Dam Blog Post

Last night Speed Racer and I were feeling a little antsy in our pantsy after a lazy afternoon.  We had managed to go on a nice 23 mile bike ride in the morning before the rain started.  But after that were trapped inside, and quite frankly, took advantage of it with a long Sunday afternoon nap.  After dinner with some friends, the clouds cleared up and we hit the highway. To Norris Dam.

We really got there at the perfect time of day.  The rain had cooled everything off, leaving a slight mist on the water.  It was gorgeous.

This is one of our favorite "date nights."  We just get in the car and drive somewhere.  We've been doing this since either of us could drive and it's great because it's cheap, and relaxing, and just the two of us.

The two of us AND my CAMERA!

Unfortunately for Speed Racer...but he's very nice and lets me take picture of him...except when he decides to start moving around, to be mean.

Of course we were lucky to get a hot press car to ride around in too.

It was a wonderful night, and a great way to start the week.

Cades Cove

If you live near Knoxville, you know about Cades Cove.  It's part of the National Park and is a fantastic place to get away, read a book, ride a bike, enjoy nature, and maybe...just maybe takes some fantastic pictures.  I love Cades Cove.  Speed Racer's Uncle (also a photographer who puts me to shame) took me up there a couple Friday's ago for some fun shooting.  I'm sure you will see many more pictures taken there, but here are just a few of my favorites.

PW Journey

Although this journey was recorded on my friend Renee’s Blog already, I thought I would finally add my version of the journey to the web.  Many of you know from my "Meatloaf Mania" post that I admire, revere, and embarrassingly enough want to be best friends with The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  However, I was contently keeping my hero worship locked in a tiny little box that no one knew about, until Renee called me up proposing a trip to see Ree at her book signing in D.C.  I had recently quit my corporate job and decided it was a perfect opportunity to enjoy my freedom and take some pictures along the way. My part of the journey started with a short day trip to our families cabin, with my parents.  My Grandfather built this cabin over several summers with the help of his three daughters.  Ever since it has been a retreat and place of solace for my family.

Sweet Lucy is a mountain woman, she loves being outdoors.  She looks positively beautiful in her element, I love this picture of her.

One of these pictures is in “Some Characters to know...” but my mother wasn't too happy about the picture I chose :ahem:, so the above photos are part of the series, which I think is very cute since it tells the story a little bit better.

The next morning after going to the cabin, I picked up Renee bright and early and we started out on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It was pretty early, we don’t do gorgeous early, but we were up and going and that was the important part.

She’s sassy, that’s why we get along oh-so-well.

Renee use to be a dancer, and from time to time she still does stances with her feet...she just didn't know I was paying attention.  I think it's beautiful.

Hello, Vacation.

There was lots of this.  Luckily Renee didn't get annoyed with me pulling off about every 5 seconds.

Did I mention that we were on top of the world?  I may have forgotten, but yes...there was nothing but us and sky.

I love this picture.  There's something about the emptiness in it that I just love.  To me it's something that's just about to start, somethings changing, and it's just you and whatever you're about to jump into.

I took about a million photos of this tree.  It was just magical.

After an 8 hour journey (Google said it would only take 5 but they weren’t counting all the stops for glorious pictures.  They really need a photo option when you do directions…or at least a scenic option) we arrived at Border’s in D.C.  We were hot, we were smelly, we were not pretty.  So faster than you could say superman, we used Chipotle’s bathroom (thank you Chipotle) and came out looking more beautiful than ever.  However, we did make two rookie mistakes.  Number one being that although we got there 2 hours prior to the reading, we were way back in line….waaaay back.  Number two mistake was that since we were in the back of the line, we panicked and didn’t eat anything.  BIG MISTAKE, my friend.

But luckily we didn't have to wait too long before she came up and gave us a little intro.  Everyone was so excited, and I have to hand it to all the pregnant ladies in the crowd.  They were champs, they didn't even break a sweat standing in line, unlike me who was whining and being a big baby.

After a couple hours in line, we finally made it to our destination.

She was super nice, and I’m sure already tired by the time we made it to her, but you couldn’t tell.  Both Renee and I had a little shyness going on, and tried to be sociable, even though we were about to faint from hunger and it suddenly came off as creepy that I had driven all the way from TN to see this woman.  And to be honest, that was not the best part of the trip for me.  The best part was the girl talk with Renee, companionship, being out in the wilds of VA, and just having time to take some photographs without any kind of pressure.  It was a much needed trip and a great start to my life as a photographer.

Hello, Illinois

The morning after I made it to Jack’s house, I awoke to the smell of bacon.  I love bacon.  I’m a meat kinda girl, and bacon is possibly one of my favorites…my brother knows this, so he spoiled me with bacon the entire trip.  First thing we did each day was take Oscar for a walk.

Oscar loves his walks, and it was a great time for us to catch up and talk…we do a lot of talking in my family so we need amble time to do so.  It also gave us a chance to see a little of Historic Urbana.

After a quick lunch with Scientist Lady on Friday, we set out to see the campus at University of Illinois.  The campus was really beautiful, although deserted with school being out.

Next we hit the art museum which is connected to the University Art building.  I’m ashamed.  I have to say that going in I was expecting a kind of small museum, that probably didn’t have a lot of cool exhibits.  But what I found was this:

A Rembrandt!  Not only a Rembrandt but they had Louis Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Winslow Homer, and many more fabulous artists.  I was tickled pink, like a kid in a candy store.

When I took a quick trip to the ladies room in the Art building, I found a treasure trove of wise sayings, here's just one example, there will be more in the photo gallery:

Wise…so very wise…

After a hard day in the museum we came back the house and crashed for a bit.  As a matter of fact, we did this just about every day.  I don’t know why we were so tuckered out, but it was great to just relax and be.  Oscar agrees…

So after some fun and fondue, we decided to show the Parentals how to play Wii.

They did great!  And they beat the pants off of me in Frisbee golf!

Saturday we hit the local Farmer’s Market, to pick up a few things dinner.  After that we took a quick stop for some cool drinks, then that afternoon we went and saw Robin Hood.

On Sunday we started the day off with brunch at a local restaurant called Radio Maria.  They had fantastic Spanish cuisine, and I had Migas….delicious delicious Migas.  It was basically eggs with potato and zucchini, with a side of salsa and sour cream, all to be wrapped in corn tortillas.  Of course, it was so excellent, that I forgot to take pictures of it…oops!

After a good brunch to start out the day, we headed out into the prairie.  On the outskirts of Urbana there is this excellent Prairie Sculpture Park.  It’s a great place to play, fly a kite, and enjoy the sculpture and wide open spaces.  Which is what we did.  And this was without a doubt my favorite place to take pictures.

It was a great trip and I was sad to leave.  I had never experienced such wide open spaces and that big sky.  It was different, but I like my mountains too.  Thanks Illinois, it was fun...I'll miss you.