June 15, evening

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Just like last year, when we visited Baltimore for graduation, we ate our first meal at the art museum's restaurant.

Last year my parents were with us. We missed them this year, but know they were happy not to face all the flights of stairs at this apartment building....

I was so happy with my water-glass-plus-candle pic last year that I had to try again.

I like the way the flame's gold can be seen in so many places....





Oops, forgot to document the dinner....

I enjoyed crab cakes, as is mete and right so to do, in Baltimore. They had a dill sauce, and came with roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus. Mmmm. Other members of the party had chicken prepared in a Chinese style, and salmon.

This banana-bread pudding was dessert. Nice, but not spectacular.





After supper, we walked around campus a bit.

This was spotted in a driveway. Love the colors.





Oooh.

Oh my.

Let's take a while to get up close and personal with a lovely southern lady.





Wow.

I wish I could share with you the rich round exotic tropical fragrance........

We have magnolias here, but................

This is what surely must be The Magnolia. Our Michigan varieties, though they are lovely, are clearly the pale, reserved, third cousins (twice removed) of this full-blown beauty.





Even after the blossoms are past their prime, they are amazing.







And enormous, did I mention that?





These flowers have so much ... substance.





Presence.









In the next pic, these are magnolia trees around a lawn. The white bits you see on the trees are flowers..... The trees are a great deal taller than our magnolia trees, which top out at 20 feet or so.

The leaves, like the petals, have much more substance than those of Ordinary Trees.....

They bloom over a much longer span of time than our magnolias. Ours go for a couple of weeks if we are lucky. These were blooming last year when we were here in the third week of May for graduation, and are still going strong now (many buds, waiting to open).





Tearing ourselves away............

A lovely peaceful campus, at twilight.











From the elegant and timeless to something much more pedestrian.

The boards comprising the top of this picnic table were fastened down for the ages. I like the shiny circles against the dull rectangles.



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