March Madness

 

Indiana Historical Society. Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The State of Indiana is about to be the center of attention for basketball, hosting 170 competitive basketball games from the high school level to the pros between today and 5 April. Indiana is serving as the host for the NCAA Men's Division I, II and III National Championship tournaments at sites across the state. I love basketball and worked at the NCAA while I was in law school. In many ways basketball is in my blood.

While I've had a number of basketball-related posts on the blog over the years, it looks like I haven't posted about March Madness during the month of March before. I'll have more on the tournament with some historic photos from the State this month.

Casa del Mar

 

Source: LAPL. Casa del Mar, Santa Monica.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the building across the street from our first apartment in Santa Monica was the historic hotel Casa del Mar. The undated photo above shows the beachside of the Club. Last year I wrote about how this stretch of beach is close to another historic spot, the Bay Street Beach Historic District.

Casa del Mar opened as a private beach club in 1926. The building has gone through a series of different uses, and has been a luxury hotel since 1999.

Fifteen Years

 

Photo by A. Jones. Santa Monica, 4 Mar 2006.

Fifteen years ago last week we made the move to Santa Monica, California. I wrote about this for the tenth anniversary of our westward move in 2016. It's hard to believe the time has passed so quickly, and how much has changed. I think our pandemic year is making me feel the passage much more. We're two months into 2021 and almost a year since we went into COVID lockdowns. I'm missing my visits to LA and with colleagues very much. 

The photo above is one of the earliest I've been able to find from our first week in LA. It shows a view from the walking and bike path at Santa Monica Beach, which was right outside the front door of our temporary apartment before we moved into our home in April 2006. From Google Streetview, you can see our apartment as the peach building behind Cha Cha Chicken in the photo below. The front of the building looked toward Santa Monica Beach and the historic Hotel Casa del Mar.

Source: Google Streetview. Cha Cha Chicken & our 1st LA place.

Transiting in Madrid Airport, 2016

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Madrid Barajas, 2 Mar 2016.

I'm reminded by my photos that five years ago I transferred through Madrid's international airport on my way to our meeting in Marrakech, Morocco. Above is a view from the terminal looking out to snow-capped mountains beyond the airport. I still don't miss sitting inside a plane for many hours at a time, but I do miss seeing those places where planes would take me.

Welcome Spring

 

Camille Pissarro. Boulevard Montmartre, Spring. 1897.

We've turned the page on the calendar from the long winter and welcome the start of calendar Spring. March is one of my favorite months. Soon it will be Championship Week and March Madness, with exciting basketball games to look forward to. The first Little League baseball practices have been scheduled, and this Friday marks the beginning of another season for our player. While we wait our turn for the COVID vaccine, we're feeling more hopeful. We could use a break from torrential spring rain, but it is a big improvement over last month's snow and ice.