A series of candid photos after my latest exhausting trips to the far flung corners of the world.  Now planning a lengthy trip to the remote parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guiana and Sri Lanka.

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…-

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark -- 1995

Because of the intense rains all of California has experienced over the past six months, superblooms are occurring everywhere, particularly here in the desert east of Los Angeles.  Here are a series of photos taken at Lake Elsinore, Joshua Tree National Park, and Anza-Borrego Springs State Park.

Short trip to upper northwest Washington to view the stark beauty of the coast.

I've been remiss in posting my travels over the past eighteen months.  Spending too much time enjoying the experiences, and not documenting what I encountered.  So the next series of posts will attempt to remedy. 

Spent six weeks in Cuba and Belize, one week in La Habana, and the rest traveling the countryside. Beautiful, yet improvised, particularly Cuba. Some parts of each city were refurbished, the rest were a testament to the paucity of services available under a Communist rule.Younger people have been indoctrinated since birth, and, although secretively, they have access to the Western world, they still reject its basic tenets. No sense in arguing, because their perspective is too narrow.  And, they have not been taught to challenge what they hear or read.