Well it has been a hell of a nine days since we left DC. For the two weeks prior to our Nov. 14 departure, we were in a haze of celebration of George's attainment of the Ph.D. (go husband!), fevered attempts to give away or sell 95% of our possessions, preparations for the move and for the road trip and lots of goodbyes. Now, my friends, we are nomads and living on the road!
I do the majority of my posting on
Instagram and I attempt to post something every day. If you want to follow along, that's the medium where you'll get the most timely updates. But for those who can take theirs all at once: the first seven days.
We started the road trip, fittingly, in DC at the Renwick's Wonder exhibition - which is really freakin' rad and I'm a bit sad I'll never get to do an engagement session there. Ideal for my purposes. DC wedding photographers, you should be on that. Scope the rainbow:
Here's George offering David an unwrapped candy from his pocket.
Then we were on the road! David and I went down Route 11, which was a really great alternative to I-81. We ended up at Natural Bridge for what was probably the best day of the trip so far (sorry George!). Here's our historic hotel.
Natural Bridge! It really is very pretty and impressive.
AND THEN. Guys. We went to the Virginia Safari Park and it was *awesome*. I haven't laughed so hard in years. The animals will just barrage you and take all of your food and slobber all over you. An emu bit David! Here's a thousand pictures:
The llamas actually stand in front of your car to block your way while their buddies come in from the side, velociraptor style.
Then we hit up Foamhenge, which is a to-scale replica of Stonehenge, but in foam. It's getting on in years and a bit falling apart. You just park on the side of the road and walk up the hill to it. Very odd, very delightful!
The next day we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway, doing a couple of small hikes and taking in some mountain air.
Linville Falls.
David splurged on the Grand Bohemian in Asheville. Asheville was a really great place, though we only got to walk around for a little bit. This hotel featured many antlers.
Here's my car experiencing the luxe life.
Then we toured the ridiculously large and fancy Biltmore. It was pricey, but David treated so who cares! You aren't allowed to take photos in the house (bummer), but the gardens and conservatory were fair game. They had some sick orchids. The whole house was decked out for Christmas, too, so it was very pretty and celebratory.
On the way from Asheville to Durham, we passed by this amazing sign.
Then we were in Durham with Dwight and Laurie! Dwight's friend Mika gave us a tour of Duke gardens and grounds. They were impressive.
I made David drop this pine cone a bunch of times to get the photo on the right.
And we saw the Nasher Museum, mostly for their (tiny) Ansel Adams exhibit, before we went to Bollocks BBQ and ate a metric ton of animal meat.
And David tried his first corn dog! Which is a side at Cookout.
He was unimpressed.
Following day, we just hit the road and stayed on it all the way down to Savannah. One can't, of course, drive past South of the Border without making fun of it and walking around.
The mosquito-riddled Santee Wildlife Refuge for a break-up-the-drive hike-turned-walk.
It was humid and nasty, but the mosquitoes were intense so I buttoned up.
Then we were in Savannah and picked up George for one day of us all hanging out. Unfortunately, I was getting sick at this point and cranky.
Though Savannah, of course, is very pretty.
We took a ghost tour, as one does. So many spooky stories, though of course I'm quite the skeptic.
And there was an amazing chocolate shop that looked like a tiny library. And the chocolates were mad tasty.
And, finally, Spanish moss.
That's it for Week One! We're already in day ten, so hopefully I'll get a new update out to you not too long from now. Keep up with Instagram and you'll get them in mostly real time.
Virginia, from Safari Park to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Durham, North Carolina and Dwight and Laurie:
David's first corn dog:
South Carolina:
Georgia:
Florida:
Seacrest Wolf Preserve:
New Orleans:
Houston:
Austin:
Fort Worth:
Amarillo:
Santa Fe:
Fort Collins, Colorado:
Arches, Utah:
Monument Valley, Arizona:
Antelope Canyon:
Horseshoe Bend:
Dinosaur Tracks (fifteen minutes down the road from the bend):
Flagstaff:
Oatman, Arizona:
Joshua Tree, California:
Los Angeles:
Portland:
Ostrich World USA:
Big Sur:
Santa Cruz, CA:
Suburbia, CA:
Literally all of our stuff on the way to the airport.
And now we live in Sweden!
It's been a reasonably good first two weeks. The weather here is terrible. Very little sunlight and even then, it's mostly cloudy gloom and/or rain. We've had a handful of days with sunshine and one big snow storm. Otherwise, things are good. Our apartment is adorable and in a great location. The public transport is top-notch. George likes his job. I haven't got a lot to do but I'm working on it. Language classes start next week. More to come.
We started Week Two in Savannah feeling pretty sick. We had grand plans to do lovely things on the way down to St. Augustine to see George's dad, but on the way I was just feeling crap crap crap. So we did some nice rural driving through the Low Country, but otherwise I napped and tried to relax and blow my nose and whatnot. It was a sleepy day and we didn't even see St. Augustine because apparently they were having some big parade or the like for Christmas. We visited with George's dad that day and hung out, then got up really early the following day to GO TO DISNEY WORLD!
And hang with Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah and co. Uncle Eric has worked at the parks for years so we always get to go free and see one or the other. This time we went to Hollywood Studios and saw lots of shows and went on the Haunted Mansion tour - a favorite.
It wasn't quite Thanksgiving yet, but in Disney it was full-on Christmas.
This is Dakota, my aunt and uncle's dog. She's pretty great.
This is my Uncle Eric making a ginormous bowl of salsa. It was decimated a few hours later when my cousins came over to grub.
And then - whoosh - we were gone. George and I paused on the way between Aunt Sarah's and my mom's to stop in at the Bok Tower and Gardens, another Frederick Law Olmsted design. Classy. We became members because we're dorky and frugal and now we have reciprocal admission to 300+ other parks throughout America, which hopefully we'll get lots of money's worth as we travel about.
We spent a couple hours at the gardens just walking around and taking in some scenery. I was still feeling pretty bad so we took it really slow.
Nearby, there were tons of signs for "Spook Hill," which was one of the lamest things I'd ever seen. There's a white line on the hill you can see in the background, and you drive up to the white line, put your car in reverse and.... it rolls backwards down the hill exactly how one would expect. So lame. I don't know why this town needs Spook Hill - it's already got these great gardens for people to visit.
Then we were in Ft. Myers to hang with my mom and stepdad for a few days. Mostly we just hung out, but one day we did go down to the beach to see the Sandsculpting competition. The sculptures were super-cool.
Here's a picture of me and my brother as little babies.
And Mom and Elliott's doggies. We did Thanksgiving there, but I don't have much to say about it.
And then we were off again... up up up Florida and into the panhandle. The day after we did a little (painful) Black Friday shopping for new winter coats (which we'll need in Sweden), we got to play with WOLVES. We weren't allowed to bring in real cameras, so I don't have anything much from that day but we did bring in a disposable and have been trying our damndest to get the stupid thing developed. Wouldn't you know, hardly anyone uses them anymore!
And that is a wrap for Week Two. Knowing me, I'll likely stall big time on getting out Week Three, but maybe I'll stall long enough to slap some wolf photos in there for your viewing enjoyment. Until then, enjoy December!