“The whitewashed walls of Mission Espíritu Santo tower over the park. Workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps restored this Spanish colonial-era mission in the 1930s. Tour the colorful chapel and exhibits, ring the church bell, and learn about the mission’s ranching heritage.”
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goliad

These photos were mostly taken February 6, 2024 but a few from other visits. Click on any image to see a larger view.

These photos were taken in East Anglia around 1990 when I accompanied my husband Gil on a business trip. I took him to where he had to be for the day and then took off in the rental car to drive on the left with a stick shift car. That wasn’t the only problem, it turns out most of the roads I chose were one lane, lined with tall hedges, and the road had lots of curves and hills. I expected to die on every curve and hill… But I found some fun things…

In March of 1991 I took a business trip to the KEK High Energy Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, close to Tokyo. We, the participants, were taken on an excursion to the Asakusa district in Tokyo to enjoy the temples there, which is where these photos were taken. Click on any photo for a larger view.

Time out from Ukraine for some photos taken in Boston in July 2013. We were in Massachusetts and Maine to visit family and took a quick trip into Boston. Some of these were taken from a car – e.g., the bridge photos and skylines. The rest were in the Haymarket area (between the North End and Government Center).

We cruised from Sevastopol to Yalta. Yalta, like all of Crimea, although internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, has been under Russian control since 2014. The two special things we saw were Lividia Palace and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Kahn’s Palace (or Bakhchysarai Palace) was built in the 16th century and was home to a series of Crimean Khans. Bakhchysarai means Palace of Gardens and is an example of Tatar-Muslim architecture. We visited the palace by bus from Sevastopol.

Khan’s Palace is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered the gem of Moorish architecture comparable to the palaces of the Alhambra in Spain and the Topkapi in Turkey.

In this post I want to show some of the photos I took in Santa Fe in 2009 and 2014. It is a beautiful and historic city to visit, with a downtown small enough to be very walkable. My photographs of three Santa Fe churches are in three other posts: Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Loretto Chapel, and San Miguel Chapel. As always, click on a photo for a larger view.

Loretto Chapel is famous for its spiral staircase. The building, a chapel for a girls’ school, was built by the same French architects who designed the St. Francis Cathedral. Like the cathedral, the stained glass windows came from France. The building was commissioned in 1873. I will quote from Wikipedia on the staircase – it is well worth reading why this staircase is notable, but first note, it has no central pole.
“It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase (the “Miraculous Stair”). The Sisters of Loretto credited St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder were considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto.”

I was working on photos I have taken in Santa Fe and discovered so many of the St. Francis Cathedral, mostly interior, that I am making a separate story for the cathedral. The current building was built on the site of two previous previous churches. It was designed in the Romanesque Revival style and was completed in 1887. The stained glass windows were imported from France. I am no expert on this building, but wanted to share my photographs of it.

Odesa has a long and complicated history, like much of this area. In antiquity there was a Greek settlement at the site. There is known to have been a settlement which was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by 1415. The Grand Duchy included large portions of the former Kievan Rus’ and other neighbouring states, including what is now Belarus, Lithuania, most of Ukraine as well as parts of Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia. Odesa became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1529 until the Ottomans’ defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). In 1794 Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, established a navy harbor and trading port and soon after it was named Odesa. From 1819 to 1858, it was a free port. During the Soviet period it was a trading port and naval base. Ukraine became independent again when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Odesa is the third largest city in Ukraine and (was) a major seaport and transportation hub.