Posted on August 10, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Bronwyn and friends

In St. Louis we stayed with Amanda & Steve. Amanda and I went to WU together. Steve is her fiance. We ended up not getting out and about too much. There are several restaurant blogs to come, but other than that, Nate had to finish the race graphics he started in Denver (yay for internet, I guess) and Amanda and I enjoyed talking and playing with Bronwyn, Banshee, and Lontro.

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Bronwyn is the cutest puppy! She’s so full of energy. Amanda and Steve are working on not jumping up and doing what they say. She’s learning. This picture is kind of a lie. She does sit there quietly some. And how cute is she!

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Say Cheese!

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Such a happy girl!

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They have a nice fenced in yard for her to hang out in.

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Bronwyn loves her mommy!

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But I didn’t just take pictures of Bronwyn. She has an older sister and brother who are just as cute (and very pounce-able!)

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Banshee is an almost Hemingway cat. She has extra toe bones in her front paws, but no extra toes.

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I love the tortoise shell face!

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She also maxed out at 5 pounds, so she’s like snuggling a kitten just calmer.

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That looks like her “please stop pouncing me. I can’t help being this darn cute” face. I’m a terrible pouncer! I just can’t help it!

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Lontro wasn’t quite sure what to make of me at first. What’s with all the clicking noise?!

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This guy just rules the roost. He’s 8 and keeps his little sisters in line. He also loves cat TV.

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Lontro is ready to strike!

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I really enjoyed these guys. The last snuggly kitties I had seen were in Chicago, and those two weren’t nearly so patient with my pouncing. What can I say. I didn’t have pets growing up that I could snuggle and pounce. I’m making up for lost time!

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Posted on August 9, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Meg & Ty

HAPPY 6th ANNIVERSARY, MEG & TY!

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Meg & Ty got married at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Chattanooga.  This church is beautiful with both indoor and outdoor settings.

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Yep, I’m WAY in the back.  Thank you zoom!

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Look again, that’s a candle!  It gets everyone.

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Their reception was at The Chattanooga, a very beautiful hotel with great modern design.

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This is one of my favorite garter shots ever!

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They changed for their exit.

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You guys are too cute!  Have a great one!

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Posted on August 8, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

YAY! Missouri!

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Welcome to Missouri! Don’t worry. I took this photo from the passenger seat. Apparently MO is big on metal sillouttes. These were not the only ones we saw. I also liked the www.savemolives.com because of all the possibilities in the interpretations. Maybe that’s just my road addled mind.

I have to say, I think Missouri is a really pretty state. I enjoyed going to college there and miss it a bit. We didn’t even scratch the surface of all of the cool stuff there is to do. Of course, Nate had to work on race graphics, so we didn’t get much scratching done this trip either. We’ll definitely have to return in the not too distant future!

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When we got to Amanda & Steve’s house, their kitties very quickly made themselves at home on our stuff (now their stuff since we brought it to their house).

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So darn cute!!

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Our first morning there, Amanda made cinnamon rolls from scratch!

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Actually, she made them the night before so they could rise and be huge and amazingly delish! Then she got up extra early and baked them. She is AWESOME!!

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Maybe if I ask really nice she’ll send me the recipe. 😀 Of course, with such power comes great responsibility (or great (big) pants). I’m not going to tell you how many of these I ate.

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Finally, after Nathan finished his work, we got to go to Mystic Valley. This was one of my favorite places to go in college. It smells good. They play cool music. The atmosphere is super relaxed. Plus, they have AWESOME STUFF! What a dangerous store! We also went to Pathways‘ new location (they’ve been there for years, but it’s been years since I’ve spent much time in St. Louis). We didn’t spend any money at Pathways because we spent all of it at Mystic Valley. The coolest thing we got was a copper singing bowl. Nate spent the rest of the night trying to find just the right way to use it.

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The only thing I REALLY wanted to do and didn’t was eat at the U City Grill. It was my favorite place in St. Louis, and I haven’t been back since I graduated. 🙁 It’s right off of Kingsland across the street from the Lewis Center (which I assume still holds photoland, but they may have moved to the fancy new facility. I haven’t heard either way. They were still at Lewis 2 years ago when we stopped by STL on our last road trip). Sadly, I didn’t find out about U City Grill until my freshman roommate took me there our senior year. I had been wasting my time eating crappy Subway for lunch (not my pick. I’m just too laid back about food. Well, I was.) when I could have had bulgoki beef and bibimbap. Sigh. Next time I won’t spend all my cash on delicious Ethiopian food in Denver. Honestly, I think next time we may need to start in St. Louis.

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Posted on August 7, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Still driving

I actually am still on the road. We got home, and I had to turn back around and head to Dallas for the eWomen Network conference. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. This part of our road trip was long, but not terrible. The last time we drove Denver to Kansas City we got out of the car in Kansas and felt dizzy from all the extra oxygen. Somehow we adjusted better this time. 🙂

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It rained on us again. Boy does the midwest know how to throw a storm! I mean, this is some serious stuff. The worst part is, you can see it from miles away, but there’s only I-70, so you can’t avoid it. For part of the time we seemed to be driving parallel to the storm, but the road took a sharp left and into the heart we went. Oh, then there was the split storm that we thought we might drive between in the little ray of sunshine. Nope! The road veared just enough right to put us under those clouds too. Best part? I forgot to replace my windshield wiper blades when I bought my new battery back in Knoxville and continued to forget to buy them every time we were out and about. Oh well. Just makes it more interesting, right?

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We did get a bit of clear sky. Sort of. If you look to the right, you see what we just finished driving through. If you look up, you see what we were driving under. I guess we could see clear sky at times. Sigh.

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I had to stop, pull off the highway into an old, rundown outlet mall, get out and make sure I got a few shots of this. Both sides of the billboard have the same image. It’s kind of creepy. Floating head and hand in the wheat. I’m guessing that’s Jesus, but that is pure speculation.

We had hoped to stay with a new friend in Lawrence, KS, but had failed to exchange phone numbers and only had facebook by which to communicate. She was moving that weekend (this is Sunday that we were traveling), and hadn’t responded to my posts or messages. I feared her internet was down for the move. Alas, I was correct (she finally got internet a couple of days later and sent a bummed email. Guess that means we’ll have to drive through Kansas again). We gave up around Topeka (after I saw a car hit a dog and started having trouble staying awake) and found a Motel 6 (cheapest rooms available!) Of course, our first pick had a totally sketchy couple wandering about the parking lot. We backed into a spot in front of the building and were getting situated. They walked by the back of the car a couple of times and the last time the guy bent over to see if we were still in the car. Totally sketch! We decided to mosey on down to the Motel 6 at the next exit. It was much nicer (i.e. no creepy couples casing the joint).

I did think the ashtray in our non-smoking room was hilarious!

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Here’s your ashtray.

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Don’t use it!

AND there was a creepy Canadian Mountie.

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I had to shoot this one with my phone. I didn’t want to stand in front of the poster too long for fear he might devour my soul! There was a less creepy farmer next to him illustrating that they had 1000s of locations in both the US and Canada! I’m not sure I want to stay in the Canadian ones unless they can guarantee this guy won’t be there. 😉

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Posted on August 6, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Trisha once more

I know! I love Trisha! I have photographed her for Juliette Atelier, her wedding, and Adaptable Furniture Concepts. She is so beautiful and so easy to photograph. She is also a new Realtor with Coldwell Banker. I know she will do a fabulous job matching people with the perfect home. Since she became a realtor, she realized her headshot needed updating. Who would she call? ME! Hurray! We did a quick session in the Old City right next to Old City Java. I love this alley. Oh, and her dobbie Beau got in on a bit of the action. What a sweetie! Just like his mom. 🙂

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Posted on August 5, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Blast from the past

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Have you ever gotten back together with friends you haven’t seen in over a decade and it isn’t weird or anything? You just pick right up where you left off. Nate and Wade were really great friends in high school and Mike is the older brother of Dave who was the third member of the Nate/Wade/Dave trio. They had a great time in high school but wandered in different directions after graduation. Nathan bumped into each of them a couple of times, but it’s been years. When I posted on my facebook that we would be in the area, Mike messaged me with an invitation to stay with them. I’m so glad we did! It was a bit surreal. For one thing, they look pretty much the exact same as they did 10+ years ago, so there was no weird “who is this person? Is that them? I think it’s them” moment. Then they just picked right up and were laughing and telling stories both old and new.

I never really hung out with them back in the day, so most of the stories Wade & Mike told were new to me, but I’ve heard enough over the last 8 years from Nate to be at least a bit in the loop. Of course, my high school sphere was pretty different, so I had no reminiscing stories that they really remembered (in fact, many of the people who were important to my experience made little or no impact on theirs). It was interesting to see how different an experience of the exact same time and place can be.

Wade and Mike do a lot of hiking and backpacking which is something Nate would love to get back into. We left with plans to get together for a backpacking trip in the next year. I know Nate is glad to reconnect with his friends (he’s even talked about getting on facebook which would be a sign of the coming apocalypse if they’d had facebook back in biblical times). Even if the rest of our trip had sucked, it would have been worth it for the evening & day of great fun.

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This is Wade’s dog, Jibboo, who wasn’t feeling well. He passed away a few days after we left. He was such a sweetie, and we wish we could have met him when he was feeling better too.

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Posted on August 4, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Estes Park, aka post wedding chillaxin’

After Gilly & Jerry’s wedding, we had 7 hours until Mike & Wade (our next friends/hosts) got off of work.

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We drove up Hwy 66 and found a great pull off. We stopped and walked down a hill to this beautiful little stream.

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This weird pile of stuff with rusty looking lichen was next to the stream. Looks like a support for something.

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I played with the slow shutter speed (handheld/propped on the ground kind of thing since the tripod was buried in the trunk. To get this effect, slow your shutter to 1/15 or slower and adjust your exposure to match. Tripods are great, but obviously, you can prop it on the ground or something else sturdy.

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The death toll is astounding!

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Nate & I hid in the car for a bit when it started raining. How do you entertain a pair of photographers stuck in the car? Silly pictures with the fisheye, of course!

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We were pretty tired, so hiking wasn’t at the top of our to do list. After we relaxed and listened to the rain & creek for a while, it was off to Boulder (well, Louisville) to look for dinner and some entertainment. We ended up checking out the new Star Trek movie after it got late. It was pretty good. Nate really liked it. I miss the campiness of the original. It was not Dawson’s Creek in space.

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Posted on August 3, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

I just had to post this

I’m sure this will become a “done” thing eventually, but I just saw it this weekend at my friend’s house and think it’s fantastic! If you decide to do a crazy entrance, please inform your photographer so they are prepared with the proper lens and position. Also, this is a prime example of the kind of situation that really benefits from two photographers.

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Posted on August 3, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

The Stanley Hotel

Gillian & Jerry got married at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. For those who don’t know, this is the hotel that inspired The Shining. We stayed one night and didn’t see any ghosts, but we were on the look out! Nate & I have neither read, nor seen The Shining, but Gilly & Jerry included a copy of the book in our welcome bag (see the little purple bag hanging on our cart).

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As usual, it looks like we’re moving in (for just one night, nonetheless!)

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The room was pretty. The bathroom has glass in the door. We didn’t turn on the big TV. I don’t know that that keeps in line with the 100 year old hotel theme. The bed was a bit soft for our taste (I joked it came original with the hotel. It wasn’t that bad, but we’re used to our very firm mattress at home.)

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There is no a/c in the hotel. It was very comfortable temperature wise. Nate put the fan (standard with the room) in the window & that really helped.

It was great to be on site for the morning wedding (to be blogged shortly). I have to say, the food at the Stanley is FANTASTIC. But that’s a story for another day.

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Posted on August 2, 2009 by rebeccaclaire

Denver here we are!

We had a great time in Denver! Christy & Brad have a great house in a really cute neighborhood. Their dog, Bear, is so sweet and the kitty is not excited about strangers, but she’s soft & fluffy. We did some laundry & ate some great food (to be blogged at a later date) & really enjoyed meeting Brad and catching up with Christy (who we hadn’t seen since the mid 90s).

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I just really loved this flower! They looked like big ferns with beautiful purple flowers. They were several feet high and soft & fluffy.

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This is the house at the same address that John & Megan’s house is (only in Denver). It’s a bit more of a “fixer upper” than theirs.  What a fabulously cool house.

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Bear loves the backyard. She’s so relaxed back there.

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She also loves the inside so she can bark at all of the passers by.

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Nate had some race graphics to do, so we set up on the dining room table. Don’t we look high-tech. 🙂

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I found the kitty in her basket.

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She was a bit annoyed.

We had such a great, relaxing time in Denver! I love this town. I can’t wait to come back.

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