We’re Back! Aruba Style

It has been almost four years since we took a vacation in February of 2020 right before pandemic began. While it is not a long period of time per se the world has changed and so have we.  Long gone was my organized system of a packing list but the way I saw it we were going to Aruba for a week so what could we really need?  Fishing out my island attire and snorkeling equipment was no small task. As we sorted through old gear some of which had long expired, I was gifted a pair of old water shoes hiding in my swim fins that I have been searching for since our trip to Australia. Our flight down to our 51st country since getting married was simple and easy. We actually just crossed 500,000 kilometers of travel. Arrival to “one happy Island” was easy as was navigating to our Airbnb hotel. Our accommodation at Modern Boca Catalina was exactly as described, comfortable, well-appointed and situated on a quiet part of the island. We took a walk to the beach which was as close as expected. Our next stop was a pleasant hike to dinner at the California Lighthouse […]

Disney & Star Wars Galaxy Edge

After nearly twelve years of often off the beaten path travel, we decided to indulge our inner child and break with our more traditional travel plans and headed down to Disney World for a combination twelfth anniversary celebration and to see the new Star Wars rides and attractions. To state that everything Disney is pure commercialism and regulation is an understatement. From the beginning of our planning there were endless hurdles to circumvent. Their electronic infrastructure is horrible for a company of this size. There were countless challenges to book the activities we wanted. Their website was frequently sluggish, buggy, and overly restrictive. Phone support was rarely an option with hold times over an hour. We tried contacting Disney’s media relations and although all we wanted was information (we probably could have requested free passes) that was like pulling teeth. They blatantly didn’t read our initial emails and returned canned one liners. When they did respond with some detail, they give incorrect information. It was easy booking our trip to Mongolia for the summer than a “simple” trip to Disney World. Given the nature of what we were shooting, we decided to step up our game and modify the wedding […]

Bermuda – Country #50!

For many reasons the last two months have been two of the most stressful months of our lives. We had real issues as opposed to the many 1st world aggravations one normally deals with. We are happy to say we are on the other side of them and deciding to go to Bermuda to combine a bit of work and play seemed like the perfect short Christmas vacation. We went to Bermuda to catch up with our friends and plan future race walking efforts on the Island as well of course to take a few wedding dress photos. It was a perfect time to do it, because the direct short flight meant instead of adding to our stress and spending a day in the airport on either end it was a quick jump to the wonderful island and country of Bermuda. It’s also the low season and while it means chillier days, it also means significantly less people (especially right before Christmas) and much lower rates for hotels (over half off their peak prices). We actually didn’t realize we were miscounting countries all these years and this was our 50th country with the dress. We had many great photos planned, […]

A Ride in the Goodyear Blimp, Almost :(

We almost got to ride in the Goodyear Blimp thanks to our friend Mike R. and Pep Boys. He won a contest and we were literally headed out on the tarmac when they called it. We did get to sit in the inflated blimp, so technically wedding dress shot #294, but not quite as an exhilarating experience as we were hoping for.

London, England – 2017

While we had a lovely stay in Northern Spain and hope to publish a few of the photos in a magazine we are waiting to publish them here. Please bear with us for the release of these two special places at Playa de Cathedrales and San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.  Let’s just say that seven days of rain in Spain was not part of our original plan. Moving on to London, it was nice to hear English again. Since they speak a different dialect in Northern Spain all my study of Spanish was rendered useless.  But, London is a massive city and I am not generally fond of a huge urban metropolis.  Arriving in the sun, softened the blow and the naturally friendly, chipper outlook of the people is something I had forgotten.   I think it is fair to say that Jeff has been anticipating this part of the trip far more than myself.  In part, because he has some work to do here documenting the women and men’s race walk events at the IAAF World Championships, but more due to our appointment with Madame Trousseau’s of London (please help us by voting for your favorites at the end of this post).  […]