Or At Least, I Hope Not…

What can I say?
Life is wonderfully zany

Saturday was our three month anniversary… And since I haven’t blogged
Engagement, Wedding, Honeymoon, or Celebration photos; I figured it’s
high time I finally do at least one of those

So, like I said… Why not go out of order?

Our Honeymoon:

It all began on Sunday, September 13th… We rushed out of my family’s resort
(http://ChaletSuzanne.com) already a little rushed to make our flight… Only to
discover that our getaway car had a dead battery!!

A quick jumpstart and the fastest airport trip EVER (Literally; we made it in about
half the time it should take… While barely speeding!) we arrived at the Orlando airport
and picked up our tickets… At which point, my beloved Bride learned where we were
going

Maine!

I’d spent months and months researching places we could go; and it all
came down to either a small Cay in the Bahamas, or the Grand Old State
of Maine. In the end, we opted for Maine since it’d be COOL (and far
less likely to be in the path of a Hurricane

Man oh man, were we ever glad we went!!

See?

Truly though, Maine was perfect… We went to four breweries, two forts, and
spent LOTS of time exploring.

See, when we landed in Portland, we went to pick up our rental car and they gave us
a choice… A bland ol’ Chevrolet, or the Toyota Prius Hybrid… To be blunt, I’ve always
harassed the Prius and their fleet of predominantly slow, boring drivers

But on the roads of Maine? The Prius was a blast!!
We drove over 800 miles on $38 in fuel (58mpg+!) and I was even able to test
the “crazy” factor… Got it up on three wheels a few times, and brought the fuel
burn down to 4mpg… Haha TOO much fun!

Of all the Coastal villages we visited in Maine, we liked Bucksport the very best.

It was beautiful, quiet, and wonderfully devoid of the plethora of tourists that are
EVERYWHERE else in Maine.

Bucksport, ME

See that bright white building in the middle?
That’s a quaint old Bed And Breakfast that was recently bought out by
Best Western… Know what that means? Beautiful, quaint rooms with ugly
comforters, windows that open wide, and clean surroundings… Perfect!!

We stayed there for 3 days, and loved EVERY minute… See,  Bucksport
is unique in the fact that they have quite a few REALLY cool little things.
First among them, is “Fort Knox” — No, not the one you’re thinking of,
but the ORIGINAL Fort Knox from the early 1800s.

We visited

See it Larger…

It was truly a cool, and unique place

Though admittedly, my attention was elsewhere

Bucksport is also the home of Maine’s fastest elevator…
Which takes you here:

To the top of their gorgeous bridge observatory…
The view rocked

B&W = Love.

One thing we may not have mentioned… The REASON there aren’t a lot
of tourists in Bucksport… Simple.. There’s a “small” paper mill there:

But the view from our hotel could make up for anything:

And here’s our view of Fort Knox…

The clouds were just Oh SO Amazing.
After three days in Bucksport we were ready to take off for the North…
Bar Harbor was our next stop; but before we’d arrive there, we just HAD
to stop by our second brewery of the trip… “Atlantic Brewing Company”
t’was AWESOME

Nelle agreed

Then, suddenly we were in Bangor:

I stopped in and bought some *great* old books

The next day, we headed South, back to Portland…
And to our 3rd brewery of the trip “Shipyard Brewing”

The last day of our trip, our flight didn’t leave ’til the late afternoon so
we took off on a lighthouse / Fort hunting trip…

It was successful!

Shipwreck!

Nelle and I decided we needed to snap some more photos of the two of US.
I think I’m getting better at the whole self portrait thing:

An amazing old building on the Fort’s grounds…
It was used as an Officer Quarters in the late 19th Century.

And as a silly finale for this post…
Here’s the Greatest Graffiti of ALL Time:

That’s all for now
MANY, MANY more posts to come!!

P.S. Do me a favor?
Leave a comment to motivate me to  post more!
Which was your favorite photo??

Taken just outside Ferndale, CA (where they filmed “The Majestic”)
on one of my most memory filled beaches.

View it LARGER…

I miss the adventure, but am loving the Peace.
God is good, God is Full.
I am so Blessed.

An Unfamiliar Rumble…

A strange sound met the early morning light Wednesday at the Chalet Suzanne. It roared, rumbled, and sang. Dozens of cylinders pumping in time—many of them over a hundred years old.

Automotive legends Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Bentley and more were present, each one gloriously preserved. A highlight was a multi-million dollar 1909 Thompson Flyer, with its gleaming brass cobra horn.

Lake Wales and the Chalet Suzanne was the third stop on what these drivers call “The Millennium Tour.” Many of them considered the Central Florida charm to be the highlight of their trip, which began this week in Amelia Island.

Mr. and Mrs. Bentley, who shipped their 1929 Alfa Romeo from Northern England to Florida specifically for this trip, referred to their time in Lake Wales as “perfectly enchanting” and praised their Chalet Suzanne dinner and breakfast as only a proper English couple could.

At half past 10:00AM the group of some twenty antique cars embarked, roaring off into the distance, hoping to make it to Naples rain-free for their next adventure.

Alfa…

Bentley…

Close-Up

Auburn…

Rolls….

And that’s all for now…
Sorry for cross posting from Newspapers to Blogs

Mechanics, Motors, Micro-Brews,
and (Finally) Making Headway!

*Or, How I Came to Love A Grandpa Who was Not My Own*

I‘ve been blessed with an incredible set of Grandfather’s…
On my Mom’s side, “Pappa” was a fighter pilot in WWII, a flight
instructor, a chef, an aircraft salesman, and a serial entrepreneur.

His soups made it to the moon on Apollo 15-16, his restaurant has
been awarded the Golden Spoon award for decades… Oh, and he
holds at least one Guinness World Record that I know of… Not Bad!

As for my Dad’s side, “Pop-Pop” is a hero, a soldier, family man…
And the greatest fisherman my Dad’s ever known (and THAT is saying
something, ’cause I’ll tell you what… My Dad can catch some serious fish!)

It shouldn’t be taken lightly then, the whole “loving another grandfather”
thing. But you see… I’ve gotten ahead of myself a bit.

__________________________________________________________

Monday morning I woke up with a start.
It was late! I hurriedly got ready for the day, scarfed down some DIVINE
Apple Cake, and rushed to borrow my friend’s home phone (haven’t
I mentioned that they’re seriously stuck in a hollow? No high speed
internet, no cell service, NOTHING! haha).

I knew who I needed to call… They’d been closed all weekend and
nearly all of the dead ends I’d phoned before had recommended I call
them… Needless to say, I was excited when they answered the phone
on the first ring.

My hopes were dashed though “We don’t work on old Bugs any more”.

Blast!

They gave me a name and number though… For THE guy they recommended
“If any one can fix it, he can… Heck, he can listen to your motor and tell you
exactly what’s wrong with it”.

Suddenly, I felt better

After a quick conversation, and one more desperate attempt to fix the car
myself, I set out… Clattering, banging, popping, and smelling like poor Bugsie
was about to catch on fire… Insane!

We made it though… And as I pulled into the shop “Grandpa” looked at me
like I was CRAZY. “This thing’s about to blow!”

After I told him what had happened, his concerns for my sanity were confirmed
“You SANK your Bug??” he asked. “Yup” I replied… “Oh”.

After that, he was stuck with this look on his face for much of the day:

Oh, did I mention that my new hero was wearing a “This is What the World’s
Greatest Grandpa Looks Like” sweatshirt? He was workin’ it too! haha.

It took us several hours, tinkering about, before he finally decided to take
a lunch break, and I walked over to a local brewery (great beer and food!)
I was STOKED to discover that they had WiFi also, as it’d been 5 days since
my last “proper” internet connection and I was downright jonesin’!

In fact, that’s where I finally posted Day One of this adventure… I was a little
behind, lol.. Hadn’t expected to be THAT out of touch!

As time passed, I caught up on my hundreds of emails, 200+ Facebook
notifications, and a few checkups with my team leaders (it still amazes
me how much they can get done even when I’m literally “off the grid”).

Then my battery died.
SO, I made my way back over to the shop.. Just in time to hear my baby
start… Stutter, cough, then run better then she had in days!

Things still weren’t right of course, so after a few more hours of tinkering,
we started tearing parts off his little roadster project “sacrificed” in the name
of Bugsie’s needs.

“Sacrificial Lamb”

“Tools For Transplants”

“Trained Hands”

Speaking of hands; one of the very first thing “Grampa” taught me that day
was all about gout, and how it’d been rotting away his finger… DISGUSTING!!!

But let me jump ahead a bit… Because after we transplanted a carburetor
(apparently, even though I’d spent the day before, rebuilding mine, there was
still something wrong in it), the distributor, the spark plugs, and more…

Tested the compression, torqued the heads, changed the oil, reset the timing,
and God knows what else, we finally set to fire her up again… Only to realize
that her fuel tank was DEAD dry!

So, after draining a bit of fuel from one of his SWEET sand rails:

She RAN!!!!!
And boy did she ever… After over 200 miles of the most painful driving I’ve
ever experienced in a car… Sputtering, complaining, backfiring, and overall;
HATING me… She was like an all new creature!!

Ahhhh it was love

Oh, and Gramps was nice to me on the cost too… Even though he had to
put off all his other projects for the day, and focused solely on my little girl…
Tore all sorts of parts off HIS car, and more… What a tremendous blessing!!
(I love my Bug, I love my life!).

God is good.

And so, as the sun was setting, I set out.
The plan for the evening? Head North… And boy did I ever!

On the drive up, I passed the light house Ethan and I slept “in” on our ride down
from Alaska, and many other landmarks that I’d have loved to have spent some
time around… But now, I was THREE days behind and I had to make serious time
to even get close to Seattle before Thanksgiving.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from taking a half hour at the Golden Gate Bridge.
I think it paid off, don’t you??

Landmark…

Landscape…

You simply MUST see this larger… I’m certain you’ll agree:
Click Here!!

From there, I’d planned to find a place to sleep, somewhere North of Marin
County… But I just kept going… And going… And going. about 4 hours later,
I finally made camp the FIRST TIME… But my, this story is getting long, you’ll
have to wait ’till the next episode before I tell you of deer, cops, more deer,
more cops, MORE cops… Oh, and more…

SUCH an eventful day is to come…

P.S. Tell me, which was your favorite photo in this set?
The ones from Day Six are going to absolutely blow your hair back!!

Stars, Engines, Lighthouses,
Beauty, Monks… And More!

Last I left you, I’d just got my car running… Barely.
It coughed, sputtered, and complained it’s way to Cambria, CA
where I finally found a safe place to sleep.

And boy, oh boy was it lovely!

There’s nothing like listening to the rushing roar of the Ocean, smoking
a fabulous cigar and feeling the chill of the night wind; all as you capture
bits of the beauty God’s put before you.

The stars that night were absolutely INCREDIBLE… The only light came from
the dim row of bed and breakfast’s that flanked the cliff and they left plenty
of room for the Milky Way’s glory to shine through.

Oh, the surf was definitely “up” as well… 6′-10′ high and positively CRASHING
onto the rocks just below where I shot that image.

After an hour or so of positively freezing my fingers off attempting to capture
some crazy long exposures (I really need to buy a cable release) I called it
a night and curled up in my sleeping bag beside the bug.

Morning…

You can’t quite see where I slept, on the other side of that log barrier
but I must admit… It was one of the loveliest rests I had!! The only problem?
DEW… Everything was SO wet!

MY sleeping bag was soaked, pillow was drenched, and my car had an 1/8th
of an inch of STANDING water all over it! Soooo wet.

Oh, did I mention that it was bloody cold too? I was frigid from the moment
I summoned up enough courage to get out of my sleeping bag.

Regardless, I quickly warmed after my drive back into town was greeted by a
delicious cup of espresso, a mango juice and an incredibly good fresh donut

After wandering around Historic Cambria a bit in my ailing, backfiring Bug,
I headed North again on Hwy 1… About to cover some of the most beautiful
country of my entire trip.

I remembered this countryside well, it was where Ethan and I finally began
to cross back into civilization again after our Alaska trip, where we paid 3x
more than we should have for fuel, and where we both admitted that though
the countryside was beautiful, we were simply too jaded by Canada and
Alaska’s ruggedly Utopian atmosphere to even notice.

This time though, things were very different…

(Not sure which one I like better… What’s your opinion?)

Everywhere, the beauty surrounded me… To my left, the mighty Pacific
who only yesterday reminded me of it’s great power by attempting to sink
my car… To my right, the hills and mountains rose above me and before me.

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!
I was constantly blown away by what an incredible State I live in.
These are some of the very reasons I chose to move to California in the
first place… SO glad I did

Admittedly, I didn’t stop as much on this drive as I might’ve… My poor little
Bug was running like absolute trash, backfiring, squealing, shaking, and
just generally reminding me how angry she was that I’d allowed her to be
drenched by the Pacific the day before.

That didn’t stop me however, from flipping a quick u-turn (have to love the
turning radius on that lil’ VW!) and heading back toward a sign I’d seen
by a narrow little lane that heralded a Hermitage somewhere up on the hillside.

I turned onto the road blindly and began a trek that I wasn’t quite certain
my car would survive… But boy did it pay off.

http://www.bigsurhermitage.com/

The monks had a lovely bookshop where I met a fellow photographer who
was there to spend a couple of weeks in solace and offered me a hose to
help wash some of the leftover salt off my car.

After stopping by their incredible chapel for a few quiet prayers I washed
my car, took some pictures of the view (to follow) and headed back North

The View From The Top…

Large Version HERE

If you’re a photographer, you know that image breaks a plethora of “rules”
but you can probably also figure out why I adore it so much

The land behind my car, off in the distance had almost all been burned
in the fires from earlier this year, in fact they burnt right up to within about
10′ of where the little Bug is parked… Wild.

Funny Face…

I’ve always thought my little Bug had some delightfully silly angles…
I’m sure you can agree!

After snapping the above photos, I took off back down the mountainside,
headed North once again, toward Big Sur, and onward to Santa Cruz
where I knew I could have a roof over my head, and possibly even a mechanic
to work on my car further.

Coast Highway…

Shockingly enough, I didn’t even stop to take a single photo when I was
actually IN the Big Sur… I was too busy trying to get my poor car to run properly
enough to take me all the way up to Santa Cruz.

I did however meet some interesting characters along the way.. The Scotsman in
his Miata (complete with a set of snow ski’s poking out from his passenger seat);
the German who was in search of the Hermitage I’d just visited, but had no clue
what the proper word was; and of course the hitchhiking family who nearly got
me run off the road by a motorcyclist.

Oh, and I bumped into a guy who yelled at me from across the gas station:
“Yo! Drowned Bug guy!” Apparently, he’d been at Pismo the day before and
had seen my Bug in the water… Even taken pictures! He promised to email
them to me and I’ve been waiting for them excitedly, ever since!

All good peoples…

The best was yet to come though, as would soon be stopping in with some
of my favorite people; “mommyfish” and her family. Ethan and I had actually
stopped by there on our trip down from Alaska also, and though it was a brief
visit, it left all of us with memories of great times.

This visit certainly didn’t disappoint…
The first item on the agenda when I arrived?

APPLE SAUCE!

(Photo By Barbara)

SO much fun
Then their family each had a turn first:

Tommy…

Barbara…

Then, Mommyfish (Nancy) herself:

Finally, it was the Patriarch’s turn (George):

And time for a quick family portrait…

…Before I’d shower up and head off to downtown Santa Cruz for some
killer hot chocolate and shopping with Barbara. A tremendous way to
unwind after some of the most incredibly stressful days EVER!

I planned to stay the night, and work on the car hard and heavy the next day…
Little did I know what would happen next, and just how insane it’d become
to work on my little 38 year old runt of a car.

Whew.
But that’s a story for another day!
For now, it’s 2:10AM and I’m desperately low on rest… Bedtime!

P.S. If you’re enjoying my adventure so far… Just you wait, it gets even better!
Also, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, digg, or recommend this post to your
friends… I figure that’s the least you can do for the crazy guy who’s busy sinking
his vehicles for your entertainment

Plus, as soon as I make it (fully intact, Lord willing) and get settled into my
destination in Seattle, I’ll be releasing some killer marketing techniques that
your friends may enjoy as well.. Again, just you wait!

Talk soon….