It's always great fun participating in the Chinese New Year celebrations at the Chinese Cultural Center in Chinatown. It's also super crowded. Last year I left a little late and it was so crowded I couldn't find parking anywhere. This year I went about 3:30 and found parking pretty easily. It was already crowded then but it was packed by 6. Lots of great opportunities to take photos with so much going on. Below are photos I took this past Saturday, January 18. 

I've been wanting to go to Hallowbaloo in Chinatown for several years but never could work it out until this past October. Hallowbaloo is really Oktoberfest dressed up as a Halloween costume party. Most of the streets in Chinatown are closed and beer and food vendors line each one. When I left about 10pm the party was, according to the schedule, officially winding down but from what I later heard was only beginning to kick into high gear. Next year I'll have to come later and stay later.

In October, I had a chance to visit my daughter and son-in-law in Austin, Texas. Below are some of the photos I took there.

While organizing my late mother-in-law's estate, I decided to take photos of several objects that had been owned by her and other members of the family. Each one contains memories such as kitchen utensils that had been used by her mother in Mt. Victory, Ohio or a painted coconut that had been mailed from the New Hebrides by her fiance during World War II or a footstool that had been used for many years at their home in Southgate, Michigan. Some of these objects have been claimed by one family member or another but most of them have been donated to charity.

After my mother-in-law's funeral in Michigan, I had to visit my parents in Kentucky. Here are some of the photos I took while there. Most of them were taken while making a day trip to Warsaw, Kentucky.

After my mother-in-law's funeral in Michigan, I decided to visit my family in Ohio and Kentucky for a few days. I also took a slight detour to Swanton, Ohio, to visit the hometown of my deceased father-in-law. Here are some of the photos I took in Ohio.

Toward the end of September, we received word from the family that my mother-in-law in Michigan had suffered a stroke and would not recover. We hurried to take a plane and said our final goodbyes to her at the Taubman Center, one of the University of Michigan hospitals, before she passed away. The funeral was a few days later and we stayed in Michigan for three more weeks working hard to get her estate in order. I took off a few hours here and there to take photos in some of the surrounding towns. I also took a few days to drive down to Cincinnati to see my sisters and then to Richwood, Kentucky to see my parents. Below are some of the photos I took in Michigan during this time.

Gregory