The year in pictures: 2024

Natalie, Dan and Cal

Natalie and Cal.

Cal at daycare.

Dan and Cal.

Evan with his mom and dad

Tonia, Evan and Alan at airport Mom and Dad take an airport selfie with Evan.

Visiting the Oregon coast

Sunset at Arch Cape, Ore.

Tonia at Arch Cape, Ore., finding a jellyfish on the beach.

Rosehips in collander Rosehips plucked off wild rose bushes.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Ore.

Sunset at Cannon Beach.

Fort Clatsop exterior Ollie at Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National Historic Park.

Tonia at Fort Clatsop Tonia inside the restored Fort Clatsop quarters.

Homegrown produce

Blackberries at sunset Blackberries picked from brambles in Bellevue.

Homegrown tomatoes.

Muffins with homegrown blueberries.

Wonders of the sky

Amateur home movie of total solar eclipse recorded in Nashville, Indiana, on April 8, 2024.

Northern Lights with Alan Boyle in foreground Northern Lights as seen from Issaquah, May 10, 2024.

Aurora in sky Long-exposure photos accentuate the colors of the auroral.

Aurora over backyard When I looked for the Northern Lights from my backyard, the glow of the aurora was subtle.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as seen over Issaquah Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS seen over Issaquah, Oct. 13, 2024.

Egypt and Jordan

King Tut's golden mask The security guards at the Egyptian Museum are pretty strict about a ban on picture-taking inside the King Tut exhibit, but I hope I can be forgiven for quickly snapping this photo.

Egypt's Great Pyramid and Great Sphinx. Egypt’s Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Sphinx.

Alan riding a camel Riding a camel amid the pyramids of Giza.

King's Chamber of Great Pyramid Inside the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Wide-angle view of Tut's tomb A wide-angle view of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

Wall painting from Tut's tomb This detail from the wall paintings in Tut’s tomb shows the boy king and his soul, or ka, being welcomed into the afterlife by Osiris, god of the underworld.

Balloon ride in Egypt Going up in a hot-air balloon over Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. In the background, another balloon is being fired up for flight.

Statue of Ramesses II at British Museum.

Rosetta Stone under glass at the British Museum. The decipherment of the inscriptions on this stone was key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Egyptian wall painting at British Museum My favorite Egyptian wall painting at the British Museum: Nebamun hunting fowl in the marshes.

Richly decorated columns in the Dendera Temple.

The Temple of Seti I in Abydos.

Light show at the Temple of Philae.

Feluccas sailing on the Nile at sunset.

The intrepid travelers at the Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel: Alan, Steve, Joan, Sarah, Nancy and Dave. This temple was moved to higher ground in the 1960s, stone by stone, when it was threatened by the rise of the Nile due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

At the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Colossal statue of Ramesses II inside the Grand Egyptian Museum. Statue of Ramesses II inside the Grand Egyptian Museum.

View of Treasury at Petra We get our first glimpse of the Treasury as we’re about to emerge from a narrow canyon at the Petra archaeological site in Jordan.

Treasury at Petra Carved out of sandstone by the Nabataeans in ancient times, the tomb known as the Treasury is the top attraction at the Petra archaeological site in Jordan. Petra figured prominently in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Entering the desert at Wadi Rum We spent a night in a desert camp at Wadi Rum in Jordan.

Geodomes at Wadi Rum The geodomes at the Wadi Rum Palmera Camp look like Martian habitats.

Petroglyphs at Wadi Rum Petroglyphs were etched onto the walls of Khazali Canyon at Wadi Rum thousands of years ago.

Ruins of Temple of Hercules at Amman Citadel The last stop in our tour of Egypt and Jordan’s ancient wonders was the Citadel in Amman, where the ruins of a Roman-era temple still stand.