L.A. to Luray ... A Few of My Favorite Pics

I need to be blogging happier.  Too much bad apple stuff lately. So, from 2013, here's a Sunday break! 

This time, I skipped the Big Apple, stopped for two nights in L.A., where my camera, as you can see, obsessed over palm trees, then railed onto Luray, Virginia for a family visit.

Along South Sycamore in Hancock Park

Anybody still remember these these things? Even I don't use them anymore!

Hollywood streets are all around this big cement mixer; I lived only a few blocks from here on North Orange

New entrance to the L.A. County Museum of Art.  With yet more disparate new buildings crowding the campus on Wilshire Boulevard, the place looks like an architectural traffic jam.

In the Broad modern art wing of LACMA

No, not an art installation.

Now we've reached the clean green of Shenandoah Valley, where I stayed with niece Lisa and her husband, Brian, at their house which they call "the cozy cabin." Principles in the images below include myself, sister Kathy and her husband Jeff, Lisa and Brian (Captain United) and their fun kid, Noah.

A huggy greeting from Noah (I call him Mister McFiddle) at the train station

Magic in the mundane: portrait of a cow out for a morning graze

Cool sunny morning walk

Streaming live 'In the Hood: Guess Who?

Lisa and Brian, barbecuing at Kathy and Jeff's house ...

for an old fashioned hot dog and hamburger feast. Yuuuumy!

Pilot to troubadour:  Cool down home tunes, not the Great American Songbook, from Brian's guitar. I asked for Seals and Crofts "Summer Breeze."  Nice job, Cap!

Marshmallow madness:  I laugh instantly at this photo, which shamefully I played a hand in provoking. 

Kathy coaches the fire

We're back in Culpeper, waiting for my train to D.C.

Back on the tracks, riding Amtrak's Empire Builder, bound for Portland

I have always found the scenery around and through Montana to be so beautifully spare.  The calming simplicity alone makes it, for me, more appealing than the landscape of New Mexico.

Train stop in Whitefish.  I like this picture so much, let's end the trip here.

First posted May 5, 2013