By this Author: VagabondCowboy

The Good Witch by Raman; so many of the murals were of unidentifiable (at least to me), futuristic images that it was nice to see a familiar face; easily my favorite of the ones I saw!

untitled by KRAM; this was one of the more creative works, with the Barcelona-born artist using metal cut-outs to make the piece three dimensional

Boy with Puppy and Balloons by Sipros; his portraits (most recently all with the big ears effect) reflect a high level of imagination and personal technique designed to entertain the viewer

Lumbee Indian by Adnate; Matt Adnate acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands in which he works and creates on and their elders, past and present

Stan Lee DREAM by JEKS; tribute to the man who became Marvel Comics' primary creative leader for two decades, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and movie industries

Police and Pooh by Bustart; looks like a case of unreasonable search and seizure to me; the original stuffed animals that inspired the Pooh stories can be seen at the NY Public Library

Nirvana Baby by JEKS; street artist Brian Lewis (JEKS) is from Greensboro and was commissioned to paint a wall at the Pabst Blue Ribbon headquarters in LA

Yellow Brick Road by Raman; this artist traveled from Chandigarh in northern India to the United States in 2018 to live with his brother in Greensboro and has painted dozens of murals around town

Baby Rocket by Spud Bob; the public art in Greensboro includes statues, fountains, monuments, sculptures as well as installations at the airport, in libraries and on college campuses

Garfield and Snoopy by Bustart; Snoopy does not look happy after Garfield has apparently tagged his dog house; it's nice to see graffiti artists using their talents to beautify cities instead

Storm Trooper by Insane 51; born Stathis Tsavalis, Insane 51 is a young Greek mural artist that began as a graffiti writer in 2007; his most recent style is using 3D painting in his murals and he creates unimaginable double-imaged pieces

Ballerina by Raman; there are 200+ murals painted on buildings throughout the city; there's a helpful map that shows where each piece is and what it looks like

Ken Jeong by JEKS; I had to google who Ken Jeong is to find out that he's from Greensboro; in addition to being a physician and an actor, he is also a judge on The Masked Singer

Never Give Up! by Bustart; even the nearby water treatment plant has a mural painted on it; disappointingly, many of these murals are on the backs of buildings limiting their visibility

Joker by Raman; Raman Bhardwaj is a South Asian illustrator based in Greensboro who says he is focused on finding a balance between just creating art and making his work more meaningful

Dorothy and Toto by Raman; this street artist has painted numerous murals with Wizard of Oz themes around town but what's with Toto?; the poor dog looks nothing like the real Toto!

Paint Ball Girl by Sipros; Sipros Naberezny is from Sao Paolo, Brazil known for his Big Ears character; why is it that all these street artists have to go by a single name (like Cher or Madonna)?

Hurricane Ian made landfall just west of Cape Coral on September 28 as a Level 4 hurricane with 155 mph sustained winds and gusts of 215 mph; Ian was the deadliest (146 fatalities) to strike Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane (this huge catamaran crashed into a 2 story house)

We rented a boat the day after New Year's from St. James City to have lunch on Cabbage Key and survey the area; the massive storm surge scattered boats everywhere with many, like this one, ending up in yards

There were still thousands of roofs with blue tarps when I visited more than 3 months after landfall; Bernie and Chuck's neighbors all gather for New Year's Eve and everyone shared their frustrations with trying to get insurance companies to pay their claims

More than 50,000 buildings and homes sustained damage in Lee County; Bernie and Chuck's neighbors told harrowing stores of riding out the storm; they didn't evacuate because the projected path of Ian originally was further north

The storm surge from Ian reached 15 feet resulting in catastrophic damage with loss estimates in excess of $100 billion; Ian will likely be the 3rd or 4th costliest US hurricane (behind Katrina, Harvey and maybe Maria)

There was a stark contrast in damage with older structures faring much worse compared to newer buildings built to stricter codes; roofs were especially vulnerable with metal roofs sustaining less damage than the popular clay tile or asphalt shingle roofs

Bernie took some of these photos during his visits as he met with insurance adjustors; fortunately his house sustained relatively minor damage thanks to its newer construction and stronger building codes post-Andrew

Storm names are retired when they are particularly deadly and/or costly; since 2000, 44 storm names have been retired with the letter I representing an amazing 25% of those (Ivan, Ike, Irma, Ida and Ian plus 6 others)

From my window seat flying into Fort Myers I was astounded at the millions of trees that had died, mostly on barrier islands, from the salt water intrusion of Ian; this further reduces the protection from future storms

It is challenging to determine where supply vs demand ends and gouging begins but companies could basically name their price for roofs, boat docks, pool cages, boat towing, trash removal, cars (new, used, and rental), mold remediation, drywall, etc.

Ian's damage was historic because of the storm's massive size; Charley hit the same area in 2004 but the entirety of Charley's hurricane-force winds would have fit within the 40 mile-wide eye of Ian

El Castillo dominates the Mayan landscape here; this was my first visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site located roughly halfway between Cancun and Merida; climbing the pyramid was banned in 2006 after a tourist fell to her death

Between the 9th and 10th centuries there was a prolonged drought in the Yucatan area that altered the Maya ecosystem; this drought is believed to have been so intense as to cause serious social changes and possibly was the beginning of the end of the Maya

El Caracol was the observatory Mayans used to track celestial events and patterns with uncanny accuracy; on the spring and autumn equinoxes, shadows cast by the setting sun give the appearance of Kukulcán (a Mayan serpent deity) slithering down the steps of El Castillo

This small temple in the Osorio Group features an exuberant facade full of elaborate masks; we had audioguides that were very helpful learning about the site since signage was minimal

The Palace of Sculptured Columns was a ceremonial center with the columns featuring rich reliefs with representations of some of the most important personalities of the time

Adjacent to Chichen Itza was Ik Kil Cenote, three time host of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series; one of only 2 cenotes I thought worth getting in the water, this cenote is 85 ft below ground level, 200 ft in diameter and 157 ft deep

Chichen Itza was voted one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" along with the Great Wall of China, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu; we visited early to avoid the huge numbers of tour groups on day trips

The Temple of the Jaguar was built between the years 1000 and 1150 with two gigantic feathered serpents forming the columns in the entrance hall, while the interior walls were richly decorated in stone

This is the largest ball court in Mesoamerica where a ritual game with a rubber ball was played; many sites here have remarkable sound effects-for example, if you clap once from one end of the ball court, it produces nine echoes in the middle of the court

The Wall of Skulls, built between 1050 and 1200, surrounds a platform where human sacrifices presumably took place; the wall has images of warriors holding the heads of decapitated victims as well as eagles eating human hearts

The Platform of Eagles and Jaguars features the plumed serpent god Kukulcán; the platform was likely used for religious and ceremonial purposes with a special emphasis about military superiority

The Temple of the Bearded Man is quite unique because depictions of men with beards in Mayan art are very uncommon except at Chichen Itza; the site was first brought to the attention of the outside world in 1840

The Venus Platform, originally brightly painted, was used for ceremonies or dances; the Maya studied Venus extensively, using it as an astronomical measuring point, with the planet utilized to establish the Mayan Calendar for agricultural and ritual plans

The Court of the Thousand Columns probably served as a market and center for public business with a wood and palm roof atop the columns; it is thought Maya settled in this area because of the fresh water available in the many cenotes

Virtually all of the surfaces at Chichen Itza featured carvings such as this eagle eating a human heart; Chichen Itza was one of the largest Mayan cities ever built and occupied an area of 4 square miles with some 35,000 people living here at its peak

Commonly known as Casa Colorada or Casa Roja (Red House), due to a strip painted in red inside the vestibule, this is one of the oldest structures dating from the 700s and was thought to be either an elite residence or even a hospital

The Temple of the Big Tables was named for its overlapping levels or tables; the temple underwent restoration in 1990 in which an elaborate frieze showing an amazing procession of jaguars among trees, feathered serpents and spear bundles was uncovered

El Castillo represents the Maya calendar with 4 91 step staircases plus a single step at the top, adding up to 365; 18 terraces divide the 9 levels that represent the 18 months, each 20 days long; the 9 terraces represent the 9 underground worlds

The Eastern chamber is the most luxurious and elegant facade of the Nunnery Complex; Chichen Itza was actually privately owned by a family who operated nearby hotels but the Mexican government finally purchased the historic site in 2010

The Iris Flowers of Hori Kiri, Tokio, Theodore Wores, 1893; influenced by friend James McNeill Whistler, this Californian made two trips to Japan where he painted scenes outdoors, directly from nature, in the Impressionist style

An Outdoor Portrait of Miss Weir, Childe Hassam, 1909; my favorite American Impressionist, Hassam sought to inject an American spirit into Impressionism; were I rich and living 100 years ago, I could see myself buying the works in the Crocker collection

The Beach, Santa Monica, John Frost, 1921; Frost came to know Claude Monet while studying in Giverny, France; in the distance is the carousel which opened in 1916 on the Pleasure Pier

Garden Reflection, Donna Schuster, 1925; the artist studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston before settling in LA at a home overlooking Griffith Park

Still Life of Plums, Edwin Deakin, 1894; despite his fine still life paintings, Deakin is best known for his romantic landscapes as well as his architectural studies, especially the Spanish colonial missions of California

The Oriental Shop, Joseph Kleitsch, 1922; known mainly for depictions of the landscape around Laguna Beach, here the Hungarian-immigrant depicts his wife at a shop in LA's Ambassador Hotel

In the Station Waiting Room, Boston, Edmund Charles Tarbell, 1915; one of the most influential artists of his generation, Tarbell taught many of the CA-based artists painting in the Impressionist style

Cattle Watering, Marin County, Thaddeus Welch, 1908; his paintings of Marin County were popular with the Bohemian Club in the 1890s; in Oldfield's obituary in The San Francisco Chronicle, he was called one of the greatest interpretative painters of CA

The Joyous Garden, Benjamin Chambers Brown, 1910; Brown moved to CA in 1896 settling in Pasadena where he specialized in painting flowers; the village had lush gardens which supplied the Tournament of Roses which started in 1890

Early Morning Moonrise, Maurice Braun, 1920; the artist was influenced by James McNeill Whistler, the most famous painter of nocturnes; Braun was among the CA artists adopting the Impressionist style

Roses, Edwin Deakin, 1912; the artist was 74 years old when he painted this work at a time when others in Southern California were becoming well-known for their floral pieces (just friendly competition amongst artists)

Day Dreams, John Hubbard Rich, 1918; this work is representative of the Impressionist style that was dominant at the time in CA; the Crocker was much more impressive than similar museums in larger cities like Austin and Miami

Cactus Garden, Del Monte, Evelyn McCormick, 1893; this work, done shortly after returning from Giverny, France, depicts the Arizona Garden from the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey; she was one of the first CA artists to paint in the Impressionist style

Red and White Roses, Franz Bischoff, 1908; born in Austria, Bischoff later settled in Pasadena becoming well known for his richly decorated porcelains and, later in life, his oil paintings

Construction of the Vaduz Castle began in the 12th century with the town below getting its name from the castle; since 1938, the castle has been the primary residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein so it is not open to the public

City Hall;thanks to Turkish Air I only had 1 day here since my flight from Cyprus was delayed causing a missed connection in the new, gigantic Istanbul Airport;I was put up in a so-so hotel outside of Istanbul since there were no hotels by the new airport

St. Florin Cathedral;Liechtenstein is Europe's 4th smallest country at only 62 square miles wedged between Austria and Switzerland; despite having only 5700 residents Vaduz isn't the least populated European capital(Vatican City and San Marino have fewer)

The Old Rhine Bridge (1901) connects Liechtenstein with Switzerland and is the only remaining wooden bridge crossing the Rhine; Liechtenstein used to be the least-visited country in Europe but that title now belongs to San Marino

The original Ducal Hat (technically it's not a crown) of Liechtenstein went missing in 1781; in 1976, the nation's people presented a replica to Prince Franz Josef II on his 70th birthday with the replica now housed in the Liechtenstein Treasure Chamber

Liechtenstein is not only landlocked but double-landlocked;both of the countries that border Liechtenstein—Austria to the north and east and Switzerland to the south and west—are themselves landlocked; the only other country in this category is Uzbekistan

The Landstag of Liechtenstein is their unicameral parliament comprised of 25 members; despite its size, Liechtenstein has a per capita GDP of $165,028 — the second highest in the world, surpassed only by Monaco

My visit coincided with the 2022 Tour of Switzerland bike race with the final stage held in Vaduz; unfortunately for the cyclists, my visit happened to be on one of the all-time hottest days ever with temps of almost 100 degrees

I first learned of Liechtenstein collecting stamps as a child so this museum was pretty interesting for me; the country started issuing stamps in 1912 with the Postal Museum opening in 1936

On February 1, 1912, the first stamps were issued by the government of Liechtenstein and honored Prince Johann II; Johann II reigned for 70+ years and is the 3rd longest serving European monarch after Louis XIV and Queen Elizabeth II

The Liechtenstein National Museum would have been more interesting if the exhibits had English captions but everything was in German; Vaduz is only a one hour train ride then a 30 minute bus ride from Zurich

This 1687 organ was one of the oldest and most interesting pieces in the Liechtenstein National Museum; on Liechtenstein's national holiday, the prince invites all the citizens to join him for a beer in the garden of Vaduz Castle

The Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts opened in 2000; with the bike race in town the hotels were sold out so I ended up staying in a small town in Switzerland at a hotel that had no AC so it was sweltering

The Faberge Apple Blossom Egg was created in 1901 and is one of the very few Faberge eggs presented on its side; originally made for a Russian industrialist, it was bought by a Liechtenstein art collector who bequeathed it to the nation