Civil War Weekend - Loom with Thread

Photographers are forever looking for patterns, and this one fit the bill.  There was a lady making string at a spinner, which was then fed into this loom.

Civil War Weekend - Fiddle Player

This lady really caught my attention, with that craggy, wizened look.  There is something alluring about a woman that plays the fiddle, as can be seen in this post and this post from the Renaissance Festival back in November of 2011.  And, as in those posts, one was captured as we made eye-to-lens contact:

Civil War Weekend - Fiddles

The "Civil War Weekend", as they call it, is a festive occasion as well as a somber one.  This little ensemble played under the shade of an awning to stay out of the November sun, which is still mighty hot in the Houston area.

Civil War Reenactment - Liendo Graveyard

These happen to be the graves of some former owners of the plantation, Mrs. Elizabet Ney and her husband Dr. Edmond Montgomery, who were there from 1873 until 1911.  But it brings to mind that, as in all war, so many end up like this, and far too young.  It's easy to take for granted those who either are conscripted or volunteer to go into harm's way for a nation and its ideals.  Does one think about the real sacrifice made here?  All of the anguish of loved ones that lasts through generations?  Not to mention of the soldier (or unlucky civilian) who lost his or her very life!  As they say, the ultimate sacrifice...

I was traveling with a friend one time who served our country in the army.  He was an accountant and kept the books.  He told me the interesting fact that for every soldier in the field there are at least a dozen support staff to back him up, taking care of logistics, infrastructure, communications.  And keeping up the books.  Thanks to all of you who serve.

Civil War Reenactment / Union Line

This is a panorama of the Union line advancing on the rebel garrison - the details show up much better when expanded to fill your screen.

Thank God they won the war.  Few people know very much more than very general details of the Civil War and the events leading up to it in the decades preceding.  Fortunately for those that have the desire to delve into it, there is a multitude of books, letters and diaries that give first-hand accounts of the experience on all sides of the issue.  One of the best Apple apps out there is that of the British Library - the parallel to our Library of Congress.  It's not cheap at more than $90 USD, but is worth every penny because with it you get a lifetime of reading from books published exclusively in the 19th century.  I've read books by James Silk Buckingham, who came from England to tour and observe the slave states in the 1840's...one of the best authors I've ever read.  From the same app I retrieved Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a well-written and fascinating read.  Also there I found a book written by a battlefield nurse, Mary Ashton Livermore,  who served on the Union side and personally met Abraham Lincoln in a receiving line at the White House, describing both her service and meeting with Lincoln in riveting detail.

There's also the book store on Apple devices.  I just finished the works of Frederick Douglass, one of the keenest minds of the era.  In his writings Douglass had high regard for a Samuel R Ward who was a speaker and author of the day, so I sought and purchased his book entitled Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro.

After reading those and many other tomes, a picture emerged from the horrifying details of the war and from slavery that likened them to Hitler's state policy of mass murder.  People should wake up to the reality that these things occurred on American soil, and should never again be repeated in concept or in deed.