Saturday night I attended the Young Wild Things Tour featuring Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T’s, and Cute Is What We Aim For at the Wharf in Orange Beach, AL. It was about an hour and a half drive, because that was my first time going there, traffic was backed up going across the Bay Way that time of day (6:30ish), and it was dark. And The Wharf, I found, is way out in the boonies.

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Saturday morning, I was awakened by a phone call from my older sister. She informed me that there was a hot air balloon festival going on in Foley, AL, and she wanted to know if I wanted to go. In my haze of recent wakefulness I couldn’t think of a reason not to go, so I agreed.

A few hours later, we set off on what was supposed to be about a 45 minute drive southeast, across the bay to Foley. However, the Father’s Day Weekend traffic (people on their way to Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Pensacola, etc.) made the trip more like 2 hours. I was so glad when we finally got there. I didn’t see any balloons up though, so we walked around. They had arts & crafts vendors and games for the kids. Eventually there was live music.

Around 6 pm, teams began to inflate their balloons, and hot air balloons began flying in from the south. It was a breathtaking sight.

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Back in Mobile for a week now, I’ve had time to unwind, decompress, and reflect on my experience of New York and Canada. My little sister said something that aptly describes the experience:

“I’m not taking picture because you can’t capture all this in a picture. You just have to tell people to experience it for themselves.”

That’s pretty much how I feel, too. However, I do believe that photos can move people to go and experience the place for themselves.

The first time I went to New York City, I did take mad photos because everything was new to me. This time around, I opted instead to try to form a narrative of my journey with my photos. I’m pretty happy with the result, except that I didn’t get photos of the celebrities people I saw (Nigel Barker and Talib Kweli).

Still I have some gems in the form of photos I’d like to share, and most of them have stories.

At the B&B in Middletown, NY

Middletown, NY – A squirrel in a maple tree.

Crazy gas prices on the road to Canada. What’s more—as I found out from a young man I met from Egypt—gas is about 40 cents/gallon in Cairo (and it’s getting cheaper).

Canadian Customs – I had to turn over my pepper spray, because it’s illegal to carry it in Canada. The Queen of England has it now.

My little sis actually snapped this since I was driving. The camera settings were wrong so I had to salvage it. I like the surreal quality it has.

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an excerpt from my travel journal/sketchbook:

May 16, 2007

So we finally reach New York City. After a long journey, the three of us emerge from Penn Station only to encounter tropical storm force winds and pelting rain. It’s noise everywhere, and more than a little intimidating. Though I’ve been to New York the previous year, I’d never had the experience of getting off the train in the midst of rush hour.

[Riding in a taxi to the hostel] I’m so tired right now, and just glad to finally have a break. It’s so foreign being on-the-go so much, after just getting into the monotonous routing I’d established back home.

As I write this I’m relaxing in the lounge of an NYC hostel, loving the free wireless. (I just paused to aide a young Japanese man in connecting to the wireless here . . .so cool. I want to go to Japan one day.) Anyway, If you’d like to see the photos from my trip, check out the link to my flickr account to the right. (I think I may ask the guy if I can take his photo, because I just got the notion, and that’s what travel is all about–spontaneous moments, unique photo opportunities.)

Well, my sisters are bugging me not to spend my entire New York stay on the computer, so I’m off to do find some lunch in the city.

Ciao. ^_^

I’m in Canada right now on vacation. It’s so beautiful here. I’m staying in Brampton, actually, which is a suburb of Toronto. It was a long journey: two planes, a car, a train, a rental car–and finally we’re here. I ache from lugging my baggage so long.

So, of course, I have lots of photos. If I don’t blog while I’m here, I’ll probably never post all of them when I get back. Day 1 was mostly traveling, until reaching our final destination of Middletown, NY.

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