Trips

Seattle Photo Projects

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

In 2009 when Rachel and I spent 3 weeks in the Pacific Northwest I took a few photos that required some additional post-processing. I started that work back then but life got in the way and they’ve stayed in a work-in-progress folder on my computer for years. I figured I might as well throw them out there as-is since they most likely won’t get any farther.

hulahoop

Animated gif of some fancy hulahoop dancing.

Seattle Skyline Panorama
Panorama of the Seattle skyline.

Devil Lake PanoramaPanorama of Devils Lake in the Northern Cascades.

Seattle night HDRSeattle skyline HDR from the needle at sunset.

Seattle Night HDR-2Seattle skyline HDR from the needle at sunset #2.

Portland Round 2

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

For those of you that aren’t aware, we just got back from a family trip to Portland and if you’ve been keeping track we’ve been there once before. This time was a completely different experience. That’s what happens when your family doubles in size and you don’t put 4,000 miles on a rental in a single trip.

This time, the greatest part of the trip wasn’t a great party with dancing and celebration or the phenomenal scenery at every turn or the chance to see huge parts of the country for the first time. It might be cliche but the greatest part of the trip this time was experiencing everything through the eyes of our kids and spending lots of time with family.

Recently Reece has been ecstatic about anything that moves (planes, trains, helicopters, tractors, boats etc.) so we try to expose him to what we can. I cannot properly express the size of my sons eyes as he looked out the airport windows at the plane we were about to get on, turns to us and shouts AIRPLANE! He quieted down on the plane but he was insanely excited about the whole process. One of the places we visited in Oregon was the Airplane Museum and I swear that when he walked into the place he thought it was holy ground.

Delilah wouldn’t stop talking about the entire trip. With all of this, remember that she’s three and she’s totally serious. While sitting on the tarmac for the first flight out she yelled “why aren’t we flying yet!?” Much to the amusement of everyone around us. One evening while out in Oregon with family we saw “the first star at night” and we asked her what she wished for. She thought for a minute and then whispered quietly “that we can come to Oregon again.” After arriving back in Rochester, the first thing she said in the airport? “I want to go back to Oregon.”

These are just a few examples but we could tell just watching them that they were thoroughly enjoying their time in a new and interesting place. What made it really special for them and us was the time they got to spend with family whom they only rarely see and to build the beginnings of their relationship with their cousins. By the end of the trip there seemed to be a real bond forming and we wished we could stay longer.

We can’t wait for the next family adventure whether it takes us to Portland with family or Peru with just the kids.

Skaneateles for 6 years

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

IMG_0687We’ve spent a lot of time in the finger lakes but for the most part it’s always been day trips. For our 6th anniversary we spent the weekend in Skaneateles. It was mostly just a relaxing weekend in a bed and breakfast. We spent the evenings in the local night scene, went for a lot of walks, sunsets, some shopping and a boat tour around the lake. Overall it was just a nice and relaxing weekend with each other.

A Week Long Adventure in the Mountains

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Zemanta Related Posts Thumbnaila few days (What do you want, we’re a lot busier now…) A month and 1/2 ago, we spent the week at camp. It was intended to be a 50/50 split of vacation and work and that’s just about what it was.

We were able to get the rooms framed in and prepped for electric and insulation. Now the real work can begin. Looks like we might just be able to make it usable this winter after all.

On the vacation side of things we had some fun.

    • Delilah spent some time playing in the stream
    • Took lots of four-wheeler rides (and Delilah got hooked)
    • Spent some time at the beach at Higley Flow State Park
    • Went geocaching and found a really nice new spot very close by along the Raquette River
    • Took Delilah on her first mountain climb up Arab Mountain
    • Went out for Ice Cream
    • Played on the playground (where Delilah learned her new love of old-school metal slides)
    • Ate lots of great grilled food (including lots of corn)
    • Built Delilah a house out of a large cardboard box

All in all it was a great week. Love getting to spend some quality time with our family.

UPDATE: Since this post was written a month and 1/2 ago and just posted today… more progress has been made on the camp. The insulation and electric work is complete, all corners/windows have been framed with rough cut (and painted) 2×4’s and the siding is going up.

Niagara Falls Anniversary

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Not everyone can say they live within two hours of a natural wonder of the world. Fewer still get the chance to visit it on a regular basis. We’ve spent a lot of time at Niagara Falls over the years but there’s a lot we haven’t done there. For our 4th anniversary we went back to spend the day. We went on a journey behind the falls experienced maid of the mist and rode the giant ferris wheel on Clifton Hill for the first time despite having been there probably a hundred times before.

How I Stole From a Monastery

~ randyaa ~ 8 Comments

Ettal Monastery So, I have a confession to make.

Randy Aldrich is a thief.

I stole from a Monastery back in 1998.  Not much, but it happened.  We stopped at Ettal on our way to Neuschwanstein & I took a little booklet that described the abbey and the monastery.  At the time I thought they were free.  I didn’t know that they weren’t until we got back on the bus and someone else asked me:

You bought one of those!?

To which I responded “bought?”

Anyway… turns out they were 5 Marks (at the time Germany had not yet adopted the Euro).  Herr Stoker told me just to drop a 5 in the donation bin at the next church we went to and I’d be square with the big guy in the sky.  Seemed like a good enough Karma move to me, so that’s what I did.

The picture to the left is a scan of the cover of that book, which I still have and will probably keep forever just as a reminder.  However; even to this day, I don’t believe I’ve ever read it… *sigh*.

That being said, the Monastery is beautiful so if you’re in the area, I highly suggest it.

1998 Europe Travel Journal

~ randyaa ~ 13 Comments

I found the following Travel Journal in a bag of my old stuff given to me by my mother.  It’s from my from my Trip to Europe with school in 1998.

I’ve provided it below, unedited And awesome. I’ve left it mostly intact and punctuation preserved for your enjoyment.  Go ahead and laugh, I did.

4/16/1998

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. ~Joseph Addison, Chicago Cultural Center (former library)

I expect Germany will be like country kind of towns with lots of public transportation and then in the big cities more very modern looking buildings and I expect the people will be very friendly.

4/17/1998

The towns here just kind of end.  And then there is nothing for miles.  Walking in Rothenburg was like walking back a few centuries.  Even in the smallest town, which is where we are staying, there is a bus stop.

4/18/1998

Today we went to Dachau.  It was interesting.  There were many more concentration camps than I thought there were.  I guess we only hear of the big ones.  I also learned that Dachau’s gas chambers were never used to kill anyone.  The gas chambers at Dachau were never used and nobody knows why.  It was strange being at one of the Nazi concentration camps where people actually died by the hundreds.

4/19/1998

We had to get up at 5:45 this morning which meant I got about 5hrs of sleep.  That stunk.  We headed out to Neuschwanstein, Ludwig II‘s castle.  When we got there we hiked up the mountain to the castle and toward it.  After touring the castle we went up on the bridge that was a few hundred feet high.

4/20/1998

Today was travel day.  We have to go to Venice which is about an 8hr trip but we stopped a lot along the way.  Our travel plans were sort of changed because of some snow conditions.  Instead of going to Innsbruck on the way to Venice we stopped at Salzburg.  That was just as good because Mr Stoker lived there for a while and showed us around quite a bit.  I bought some spoons there while shopping and a chocolate pretzel which was very good but was so rich I could only eat 1/2 of it. When we got to Venice it was suppertime and we had pasta and then some viel stuff hat I didn’t like at all.  After all that just our group went out and walked around the town we were staying in (not Venice but close).

4/21/1998

Today was the best shopping day so far.  When we got up we ate (the same thing for the 6th time in a row) and then took the bus to a boat.  When we got to the boat we had to wait about 10 minutes before they got started.  Then it was about a 15min ride.  After that we took a 2hr tour around Venice and saw the “sights.”  I imagined Venice to be much better than it was, but it was really a dump.  But I suppose if you build a city on top of water it will tend to do that.  We had freetime for about 6hrs and then went back to the hotel.  The worst part about the day was it rained for most of it.  In Venice it normally is quite whet though, so…  They even have planks a foot off the ground to walk on in case what they call a (double high tide) happens.

4/22/1998

This morning we left from Venice for Verona and then on to Lucerne.  Today for once it’s not raining.  Big surprise!  It’s travel day and it’s not raining because we’re not doing anything.  It took about 10hrs to get from Venice to Lucerne.  I only got about 1hr of sleep on the bus.  When we got to Luzern nothing really happened, we ate then hung out for a while and went to sleep.

That’s it.  Which is really sad, because Lucerne was my favorite part of the trip.  I think Switzerland really spoke to the outdoorsman in me.  This makes me wish I had kept a real journal of everything.

Our First Climb – Crane Mountain

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

In 2005 we climbed our first mountain (Crane Mountain) together. I had climbed a few in the past but this was our first together.  We were spending a week in the Lake George area and what better way to explore the region than from above?

ladderWhile not the tallest mountain we’ve climbed, it was pretty intense with several incredibly steep rocky sections.  One of the steepest sections even had a ladder, which was good because being our first mountain together… we didn’t exactly have scaling equipment.

As is always the truth in the Adirondacks, the views from the top were simply amazing.  It was on this climb that we really learned how rewarding such a strenuous hike can be.  On our way back down we passed by a little pond and it was so hot  we were going to take a dip.  However; when we took a closer look we realized it was infested with leaches.  Nice!

It was really a good choice for our first Mountain Climb.  The trail wasn’t that long, but intense, and the views were stunning.

We might go back some day, maybe with the little one.

Crane Mountain will always hold a special place in our memory.

We Came We Saw We Crawled (In Rome)

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

Pub CrawlWhen Charles, Rachel and I visited Rome in 2005 the last thing I expected to do was drink until the sun came up.

That’s exactly what happened.

We stayed in the Yellow Hostel in the middle of Rome and, although we didn’t know it until the second night, we were bunking(in the same room not the same bed) with two Australian girls in town for the weekend from their Nanny jobs in Milan. Rachel quickly made friends and what do you know but they both had a thing for partying.  They told us about this pub crawl starting at the Spanish Steps they had heard of:  $25 for a t-shirt, a drink and deals at every bar/club and a night of spending time with people from all over the world drinking till we forget it happened!? Sweet, where do we sign?

We literally drank until the sun came up and we had to catch the bus to the airport to fly back to London. One of the girls didn’t come back with us. No news on how her night went, but since she went home with one of the guys on the crawl with us, you can draw your own conclusions…  Our reward for the night was a shirt that said ‘We came we saw we crawled’ that lasted about 5 washes and a hangover (on the Ryan Air plane) that you wouldn’t believe.

Seriously though, we had an awesome time and have some great stories to share. Getting kicked off city buses in the middle of nowhere, BJ contests  in the bar, drinking beer at the top of the Spanish steps, drunken German speak, drunken French speak. Good times.

That said, if you get a chance to pub crawl in Rome, Do it!