unculturedswine

I’m back from Pennsylvania and other east coast states and here’s what I learned. They love toll roads. Everywhere. Turnpikes, side roads, tunnels, bridges, borders, everywhere. I paid around $20 total for my 700 miles of driving. My favorite was an hour + backup for 10 miles or so only to find that the cause was… a toll booth at the stateline of Delaware. And to just make you feel all warm and fuzzy they didn’t even have all the booths open! Ugh, that was annoying. And pathetic, to me.

But let’s not let that taint the trip, shall we? I stayed in Hershey for about half the time with Katie and Clint, it was good to visit them. Katie and I went and saw Gettysburg about an hour south of Hershey, and then went and stole some souls photographing Amish people in their beautiful farmlands (pictures soon).

The other half of the trip was spent in Alexandria Virginia just outside of Washington DC. I also spent a day on the Washington DC Temple grounds. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. Our good family friends (and recent Cruise buddies) the Lowe’s were my lovely hosts down there, letting me stay in their Townhome. They also played tour bus drivers and found me a tour guide while I was there ready to romp around the Capital. Sadly, it was all pretty quick but I did get in:

• The Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima). It was huge!
• Saw the new Air Force Memorial and Pentagon from the freeway. Cool
• The FDR Memorial and Washington DC from across the Potomac
• The Jefferson Memorial, One & Two
• The Vietnam Wall & Korean Conflict Memorial
• The Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument just across the way
• Arlington National Cemetary, and the Changing of the Guard

There is so so so much more to see and do. We were there at night as well, so the daytime would have made it a whole different experience. It’s a very beautiful city, despite the political residents. The Tomb of Unknowns at Arlington was probably my favorite, I just love seeing the Military receiving and displaying the respect that they command. It’s just incredible, and so very inspiring. I’ll try to write up a separate post on that.

All in all it was a lot of fun out there, I took an awful lot of pictures and am still sorting through them, so keep checking the Photoblog! On a stupid note, my flight home out of Philly was delayed, so subsequently I missed my connection to Salt Lake in Chicago and ended up sleeping on a cot around Terminal A at the Chicago Midway airport. It was pretty miserable, sleeping is just a word to use, not what actually happened. They don’t turn off the automatic terminal announcements over the night, so every 5-15 minutes a stupid, loud, pointless voice would boom out of the speakers and wake you from whatever liberating sleep you managed to get yourself into. And then they ‘wake you’ at 4:30AM local time (so 3:30 for me) to make sure you’re all cleared away for the 5AM Terminal opening. Yawwwwn. I was so tired. Finally made it home to Utah by 11:00 or so after a quick stop in Denver.

There ya go, my East Coast trip in 60-120 seconds, depending on how fast you read.

Hello! I am not updating nearly as often as I should, am I? My life is pretty busy right now, but none of it seems too eventful. Ryan and Tamara just had their first baby, Stephanie and Harold are watching Zeke grow like a weed, Miles and Beth are getting ready for their 2nd big move in as many years (1st floor this time! Phew!) And then me… well, the same!

Work is going good, I feel appreciated and I enjoy what I do. I also work with some fun people. Sadly, we don’t really have a Dwight in-house. We do have one on contract buy his last day is Wednesday. Photography is picking up – I have 5 weddings this summer! One coming up this week actually. I’m heading off to DC and Philly tomorrow for Nathan and Emily. I’m so excited. The Washington DC Temple is so pretty. So very very pretty. I’ll be out there for a week, I’m pretty stoked.

The other 4 are here in Utah, but oddly enough, all 4 are ‘normal’ wedding ceremonies – not temple weddings. I haven’t officially shot one of those yet, but I’ll get plenty of practice over the summer! Thankfully, I’m pretty sure that my classes are REALLY going to pay off though. I bought a simple round collapsable reflector, and a freaking amazing California Sunbounce reflector. The Sunbounce is amazing. It was worth the money spent! (Some of you know how much that was!)

Spring is finally here, pretty safe to say the Snow is gone. I’ve been wishy washy on whether or not to keep the Cruiser, but I think I’m going to keep it. It’s paid for, and I’m realizing that I’m buying a lot of camera gear that would fit better in the back of a classic SUV than my trunk and backseat. So, it’s staying around. And I welcome it! I’m excited to have it back in use; again. Had a minor alternator mount crack problem that’ll be fixed soon. Then it’ll be good to go; again!