EuroTour 2010, Day 47, Bonn

The day has come.  Our last day in Europe before we fly home tomorrow.  And my last day with my brother's family before not seeing them for a year or so.

Since it was raining, my brother texted me that he would come and get us at the hotel.  Truth is that we were going to take a taxi, but, hey, four decades of brotherhood saves you taxi fare sometimes.

Waiting in the Maritim Bonn lobby for the bro.

Bad Godesberg in the rain.  From a city planning perspective, I think that there is a lot to be said for having rail between cities, and then small bedroom communities around their own small town centers along the rail line.  Rail and town centers lead to pedestrian areas, and pedestrian areas are communities.  Back home, city planning is all about automobiles, traffic, and parking.  Except, of course, in our little enclave of Brentwood, where Barbie and I can walk to markets and restaurants and shopping.  No wonder we love our neighborhood.  If only I could hop on a train or subway to shoot over to Santa Monica next door.  Busses do not cut it, as they are stuck in traffic, but somewhere in the back of my head I wonder about giving them a shot.

No more city planning thoughts.

Rainy days are perfect for games.  As if we would not have played all day, even if there were sun.

Wii Boxing is such a fun spectator sport...  I took on the winner, and ended up a sweaty mess.

FFIF.  Forward Facing iPhone Fun.  Amanda and I posed for a series of pictures, and then we messed around with Photoshop Mobile on the iPhone and created the rainbow & dot-border masterpiece in the lower left.  To the lower right, I used the app Glowing Art to place a sort of anti-matter burst between our frightened faces.  I know it is a tad high-concept, but if anti-matter suddenly defied the laws of physics and clustered in front of your face and began growing, swallowing the matter of your universe, you would, in fact, place your hands on your cheeks and scream.  The upper right picture is an emboss effect I did to complete the 4x3 grid.  Note to self.  When taking pictures with your niece, take enough to make a nice, even grid.

A while later...

FFIF.  Forward Facing iPhone Fun. Gillian and I had a little fun, and since there were six pictures and I wanted to do another set of twelve, I did a Photoshop tweak next to each.  My favorite might be the bottom right, which is supposed to look like it was done with charcoal.  And, yes, I am a sucker for a nose touch.  Nothing beats when the other person ends up with one eye.  Barbie and I did this on an elevator in Stockholm in front of my mother, and I believe it warmed her heart.

A while later...

FFIF.  Forward Facing iPhone Fun with Charlie, Uncle Jeff, Gillian, and Amanda.  Talk about self indulgence.  I took all these pics and played them on the iPhone for the kids as a slideshow.  I thought that it looked so very cool dissolving from one to the next that I bothered to recreate this slideshow for you, the loyal Waste reader.  My displeasure with silence lead to my adding a musical selection.  I nearly chose a hoe-down-banjo-song from the Beastie Boys, but since these pictures were taken in Europe I turned to Dmitri from Paris.  Honestly, I kind of want to do a second version with the banjo music, but I shall resist.  One can only indulge oneself so much.  (If I get get requests for the banjo version, it may magically appear.)

And with that... the rainy day of play has come to an end.  I fortunately got some time with my brother and his wife as well, but I am clearly a photographic ageist.  Pictures of adults?  Pish.  Children are more fun.

Until tomorrow...