Reflections on 2018

Photos by Patrick Jones. My Instagram BestNine for 2018.

As I have done each year on this blog, I write a post reflecting back on my highlights and travels from the previous year. While 2018 has been a garbage year for the country as a whole, I had a number of really great experiences. I have found myself using Instagram more than Facebook, or this blog, for sharing photos while I travel. As an example, the photo above shows my top nine most liked photos of 2018. The top left is a piece by Banksy taken at the Beyond the Streets exhibition in Los Angeles in May. The top middle is a view of La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The top right is from Barcelona. The middle left is a view of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the middle photo is a mural by Hawaiian artist Kamea Hadar in Long Beach, and the middle right shows a group of luchadores driving classic cars in Los Angeles. The bottom row are murals from Pow Wow Hawaii, taken in March 2018 while we were in Honolulu on Spring Break.

Recap

I started January returning from a visit with family in Columbia, South Carolina. Later in the month, I made my annual January trip to Los Angeles. I was able to visit the Getty Museum and catch a sunset view.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Sunset at the Getty Museum. 17 Jan 2018.

In February we moved into a new house. I recall the pain of walking and climbing 48 miles in five days, on top of the all the boxes I moved half a mile from the old house to the new one.

Shortly after the move, I flew to Singapore to deliver training, and then went to Kathmandu, Nepal for a conference. Nepal was amazing, and I wish I had more time to see the country. While in Singapore I was able to catch the stunning Art from the Streets exhibition at the Art Science Museum, one of three excellent street art exhibitions I was able to see during 2018.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Crystal Universe, Art Science Museum. 19 Feb 2018.

The following month I flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for meetings. This place brings back many memories, and I have been lucky to visit San Juan over the years going back to 1999. It is good to see the island recovering from the devastating hurricanes from 2017.

At the end of March, we took a family trip to Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii. This was a lovely trip, but I think we enjoyed our time in a house on Kauai most. Some highlights were the catamaran trip with Captain Andy's, seeing whales and swimming with turtles, a lazy afternoon at Lava Lava Beach Club, and a helicopter ride around the Na'Pali Coast

Photo by Patrick Jones. Art by MField. Lava Lava Beach Club, Kauai. 27 Mar 2018.

Mom, Laura and I after the helicopter ride, Kauai. 29 Mar 2018.

In April I went to Ankara, Turkey to deliver a training and speak at a conference. I also saw a very cool art exhibition at the Renwick Gallery in DC on the art of Burning Man. April and May were also filled with watching Little League Baseball games. In mid-May I returned to LA and managed to catch the excellent Beyond the Streets exhibition.

Speaking at Middle East DNS Forum, Ankara, Turkey. 25 Apr 2018.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Behind the Hollywood Sign. LA. 18 May 2018.

In June I helped deliver a training in Istanbul, and ended the month with meetings in Panama. While in Panama I was able to see the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. I also managed a bonus day in Casco Viejo, Panama.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Sunset over Istanbul. 5 Jun 2018.

In July we returned to South Carolina, where we had a wonderful visit with family and managed to get out on the boat on Lake Murray. We closed out the month with an impressive concert by Beyoncé and Jay-Z at Fed Ex Field. In August I was back in LA for meetings, and I was able to catch a Major League Soccer game between the LA Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids. I also saw the Vitality and Verve exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art.

September included another trip to LA for meetings, followed by a long weekend for Allison and I in Sonoma. We were able to enjoy a winery tour with friends and experience the amazing grounds of the Donum Estate and historic Three Sticks Adobe in Sonoma. We finished the trip in San Francisco with my frequent traveling sister and a great dinner in Chinatown.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural in Healdsburg, California. 28 Sept 2018.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Merlot grapes, Geyserville, CA. 28 Sept 2018.

Early October kicked off with our annual Art on the Avenue. We took the kids to see the replica Viking ship Draken Harald Hårfagre at the Wharf DC. October also included more Little League Baseball under the lights.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Draken Harald Hårfagre. 8 Oct 2018.

At the end of the month, I flew to Barcelona for our annual general meeting. During the meeting I was able to see Leo Messi and FC Barcelona beat La Liga rivals Sevilla 4-2, along with an unfortunate broken arm injury to Messi. The stadium atmosphere was amazing though and this certainly checked off a bucket list item for me.

Photo by Patrick Jones. FC Barcelona game, 20 Oct 2018.

On the return flight from Barcelona, I had a stopover in Dublin and captured moody early morning lights over the Liffey River. I shared many more photos from Barcelona and Dublin on Instagram.

In November I had one more trip to Los Angeles for meetings. December capped off the year with a whirlwind trip through Dubai, Moscow, Minsk, Kyiv and Athens. This trip marked my first visit to Greece, a truly stunning place. 24 hours is not enough for Athens, I will have to go back and take the family.

Photo by Patrick Jones. View from my Airbnb. 8 Dec 2018.

Looking at this review brings back memories of the year. I was really lucky to see so many places and share these experiences with family and great friends.

2019 promises new places and return visits to some old favorites. I am starting the year with a round-the-world trip to three offices - LA, Singapore, Brussels. LA and Singapore are two of my favorite cities. This will be my second round-the-world, first since 2014. February and March also have long flights scheduled, and I will be making several trips to Asia during the first half of the year. I am looking forward to reunions with great friends, and I'm already planning a family trip for summer 2019.

From a family history perspective, I started a project to convert a series of old slides taken by both sets of grandparents, ranging in dates from the 1950s to 1970s and mid 1980s. This has already yielded some wonderful finds, restoring history to digital and bringing about some photographic time travel.

I have a few good books underway which will carry me into 2019. David Kipen's Dear Los Angeles has been a fascinating read. For Christmas I was gifted the hefty Beastie Boys Book, a 571 page memoir written by Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz. I will have more thoughts on these into the New Year.

I keep this blog for myself and family. Sometimes distant cousins stumble onto these pages and reach out online. Maybe some years down the line my kids will see these pages, the photos and stories I have captured on the family history and my own adventures.

Trip back to Tucson

Photo by L. Reid. Tucson, Arizona. 1970.

This is another set of photos converted from slides that were taken by my grandparents. I am almost finished going through the various sets. These photos were taken on the same family trip back to Tucson in 1970. The third photo shows Carrillo Elementary, where my Granny and her siblings attended school when they lived in Tucson.

Saguaro National Park, Tucson. 1970.

Carrillo School, Tucson, 1970.

Christmas decorations on Wilshire, 1937

LA Public Library Digital Collection. Wilshire Avenue, 1937.

Presents under the tree, 1971

Indianapolis, Indiana, Christmas 1971.

Christmas lights, 1931

Christmas Agave, Los Angeles, 1931. LA Public Library Digital Collection.

Christmas at the beach, 1973

LA Times Photographic Archive. Beach goers in Marina del Rey, Christmas 1973.

In a new light

Grandma Lois with dog, Indianapolis, Indiana. 1970.

As I go through the slides that belonged to my grandparents, I run across some gems that help put family members in a new perspective. These first two are of my Grandma Lois, taken at the home of my Granny and Grandpa Leo, around 1970. The third photo shows Grandma Lois on a boat, likely at Kentucky Lake.

Grandma Lois with cat.

Grandma Lois, Kentucky Lake.

Granny and Grandpa Leo.

Visit to Tucson

Plutarco and Granny, Mission San Xavier, Tucson. 1970.

From the set of slides I am currently converting into digital, here are a few more photos from the visit by my grandparents to Tucson, Arizona in 1970. The first shows my Granny and her father, my great-grandfather, Plutarco Campuzano at the San Xavier del Bac Mission outside Tucson. The one below shows the two of them on his porch in Tucson.

Granny and Plutarco. Tucson.

The third shows my Granny sitting on the left, with her aunt Concepcion Campuzano Polito in the middle, and her daughter Betty on the right.

Lydia, Concha, Betty. Tucson, 1970.

More recovered history

Plutarco Campuzano, 1970.

My Mom has brought back from Indiana a large set of old slides that belonged to her parents. Some of the slides were purchased while on vacations in Egypt, Israel, Hawaii, and other places. So far, the sets range from 1970 up to about 1981, although I am hoping to find some older slides showing the family. The photo above is my great-grandfather, Plutarco "Pete" Campuzano, taken in 1970 during a family trip to Tucson, Arizona.

I am currently using the same slide converter I used back in September to convert slides taken by my Gumpy into digital.

Granny, 1970.

Art in the Moscow Metro

Photo by Patrick Jones. Painting in Kievskaya Station, 3 Dec 2018.

One of the best spots for art in Moscow is in the Metro stations on the Circle line. These stations were completed between 1950-1954 and feature interesting art and architecture details. I arrived in Moscow on a day when many of the museums were closed, so I did the next best thing and followed the Circle line around for several stops and took photos of the mosaics, stained glass and interesting details.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mosaic in Kievskaya Station.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mosaic in Kievskaya Station.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Park Kultury Station.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Stained glass in Novoslobodskaya Station.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Novoslobodskaya Station.

Historic Venue

Photo by Patrick Jones. Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 8 Dec 2018.

While on a stopover in Athens, a colleague set me up with a personal tour guide for the Acropolis and Acropolis Museum. It was a really great experience. The photo above is the historic Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which was originally an indoor theatre seating 5,000 people. The building was completed in 161 AD and restored in the 1950s. There are regular performances at the venue today.

Art in Kyiv

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by Seth & Aleksey Kislow. Kyiv, 6 Dec 2018.

The mural above is titled Revival of Ukraine, a collaboration by artists Seth and Aleksey Kislow. I took this while I had two hours of daylight to explore Kyiv after landing in the city for a conference the next day. Kyiv is becoming a hotbed for street art. I used the Kyivmural website to help find several murals during my limited time. I have shared other photos from Kyiv on my Instagram.

Christmas lights in Red Square

Photo by Patrick Jones. Red Square, Moscow. 3 Dec 2018.

While in Moscow for a conference, I had time to take the Metro down to Red Square. We were able to catch some Christmas lights, experience snow and see a large ice rink in the middle of the historic square. It was about -10 C that day while we were wandering around. People were still out enjoying the weather.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Christmas lights in Red Square.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Ice rink at Red Square. 3 Dec 2018.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Photo by Patrick Jones. National Archaeological Museum Athens, 9 Dec 2018.

I'm back again after 10 days on planes, trains and automobiles. This should be the last trip of 2018 - through Dubai, Moscow, Kyiv, Athens, Newark and back. I had two conferences in Eastern Europe, and managed to get some stopover time in Dubai and Athens at either end of the trip. Greece was a new country to me, and I'll have much more to share this week as I go through photos.

Charity for those in need

Indianapolis Star, 26 Jan 1941

I thought I had posted this before, but perhaps not. The photo above shows members of the Order of the Eastern Star, including my great-grandmother Blanche Lamon O'Brien (2nd from right), collecting donations around Indianapolis in 1941 for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Blanche contributed many years of work with the Order of the Eastern Star.

Carving Turkey 1955

Dad & Gumpy carving turkey, 1955.

I should have shared this yesterday. This is a photo of my Dad and Gumpy, Thanksgiving 1955. I now see that in the conversion of the image from the original slide to digital I didn't reverse the photo, so it is backwards from the original. In any case it is funny to see this now, with my Dad staring at the turkey leg and my Gumpy wearing a tiki-style shirt.

Good Wishes for Thanksgiving

NYPL Digital Collections, 1908.

It is becoming an annual post for me on this blog, featuring a Thanksgiving postcard from the NY Public Library's Digital Collections. See 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2014, we were in Columbia, South Carolina. Back in 2013, I shared a flashback photo of the 2008 Thanksgiving checklist from another visit with family in Columbia.

Good luck and best wishes to anyone running a Turkey Trot tomorrow morning. In the Northern Virginia area, we're supposed to have a frigid morning. The low is forecast around 27, the race starting temperature may be around 30, with wind chills it will feel like 16. Ouch! Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Rebecca

1850 US Census, Harrison County, Indiana.

I have previously posted a photo of the marriage record for my 3rd-great-grandmother, Rebecca Muck, and followed her husband Jesse A. Smith. After covering Rebecca's parents, John Muck and Ursula Fellme, it makes sense to move down the tree to Rebecca. She was born in Indiana in 1837. Her death certificate lists her place of birth as Harrison County, Indiana. Rebecca and Jesse were married on 27 May 1856, she was 19 years old.

Indiana Marriages, Gibson County.

In the 1860 Census, Jesse and Rebecca were sharing a home with her sister, Julia Ann Muck, and her family with first husband Robert Redman. By 1870, Rebecca and Jesse had their own farm in Gibson County. My earlier post includes photos of the census records for the family.

She passed away on the family farm in Ft. Branch, Indiana on 3 February 1901, after several weeks of battling bronchitis.

Source: Findagrave.

Indiana Pioneers

BLM Records, Land patent for John Muck, Gibson County, Indiana. 1835.

Following from yesterday's post, I am continuing with a recap on the life of my 4th-great-grandfather, John Muck. He was born in Indiana on 18 June 1812, a son of George Muck and Mary Gander. John married my 4th-great-grandmother Ursula Fellme (also spelled Felmey, Foelmey and Foelmy) on 31 December 1835 in Harrison County. She was born on 1 May 1816, the daughter of Swiss immigrants John Felmey and Ursula Imhoff.

Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001.

John and Ursula first lived in Harrison County, and then later moved to neighboring Gibson County. They appear in the 1850 US Census living near Ursula's mother (also named Ursula).

1850 US Census, Gibson County, Indiana.

John and Ursula had at least the following children:
- Rebecca Muck (my 3rd-great-grandmother), 1837-1901
- Julia Ann Muck, 1838-1933
- Esther E. Muck, 1840-1873
- Mary Elizabeth Muck, 1843-1923
- George E. Muck, 1846-1931
- Sarah C. Muck, 1850-1926

In the 1860 US Census, the family was living in Montgomery Township, Gibson County, Indiana.

1860 US Census. Gibson County, Indiana.

Ursula passed away on 17 January 1868. Many of the online trees have this date as 1888, but I cannot find her in the US Census after 1860, and I think the error is a misreading of her headstone (photo below from Findagrave). The 1880 Census lists him as widowed.

Source: Findagrave. Headstone for Ursula Fellme Muck.

In the 1870 US Census, John was living in the household of his daughter Esther and her husband James Epperson. Esther died on 3 May 1873. John then moved into the home of his daughter Sarah and her husband Lee Tomlin, as seen in the 1880 US Census.

1880 US Census. Gibson County, Indiana.

In 1885, John moved to Crawford County, Kansas, where he was living with the family of his daughter Julia Ann. He appears in several of the Kansas newspapers during the time. By 1900, he was back in the household of Sarah and Lee Tomlin, who was superintendent of the schools in Grundy County, Missouri.

El Dorado Daily Republican (KS), 7 Mar 1896.

John died on 23 December 1902. He is buried in Columbia Church Cemetery in Princeton, Gibson County, Indiana.

Source: Findagrave.

Princeton Daily Clarion, 27 Dec 1902.