Pics of Your Hometown

[redracyma]

I didnt take any of these pictures.

Where I live is just like a big area of different places together.
Northern Kentucky is like one big suburb of Cincinnati.
So these are just pictures of places we go to all over the area.
No where you go around here takes more than 20 minutes usually.

My town is Independence
it's a town of about 25,000


this is the city building


this is the courthouse right by my work
I look out my window and see it everyday
the only thing it's used for anymore is DMV and property taxes and sometimes meetings
the main courthouse and jail are all at the northern end of the county
but this building is old and pretty


this is where I went to high school


this is the indoor skatepark right down the street from my house
the kids love it here


this is the outdoor skatepark in Florence


minor league baseball stadium in Florence
Florence Freedom


Turfway Park Race Track




This is one of the places I like to shop


This is Newport on the Levee
right on the ohio river across from downtown cincinnati
we see lots of movies here and this is where the Newport Aquarium is




these are shots from kentucky looking into cincinnati




Great American Ballpark
where the Reds play


Paul Brown Stadium
where the Bengals play



this is where I went to college
Northern Kentucky University

[mrsvalden]

Wow! Cool pictures, Amy and Gabi!! Keep 'em coming, folks!

[♥ Kathryn ♥]

Nice pictures Amy. Looks like an awesome town to shop in!

[mrsvalden]

These are pictures taken by someone else. I'll try to get some more personalized ones later.

I live in Springfield, IL, which is the state capitol. And we also have a lot of historical sites, especially relating to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln moved to a small community about 20 miles from Springfield near 1830. Then he moved to Springfield in 1837 and lived here until he was elected to the presidency in 1861. He practiced law here.

Anyway, so some of these pictures are related to him.

Illinois State Capitol (statue of Lincoln in front)


Another of the Capitol (beautiful in the fall)


Our Old State Capitol (used before the newer one was built.) A friend of mine will be getting married here in November.


Springfield is also the county seat of Sangamon County. Here is our County Building...where I have gone twice to get court supervision for speeding tickets (shhh...don't tell.)


Springfield Hilton Hotel (we call it the Penis on the Prairie, because you can see it from a long ways away, just sticking above the rest of the city.)


Dana Thomas House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright)


Cozy Dog Drive Inn (where the corn dog was first created on Historic Route 66)


Cozy Drive Inn


City Water Light and Power (our electrical plant) You can see these smokestacks and the smoke from miles away. Blech.

[mrsvalden]

And more...

Shea's Gas Station Museum (I took my parents here last summer. The old guy, Bill Shea, that runs it is so nice. He just loves talking to people about his stuff. He had run a gas station on Historic Route 66 for decades since the late 40s until retirement a few years ago.)



The Governor's Mansion (Where our crook of a governor DOESN'T live, because he prefers Chicago. But we still pay a staff and pay for upkeep and have to pay for his flights back and forth all the time. Piece of crap crook.)


Mr. Egg Roll


Springfield High School (The oldest school in Springfield...there are 2 other public high schools and 2 parochial ones.) This one is very near the capitol and the mascot is the Springfield Senator. Sheesh.


Illinois Supreme Court Building


Gigantic pink elephant with a martini glass (don't ask...I don't know why...but he's been in town since I've been here, just floating from place to place)


Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum


Lincoln's Home


Historic Train Depot ("where Honest Abe left for Washington)


Capitol at Night


Lincoln's Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetary (People rub his nose for good luck.)


Oak Ridge Cemetery...first resting place of Lincoln, but people actually tried to steal his body, so they put him in his current tomb for better security.

[Bibi]

Nice pictures Carol!!! You're city is really beautiful.

[Bibi]

Aug 18, 2008 8:43:57 GMT -5 ♥ Kathryn ♥ said:

Very nice pictures Bibi! Looks like a huge town!

It's very big! Our population has more than 10 milion people, is the biggest city of Brazil and it's the second biggest city in Latin America. Our city has 10,000 restaurants (just a curiosity).

My city is a real concrete jungle...

Our State that has the same name as my city (Sao Paulo) has 36 milion inhabitants ( I think is approximately Canada's population).

[mrs"e"]

This is a great thread. I love everyone's pictures.
I didn't take these, just got them off of the ol' internet. Hope you enjoy.


Shoreline Plaza downtown with new weather vane sculptures on Shoreline Drive


Shoreline sculpture


New Federal Office Building


New Sports Center


Circular Fountain with Art Museum in background overlooking Lexington Aircraft Carrier


La Nina (Columbus Ship Replica)


Selena sculpture


Seagull at sunrise at Corpus Christi waterfront


Wind surfing on Corpus Christi Bay


USS Lexington (Used to film the movie Pearl Harbor.)


Thanks for looking!

[Little Pet Crazy]

This is great. So many beautiful places. My town is so small in comparison. Bibi that a lot of people. Most of our population is in the southern parts of Canada because in the north it so darn cold. We live about 20 minutes north of Lake Ontario. The further North you go the less there is. If you want to go to the good cities in Southern Ontario there are really two ways to go east (Ottawa, Kingston, Montreal) or West (Toronto, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, London) You go North and you get smaller farming communities like mine.

[♥ Kathryn ♥]

Nice pictures Carol and E!

[Beetle Bailey]

Wow! I love everyone's pictures! It makes me want to travel and see everything. I grew up going on vacations that consisted of my family picking a small town destination and just enjoying the drive and all we saw along the way. I will try to post some of my town soon.

[mrsvalden]

Here are a couple more pictures...

This is the outside of our apartment building. There are about 7 similar buldings in our whole complex. We are the apartment on the bottom right...we don't have a balcony, because our apartment is half underground.



And here's where we went out to eat tonight...The Barrelhead. It's been one of my favorite places here in town for years. Just an Irish Pub type restaurant/bar. Great food.


And this is the Illinois State Library. It's located just across the street from the State Capitol. I've been to many library meetings there in the past 13 years.


Washington Park (the largest public park in town)

[mrsvalden]

Since it feels like I spend more time at work than I do at home, I'll include some pictures of my home away from home. This is the campus of the University of Illinois at Springfield. We are a small public liberal arts university (student population of a little less than 5000.) More than 4000 of our students are commuters, although we are getting more and more on-campus students after opening the campus up to Freshmen a few years ago (before that we were only junior/senior/grad students.) They have just finished building the 2nd residence hall, along with all the "townhouses" that have been the on-campus housing for years. The university was established in 1969, and the library that I work in was the first permanent building, finished in the early-mid 70s. It's a pretty hideosly ugly building as you will see. And it is so out-of-date inside. We are running out of space and need renovations badly.

This was when campus was first beginning, and the site for the library was just being dug up.


During construction (we were actually in the middle of cornfields.) There are still cornfields on a couple sides of campus.


The completed library behind a very strange sculpture (I'm not a fan of this kind of art, but I'm sure it's very impressive.)


Another sculpture


The library at night (we think it looks like an upside down wedding cake, sort of.) Ugly.


More library


And from the other side


The Observatory, which is located on the top of the library. This was one of the Star Parties.


My favorite part of campus in the fall (Ring Road that goes around campus and hard maple trees.) We have beautiful landscaping on campus.


This was the ugly "spider fountain" (that's what I call it) that's right outside the library. They can't use it anymore, because it was found to leak down into the Archives Department. Brilliant.


Health and Sciences Building (built in 1992.)


The PAC building (Public Affairs Center) where the big wigs offices are. And the Auditorium. The thing in front is called the Collonade that was built within the past 4 years. Waste of money.


Another side of the libray in winter.


Biggest and newest office/classroom building (University Hall) built within the past 3 years.


The first Residence Hall built...guess the name? Lincoln Residence Hall (very original.) Everything in town is named Lincoln-something.


The Collonade and fountain


Collonade with the library in the background.

[Bibi]

Awesome pictures Carol. I wish one day I'll visit you!! ;D

[mrsvalden]

Aug 21, 2008 6:55:01 GMT -5 Bibi said:

Awesome pictures Carol. I wish one day I'll visit you!! ;D

Thanks, Gabi! I would love for you to be able to visit. That would be the coolest thing! I'd show you all over town! And you could have a cozy dog and a horseshoe to eat...both things created here in Springfield!