On a bike ride at Circus Bridge in my new hometown of Venice, Fla., near the Gulf of Mexico coast
Summer trip to Budapest, Hungary, July, 2023. At St. Matthias Church in Buda, and on a sunset Danube River cruise by the Hungarian Parliament
Winter, 2024: I did a quick outing to Casablanca, Morocco, and Lisbon, Portugal, and arranged for private guides in both cities. In one of the more lighthearted stops, my Casablanca guide Zouhair stopped us at Rick's Cafe, and I put the tourist photos on Facebook! Y'all have seen the Humphrey Bogart movie, right?
Fall, 2022: A brief return to yesteryear. Visited Balboa Island, Calif., where six decades ago my family spent much of each summer. The "Sugar and Spice" confection shop which opened in 1945 and is where we used to buy chocolate-dipped frozen bananas is still there! But the treat costs a lot more these days!
Me and the gators! One of the first outings I made when moving to Florida in 2015 was to visit Gatorland near Orlando and take the zip line!
This photo appeared in the Tampa Bay Times sports section on May 6, 2020, as part of a story about what area residents were doing for "alternate sports" during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In my case, the gymnasiums and weight rooms closed, giving me the longest hiatus from those activities in three and a half decades, So, to keep at least somewhat active, I doubled my monthly bicycling from 100 miles to 200, and this photo was taken at a stop on a local ride.
I've been privileged to do a bunch of world travel, including visits to all six subarctic continents, and two round-the-world jaunts. These shots were taken in March 2018 during a stop in Istanbul, Turkey, on the second of those trips circling the globe, a trip that also included Singapore. I call this "On the Steps In Western Asia" (with an intended parody to Alexander Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia") as I may never get to Central! Took a ferry across the Bosphorus in Istanbul that separates Europe and Asia. Leaving the Asia side to go back west, I posed for a pic on the boat's steps!
May 2019: Me in the first officer's seat in the cockpit of a restored (for display) Lockheed Constellation at the opening of the TWA Hotel in the revamped iconic Idlewild Trans World Airlines Flight Center at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City
July 1, 2018 My 68th-birthday "selfie" at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
April 2018 The 50th reunion dinner of the Class of 1968 of Polytechnic (Upper) School, Pasadena, Calif. That's me top row center.
At the 186-metre level of the 328-metre Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand, January 20, 2017
An occluded Mount Fuji and Me at Naritasan Temple on my third annual spring/summer trip to Japan, March, 2017
Visiting Toronto, Ontario, at the CN Tower in May, 2009
During batting practice at SunTrust Park, Cobb Co., Ga., before a scheduled Atlanta Braves-Texas Rangers game, September 5,2017; I met a goal to visit all active Major League Baseball parks
Older but still at least trying: In and outside gyms in Florida
Also after the Florida move: A phony "screentest" at CNN HQ in Atlanta as I took refuge from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016
My first World Series game, Kansas City, Mo., October 21, 2014
Some Hawaiian Christmases, Atop Diamond Head, O'ahu, December 23, 2012, and back up there shirtless, December 26, 2014
My 60th Birthday Photo, also at Kapi'olani Park, July, 2010
Winter in Hawai'i: Christmas, 2010, at Ka'ena Point, O'ahu
This picture was taken Dec. 1, 2000, in front of a poster at the Hong Kong Museum of History.
And back in one of my favorite cities 13 years later: Jan, 11, 2014 -- looking a little older!
My 50th birthday picture: taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July, 2000, from the observation deck at the Kuala Lumpur Tower, looking out about a mile to the Petronas Towers, which at that time were the world's tallest buildings (if you counted the uninhabited spires on top.)
The top running photo is me in October 2000, not quite half way into the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. I finished the race, my eighth (and last!) full marathon, and my fifth on the course in Washington. The shirtless run was on a far too hot day near the finish of the Trinity Hospital Hill half marathon, Kansas City, Mo., in June, 1997. And finally, my marathon tattoos! -- permanently celebrating my eight 26.2-miler finishes and p.r. across the right shoulder blade. There's a separate Marine Corps Marathon tattoo on the left of the back, as five of my eight finishes have been on that classic race in Washington,D.C./Arlington, Va.
A long time ago: Me on the Occidental Life Insurance Co. of California float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena, Jan. 2, 1978
Among my favorite trips to Major League Baseball parks were SBC (at&t) Park in San Francisco, top, in 2007, and the new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, N.Y., in 2009.
I tried driving that camel while stopping in Giza, Egypt, on a round-the-world trip for my 40th birthday. The bungee jump was in Orlando, Fla., and the skydive was at the Oz Sport Parachute Club in Lyons, Kan.
The bottom photo was snapped during a quick break in a bike ride, Apollo Beach Nature Preserve in Florida, March, 2020.
I am Keith Murray and I live in Venice, Florida, USA, about 4.5 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
A native of Pasadena, Calif., I lived in Wichita, Kans., 1978-2015, and in November of 2015 moved to Florida. I enjoy personal fitness, biking, surfing the Internet, and world travel. I have visited all 50 U.S. states, and all continents but Antarctica.
Among things I've done in life that I care to admit are graduating from Claremont McKenna College in California in 1972, magna cum laude in political science, and Wichita State University in Kansas in 1996, summa cum laude in Spanish. I've also attended the University of California's Davis School of Law and been in the U.S. Army Reserve.
I worked with Knight Ridder newspapers (The Pasadena Star-News and The Wichita Eagle and Beacon) for 22 years, taking what amounted to early retirement in 1993 and returning to school to study Spanish in early 1994. From 1987 until 1993 I was vice president and general manager of The Eagle.
I worked with Big Brothers and Sisters of Sedgwick County (Kansas) for nine years. I was a board member, and from 1992 to 1993, board president.
I follow Major League Baseball. My interest started as a boy with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and continued after I moved to Kansas with the Kansas City Royals. Then, in the past decade, I resolved to get to all active MLB parks - and, in 2009, accomplished that goal. I then visited the new Miami Marlins' park in 2016 and the new Atlanta Braves' venue in 2017.
While I have traveled all over the world, I think my favorite destination is Hawai'i, where for most of a decade I tried to spend every Christmas.
In 2006, I learned personal income tax preparation and beginning January, 2007 into April 2011, I prepared hundreds of personal returns for clients of Bullins Tax Service in West Wichita. I returned there again briefly for the 2012 tax season, but that time as trainer and associate.
I've run eight full marathons (26.2 miles), the fastest time being 3:36:09 in the Marine Corps Marathon in 1992. My most recent marathon was on that course in 2000 (4:12:48). See my tattoos above! I've also run a bunch of half marathons and shorter races. After giving up the distance running, I have become a fairly active -- though not fast or competitive -- outdoor bicyclist in Wichita. And, as you can see, I've tried my luck in bungee jumping and skydiving. I'm still here!
For more about the Marine Corps Marathon, click here.
For more about Wichita State University, click here.
For more about Claremont McKenna College, click here.
To use Google, my favorite search engine, click here.