I have been very blessed in so many ways in my life. One of these great blessings is that I have been afforded the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world and discover the beauty of these places, people, and cultures. Ours is a truly remarkable planet. In addition to the incredible and often indescribable beauty of God's handiwork in nature are the human endeavors to create beauty in this world also. Below are a few of the pictures I have taken in my travels over the years that have really amazed me in their beauty, uniqueness, or humor. I hope you find some of these pictures as beautiful or as fascinating as I did.
St. Peter's square, Vatican City at night
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
The Treasury at Petra, Jordan.
The Octopus Tree, Cape Meares, Oregon Coast
The rugged beauty of the Oregon coast line
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean, Lincoln City, Oregon
The Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park
Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho
Arch at City of Rocks National Monument, Idaho
Windmill on the grounds of Kastellet (The Citadel), a military star-shaped fort built in the 1660's in Copenhagen, Denmark. The fort is still an active military base today.
Nordhavn Street, Copenhagen, Denmark
Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, Scotland
Death Valley National Park, California
Elephant Rock, Iceland
Zion National Park, Utah
Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls, Idaho
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
The lesser known "Monastery" at Petra, Jordan
Pharaonic tomb in Valley of the Kings, Egypt
Inside Ramses II's temple at Abu Simbel, Egypt
Step pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt
The great pyramid of Cheops and the Sphinx at Giza, Egypt
The pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. This has since had a catastrophic collapse of the 900 ton instrument platform in December of 2020 that destroyed the dish.
The Pitons, Saint Lucia
The Trevi Fountain at dusk, Rome, Italy. My wife and I would walk here each evening to sit and eat gelato in front of this beautiful fountain during the few days we were in Rome.
A fresco at the entrance of a wealthy merchant's home in the ruins of Pompeii Italy. Evidently he had a very large... ego.
The Parthenon, Athens, Greece
Santorini, Greece as seen from a restaurant at which my wife and I ate lunch.
View of the port at Valletta, Malta
Taormina, Sicily
Michelangelo's Pieta in the Basilica of St. Peter, Vatican City.
Unfortunately some idiot tried to destroy the priceless work with a sledgehammer years ago so it is now behind plexiglass to protect it. (hence the glare on the camera picture)
Statue of Saint Peter on the Vatican roofline
North rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona
Massive glacier in icy fjord, Alaska
On an air boat tour of the bayou in Franklin, Louisiana, and yes we did see gators.
An afternoon swim to cool off from the oppressive heat in a cenote near Tulum, Mexico
The Mayan pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico
Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming.
Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota
Looking at the ocean from Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Puerto Rico
Wild Goose Island at St. Mary's Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (One of my favorite national parks!)
Yosemite National Park, California
View of the Grand Tetons from the altar window in the Chapel of the Transfiguration at Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming
Wizard Island at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Massive Alaskan glacier
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
The Windows, Arches National Park, Utah
Crossing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise, San Francisco, California
2 comments:
You are certainly widely traveled! I also have been to Petra and some of the Egyptian monuments, and I remember the "Treasury" and "Monastery" buildings well. The people of Petra, the Nabateans, were pagan Arabs (the site dates from many centuries before the beginning of Islam), but the architecture shows the strong Greco-Roman influence on their culture.
The Parthenon is certainly a classic piece of ancient Greek architecture. Despite being about twenty-five hundred years old, it actually survived mostly intact until the seventeenth century when the Ottomans (who ruled Greece at the time) used it to store gunpowder during a war. It was an explosion resulting from this, not the ravages of time, that caused most of the damage we see today.
Multnomah Falls is within reasonable driving distance of where I live. Well worth the trip for anyone visiting Portland. Years ago I took a visiting friend from California there and she was quite impressed.
You seem to have visited quite a few places here in Oregon. Did you ever go to Bandon in Coos country? The numerous huge rocks sticking up out of the sea make for some unusual coastal views, though I'm sure they're a serious navigation hazard.
Europe is unparalleled for magnificent architecture, and Italy is probably the premier place in Europe for it.
It's mind-boggling that some jackass would try to destroy the Pietà . Not one person in a million could create such a thing, but any troglodyte can destroy. I hope not too much damage was done.
I remember the destruction of the Arecibo telescope. A tragic loss to science.
Thanks for posting these.
Thanks for the comment, Infidel. Egypt and Jordan were my bucket-list trip and they exceeded my wildest expectations. My only regret was that I went before the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo. I guess that is reason enough to save the money to return one day. ;)
The descendants of the ancient Nabateans still live in the Petra area and indeed still sell their wares there, as well as cultivate a few hardy crops and tend their goats and camels. I found the people to be very kind and gracious. My wife was recovering from a bad fish lunch as we left Egypt, but the Jordanian people, and Nabateans in particular all wanted to help her and kept offering her a tea to help. Many kept reminding her that she got sick in Egypt and NOT in Jordan.
As for Oregon, I was born in Southern Oregon and then moved up to the Portland suburbs in grade school. I graduated from Tigard High School many moons ago. I love the Oregon coast and the Cascade range. Indeed, in my younger years I hiked nearly all of the Pacific Crest Trail through Oregon and Washington. I also loved the Eagle Creek area up the Columbia Gorge, not far from Multnomah Falls. I was sickened when it was intentionally lit on fire a few years back by some young ignorant fool.
I have also had the joy of traveling to such "wonderful" places as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and areas in and around Saudi Arabia during the first gulf war when I was in the Navy. I wouldn't recommend either of them, but Okinawa, Japan was amazing, so I thank Uncle Sam for that!
I loved Italy as well, especially Rome. That was my wife's bucket-list trip and I fell in love with it too. I was taken by surprise at Malta as I didn't know much about it but it was beautiful too.
While seeing the typical sites that most tourists see, I also prefer to get off the beaten path and meet the local people. I find that local grocery stores in foreign lands to be quite interesting too as that is an insight into the diet and culture of the local people.
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