Remembering Julie Steiskal

Julie is someone who was only in Laura and my life briefly but the one day I got to know her left a lasting impression on me.  She was funny, passionate about what she was doing in life, and an extremely talented photographer.  This past week Julie lost her life trying to save a member of her church group from drowning on a  trip to the North Shore.  Please keep Julie and her family and friends in your prayers.  She will no doubt be deeply missed in the photography community.

I recorded some audio clips from that day and pulled out some of the ones involving Julie.

[audio:http://www.theharaldsons.com/audio/julie.mp3]



Marathons, dogs, vino and family

This past weekend Laura and I headed north to Duluth for the 32nd running of Grandma’s Marathon.  It turned out to be a great weekend.  My brother kindly let us use his apartment as he was out of town and my folks and Laura’s folks also joined us and camped just outside of town.

Laura, battling some stomache problems,  finished in four hours and twenty minutes.  She’s already looking for her next marathon to get some redemption as the legs felt really really strong.  Here she is at the top of Lemon Drop hill.

I stopped into a local liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine and was surprised to see one of my all time favorite bicycle posters on a bottle.  The Merlot was a bit sweeter than I prefer but they had quite a few varieties so I’ll be trying some more.

After the race on Saturday we went out to visit with our parents at their camp spot.  Lucy and Calvin keeping an eye on things.

“Grandpa” Mike and Lucy.