Father of Click is moving

After June 8, 2010, it can be found at:

wahokia.wordpress.com

Memphis, Tennessee

Cooper-Young District

Burke's Books is celebrating its 135 anniversary this evening. I've been buying books from them for nearly 30 of those years.

Shannon and Brian's friend and neighbor Steve, right, jams with one of his friends at the gazebo at Cooper and Young. One disadvantage of street music is ...

... you never know who is going to wander through a set ...

... here is a sample from one of their sets.

Photographs and video taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

Max's house

Three generations — Shannon, Max and Gammi — participate in end of day ritual of a story.

Max created a video using papercraft Mario characters and downloaded sounds from an online site.

Photograph taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

Vido images taken with a Lumix

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis Zoo

The Memphis Zoo has quite a history. It started when citizens became concerned about Natch, the brown bear mascot of a local baseball team at the turn of the 20th Century. The bear needed a place to stay. The city donated  land in an old growth forest called Overton Park, enough money to build Natch a home and the zoo began. It has since grown into the most visited attraction in the city. Bears — like the polar bear above among other wild critters — still call it home ...

... the polar bear exhibit is a favorite. The bears cavort behind a plate glass wall which reveals them swimming through their pool to the delight of visitors, including Max, center, who manages to get ...

... a high-five from the bear before departing for other exhibits.

Except for a few short years in Miami, Carolyn has spent her entire career as a zookeeper in Memphis. She loves the giraffes, but her favorite is the aging rhinoceros a few enclosures down the way. Carolyn says the old girl must be something of a beauty in the rhinoceros world. She has given birth to 10 babies during her lifetime.

This is the closest I've been to a grizzle bear. I was close one other time. I was trekking up a trail through a high alpine meadow in the Rocky Mountains when I saw one loping toward me. There was nowhere to hide, no trees to climb — and running was not a good option — so I stood still and waited. As he approached he stopped, reared on his hind legs, sniffed the air, then — deciding I was nothing of interest — passed by 20 or 30 yards distant. They are much better viewed at close range when behind plate glass.

We finish our day at the Birds and Bees Exhibit — yes, that's what it's called — where Dianne, left, and Sherianne, right, "bee" it up ...

... and Max feeds parakeets seeds on a stick. Like I said, Memphis has quite a zoo, with a little something for everyone.

Photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

 

Memphis, Tennessee

Spot the hampster takes a tour of the house in a travel globe, much to Toby's consternation. When Toby began batting the globe, Shannon called a halt citing hampster cruelty.

Photographed with a Canon 5D Mark II

Memphis, Tennessee

Just when you think Max can't climb any higher ... 

... he proves you wrong.

Photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

Richmond to Memphis

Cookeville, Tennessee

Sadie settles in for the night after a day in the car traveling to Memphis, Tennessee ...

... while Toby guards the motel room ...

... until Sadie finally pleads with us to come to bed.

Photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

Short Pump & Richmond, Virginia

Short Pump

Copperas Creek

Our grandson, daughter and son-in-law arrived yesterday for an evening wedding. It was a late night for them. Sadie finds a spot in the early morning sun as she waits for our guests to awake.

Max, Toby and Shannon begin the day ...

Richmond

... which includes a visit to the Virginia Fine Arts Museum. Max leads the way to the third floor in the newly opened, renovated facility ...

... the new galleries are bright and open, use natural light, as one moves from modern art to ...

... ancient artifacts — like this bust of the poet Homer.

Short Pump

Graham Meadows Farm

The day ends with a late afternoon photo shoot with Annisa and Eric Haney ...

... they the principle musicians for Crimson Flow and are moving to Stockholm to work with the music industry in Sweden.

Max marks the end of the day with a ride on his father's shoulders.

Photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II

Short Pump, Virginia

Micha in the arms of Oz, his father, mugs for the camera. In a few short weeks he will have a baby sister.

The school bus ...

... becomes not just an object of interest, but amazingly takes precedence over ice cream.

Grandson Max arrives from Tennessee, nose buried in an electronic world, lost in the imperative of saving Bowser ... battling monsters in Bowser's in gizzard.

Photographed with a Canon 5D Mark II