Fish Eggs

Yannie's Blue Ram's layed some eggs recently in a piece of driftwod. They are very protective of their offspring and, once finding a place to lay the eggs, the take turns protecting them and guarding the surrounding area. The eggs are the small white dots below the fish. The chances of them surviving is slim, but after a day or so you can see them squirming as development begins.

The White Sox

Yannie's friend Ovid invited us to join him, his wife Lora, and baby girl Gia at a White Sox game.

US Cellular One Field where the White Sox play.


Liza lets Yannie have the camera for a moment.


Gia checking out the camera.


The Valentin family.

Kristie's Bridal Shower

The weekend of April 5th, Liza headed out to Boston for Kristie, her friend from college's bridal shower and bachelorette party. Here are some shots from the shower:


Kristie and her sister Heather talking with guests.


Opening gifts.




Kelly and Heather, the other two bridesmaids, help Kristie with the gifts.

Chicago Skyline

We are fortunate to have a clear view of the Chicago skyline from our bedroom porch.

California

In March, thanks to Beth and Shine, Liza traveled out to California to visit with Ariel in Marin County, California. It was such a pleasure to escape the Chicago winter and to experience the early spring. The first morning, we went for a walk in the hills that surround Ariel's neighborhood. Here's a shot of the trails. To give you a sense of scale, note the two people walking on the right side of the frame.


A taste of spring:
The California State Flower - the poppy




We spent the next day hiking mount Tam with a spectaular view of the San Francisco area.

We had lunch at the top. As soon as we started eating, the vultures and crows started circling overhead.


Part of our hike led through a towering redwood forest:


After our hike, we drove through the rest of the park and found ourselves in Point Reyes, California. After walking through a powerfully scented eucalyptus grove, the trees opened to an amazing view of the California coast at sunset. Here's one of Liza's favorite shots:


Exhausted after a long day, we stopped at a local sushi joint where the chef made us a special maki that he called the "cutie" roll. Yummy!


The following day, we decided to explore San Francisco. The drive from Tiburon to San Francisco took us right across the Golden Gate Bridge.


An example of the hilly San Francisco streets:


Tea in Chinatown


Fresh crabs at Fisherman's Wharf


After our walk, we stopped at a famous little bar that used to be a beatnik hangout. We sat in the seats that may have once held Jack Kerouak, Allen Ginsberg and others.


Before heading to the airport, we went for a walk in Muir Woods, the magnificent redwood forest. These trees are absolutely amazing! It's a good reminder of how tiny and insignificant we are in this world.

Ariel inside a tree trunk.


Looking up at the giants


Liza hugs California goodbye before heading home to Chicago.

Lake Michigan

One Sunday in early March, we decided to go for a drive along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. We headed south and after an hour or so found ourselves in Michigan in the town of New Buffalo. We made our way to the lake front and walked out on the beach. After walking aways over what we thought was piles of snow, we discovered that we were actually standing out over the lake on a huge piece of ice that had built up against the shore.



On the Way, we drove through a town with a nuclear power plant. We couldn't imagine living in the shadows of a reactor, but these folks had built a whole town right around it.

Lunar Eclipse

On Wednesday, February 20th, there was a lunar eclipse visible from Chicago and other parts of the country. It was pretty cool to see. While I don't have the big telephoto lenses for shooting the moon, I did my best with the 200mm and the crop tool to grab a few shots.

Here's the full moon over Chicago, visible from our back balcony.


And here is the moon a few hours later. The first shot is around 8:30pm and the second shot, after the earth's shadow was almost fully cast on the moon, was around 9:15pm.