A Very Nice Day

“I have nothing but gratitude to you for sharing that experience with me because it is a communion…You have this special connection with someone if you're their first record or their first concert or their first poster or whatever it is… A [grown] women will walk up to me and I see the little girl in her eyes.” — Shaun Cassidy

Sunday, June 19th could have been a sad day. Father’s Day makes me miss my dad even more and, this year, June 19th is the fifth anniversary of my mom’s passing. Instead of dwelling in sadness, we spent the day doing wonderful things. We started the day watching E boat races and enjoying lunch on the deck of the beautiful Lake Geneva Yacht Club.

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In the evening, we had a cocktail at the Gatsby Speakeasy of the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois before Shaun Cassidy’s Magic of a Midnight Sky concert. My mom first took me to see Shaun Cassidy in 1978 at Alpine Valley. I was eleven and completely starstruck. This time, the theatre was filled with women in their fifties and a few very supportive husbands (Thank you, Eric) who all thoroughly enjoyed the stories and the songs that Shaun performed. It was a lovely day. I think Mom and Dad (whom called Shaun Cassidy “that whippersnapper”) would approve.

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Click here for my videos of Shaun Cassidy’s Magic of a Midnight Sky Tour on June 19, 2022 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois.

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July • Colors of the Month

“Ev'ry heart beats true 'neath the Red, White and Blue.” — George M. Cohan

Capture 52 - Week 25: Sunrise • Sunset

“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.” ― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through it

American photographer Catherine Opie once said, "The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset." And yet, sometimes, we just can't resist. #Capture52 #capture52week25 #sunrise

I Love Paris in the Fall • lundi 21 octobre 2019

“Believe me, young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” - Wind in the Willows

60º + cloudy • 20,755 steps: Saint-Germain and a return to the Luxembourg Gardens: coffee, lunch, strolling, and sailing little boats • Visit with Mike + Mary in their apartment with the view • More Eiffel Tower sparkles

Week 25 - Storytelling: Freedom

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

#dogwoodweek25 #2019dogwood52 #dogwood52

You MUST Go Home Again!

September 1, 2018 (244/365) • Marquette Alumni Regatta

They say, "You can't go home again," yet, I've always felt that home is a feeling more than a place. Ann Mah, states it perfectly in The Lost Vintage: “I had spent enough time in France to know that the words chez moi meant something a thousand times more profound than one's current home. Chez moi was the place your parents came from, or maybe even the region of your parents' parents. The food you ate at Christmas, your favorite kind of cheese, your best childhood memories of summer vacation -- all of these derived from chez moi. And even if you had never lived there, chez moi was knitted into your identity; it colored the way you viewed the world and the way the world viewed you.” (Mah, The Lost Vintage). I feel this way about Sturgeon Bay, about Paris, and about Marquette -- especially the Marquette University Sailing Team (MUST). Today's Alumni Regatta was almost rained out, but we got there in time to see the new fleet sail home.