The Face of a Candidate

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on August 25, 2019
Posted in: Campaign2020, Politics, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

**Pete.MUN_4756

The bright blue eyes of Mayor Pete Buttigieg (Boot Edge Edge) visited Hancock, NH on a seven stop tour of the state on Saturday.

A good size supportive crowd of people from as far away as Wenham, Massachusetts, two hours away, gathered under the morning sun at a Hancock home that made a classic setting for a campaign…Cape Cod style home with a big red barn and open fields. One supporter was heard yelling, “I touched him!” after she got her photo taken with him.

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What makes Pete run?**MUN_3458

Campaign 2020 Sparks a New Generation

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on August 19, 2019
Posted in: Campaign2020, Politics, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

A good portion of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates came to the Hillsborough County Democratic Annual Picnic on Sunday. While the candidates were, to various degrees, intriguing, the star was an 11 year old boy, Quinn Mitchell. Quinn is fascinated with politics and wants to be a political journalist when he grows up. So far he has met 20 of the candidates as his dad takes him to various events around the state. Amy Klobuchar talked about Quinn’s questioning skills in her remarks; a level skill that would put most political reporters to shame. Not shy, repeatedly Quinn could be seen engaging the candidates in intelligent discussions.

Aside from Amy Klobuchar, Secretary Julian Castro, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, businessman Andrew Yang, NY Mayor Bill DeBlasio, John Delaney, and Representative Seth Moulton had an opportunity to speak. There were also information tables for most of the candidates who weren’t there.

The candidates generally sparked good responses from the audience. However, it was Julian Castro who elicited the only standing ovation from the crowd. It’s interesting listening to the candidates try to make a case for themselves over their competitors. It’s tough to distinguish yourself from people you are friends with…unless you are John Delaney who says we shouldn’t do much of anything.

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Yang2020.com

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on May 12, 2019
Posted in: Campaign2020, Politics, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

Andrew Yang is visiting New Hampshire to make people think about humanity and the future as he runs for president. A successful businessman, he understands that, as opposed to current administrative talk, jobs of “Americans” are not being taken by immigrants but rather technology. He talks about the 13,000,000 jobs that will disappear in the next several years, never to return. Yang is smart, articulate, engaging, loves math, and has ideas that the country can use to deal with the tidal wave of unemployment that is coming due to the wave of technology that is upon us. But he isn’t a one issue candidate; he has thought about every aspect of today’s world. Check out his website (www.yang2020.com), he has stands on over 100 different areas of American life. He is fascinating and intriguing and worth a look. Yang uses an acronym MATH which stands for Make America Think Hard. After listening to him you will probably come away thinking harder…I did.**CNV_5252At the gathering of over 100 people in Milford, NH on Saturday, I was able to talk to Andrew and found that we have a mutual friend. During his talk he mentioned that he had gone to Philips Exeter Academy and didn’t like his two years there. That got me thinking about a young man I had known on Cape Cod in the late 1980s and who had gone to Exeter. Andrew is 44 and I got to putting my math skills to use and figured that my friend, who had been my boys’ baby sitter one summer, was probably the same age. So, I asked him…”did you know Linas Rastonis?” “Sure, I remember Linas, how do you know him?” came the reply. We laughed when we talked about Linas running away from Exeter because he hated it as well and when he returned sometime later after having headed across the country, he was welcomed back to Exeter by his peers as a conquering hero. Then Andrew headed off into the night for some sleep before Sunday’s events.

Alaska

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on April 24, 2019
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Alaska has long been on my radar as somewhere I wanted to visit…but where to begin? Being the largest state it is massive, twice the size of Texas. Well my decision was made for me when my friends Joel and Ritchie, whom I had met last year on my South African trip invited me and my friends Betsy and Jeff to visit them in Juneau. Juneau is in the lower panhandle of the state. If the rest of Alaska is anything line the Juneau area it must be breathtaking. The ocean, bays, coves, passages, mountains, glaciers, bears, eagles, whales, seals and sealions, flowers, vistas, hiking trails, and native culture provided and endless array of activity and objects of curiosity. An added bonus was that the local native tribe, the Tlingit, were holding their biennial Celebration. The color and majesty of the region is addictive and I am confident I will return to experience more of it. Here are a few photos I took during my nine days there.

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Yakutat dancers at Celebration

WATCH THE VIDEO link above.

The older guy making a valiant effort to keep the rhythm of the dance is the 75 year old Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, Bryan Mallott, a Tlingit elder. This group are from the town of Yakutat where he was mayor before coming to the state capital. They are his people. He is an incredible guy.

All the photos of animals are of them in the wild.

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Golf at Arnold Palmer’s

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on September 12, 2018
Posted in: OIT, Sports, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Arnold Palmer designed the Running Y Resort golf course about 25 years ago. Today it’s a matured course with great landscaping and challenging fairways and holes. The Oregon Tech Athletic Department held its annual fundraiser golf tournament at Running Y on Monday. My son, the men’s soccer coach, showed some great form as he plied the course.

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Skaters With a Mission

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on May 12, 2018
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I have been wandering parts of Europe for the last month: Italy, Monaco, France and Switzerland. I almost didn’t go to Switzerland, but that would have been a huge mistake. I fell in love with the country immediately upon my arrival in Lugano, about an hour north of Milano, Italia. Located on serene Lake Lugano nestled between 1000 foot peaks, the town is heavily influenced by Italy and most people speak Italian but they are definitely Swiss. The country was celebrating Ascension Day (40 days after Easter). Stores are closed and in Lugano there is a big several day festival in the plaza on the lake.

However, for me the real treat was coming upon a group of skateboarders flying off a bank’s steps…usually landing, sometimes crashing. They weren’t local guys, they had taken a train four hours to get to Lugano to skateboard for the day…because Lugano had the only sunny day in Switzerland on Thursday. And if you are going to skateboard you need dry surfaces to do so…thus the four hour train trip. In the US, that would be like taking a train from Boston to New York City to skateboard. That’s commitment. Left to right are: Andy, Dominic1, Joschua, Marius, Jonas, and Dominic2. **Guys.ITA_9886-2They are all really great guys; I really enjoyed watching them, photographing their stunts, and chatting with them about their lives and school. They are all 17 except Maxi, who is 14 and I can only assume he is the best boarder in the group, otherwise why would he be with guys 3 years older than he is? However, I couldn’t get him to show me his skills; he was busy videoing the others. I was impressed when I gave them my card to get the photos to them, I asked, “who is the head of the group?” Without hesitation they all said, “Andy.” Andy obviously has the respect of this mates. It’s great having close friends like this and create memorable times together.

**DomTrick

 

Saturday Morning in Teahupo’o

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on February 4, 2018
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Tahitians are a part of the ocean and the ocean is part of Tahitians. If it’s wet, they will swim in it, surf on it, paddle over it or sail on it. In spite of threatening clouds and even a few downpours this morning, local residents were out on the water. Canoeing is a national sport. Nearly every town in the islands has a team or club and it is always possible to find someone canoeing for practice or recreation…sometimes alone, sometimes in tandem, sometimes as a team, and sometimes with outriggers. Kids learn to surf at a young age here. I met a young guy of 4 going on 5 next week who has already been surfing out there the big guys catch the gnarly surf beyond the reef. Teahupo’o is known for its waves. Every few years they get massive ones and Billabong holds a world pro surfing contest here in August. Also in August the whales migrate by here. You can see them from shore and it is possible to swim with them. Yesterday, in a downpour one young guy had a boogie board and was skimming across a puddle in the middle of the road and enjoying himself immensely to the delight of this mates who were lined up to take their turn. Today, I woke to some guys out on the lagoon between the shore and the reef paddling in their canoes. I walked down to Teahupo’o’s beach in a drizzle. There were a bunch of girls and boys surfing. They were doing quite amazing twists and turns…at least to my eyes. I took some photos of them for them. At one point while taking photos I realized that my back was wet. When I turned around to see what was causing it…this is what I met.

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Biking Africa

Posted by mikemunhallphotos on April 2, 2017
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For ten days I biked towns, deserts, winelands, headlands, capes, ravines, farmland, hills, gorges of the Western Cape of South Africa with a team from Vermont Biking Tours, old friends and new.

Our guides for the biking trip were Alan, the leader; Thomas, our botanist; Gareth, the bike trailer jockey and supply guy; and Hanif, our bus driver and all around good guy…they are all good guys. Here are a few photos of the guys.

Alan
Thomas
Gareth
Haniff

Then there were my friends Jeff Coulson and Betsy Evans who where the ones to invite me to go with them to South Africa; I cannot thank them enough for opening up the continent to me.

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Everyone else on the trip are new friends. Ritchie and Joel from Alaska, Steve and Rita from New Jersey, George from California, Karen and Ward also from California, Sue from Maine, John and Pat from Florida, Bob and Gayle from the Blue Ridge of Virginia and Bob and Nancy from Minnesota. We all got along well and really enjoyed the people and geography of South Africa.

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