Some of the prettiest results came from relatively low cost fireworks ($3-$8) though the most expensive ($25) piece was very colorful and dramatic, and shot pretty high into the sky.

The last couple of photos are time-lapse images "painted" using a sparkler. Lots of fun, and we'll try some more complex patterns next time.

More images are available at my Flickr Fireworks 2008 set.

The new layout in the park, the booths representing various aspects of traditional Swedish village life, and of course the wonderful Swedish dancing, all made for one of the best Midsummer's celebrations I've attended.

On the photography front, this year turned out much better than last year. Though I took around 1,000 photos last year, I was disappointed with most of them, and only published a handful.

This year's results speak for themselves; the 15 shown below were chosen from the set of 80 I posted on Flickr, and those were the best of the 178 that made the first cut, chosen from 784 total images.

Using Adobe Lightroom, it's taken me about 5-7 hours to sort, process (crop, straighten, color balance), convert to jpeg and publish to Flickr and my web sites. Well worth it, I might add. I love trying to capture a fun event like Midsummer's and then sharing it with the world.

Susan and Becky did a tremendous job in leading the team this year, as we pulled off one of the best Midsummer's in recent memory!
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Traditional manly dance.
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Swedish dancers.
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Swedes love their coffee!
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More Swedish dancers.
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I just love the dance with the flower covered hoops!
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More of the hoop dance.
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Wheee!!
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The Swedish dancers continue to be the highlight of Midsummer's for me.
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The dancers head to Sweden soon after Midsummer's; think they look excited?
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A master at work.
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Main street even had a Maypole this year.
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Midsummer's isn't complete without the traditional Maypole raising ceremony.
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Leading the charge. The live musical accompaniment provided by these local musicians adds greatly to the days' proceedings.
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The frog dance, a humorous dance made more fun by the audience's participation. Even the bishop is in the mood.
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You can visit our Midsummer's Day web site for more information, and a PDF of the full-color, 8 page program is available:

Midsummer's Day Program

I've been involved with 4 Midsummer's celebrations and this year promises to be one of the best ever! Quoting from a recent Midsummer's press release:

Festival organizers have dramatically changed the festival this year with new events and activities intended to embrace the community's Swedish heritage and to involve guests and participants more intimately in the celebration.

Visitors can enjoy the magic of summer by stepping into a quaint Swedish village, which features artisans' shops, settlers' homes, artists and craftsmen's studios, a storyteller's den, and a homemaker's kitchen. They can absorb as well as observe. For example, the Svenska Vänskaps Gruppen (Swedish Friendship Group) will welcome casual visitors, explaining traditions, customs, and folklore handed down over generations - even helping them learn Swedish phrases.

Finally, to further get you in the mood for Midsummer's this weekend, here's a few photos from Midsummer's past:

Press the "reload/refresh" button in your browser to see a different set of photos. You can also view more photos of Midsummers in Lindsborg from years gone by.

The clouds that preceded the storm were among the most unusual I've ever seen or photographed, and my friend who lives north of Lindsborg also took some great pictures, including some of a wall cloud.

Here are some of my favorites, and there's a bunch more on Flickr.

In that spirit, I really liked Hillary's line (from her concession speech):

Although we weren't able to shatter that hardest, highest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

It's been fairly windy the past couple of days, and last night was much windier than normal. Still, today dawned with mostly sunny skies, and it wasn't until mid-afternoon that I started noticing the weather.

Based on the weather radar It seemed a line of severe thunderstorms was going to go by the west edge of Kanopolis Lake, about 20 miles west of Lindsborg. Quickly, we planned to drive to the eastern side of the lake and perhaps get a few good storm photos (see below for more on this topic).

Well, once we got there, the skies were becoming lighter in the west as the clouds thinned. Just then our daughter called and said heavy weather was coming at us from the south. We proceeded past the Kanopolis turn-off, up the hill and followed highway 4 to the south for another mile or so before turning around.

Both our eyes and the radio confirmed that while we had missed the Kanopolis storm, we were soon to be fully immersed in a fairly intense Kansas thunderstorm. It rained, the wind blew, but the gusts didn't push me out of my lane like in August 2005. We kept driving, a bit scared at times, it's true, and finally approached Lindsborg. Which was basking in sunlight. We were at the edge of the storm at that point, and as we entered town there were a couple of opportunities to grab a few quick photos of the incoming storm before the storm caught us and passed over town.

While I do get a thrill chasing storms and taking photos, please understand I would rather never have the opportunity. The potential for damage to property, and worse, is immense, and I could never in good conscience wish for such potentially destructive forces to be visited upon anyone or anyplace. Having said that, these storms are a fact of life here in the midwest, completely out of my control, and I stand in awe of their intensity.

Enough talk, following are a few photos of the storm, starting with screen shots of the radar image showing a line of storms stretching from Oklahoma across central Kansas. Lindsborg is shown with a *; the radar images were captured about 20-30 minutes after the storm photos were taken.

One last thing: kudos to the local law enforcement agencies and local, trained, storm-spotters; I rest easier knowing their watchful eyes will help prevent a storm from hitting Lindsborg by surprise. Radar doesn't tell the entire story (though at night that's all you've got besides lightning).

There's also a full baker's dozen of Kansas storm photos at Flickr.

We'll save our final congratulations until August and November, but for now let's acknowledge the historical significance of Barack Obama winning the Democratic presidential primary race.

If you are curious how my original, tepid, support (acknowledgement of the inevitable was more like it) for Hillary evolved into strong support for Obama, a couple of things stand out, beyond his general message of hope and strength and plans to

Barack's speech on race relations, which acknowledges the real issues facing our country in an honest and adult manner really should be observed in its entirety.

It's nice to be spoken to as an adult.

The other thing, I have to admit, is a video that came out a couple of months before the aforementioned speech. Yes We Can, simply put, is a inspiring and persuasive musical vision of a world that I grew up in; a time when America was a can-do nation; a time when we lead the world; a time that is within our power, today, as Americans, to bring back to reality.

we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

We started out at the bottom of "crookedest street", Lombard Street, took a few pictures and then drove around the block so we could drive down Lombard. That's always fun, and the last time we did it, our cousin was visiting, and she rode down Lombard with her head stuck up through our sun roof!

I also took photos of Alcatraz from a few different locations in the area, and then we got to Fort Point in time to get some pretty good photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, which was nicely illuminated by the morning light.

Our drive up the coast towards Bolinas was beautiful, but I didn't take too many pictures.

Below are interspersed images of Lombard Street, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by a few photos of the coast north of the city. Flickr hosts a larger set of my San Francisco 2008 images.

Here are a few of the photos from the afternoon; more are available on Flickr.

View above Pescadero beach.
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It's nice to see the ice plants making a come-back.
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Bean Hollow State Beach.
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Greyhound Rock.
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On the Santa Cruz pier.
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The roller coaster at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
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Seal performing for treats.
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It's been fun and exciting to have been involved in something that started out as perhaps another techno-fad and which has now turned into a mainstream activity.

One type of blogging that I've enjoyed over the years is travel blogging. I've sort of gotten away from doing that as often as in the past, and am attempting to be more active this time out.

Here's to many more years of All the Pages!

In Pagosa Springs we found a bakery that had a cinammon roll I'm going to try and recreate when I get home. The dough wasn't overly sweet and had a taste like Sally Lund bread. The old Chuckwagon restaurant in Lindsborg used to serve dinner rolls that were similar to those found in Pagosa Springs, though smaller and with a more "normal" bread taste, not the richness of Sally Lund.

After leaving Cortez we passed through Four Corners, where we did a little shopping at the trading posts that surround the monument marking the intersection of 4 states. We then spent the late afternoon north of Kayenta, Arizona, photographing and exploring Monument Valley.

Monday morning we passed through the Grand Canyon on our way down to interstate 40. We made it to Barstow before stopping for the day and arrived in Palo Alto on Tuesday afternoon.

On both Saturday, Sunday and Monday the air was hazy, reducing photo quality, but I managed to take a few images worth sharing. The first few pictures are from central Colorado, followed by some images taken around Monument Valley and finishing with the Grand Canyon. No surprise, there are even more pictures on Flickr:
central Colorado, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon.

Below are some of the photos taken today, with additional ones visible at our Flickr Eastern Colorado set.

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Scarey Walk video