John Van Essen - Home Page

Welcome to my personal web pages. Some links to other pages:

Here's my picture gallery (such as it is). The thumbnails are hyperlinked to the full-size picture.

Van's Cafe Postcard This is a 1950's postcard of a painting of Van's Cafe, a restaurant in Brainerd started by my grandfather in 1923 and then owned by my father until his retirement in 1976. It was a familiar sight to vacationers in the Brainerd area. [534x346] (151K)

Cabin Close Here I am, in my DOOM II T-shirt, standing outside the log cabin that I own on Rice Lake just outside of Brainerd. Notice the vertical log and mortar construction. [388x287] (84K)

Cabin Distant A wider angle shot, showing more of the area between the cabin and the shore. There is no sandy beach - it's all woodland down to the water's edge. [388x287] (108K)

Cabin Lawn A shot from the end of the lawn (if you can call it that) toward the lake, showing more of the cabin itself, and one of the enormous pines next to the cabin. There is also a small outbuilding to the right. [443x287] (117K)

Cabin Sunset A typical sunset. Heh-heh. Not really. This one was pretty nice. This picture was taken out the picture window visible in the above photos. [388x287] (69K)

Cabin Sunset with Silhouettes Cabin Sunset with Silhouettes Another sunset. That's me in the chair with my brother's dog, Heidi, nearby. (16-24K)

Heidi Jumping Off Dock #1 Heidi Jumping Off Dock #2 Heidi Jumping Up Out Of Water Three cool pictures of my brother's dog, Heidi, jumping after balls off the dock or up out of the water. Pictures by David Timm. (160-200K)

Me in 1984 A picture of me, cropped from a group photo taken in 1984 before I turned into my grandfather and started getting offered 10% Senior discounts at various businesses. [167x210] (34K)

Me in 1997 A picture of me, cropped from a group photo taken in 1997 during a trip to Virginia where I visited the world headquarters of 3D Gamers, LLC, a company that my two partners (a Dutch citizen and a native of Poland) and I created in 1996 which was acquired by IGN Entertainment in 2005 and shut down in 2008. [167x210] (34K)

Me in 2008 A picture of me, cropped from a photo taken in the summer of 2008 at my cabin after setting up my new iMac (with the help of my nephew-in-law, Dave). [768x576] (84K)

 
Updated: March 18, 2013
by John Van Essen   (University of Minnesota Alumnus)
Valid HTML 4.0!