I have so many wonderful memories of family vacations in Disney World: the rides, the water parks, the funny moments that became inside jokes. To me that’s the best thing about Disney World, the shared experience.
It was an early evening in late October and I was up to my knees in the cold, choppy ocean. Pearson and I were trying in vain to skip stones across the waves. Eventually we gave up and began throwing larger rocks into the water. My jeans, rolled mid calf and soaked to the knees, were now being splashed to mid thigh by the surf. It had been a bright and warm afternoon, but the temperatures were falling with the sun and the wind was picking up. It was 2002 and my first visit to Cape Cod.
View of Lake Placid from the top of Whiteface
I have always loved the outdoors. Growing up I enjoyed climbing trees, riding my bike, swimming, and exploring nature. But of all of my outdoor memories, I have very few recollections of hiking as a kid and the only one that stands out was with my grandfather in the Niagara Gorge.
I was so excited to be out hiking that I ran through the woods, climbing over boulders and scrambling high above the trail. My grandfather tells the story differently: that I ran off, out of his sight, and was being a daredevil and meanwhile, on the trail, my sister and brother were whining and asking how much further (this may have had something to do with why my family didn’t do a lot of hiking). Continue reading
Vineyard on Seneca Lake
Pearson and I were driving through the Fingers Lakes, from Skaneateles to Seneca Lake, on a beautiful summer day in 2011. The sky was blue with puffy white clouds; we passed cornfields and cows grazing on lush green farms. As we rolled through Ovid, NY, Pearson slowed. A man was in his yard wearing a tan safari outfit complete with a pith hat, holding a rifle, and creeping closer and closer to the only tree in a field. The scene reminded me absurdly of Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas—and come to think of it, maybe he was stalking a bat. We desperately wanted to stop and find out what he was doing, however there wasn’t another house or person around and he had a gun, so we drove on. Continue reading
I was lost on the back streets of Montreal in the rain. It sounds like song lyrics, but it also happens to be true. I enjoy getting lost in a new city. It’s a great way to see and experience things I wouldn’t normally and to get a feel for a place.
Before the rise of smart phones I would carry a map—either an official one or a simple print out—so that I could find myself when I was done being lost. Now I’ve come to rely heavily on my iPhone and Google maps to do the finding for me. But I didn’t have data coverage in Montreal, so I was forced again to find myself. Continue reading
The delicate scent of lilacs are wafting through my open window. The long, warm, sunny days and cool nights of spring have finally reached Upstate New York. After a long winter, the earth is being reborn, and colorful fragrant blooms abound.
Crouching on the shore with my camera—probably trespassing—as the dawn breaks across the water, I’m searching for the moment of serenity in a weekend of excitement and travel. The birds call and swoop into the water, the morning light reflects pink and purple and orange from the sky to the water. And finally, 50 photos in, the sun rises gloriously from behind a house. A new day has begun. Continue reading
We were spending a few days in Moab, Utah, mostly to visit Arches National Park, and we didn’t plan to go to Canyonlands National Park because we thought it was too far out of our way. There are four unconnected districts of Canyonlands and as we drove to Arches early the first morning we saw a sign that said Canyonlands: 30 miles. So we thought, ‘let’s go!’ and we drove the forty minutes to the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands.
La Sal Mountains at sunrise
Arches National Park is home to the greatest concentration of natural stone arches in the world, more than 2000. It is unique and I was totally blow away by the backdrop of the La Sal Mountains in the east. Continue reading
Monument Valley is part of the Navajo Nation in southeastern Utah.
Beginning in 1925 with the film The Vanishing American, Monument Valley has been the visual representation of the American West. John Ford made Monument Valley famous as the backdrop for most of his Westerns including Stagecoach, Fort Apache, How the West Was Won, My Darling Clementine, and The Searchers. Continue reading
