We ran into these berries while visiting our daughter's family in College Station over Christmas. I had never put it together that these berries were around for the holidays. I guess that cutsy saying, "Have a Berry Merry Christmas" was true to life.
You're big now. Four-years-old. Nearly a man. It's time to take the big leap. Grab that motorcycle by the handle grips and leave the bounds of earth. Mother Earth. Cut the strings. It may be only for a second or two, but you are flying into a place where only clouds and eagles live.
Looking back out the plane window as we jet out of Houston, the alluvial deposits sparkle in the late after noon sun. The City of Anahuac is in the lower left on the shore of Lake Anahuac. That lake is released through a dam which is barely visible into the Trinity River. The Trinity isa line come in from the right of the picture and taking a sharp turn toward the top of the picture right in the center. It spills through a channel into Trinity Bay.
The last rays of the sun capture this high flying streaker. Standing on the ground, it was obvious that the plain was zooming across the sky. The camera, lens however, looses track of up, down -- a sort of vertigo, loosing track of the horizon. The effect makes it look like a comet striking down.
This critter is one of the regulars at the Trinity River Mouth Waterbird Rookery on the east side of the I-10 bridge over the Trinity River. The Rookery has a parking area and a overlook pier that makes a favorite spot for bird watchin. Bring binoculars -- the view is incredible but the action is often on the other side of the lake. Look for Anhingas, White Ibis, Little Blue Herons, and Roseate Spoonbills in this area. It is incredible that a site such as this is available just off the I-10.
Another shot from the Downtown Aquarium in Houston. Our grandson, Sullivan, gets a fish-eyed view into a tank filled with sting rays.
The Christmas Village, where time stands still. Peace and warm lights. Snow, for sure, but not the messy kind. No traffic. No snarling faces. No fences. No jails. No crime. No run down buildings -- they're all ideal, architecturally perfect.
A walk along the waterfront in Victoria on Vancouver Island. The fog doesn't let distractions sneak in. You're fully in the moment. Strolling. Sharing the moment with friends. Even the cold seems more of a friend than an enemy. The water is only making soft rippling sounds. The birds are quiet. "Why sing when you don't know what lurks?" they think.
One of life's simple pleasures -- the ferry boat ride. The water and the waves. The passing ships. The eager seagulls. The sea breezes. Kids of all ages love it And why not. Fifteen minutes off from the regular world into a world which we share with explorers of yore. This is the ferry from the Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston Island, Texas.
Expecting some good eats, the sea gulls zoom in on a lad just wanting to see the ducks down in the water at Kemah, Texas. The Kemah Boardwalk had a bird feed vending machine just behind the rail here, so the gulls knew what the rules are and what to expect. They zoomed in and took a very close look over and over, wondering "what's wrong with this guy?"
Your guess is as good as mine what the four poles are doing out in the middle of Keith Lake. The lake is one of a handful of shallow lakes just to the north and west of Sabine Pass, Texas. The sun was doing one of its high value shows and so I pulled over to capture it. The black band on the horizon was a front passing through. The sun had to skip over it to find clouds to paint. Thus the sunset colors only start in the middle of the lake.
This guy came swimming up to our boat on a swamp tour in Orange, Texas a couple years ago. I think he was hoping one of us would hop overboard. He was about 4 1/2 foot long -- I guess that makes him a teenager or something. Tour guide Eli Tate of Adventure Tours 2000+ had a great command of the ways of the river and bayous and where to find these wild creatures.
The Aquarium in downtown Houston is the home for these two gallopers. The Sea Horse tank is at kids' eye level, so you will always see little faces pushed against the glass is wonder.
You've been there. The plane waits at the gate for clearance. You wait for the plane to board. The sun doesn't wait. When it's tired it slips below the horizon. It will be a dark flight through the night back home. And then a dark drive to your house. 
Okay. Here's the scenario. You take a large tube and spin it and then tell a bunch a kids to walk through to the other side. I suppose the idea is to give them a sense of what their clothes go through in the dryer. Anyway, it turn instantly into a jumble of arms and legs and body parts that come flying through.
It's getting late. The sun is sliding from the sky. The road is getting longer. You're out over the Atchafalaya basin -- the 25+ miles of bridge with virtually nowhere to get off. Up ahead the bridge at Whiskey Bay rises straight into the sun... what's left of the sun. 
It's just half the mountain it was when I was a kid -- and that's what's so fascinating about it. Unless you're a member of the X-generation or Y-generation, you remember how it lost half of the mountain in a huge explosion in 1980 -- the most significant event in recorded history (this link has a fascinating tale of the event). In the foreground, the two travelers do what people do every day -- stop to take a shot to remember it by. 
The fog has set in. The wind just doesn't feel like pushing it around. So your sails are useless. This will be a day on land. The scene is the harbor at Victoria on Vancouver Island near Seattle. We cruised over on a ferry boat for the day. Fortunately, the fog lifted around 1 p.m.
There are places you never leave. You may get back on the boat. You may climb aboard your plane. But you never leave. This is one of the. A beach on the ocean side of Cozumel. A part of me stayed behind in one of those chairs. It sits and lets the ocean breezes massage my cheeks every day. It's waiting for the rest of me to come back. Soon.
The City of New York reflects the sunshine onto St. Patrick's Cathedral spotting it all up and making the venerable old church seem almost liquid. The corner stone for the famous church was laid in 1858, the same year the first transatlantic telegraph was sent.
It's the big one. It's in town. You've been waiting, now it's time to cut loose. The State Fair is here.
Bread always falls butter side down. The parking spot is always on the other side of the street. Laws of the universe. Another law of the universe, seldom cited, is that when a ersatz cowboy climbs aboard his steed on the merry-go-round for the first time, he will always choose the wildest stallion in the bunch. He'll have to hold on to tight to bring his speeding galloper under control.
Sunrise fishing. You, the pier, the water, the fish.... and serenity. This is the pier at Walter Umphrey State Park at the lower end of Pleasure Island in Port Arthur Texas. The fish swim in from the Gulf here and their drama with the wily fishermen begins.
Oh, those lazy, glazy lakes of summer. The Boomtown Lake in Vidor, Texas, is right on the I-10 which makes it a draw for campers. The lake is a former borrow-pit -- the dirt is "borrow" for construction projects. In this case, I'm guessing that the dirt ended up being used to raise the I-10 when it was first built.
Night piercing amour
Birds wait for food to be tossed into the air. The ducks wait for it to fall. People face in the wind, staring out at the boats in the bay grabbing the wind.
Anybody home?
Wandering the back road a few weeks back I cam upon this house out in cotton country near Simmesport, LA. Probably and old share croppers home. The weather-worn look just have a nostalgic feel to me. As we march through time, technology by technology, we leave behind things that were once active and useful. We leave our past to the elements.
This sun worshiping perennial was on the side of the road at J.J. Mayes Wildlife Trace just to the east of Houston, Texas, when I stopped there several years ago. The nature preserve is on the Houston side of the bridge over the San Jacinto River near Wallisville.
Uncovering secrets.
Two well known icons, with their icons on top of the icons -- Grand Central Station and the Chrysler building in New York City. The John Donnelly Company did the statue at the top of the station . Fleet-footed Mercury (messenger of the gods and god of abundance and commercial success) stands tall in the middle, flanked by Hercules (renowned as having "made the world safe for mankind" by destroying many dangerous monsters")and Minerva (who was noted goddess of wisdom, commerce, crafts and more),
The beach. The sun. The life. Cozumel here. One of the commercial beaches. Umbrellas ready. Drinks and eats a few steps away. Blues. Every color of them. But no one can mimic the color of the ocean. Azure blue. Turquoise blue. Clear blue. All in one. And its always five o'clock.
Our grandson, Sullivan, is excited and at the same time unsure, as an elephant gets a little nosy. Still, the rest of the day he kept talking about how he and his Nanny touched the nose of an elephant at the Texas Renaissance Festival near Plantersville (don't ask me where we were, just go to their web page).
Central Park. New York. Chilly Day. Dusk just around the corner. 
I was very conflicted here. I was trying to capture the lights on the courthouse in Marshall, Tx. But there was also this wonderfully pink sunset that was setting up in the distance. Finally I decided to see if I could get the two in the same picture. Voila!.
You want to talk about real bravery?
I am totally convinced that the sky likes to play with rustic things. Even in this case, where the windmill was totally ornamental. The spinning toy tower sat out in front of a miniature golf course. But what did the sky know? It just saw a windmill and said "that would look neat with some bright pastels and some glowing highlights. So, one night the sky showed off its work -- I happened to be passing by and caught it with my glass eye.
Okay, I tried. I admit it wasn't for long, but I did try. I resisted the urge. But it was too strong. I mean the poster was sitting right there. I had to find a little bit of a oblique angle to make it work but that wasn't hard. And suddenly, I had the shot. New Yorkers. Watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller plaza. This is your New York. -- indeed.
Did you ever notice that different shapes of people's space? Adults keep their hands in, their feet under them. Kids run with their hands flailing, hair blowing, and legs shooting forward.
Times Square, asplash with color and lights and glitter. Filled with the brushing and bustling of tourists caught up in the awe. But remove the lights, tone down the pizazz and behind it all, live goes on. Needs get meant. In the center of all this? FedEx delivers another package.
Christmas brings out the best even in courhouses, as the Marshall, TX, Courthouse gives evidence to in this photo. The lights are a favorite a tourism attraction in the region. It is a great advertising for their bus tour of Christmas lights through the town.
Heading into the sunset over the I- 10 Atchafalaya Basin crossing at Whisky Bay. The bridge is about a 25-mile crossing of the swampy basin. The Atchafalaya River is sister to the Mississippi in the Southern part of Louisiana. It would love to carry all of the Mississippi River's water to the Gulf, were it not for a gate structure built by the Corps of Engineers to prevent that.
It's been a fun day. The sun has baked your skin and the wind has been brushing past it all day long. But it's time to call it a day. Turn on the motor and lower the sail as you steer slowly back to the channel that brought you here. Your fellow sailors and captains line up in front of you and behind you -- it's their quitting time, too.
It was early morning and this young man in Guatemala had just got started on task fo catching crabs. But he pulled along side us and pulled out one to show us. We had landed at Puerto Santo Thomas de Castillo and were heading down the Rio Dulce.
This friendly creature is from the South Texas State Fair in Beaumont Texas. This particular year was the first year the fair was held at the new Ford Park.
Seems like everybody wants to be part of the drama. After all, this is the Big Apple. The two feathery thespians hope to be discovered by an impromptu appearance at the statue at the entrance to Central Park in New York City.
