Beijing, China - October 2008

I recently spent a week in Beijing, China, but was far too busy to take many pictures. But, here are a few shots. The first three were taken at the Summer Palace:










The "Bird's Nest" as seen from a bus:




On television, the Water Cube appeared a much deeper blue than seen here, perhaps because I usually saw the building at night and perhaps illuminated from inside:




What did they do with Floor 0?

Alaska - September 2008

We took our first-ever trip, a land/sea tour, to Alaska early last September. Here are a few pictures from that excursion. The first shows our son, Ty, deep in thought on the train to Denali National Park:




More of the notoriously fickle Mt. McKinley than most visitors ever manage to see:




Some rushes growing on the swampy tundra:




Elsewhere, fall colors were much in evidence:




My first double rainbow made its appearance in Denali!




An arctic bird glides over an ice-speckled Glacier Bay:




Some of Alaska's cloud-enshrouded mountain peaks:




Ketchikan, the place where we were guaranteed to see rain, proved the only fully sunny place of the trip:




Cue the theme from Jaws:




"You talkin' to me?":