Yes, I Am A Pirate, 200 Years Too Late

Christmas is over and I've been able to decompress a bit, although I still have a lot of cleaning to do around the apartment. Hopefully it won't be too hard to integrate the new stuff with the old stuff. I definitely think there's a trip to the Salvation Army in store for me. I dug back into my archives and wanted to post some more photos from my road trip in November. When you write an entry about driving up the A1A, it stands to reason that you would quote a Jimmy Buffett song from his "A1A" album. I chose "A Pirate Looks At 40" because it's pretty much my favorite Buffett song. And, of course, when I saw the A1A sign (as we drove past it), I had to take a picture...


The next few photos were taken at The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. I am all for preservation and restoration, but the place was a little hokey. Some of the damage done in the earlier days can not be undone. Plus, there were a lot of discrepancies in the tour guides speech. I wasn't going to call him on his math, but things weren't adding up. Also, when we were walking around the grounds they encouraged us to, I fell into a sink hole. One minute there was ground under my feet, the next minute, one of my legs was about a foot in. So, we skedaddled, dirt all in my shoe and on my pants.

Essentially, the place is now a big tourist trap, but that didn't stop us from drinking from the fountain!




Our next stop was Savannah. It was a gorgeous city. We spent some time in the Historic District, checking out the old houses and the parks. It's a city I would love to revisit with some more time. We stopped in a bookstore devoted to the book/movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and the woman working there told us some fun facts. She was nice, but she had witchy eyes.



This is Meg sitting on someone's front step. I liked the red door.


An old cemetery in Savannah - lots of Civil War era graves.


As we were leaving Savannah, we passed this sign on the window of a diner. It was closed, but I have to say, that's advertising!


In the northern part of South Carolina, there was this "town" called South of the Border. It's a tourist complex that is made up of crazy souvenir shops, diners, dives, all of it with a Mexican theme. Except for the one weird store that seemed to have an African/Mexican theme. This is the giant sombrero tower you can see from I-95.


In North Carolina, we decided to take in some more history and we stopped at a Civil War battleground. The Battle of Aversboro took place in March of 1865 and the site is preserved, along with houses used as infirmaries for both the Confederate and Union sides. There was also a small cemetery along the route. Most of the graves were only marked with number of men buried there: "4 DEAD", "11 DEAD", etc. This one had a little more information. You may notice this young man passed away about a month after the battle.


And our final stop - Baltimore. This is a huge flamingo outside Cafe Hon. They had some yummy sandwiches and lots of cats-eye glasses. Loved it!


Wow! That was a long post, but now I don't have to feel guilty for not having posted the rest of those photos. I am shooting a wedding on New Year's Eve, so I'm sure those photos will keep me busy for a while. I hope everyone has a safe, healthy, and happy New Year! 2008, here we come!

Came Along a Dolphin, He Said "Jolly Mon, Hello!"

I wanted to post some photos from my recent road trip before I forgot I had them. I don't ever want to be one of those people who takes tons of photos and never gets them off the computer. Taking a look at them today was the first step towards getting them printed! My friend Meg spent three months training at Marineland, which is a dolphin conservation center right outside of St. Augustine, Florida. Lucky for me, that means I got to get up close and personal with some of the dolphins! They were extremely playful and definitely showed off for the camera.

This guy is tossing water up in the air and catching it in its mouth...


This guy is clearly posing...


And this guy came right up to where I was standing and smiled...

Okay, I admit that these might all be the same dolphin, but they might not be. Hopefully when Meg reads this post, she'll clarify who's who and I can make the corrections. Here are some other guys I saw while I was there:

This is Petey, the turtle. If you drag your finger along the surface of the water, he totally follows it.


This is a very scary, yet photogenic, eel...


After we went to Marineland, we stopped at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. It's a zoological park, which means it's only a little less cheesy than a kitschy tourist trap. We got to see feeding time, which included giant alligators eating dead rats. Awesome! Mainly, the alligators just hung out.


They're scary on the land or in the water. Which means, of course, that when given the opportunity, we had to hold one. So, we coughed up the money and had our picture taken holding a baby alligator. Meg held the part with the mouth (I'm no idiot) and I got the back end and the tail. I was really surprised by how soft and smooth and leathery its belly was. The weirdest part was that the alligator's mouth was held together by Scotch tape. It looked like someone literally took Scotch tape and wound it around the poor thing's snout. It reminded me of when you buy lobsters and the lobsters have the tight elastic bands around their claws. I digress. So, that was the first day of the road trip. I have to get back to my people pictures, but I'll post more from the trip later!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

Tomorrow morning, I'm boarding a plane to fly way down south, only to drive back up to Boston with a friend of mine. She drove with me to Los Angeles when I moved out there in 2001, so it's about time I returned the favor. Plus, my friend Meg has been down in Florida training dolphins, which means there's a good chance I could be coming in close contact with some marine life. Road trips are awesome vacations. Love 'em. Since Thanksgiving is next Thursday, we can't exactly dilly-dally, but we have a couple of stops planned. As long as I can take tons of photos, I'll be happy. So, if any of you need to get in touch with me, just give me a call. You can always check in to see what state I'm in! I'll also check my email when I get the chance.

Since I don't want to post without including a photo...

Yes, I had a shoot with pez dispensers. There are a lot more where this came from, but I'll have to work on the rest when I get home!