Hey Sweetheart, I'm Home ! What a trip !
I just got back home late last night. I was down in South Carolina visiting my cousin and his family during Easter weekend. He hired me to be his daughter's wedding photographer.The wedding took place on Friday.
I left here last Tuesday and on the way, photographed the Baltimore harbor at night and then the Washington Monuments about 1 a.m. What a great time to do it - no lines !
The next morning I did hiking to 2 waterfalls off of the Skyline Drive in western Virginia; Dark Hollow and White Oak. I finished the White Oak hike at about 5:30 pm. So, then I left for South Carolina and finally arrived at my cousin's home about 5:15 a.m. Luckily, my cousin's wife was leaving for the gym at 5:30 a.m. as I wouldn't dream of knocking on their door at that time and had just placed my head on my pillow up against my car door, when the garage door opened.
After several hours sleep, later that day, I went with my cousin's middle daughter & her new hubby to be and took pictures of them at the park and later at a pre-marital party. The party was at the groom's father's home. He had a BBQ with huge shrimp (sort of an oxymoron), potatoes, cherry pie and home-made brownies. One of my other cousins (Bruce) brought in 7 dozen raw oysters from Florida. Not many people (guys or gals) seemed to like raw oysters. Thus, a lot of those came back with us to my cousin's home and I was up to 1:30 am polishing off the last of them. Yum !
The next day was the wedding. I drove the bride to be to get her hair & make-up done and took pictures of that. Then, I drove her back to my cousin's home and took pictures of her and her bridesmaids getting ready. Then driving, I followed everyone to the wedding and took photos of the ceremony & the reception, as well as some group family shots next door. The bride & her groom were into "industrial photography", so they actually wanted wedding photos in front of a wreck of a brick building next to the reception hall. Hey, I suggested a flower garden, but I'm flexible, whatever floats your boat.
At the end of the reception I ever got in some dancing myself with 5 lovely ladies. I exchanged my contact info with one of the most beautiful young ladies I've ever seen. She's studying biology at a local college. I am encouraging her to include modeling in her career path. OMG, what a face & body !
The next day 6 of us (Roxanne, Doug, Michelle, John, Victoria and myself) did a hike to the waterfalls on the Green River in North Carolina. I got some great photos of insane kayakers going down the falls. We all had a great time and got some terrific exercise as the trip back was a steep climb. Afterwards we refueled ourselves at a local buffalo wing place and had milkshakes. I opted for some ice cream.
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Later that evening we celebrated Amanda's (my cousins' youngest daughter) 20th birthday with cake & song and then taking her out dancing. She likes C & W line dancing. There were 6 of us (Guy, Amanda, Doug, Roxanne, Kaycey and myself - 3 guys & 3 gals). My cousin joked that we greatly improved the quality of women there and tripled the IQ of the place just by walking in.
On Easter I headed back north starting with the mountains of South Carolina & North Carolina, where I hiked to 5 different waterfalls; Wildcat, Lookout, Cove Creek, . Then, the next morning I drove to Baltimore and spent several hours photographing their National Aquarium. Luckily, I had bought a spare memory card for my camera, as I ran out of space on it after the dolphins show. On the way back, I stopped along I-95 in Maryland and was somewhat surprised to see about 200 Phillies fans dressed in Phillies shirts & hats. Apparently, a bunch of them drove down to Washington to see the Phillies wallop the Washington Nationals 11 - 1.
On the way back to the car in the parking lot, I saw an elderly man placing a bag of potato chips in the trunk of the car. The top was rolled up to prevent spillage. I said "aha ! I see you sneaking the chips while she's not looking." He let out a real bellylaugh and then said, "yep, you got me".
While driving home, my Mets won their home opener 7 - 1 versus the Florida Marlins. Lets go Mets !
I arrived home late last night and am just now catching up on phone & e-mail messages. Nonetheless, I hope you all had a terrific Easter and enjoyed my trip.