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.
Two other photo-related things I did in June: a nekkid photoshoot for me (ostensibly for George but who are we kidding) and a "couple shoot" with the both of us. Sarah Williams from 
George and I brainstormed for weeks about things that we enjoying doing together that could be "documented." At the end of the day, most of it was eating-related. We literally had lunch at Founding Farmers and Sarah took pictures. She hung out with us for an ungodly amount of time, bless her heart.
That's all I've got from June, man. David, Carrie, George and I rolled over to West Virginia to hang with good friends in their sprawling, mansion-like home. Amazing food and good times were had by all. Other than that, lots of weddings and things.
I wish I could say I nipped that June no-personal-photos thing in the bud but it's not true. I have only a handful to show.
I found myself in Louisville in July with a couple days to kill. I'd never seen the city before. It's got some fun spots but really it's quite sleepy for a major city. Not much going on downtown and such. I thought about this one for a while before I made my choice. Before I die... nothing? I feel pretty good about life. I don't particularly feel the need to check anything else off a list. But if there's one ambition I have, it's to taste more things.
Also in July, Aziz hosted a scavenger photo-hunt from the Leica Store. We were given a list of 12 or 14 things to photograph around the city. Some of these weren't actually part of the hunt - I just took them during the six (!) hours he gave us.
I did not win the scavenger hunt, but I did meet Mike who was carrying around this sombrero on his bike.
The July DC photowalk was held at Fort Reno.
I photoed 
It was just a couple days in Vienna, then we headed on to Prague. The city is really beautiful because it didn't get bombed much in the wars (unlike basically every other European capital). Here are a couple more panoramas from my phone, from the Clock Tower.
I liked Prague quite a bit, but it's nowhere near my contender for "best city," as many friends assured me it would be. It lacks a feel of authenticity in much of the city center - the same way Rome does. They both have an artificiality to them, as though everything is done for your (the tourist's) benefit. I much prefer a bustling place like NYC or Amsterdam that makes things easy for tourists, but also has its own thing going on such that tourists are not the primary thought.
All that said, Prague was a very atmospheric locale to spend five days. I particularly enjoyed the architecture, if not George's compositional skills.
And then! We went to a church decorated all over with bones!! This is the Sedlac Bone Church about 45 minutes from Prague. The priests used the bones of plague victims to remind parishioners about mortality and fleeting-ness of this world and also something about how we're all equal in the eyes of G-d. It was mad awesome.
We also toured Terezin, a very strange concentration camp that the Nazis used for propaganda. This was a more pleasant place than almost anywhere else in the Third Reich but nearly everyone that came to the camp was later sent on to their deaths.
A Cubist coffee shop back in Prague.
Tourists waiting for the famous Astronomical Clock to chime.
I thought this spider helped illustrate what an awesome view we had from our hotel room. I splurged in Prague because it was cheap ($100/night!) and because the rest of the trip our accommodations were covered by George's work.
And with that eight-legged dude, I leave you. We had one more destination on this year's European gallivanting, but that is a story for another day.
May was a bit of a rough month for me. I sprained my ankle halfway through and I've had to rest it since. Even though it was a minor sprain (as self-diagnosed by me and the internet), it's still swollen more than two weeks later. If you know anything about me, you know I walk a lot. It's my main form of entertainment and my default activity to get out of the house and do something. (It's a working from home thing, see. If I didn't get out and deliberately walk, I'd just sit inside my house all day at the computer.)
So far, thirty one is the year of my body breaking on down all over the place. I'm kind of hoping to get quickly to 32 so I can maybe avoid this pitfall year of sprains, strains and other maladies.
Early in the month, I headed north for a Baltimore Fun Day. PostSecret's Frank Warren was giving a presentation at the American Visionary Art Museum. I'd never seen him talk and it was free, so I rolled on up. I spent some time walking around the city but it was more of a pound-the-pavement day than a photo day.
This next presenter is my own lovely husband George. He gave a big talk at DC Nerd Nite last month and it seemed to be a hit. He's an accomplished dude.
Later on, a whole mess of WWII-era planes made a flyover on the Mall, so I gathered with the fine folks at 
Mid-month, 
I spent another couple days in Toronto banging around. I had my camera and all, but maybe I was sort of photo'ed out from the wedding.
Ankle sprain day. I needed to entertain myself, as George had been out of town for a good week and a half at this point. I took the metro in to see an art festival way on up in NW, totally inaccessible to metro (except for crazy walkers like me). I got out at Shaw, walked a huge loop and then came back through to Brookland. I rewarded myself with a glass of wine and a long sit at Brookland Pint, but when I went to stand up, my leg had fallen asleep and just collapsed under me. When I got to my feet, I realized I had a busted ankle. Womp womp. I spent the rest of my month sitting on the couch and complaining.
Rolling Thunder motorcycle riders gather in the Pentagon parking lot. I didn't expect to be photographing bikers, but it was a nice detour on my way into the city.
Creeptastic dolls in Shaw.
Finally, the fifth #DCPhotowalks photowalk took place at AwesomeCon. I was still hobbling around, so I didn't go hard at this one, but it was great fun seeing all the elaborate costumes.
Until next time!