Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Pick A Topic

This week, Cee has asked us to choose a topic from the picture she has kindly provided, for her Fun Foto Challenge. Right away, the vintage car caught my eye. As you may be aware, if you read my previous post, I’m a big fan of Volo Auto Museum and since it was one of the last places we were able to visit before everything started closing down, this challenge provided a good opportunity for me to share a few more images that I captured while I was there. Thanks, Cee!

 

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Books and Paper

This week, Cee has chosen Books and Paper as the subject for her Fun Foto Challenge.  I love old books and the second-hand book stores that sell them!  Some of my favorite places to visit in London were those shops that sold used classics and hard-to-find books. Now, when we visit historic houses and museums, I’m always interested to see just which books they have in their displays, from places like the Stephenson County Historical Museum and the Williamson County Jail Museum in Illinois to the grand library at the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina.

Pictured above is an ornate photo album on display at the Historical Museum in Marion, Illinois. Below are books that are an important part of my own family history. Both are prayer books and each has an interesting story attached to it. The book on the left was given to my father in 1912 by his uncle who was serving on HMS Black Prince at the time. Shortly after this, he transferred to HMS Indefatigable. Both ships were destroyed by enemy fire during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 with heavy casualties. Uncle William was one of those who died. The book on the right was given to my grandfather by a young girl while he was serving with the Royal Field Artillery as he was riding through a village in Belgium during WWI. She ran out of the crowd and pressed the prayer book into his hand. My mother always thought of her as an angel who had given him a gift that protected him through the worst times of the war and brought him safely back home.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Black & White

This week, Cee has chosen Black & White as the colors for her Fun Foto Challenge. These days it’s relatively easy to convert images to black & white provided you have the right picture. Finding pictures of things that are primarily black & white without doing any kind of manipulation was rather more difficult but here are some random shots that seemed to fit the bill.  I took several pictures of the young man playing the xylophone but although this one wasn’t necessarily the best, I chose it because I noticed that the woman crossing the street behind him was also wearing a black & white shirt.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Black and White

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Colorful Monotones

This week, Cee has chosen Colorful Monotones as the subject for her Fun Foto Challenge. I don’t know if the ceilings in the Minnesota State Capitol Building are strictly monotone but the golden glow seems to give them that overall appearance.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, go to Colorful Monotones (one single color).

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – On Mackinac Island

This week, Cee is looking for places people live for her Fun Foto Challenge and, browsing through the photo files, I’ve opted to go with some shots that I took on Mackinac Island a few years ago.  The island, located on Lake Huron in Michigan, is primarily a resort area and relies heavily on its picturesque houses and hotels to draw tourists to its shores. While I’m sure many of the residents take off for warmer climes during the winter months, there are still a good few people who live here year-round.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Places People Live.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Getting Around

This week, Cee is looking for ways to get around for her Fun Foto Challenge so here are a few things that people drive (ride, pilot or captain.)

Two images captured downtown on the Chicago River. With all the traffic on the roads, sometimes the quickest way to get around is on the river.

A horse of a different color; one on the carousel at Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota and the other at Arlington Park Race Track in Illinois.

And two cars on display at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois.  For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Things People Drive (ride, pilot or captain)

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – High and Mighty

This week, the color is red, for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, so I thought I’d share two of the pictures that I took while I was in Minnesota recently. The first was captured at the Cathedral of Saint Paul and the second in the State Capitol Building.

 

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Red.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Men And Their Music

Once again, Cee has given us plenty of options for her Fun Foto Challenge this week and I’ve chosen Men and their Music as my topic. The first two images were captured at the farmer’s market at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This nice young man, David Chiriboga, very kindly allowed me to take pictures as he warmed up for a concert at the Orchid Festival at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

And, as promised, I’ve brought three talented artists back for an encore from my trip downtown this past weekend.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to  Music, guitar, instrument, men, coffee, etc.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Volo Auto Museum

Included in the topics for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week, Auto fitted in very nicely with a post that I had already prepared on a trip we did to Volo Auto Museum recently. Next to baseball, one of our grandson’s favorite things is cars (the Matchbox variety) so we thought he would enjoy this family-friendly museum in Volo.

One of the things that make this museum so interesting is that many of the cars on display are actually for sale. I remember once taking our older grandsons for a visit here and listening to the two of them planning how they could scrape enough money together to buy one.  It’s good to dream big!

Of course, what makes many of these autos special is the fact that they have appeared in the movies or have been owned by famous celebrities.

I have to admit, I’m not a great auto expert as evidenced by the fact that on several occasions I’ve tried to climb into someone else’s car mistaking it for mine. Perhaps if I had one like the one above I wouldn’t get so confused. However, like many of my sex, I can’t resist the lure of a bit of sparkle and shine even if it is only the engine of a fantastically expensive motor car.

 

 

They’ve added a lot to the museum in the last few years, making it much more appealing to younger children, with many larger-than-life characters from the movies and a nice outdoor play area. They’ve also added several new collections such as vintage pedal cars, bikes, scooters, snow mobiles, amusement rides and jukeboxes.

With all this, a huge antiques mall and more importantly somewhere to grab some lunch, Volo makes a great day out and one that youngest grandson thoroughly enjoyed.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Week 4 Photo

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Murals

Cee’s picture for this week’s Fun Foto Challenge provided several interesting topics on which to focus and after a quick look through the photo files I decided on Murals as the subject for this post. We’ve come across quite a few murals on our travels, both outside and indoors, including this one at the Joliet Area Historical Museum in Illinois.

This whimsical mural was painted on the side of a building in Marion, Illinois.

They go in for murals in a big way in Ashland, Wisconsin! They even have a Mural Walk that covers an 8-block area of the Main Street business district. Many of the exterior walls are decorated with these interesting artworks.

 

Also in Ashland is the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center that has some fine murals on display indoors.

I thought I’d finish with just a section of a rather bizarre mural that we saw on an exterior wall in Lexington, Kentucky.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Week 2 Photo – truck, mural, octopus, whale, blue, etc.