New York City

This summer, after my time in Alabama, and before my glorious return to Champaign, my family took a vacation. It was one of our epic vacations too. We have this nomad tendency, where we can't just stay in one place. We like to go around and hit up many locales. This trip was definitely as epic as any other. We went east, and quite a bit north. It was my first big trip with my Rebel, so you know I was going nuts shooting everything in sight. I'm sure you're hear more about it and see more pics in the future. Today, however, I finished editing pictures from our time in NYC with my new copy of Adobe Lightroom 2.0, and I wanted to get some up to be seen. So, without further waiting, here are a few of my faves from NYC...

This first one is on our way into Manhattan waiting to cross the George Washington Bridge. Strong color treatment that I've been trying that I think creates almost a drawing/painting effect.

If I had to show you the BEST 5 pictures, this one would be in it, but I love the juxtaposition of the boat. This was on the ferry on the way to the Statue of Liberty with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

This was on a bus tour around the city. It is one of Donald Trump's buildings, although it is not THE Trump Tower. I love the reflections in the building, and slight color treatment to pull more contrast out of it.

This one is from walking around the city the first evening. The Empire State Building can be seen and I love the setting. Neat city.

For some reason, this picture really pops to me when I see it. I think it is the reflection of the buildings and the genuinely neat skyline. This is in the business district of NYC on Manhattan.

So, those are 5 pictures from the New York portion of our trip. More to come, I promise. There will also be a more extensive NYC collection on facebook or flickr in the coming days, so I'll try to let you know about that. Let me know what you think of these though. I definitely need and want feedback on the pictures I take (both good and bad).

Arkansas and mind blown

This week, for part of it, I am in Blytheville, Arkansas. This bustling metropolis is where Nucor is having a little intern get together. Should be a good time. Anyway, I am taking advantage of the free wi-fi at the hotel and my mind has been blown. New Facebook at www.new.facebook.com. I couldn't get it to work through the hyperlink. It is up and running. Check it out and don't waste too much time. I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but it seems like a general improvement so far. Lemme know what you think.

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 5

Day 6: Today was the day we looked forward to. The big game. We arrived in Pasadena before sunrise. There was already a mass of people parking in the lots around the stadium as we arrived. This was an intense scene where we saw people polarized in their maroon and opposing orange. We walked ourselves over to the grandstands for the Tournament of the Roses Parade. It was nuts seeing people who had slept on the street for as much as a couple days before the parade to make sure they got the best seats. The parade was a slight disappointment, although the floats were out of this world complex. Check out this Germany tribute...
After the parade ended, we returned to the stadium park. There we grabbed some food, changed into wonderfully warm weather clothes, as it was in the 70s. What a glorious piece of weather we had. We got a chance to interact with a lot of different people outside the stadium before stepping into The Rose Bowl itself. What a antastic piece of history that stadium is. It is absolutely incredible inside. You see palm trees from the inside peeking over the edge and it has a neat shape to it. However, it is no Memorial Stadium...:)
Once in the stadium, we got a chance to see the place fill up and had orange poms on our seats from the U of I alumni association. Our seats were near the Illinois end zone, and were actually pretty fantastic. Well, the game went uhhhh, uhhh, well, Rashard Mendenhall had an awesome game, and now he's projected to be a top 15 pick int he NFL draft. That was nice.
OK, the game was a blowout. USC destroyed Illinois, but it was a lot of fun to be there still. Once we left the stadium, we avoided some of the more obnoxious USC fans and hightailed it out of town. We ate at In and Out Burger and ran off to Kingman, AZ, where we stayed at my buddy Chuck's house. His parents were fantastic in letting us stay and I still thank them so much.

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 4

Day 5: Las Vegas was our destination and goal for Day 5. The problem is of course that after this day, the days start to blur. We woke and were out of the hotel by about 10 am. This led us to a free parallel parking spot just off the strip that we would not return to until well after midnight. We walked up and down and up and down the strip, most likely putting in the neighborhood of 15 miles on our shoes (rough calculations done using Gmaps Pedometer). We got a chance to see a lot of impressive casinos and some fantastic architecture. It was all so very over the top. Especially the insides of some of these casinos. Little cities are built up inside of them. It all feels very fake though, like everybody is looking for something and can't quite find it, so they substitute the glitz. As for the casino's gambling areas, other than a couple pieces of decor, they are all very similar. Flashing lights, crazy people, and super expensive drinks. We spent so much time walking around and finally got a chance to chill as we waited for Mike to join us from his airport arrival, making our journey complete with four members. We then proceeded to sit outside of New York, New York to see a band play to count down to New Years...yea that's right, New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. So many people were in the streets, as the law enforcement closed them off (picture 4). We counted down to 2008, and then missed the fireworks because there were none behind the casino we were looking at, but there were some behind every other building it seems, so we got to hear them and see them on tv screens strewn around. This led to our scramble to the car, an intense trek up the strip dipping and diving through people trying to survive while getting to the car. We arrived at the car right around 1ish and were headed off to Pasadena from there, no sleep unfortunately.

My impressions of Vegas weren't all that unexpected. It looks like Mos Eisley Spaceport from a distance. It just sticks up in the middle of the desert. I just feel like it isn't my kind of town. But it was still a great experience to visit such a growing community. Of course, if you weren't aware, the glitz of Las Vegas Blvd. and The Strip extends about 2 blocks either way, and then you realize how much like other places this is. It seems like there are many hurting people there, just as any other place, but the juxtaposition between them and the glamour makes it all the more noticeable.

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 3

The journey continues...

Day 3 (continued):

We arrived in Zion with about an hour of daylight left, so it was truly a sprint through the park. It struck me as a place that would be absolutely incredible to spend some time intimately with, as there are plenty of trails into the back country. As well, it seems like it could be very pretty in the spring with all the potential for green. When we left there, our journey took us to St. George, Utah. In this highly Mormon town, we could see the temple from a large distance and found that despite the size, there was only one bar in the community. Therefore we could not watch the UFC fight we had hoped to catch that evening. We did however get to get entertained by the attendant at Russ's Gas Station. With his hilarious (to us) accent, we got treated to him answering our question about where the best place to eat in town was, with "GOLDEN CORRAL." No question that he loved that restaurant. We spent our night in the luxurious Sands Motel. Ok, so luxury might not be the right word.


Day 4:

This is the day that we teased Justin with Las Vegas. We headed to Death Valley, but we had to skirt past Las Vegas on the way there. As we crested the hill to see Vegas, it felt like Mos Eisley Spaceport, a large city in the middle of nothing desertland. We finally arrived at Rhyolite just outside of Death Valley. This ghost town was a bustling community barely a century ago and now it sits in ruins. We then headed into the valley, which is legitimately one of the most desolate places I've ever been. I found it to be really ugly in many ways and the beauty is very hidden. However, there were some very cool features such as the sand dunes we played in and the view from 5000 ft above the valley floor (picture 3). The white patches you see are actually sand deposits on the floor of the valley. We left the valley as the sun was setting and the next stop on our trip was the Hoover Dam. Little to our knowledge though, there was no way to get out of our cars and experience the dam after night. We did drive over the top of it, but nothing more than that. It was disappointing, but a good reason to return. We then drove into Las Vegas. We mistakenly drove all the way to the strip to get to our hotel that was way off of it. It goes to show you should do better map research. We spent over an hour traveling barely 10 blocks. I was feeling super sick, so I went to sleep right away in my bed in our Super 8 Hotel. The next day...Vegas

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 2

In a continuing effort to bring the most accurate coverage of The Bowl trip possible.

Day 3: What an action packed day this was. We awoke from our slumbers in Williams especially early (around 6 am) to get to the Grand Canyon for sunrise. Oh my goodness it was a cold morning! As we stopped for gas before heading out, I was shivering even at the pump. We arrived about 20 minutes before the sun crested the rim of the canyon, and as a consequence, froze our butts off. Many other people joined us as well. It was truly incredible seeing the first sliver of sun break over the horizon and ignite the red rocks on the other side. What commenced after that was our attempt to get to the warmth of the visitors center. Of course it wasn't open yet, so we had to settle for the car. We drove up and down the roads that run parallel to the canyon, taking in each unique view. The expanse is so large that many times you are seeing the same things, just from new and compelling angles. The first 2 pictures there are some of my favorites from the Grand Canyon. As we drove back towards the east part of the park, we got to see clouds chasing us headed the same direction. As we left the park, we drove north, and on that stretch of road northeast of the Grand Canyon, there is a section of the Little Colorado River Gorge (picture 3). It is an impressive geological feature in it's own respect. The steep walls surrounded by desert truly captured the scared part of you, knowing that this place would kill you if you fell into it :). We continued along some wonderful expanses of desert. Something that struck me was the very different lifestyle people lived from here in Illinois. The homes were intensely cheap and the pace of life seemed to be slower. It also seemed like poverty was a lot more widespread. As we continued into the desert, we ran into a bridge (picture 5) across the Colorado River north of the Grand Canyon. There we stopped because of the wonderful gorge it spanned (picture 4). We got a chance to really get a sense as to the height of the fall we would have if we fell off the bridge when we spit and it took what seemed like an eternity for it to fall. After that, more and more desert was the tale as we drove and finally arrived in Utah. There we were planning to see Zion National Park....

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 1

So, I wanted to lay out what the trip to Pasadena and back was like.

Day 1: We left from St. Louis, Missouri to Amarillo, Texas. This was our longest day of driving on the way out. We really didn't stop to think and instead pounded down on the driving. When we were at the border of Oklahoma and Texas, that is when the snow started to fall. I know right? Snow. It was a hazardous drive from the border of Texas to Amarillo. It took us about twice as long to get to Amarillo from the border as expected. We made it to Amarillo barely in time to eat at the Big Texan. It is this big time novelty restaurant. It offers a 72 oz. steak that you can get for free if you eat it in 1 hour. Of course Pete, Justin, nor myself actually tried to do this. If you don't complete the task, you have to pay full price for the steak. After that we crashed at our hotel for the evening.

Day 2: We left Amarillo and headed towards Arizona. In Arizona, we made our first stop on the trip that I really wanted to photograph. This was Petrified Forest National Park. It was a really neat place. The vistas there were a perfect introduction to the trip that was at hand west of that point. We got to see rocks that were once trees too, so that's cool. We got there in the early afternoon and as we were headed west again, the sun was setting. That put us headed to Williams, AZ for the night. There we got ourselves another cheap dive hotel. We ate at Jack in the Box for the first of a few times on the trip. When we returned to our hotel, we consistently could not get the key to open the door. We finally got into the room on a freak time the electronic key worked and Pete barely getting the door open. Once again, we watched some sports and crashed.