Kendalls Restaurant, Noble OK

Just south of Norman, OK, if you get off the interstate, you'll find a
little town named Noble and a fantastic meal with great company at Kendall's Restaurant. Try the lemon pepper or the blackened fish but make sure you save room for their decadent signature cinnamon rolls.
Tell Dee and De we said Hi!

Gallery Main Street, Tyler Tx

Wow! My opening at the new Gallery Main Street in Tyler was
overwhelming! It seemed the entire city showed up! It was a little too
crowded, but the turnout for such an event was impressive! Many thanks
I owe to our host, artist Debbie Cannatella, who made the whole event
happen for us. I know there were a ton of other people who gave and
worked to make the gallery a reality, but I met too many of them to
remember all their names! Thank Y'all!

The gallery was built by the City of Tyler, an incredibly forward-
thinking gesture from city government. This place will make Tyler a
cultural magnet for the rest of the region. It is most certainly a
model for other cities to follow. Way to go Tyler Tx!

"Wading Sausalito" 20x26" watercolor by Paul Jackson

Among the floating houses in Sausalito I watched an egret stalking breakfast. The reflections of the houses made for a surreal, constantly morphing backdrop.

"Landing Patterns" 20x26" watercolor by Paul Jackson

We sat on the jetty at the end of the runway on Orcas Island to watch sunset. Every 15 minutes or so the antique bi-plane would land after a quick aerial tour. Each time he would approach the runway the seagull would take off and race the plane to a landing. It appeared to be a competition for dominance of the airspace. Turned out to be an awesome sunset and a fantastic memory.

Finally I found a couple of weeks to paint in my studio!

Sunrise Ocracoke

One more walk on the beach at sunrise before catching the ferry to
Cedar Island.

Ocracoke Island

We ferried the van over to Ocracoke Island for a sunset walk on the beach, but had such a good time that we missed the last ferry and got to spend the night. Walking the beach by moonlight was great! The full moon gave us enough light to watch the ghost crabs fishing in the surf. I found one that wasn't camera shy and photographed him with my iPhone, using Marla's iPhone for illumination.

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse

The conquest of flight

Kitty Hawk, NC is where Orville and Wilbur Wright launched their first
airplane. On that very hill stands a monument to their conquest of the air.

Petite Tour de East

You'd think that after a month on the road we'd be ready to stay home for a bit. This is not the case. We only needed a couple of days to do laundry, recharge batteries and pay bills. Those tasks complete, we made a b-line for the east coast. Our first stop was a tour of Duke University in Durham, NC. It is a beautiful, wooded school with Gothic architecture everywhere. We stayed the night here, then headed for the Outer Banks.

Adventure on pause briefly

Being on the road for a month means obligations at home. We turned toward Missouri to pay bills, do laundry, feed the dogs, and pick up at least one kid. On our drive through South Dakota we passed thru the stormfront twice. It was beautiful, but violent. We stopped to take photos and watched a tornado form. Time to go!

Heading East thru North Dakota

Yellowstone was magical and we hated to leave, but the rising sun reminds us we have to head East. We took the NE exit out of Yosemite toward Red Lodge. Back into Montana we stopped in Billings, then proceeded NE to check out Pompeys Pillar, where William Clark chiseled his signature. After a climb to the top and a walk along the river, we headed for North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park to check out the painted canyon.