Serbia

The next leg of our trip was to explore Montenegro and Albania for close to a week. However, once we realized that in order to get to our destination of Tivat/Kotor we needed to fly through Serbia and the Nicola Tesla Airport we thought why not pit-stop for a day in Belgrade. We didn’t know much about the country other than it being the birthplace of Jeff’s childhood hero, the one and only Nicola Tesla. Serbia was dramatically cheaper than any other location we are travelling to, so we stayed in a Hilton that cost less than $100. It was fantastic, completely modern and importantly well-soundproofed. Every staff member we interacted with, was kind and helpful. From advice on where to shoot and eat, to help with a difficult online check-in, they met all of our needs. A special shout out to both Andrea the shift leader and the numerous concierges. In an extremely rare occasion, we decided to go separate ways for part of the afternoon. Jeff claims it was coincidence that the Telsa museum was less than 500m from our hotel and he ventured forth on his own while I took myself on a self-guided walking tour of […]

Istanbul

Amazingly, it’s been a year since we’ve worked on our “One Dress” project. But as the summer rolls in so does our journey. This year’s adventure is a bit off the beaten path with our end goal to visit our friend Sandy in Lebanon while our friend Ro house sits for us taking care of our fur child Munson. Our first stop is Istanbul. On our bucket list since the beginning of the project, we are excited to finally be in position to cross it off our list. After a lonnnnng day of flying, we landed in Istanbul and hopped a cab to our hotel. With less than three days to explore the 4th largest city in the world, we amazingly ignored our fatigue and went scouting. Without pausing for even a shower, we ventured forth to the legendary Grand Bazaar. It was not nearly as chaotic as one imagines, however the constant parade of endless vendors attempting to snare you into their shops is tiring. We had a goal in mind, to find a Turkish carpet store that would allow us to do a photo shoot. As we ambled down the lane of seemingly identical shops we were reminded […]

Onward to Alaska

After beating our bodies up hiking around Whistler, we headed to the port of Vancouver to hop about the Nieuw Amsterdam ship from Holland America. This was my 3rd family cruise with the Jennifer’s immediate and extended family. We are one of those rare families where all the in-laws get along. This included, my brother and sister-in-law, their kids, and parents. The cruise was a round trip up the Alaskan coastline. Passengers disembarking joked, or maybe seriously, stated they had rain all 7 days. We hoped for the former as we boarded. The ship was the one that we first cruised together on, but it had be tastefully renovated. Our goal for the first stop was an ice cave in Juneau. Unfortunately, everyone we asked said any cave that would be accessible already melted. The idea of hiking up a muddy trail without a reasonable probability of success didn’t thrill us. It was also raining, so we opted for a tamer suggestion, a photo with the fire weed. Our taxi driver was a bit perplexed by us and crowned us the most interesting ride of the day. Unfortunately, with the rain came the clouds, so we didn’t get a great […]

A Trip Ending in a Train Wreck (Whistler, Canada), Photo Shoots 269-273

Our summer trip this year is focused around a family cruise to Alaska. However, for Jennifer and myself, we needed a little more activity to start the trip. Amazingly, our 43rd country is actually Canada. For all our travels, Jennifer and myself have not been to Canada together. We remedied that with a four day stop at Whistler mountain to get in some hiking. Ten years earlier, when we were newlyweds, we hiked through the Alps for nearly a month straight. The thought of taking a gondola to the top of the mountain would have been met with laughter. We were purists that had to walk every step. Ten years later, we were happy to ride the Whistler Express and the Peak Express to the start of our hike on the High Note Trail. It was also the site of our first photo shoots with the Inuksuk, a large stone cairn used by the Inuit and other artic region natives. We hiked on the trail, a black diamond for hiking and quickly were humbled by how much we’ve lost our hiking legs. Once past a steep, rocky decline, the trail leveled off to a more enjoyable grade. Wildflowers and random […]

R and R in Tobago

After a long, hard year, the stars aligned for Jennifer and my spring breaks from school and we decided to head to an island and do almost nothing with great friends Rich and Wendy. Wendy is Jennifer’s college roommate and we’ve travelled with her before. She was our grip in Egypt. More importantly, we went to Rich and Wendy’s wedding in Jamaica where I was their wedding photographer.  Wendy was even a sport and posed with Jennifer in a double Maggie Sottero wedding dress shot. Yes, she also saw the amazing quality in a Maggie Sottero dress and got one herself. When we joked that she should bring the dress with us to Tobago, she didn’t flinch. Thus wedding dress shot # 266 was born. We hoped for bluer skies, but unfortunately the latter part of the week went cloudy on us. You can see the results below and yes the guys didn’t bring their tuxes! Treating our women right!   No picture, but island life started with an interesting twist. When we rented the car, the woman at the counter said don’t worry about scratches on the car, it’s already scratched everywhere (she was not exaggerating), but make sure […]

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).  […]

Country #41 – Portugal, Challenges Everywhere

To say that I was excited to return to Lagos, Portugal is a gross understatement.  I was last there for three weeks in 1992 after studying abroad in Paris for the semester.  It left an indelible footprint in my mind.  The gorgeous turquoise blue/green waters of the Algarve has miles of caves and grottos to explore by boat or kayak.  The cliffs contain a labyrinth of paths that wind all along the edge overlooking the waters below.  The constant wind brings refreshment to the ever present warm sun.  Hidden beaches delight at every turn some populated and others completely desolate.  The people were warm and welcoming to tourists and locals alike.  The language was soft, romantic and beautiful.  The food was fresh and full of delicacies we can’t find at home, like bacalhau (a staple Portuguese cod dish), melons covered in fresh port and fresh olives from the groves.  What is not to love?  My one concern was that it might have changed or maybe my memory was colored by the rose covered glasses of being in college and on vacation in Europe… I need not have worried.  Every memory I have is what we experienced in Lagos.  Despite some difficulty getting our rental car, we arrived to our apartment mid-afternoon.  We soon found […]

Black Swan Inn – Bershires, Massachusetts

We had a rare treat during the school year with a weekend get-a-way to the majestic Black Swan Inn in Lee, Massachusetts on the foothills of the Berkshires. We were planning on doing a small talk on our One Dress, One Woman, One World project, but hadn’t intended to do a photo shoot. However, when we took Munson for a walk along the local Pinnacle trail we found that fall was still in full glory. We decided to go back the next morning and do a wedding dress shot. The light wasn’t as good as we had the day before, but it was still gorgeous. Help us decide which photo you like the best and vote below? Thanks!     [poll id=”8″]  

Rio De Janeiro and Iguzau Falls

Given our extensive set of photo shoots in Europe this summer we decided that in Brazil we would focus solely on race walking and take a token One Dress shot to count Brazil in the county list. It sounded like such a nice, simple and non-painful plan. Our trip progressed relatively smoothly. If anyone is interested in our initial impressions of Brazil please see our initial story on onedressonewoman.com. Given the exorbitantly inflated Olympic hotel prices we rolled the dice with Air BnB. We selected our place from very few, affordable rooms near the race walking courses, near being 15km away. Yes, Rio is a very large place. To say we brought the luck of the Irish with us is an understatement. We rented a room from an apartment with the family still living there. Carla, Rodrigo and their two children Pedro and Valentina were amazing. Without a huge agenda and the family on holiday for the Olympics, we spent a lot of time with them. What an amazing treat to see how a kind-hearted, local family lives. We went to the mall together to take care of our cell phones and had dinner out so Valentina could have pizza. […]

Scotland – Eilean Donan and Castle Stalker & a Wee bit of England

After two weeks in Ireland, we headed to Scotland, because as Mike Meyers would say, “If it’s not Scottish its crap!” While the people are just as kindhearted as Ireland, they are definitely more reserved and measured in their responses. We parked ourselves at the Loch Ness Clansman Hotel with the ability to see Nessie from our room. Our first stop was the 13th century castle Eilean Donan. It was renovated in in the early 1900’s and is absolutely exquisite. You may have seen it in the Highlander movie (There can be only one!) We were not given permission to photograph inside, which appears to be a consistent restriction in Scotland. However, we were told that we could shoot on the island grounds after 6PM. We decided to leave our hotel at 12 and have a leisurely countryside drive and lunch in route. We arrived at 3PM as planned, toured the castle and had a snack as we waited until 6PM. However, we failed to plan for tidal waters. The water was already low when we arrived and would disappear at low tide around 7PM. In addition, we had zero light, just mushy, gray skies. Sadly, we also had a […]