We recently took a trip to Cuba and have just uploaded a gallery of photos for your viewing pleasure.
Megan and I have finally added some photos to our Living in Mexico - Year Two gallery. We've begun the process of transitioning our galleries to Picassa Web Albums from Google.
I like the application, but not as much as the custom solution that we had built to host our galleries on my own server. The big issue right now is that we can't find a tool to upload our photos to a self-hosted gallery software. I had used a iPhoto plugin called Photon (no longer being supported or developed) which allowed me to upload photos to our old galleries that were in a Movable Type blog, but unfortunately I can't get Photon to install on my new computer's version of iPhoto. We looked at moving to a dedicated gallery software, but the iPhoto pluggin that would be allow us to upload to that software is also not being developed. The obvious advantage of hosting our own photos is that there is no meaningful space limitations on my webhost (I currently have over 250 GB of available diskspace). Picassa Web Albums only gives you 1GB of space for photos. The other advantage is being able to customize the look and feel of our galleries.
Anybody have a killer self-hosted gallery solution that works well with iPhoto?
For the week after Easter Megan and I took a week off work and traveled to Belize. We've posted photos, but due to circumstances (i.e. not having a Mac) we couldn't put them up in our Hawk's Eye photo gallery. We used Google's Picasa and their Picasa Web Gallery service. Also, you can see our photos in Google Earth by downloading this file.
The trip was very interesting and Belize is unlike any country I've ever been to. Owing to its status as a former British colony and the subsequent influx of different cultures, this is one of the most diverse places I have ever been. There are Africans, Mayans mestizos, Chinese, East Indians and a fairly large Mennonite population. Most Belizans speak 2-3 languages (English, Creole, and Spanish being the most common) and some speak 5 or more (possibly a Mayan dialect or Garínagu). All this in a country with only about 250,000 people.
We flew into Chetumal in southern Mexico on the Saturday before Easter and found the town completely full with holiday travelers. We couldn't find a hotel, but we heard that there were hotel-casinos over the Mexico-Belize border, so we caught a bus over the border hoping they would have a room available. We figured that if they didn't, at least the casino was open 24 hrs. a day, so we could just stay awake in the casino. Unfortunately, there was no room at the hotel, so we just decided to stay up all night in the casino.
Early the next morning (Easter Sunday) we caught a bus headed for San Ignacio in the Cayo district of western Belize. San Ignacio is very close to the Guatemala border and is located in a lush jungle setting. On Monday we went on a tour of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. We saw an amazing cave and swam in some really refreshing river pools. On Tuesday morning, we woke up very early to catch a bus further west to the small village of San Jose Succotz. We crossed a hand-cranked ferry and walked up to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. These ruins are very nice, but not huge. We were the first people up to the ruins and got to roam the entire grounds by ourselves. After walking back to San Jose Succotz we caught a bus to the southern coastal town of Dangriga.
We didn't stay long in Dangriga and caught the first boat to Tobacco Caye on the edge of 2nd largest barrier reef in the world. The entire island is only 5km square and has only a couple small lodges, we stayed at the Paradise Inn. The Paradise Inn consists of 4 small cabins with porches out over the water. The island is beautiful. Our pictures don't really do it justice. For the next four days (through Friday) our daily activities pretty much consisted of snorkeling, eating, reading in a hammock, snorkeling, eating, reading in a hammock and more snorkeling. It was an incredibly relaxing place and just what we needed.
On Friday we caught the morning ferry back to Dangriga and then caught a bus to Orange Walk in northern Belize. Orange Walk wasn't my favorite city, but we found a good hotel and booked a tour of the Mayan Lamanai ruins for the next day. On Saturday we woke up and caught a taxi to the river docks were the tours to Lamanai leave. The boat ride up the New River to Lamanai was a great way to see the bird life of Belize. We saw all 5 species of herons that reside in Belize as well as a many other birds. We even caught a glimpse of a crocidile. The Lamanai ruins are much larger than Xunantunich. We enjoyed a very thorough tour of the site and I climbed the highest temple on the site. It is 150 meters tall and at over 300 meters above sea level it is the highest spot in northern Belize.
After our tour of Lamanai and the New River we caught a bus up to Chetumal, Mexico. We stayed there Saturday night and then caught a flight back on Sunday morning.
On Nov. 10th we completed our first year living in Mexico, and now, nearly a month later, we have finished up the photo gallery from the first year. We also started a new gallery, Living in Mexico - Year Two, so we can have a new place to put our year two photos. Right now it has photos from our Thanksgiving weekend trip to Zacatecas.
If you haven't visited Megan and my photo galleries at Hawk's Eye lately then you likely missed a couple of changes. First, I finally finished converting and uploading the galleries that we had posted to the web before. Not all of the old galleries got converted because I didn't think the were of general interest. So now we have 12 galleries of older pictures up.
"But what about your latest photos since you moved to Mexico?" you ask. Well, there is now a new gallery called "Living in Mexico" with photos from November to just a couple weeks ago. As we take more photos we will be uploading them to this gallery.
This brings up one of the coolest features of the gallery system I'm using. Each gallery has an individual RSS feed. So with your handy dandy RSS reader, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for "Living in Mexico" recieve our newest photos delivered directly to your computer. Apple announced that iPhoto '06 would support "Photocasting" and hopefully my RSS feed will work with iPhoto '06. In fact, if you have iPhoto '06 will you give it a try and let me know if it works?
I've been working on some changes around my domain. First, I created an honest to god real front page at HawkTailDesign.com instead of the pretty lame index listing that I have had there for the last few years.
In doing this I eliminated easy direct links to our photo galleries, so I created Hawk's Eye to store all my galleries. Not all my gallleries are listed there yet, but they will be over time.
Finally, I wasn't totally happy with posting my photos using BetterHTMLExport from iPhoto, so I looked for a better way of creating and managing galleries. Luckily for me, just a few months ago, Douglas Bower (of Stopdesign) released some excellent templates to turn a Movable Type 3 blog into a great photo gallery. I've only added one of my galleries to the new system right now, but I am interested in feedback. Below are the links to my Peru gallery in both the new and old style.
Old Peru Gallery
New Peru Gallery
Since the concept was first introduced to me in high school Spanish class, the Mexican traditions surrounding the Posada have remained somewhat mysterious to me. Vague assertions were made about candlelight processions, piñatas, and feasts in the evenings leading up to Christmas. But in all of my superficial inquiries, no one has ever explained to me exactly how a Posada works. Now that I was to be living in México, I hoped to be invited to take part in a neighborhood Posada so that I could see what it is all about.
Having just moved into our neighborhood, I knew I’d have to ingratiate myself upon my neighbors quickly to establish sufficient rapport in time to be invited into their homes by December 16th, which is when I was told the nightly Posadas begin. Eagerly, I began introducing myself around. At the bakery a few doors down I steered a friendly conversation about sweet breads to Christmas plans. “So, will you be having a Posada this year?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Mine will be on Tuesday.”
I stood a few moments, waiting for her to do the only polite thing. No offer came. “So tell me, what time do the Posadas usually start?” I shamelessly encouraged.
“Oh, they usually come around 8:00.” She handed me my change, smiling.
I couldn’t stall any longer; I took my change and my rolls and left, weighed down by my status as a stranger.
Subsequent conversations with my neighbors Pepe, who runs a lunch stall outside his house, and Jesus Lara across the street, were equally fruitless. The morning of 16th, in quiet desperation, I threw myself upon poor Irena, the tiny old woman who owns my favorite dry goods store. As long as I kept thinking up items I needed, then she was obligated to answer all my questions. “Do people have to be invited explicitly? Does everyone just know where to show up and when? What does the host offer to the guests? How long does a Posada last?” Overwhelmed, Irena finally suggested that I seek out Doña Maria who apparently serves as a kind of coordinator for the Posadas that occur in our neighborhood. But Irena’s advise that I ask around door-to-door until I found Doña Maria, seemed to take my curiosity a step too far.
And so, around 8:00 in the evening, I settled into the front room of our house to see if I could learn anything by watching activity on the street. Across the way and a few houses down, I noticed groups of children began to gather around a non-descript door. As more children arrived, they grew rowdier and louder. The door opened, a woman stepped out and told them all to be quiet, to line up against the wall and be patient. Several minutes later she emerged again, carrying a platform that had statuettes of Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. She asked which of the children would like to carry it. The kids snapped to attention and pleaded to be given the honor of carrying the statues. Then, they started singing Christmas carols as the woman lead them off down the street, around the corner, and out of sight.
Each following night it was the same – around 8:00 children gathered beneath glowing Christmas lanterns at the same door, the woman that I decided must be Doña Maria emerged to lead them off toward that evening’s Posada. Sometimes a few parents of the kids would accompany them. I watched from inside the house, too curious to miss the ritual, too embarrassed to trundle along after them for the main event.
It wasn’t until Christmas Eve, the culminating night of the Posadas, that I was given a straightforward explanation of what happened after that procession turned the corner. We were invited to have Christmas Eve dinner with the family of Noah’s co-worker, Monica. Over spicy shrimp soup and brandy, I finally got definitive answers to my questions. Posadas are primarily attended by children, sometimes with their parents. The holy family statues are carried to the door of the host of the Posada (arrangements are made well in advance to determine who will host the Posadas each night) and the children begin singing a carol asking for shelter for the night. From the other side of the door, the host’s family sings back to the procession, until they open the door and allow the group in. Everyone sings a rosary, then more carols, then another few rosaries. Atole (a thick drink made with corn flour) or Christmas punch is often served with tamales or pozole (a hominy stew). Wrapped balls of candies are given out. The kids traditionally break open a piñata representing the Star of Bethlehem. A final rosary is said, the children leave for home, and the statues remain with the host for night.
“Where there any Posadas in your neighborhood?” Monica asked me.
“Oh yes, every night,” I replied.
“And you didn’t want to go?”
“Maybe next year.”
Only a couple days after we decided to move into our new house (but before we actually had moved in) Megan stopped by a veterinary office to see if they knew of any pet shelters were we could adopt a kitten. It happened that they had a kitten up for adoption who had been attacked and wounded by a dog. Megan met the kitten and was instantly in love. A few days later I went to the vet's office with Megan and met the kitten and was equally enamored.
So a couple days after we moved to our house we had a new little kitten. We decided to name her Huérfana, which means orphan in Spanish. For a short we call her Güera (which means "fair skined"). She healed up very quickly and got to have the cone around her neck removed last weekend. Now she can roam around our courtyard, climb the lime tree and generally be very cute.
For the last few weeks Megan and I have been living in a very nice hotel room at (no joke) The Hotel California in Guadalajara. It was a very nice hotel, but like all hotel rooms, it had its limitations (no kitchen, one room, etc.).
That all changed on Wednesday when we recieved the keys to the house we will be renting while we are living in Mexico. It is a great old Mexican house in the classic style. It has three bedrooms, a large kitchen/dining room area and a huge courtyard in the center with a lime tree that aparently is always bearing fruit. It is only about a 30 min. bus ride from my job (which hopefully I'll be able to write about more in the future) in a pretty quiet neighborhood.
When we recieved the keys and moved in on Wednesday we had our first "Gringo moment" in our new house. As we walked in to the courtyard we noticed white paint from the newly painted walls all over the cement in the courtyard. Megan and I both started freaking out a bit and worrying about how hard it would be to get the paint out of the cement. Then the guy who was doing all the repair work simply mopped up all the "paint" (which turned out to be easily cleanable whitewash). Well, we felt pretty stupid about that and vowed to try and take a bit more relaxed attitude towards these kind of things. We'll see how that goes and how many more "Gringo moments" we have over the next couple years.
I have posted a small gallery of photos of our new house, and the last image is a rough floor plan so you can get a better idea of the layout of the place. The place has so much potential and we just can't wait to start painting, fixing up and filling it with furniture.
When it comes to visual entertainment, in all its tragedy, comedy, and excitement, little else compares to the lively street activity here. Walking out the door and down the street beats television any day, which is convenient for us as we have no television. As a newcomer, you are always bound to see something new and interesting, something that you will reflect on all day.
Performers are a feature at most major intersections. Usually dressed as clowns, they juggle fire, dance, and stage mock battles for the few pesos that the stopped traffic will offer up. They generally show impressive efficiency and timing, knowing exactly how long they have to perform and collect money before the light turns green, and they are fairly talented to boot. I spoke to a fire juggler who performs at an intersection near where we live; he said that he makes enough to get by and that he finds the job better than most.
We currently reside on a major East-West avenue that runs all the way through the city core, for several kilometers. Every Sunday from 10am-2:00pm, the entire length of the avenue is shut down to automobile traffic and it becomes the Vía RecreActiva; hundreds of thousands of people come out on bikes, roller-skates, skateboards, and sneakers to traverse it. It is wonderful to see so many families and young kids out on the street. Along the route, at the Parque Revolución, free Spinning and Aerobics classes are given. The Vía RecreActiva has been functioning in Guadalajara for just over a year, and has been so successful and popular that it is being used as a model for other Mexican cities and Latin American countries.
Then, too, there are horrifying street scenes – reminding a pedestrian of his or her own mortality and the fragility of human life. Just today I was waiting for a bus, when a police car raced past and around the corner. My eyes followed the flashing lights and I saw just at the end of the block there was broken glass and a small body laying in the street. Family sat next to the child, there were a dozen onlookers - I was amazed by how quiet the whole scene was. Then I saw a car parked hastily a few yards away from me, a large round hole in the windshield of the passenger’s side. The police mostly milled around talking to witnesses, it wasn’t until a coroner’s truck arrived that the family members were gently approached and moved away.
As you stroll through the wide, colonial pedestrian malls of downtown Guadalajara you immediately notice the predominance of big, Cinderella ball gowns. Storefront after storefront displays these Marie Antoinette dresses in every color imaginable, from creamscicle orange to lime green to eggplant to smack-you-in-the-face pink. These gowns will be the centerpieces of the Quinceañera – a young lady’s 15th birthday and “coming out” party. In their planning, trappings, and expense these bashes resemble a wedding; the overwhelming number of stores dedicated to their production serve as evidence of a lucrative and thriving industry. Visit nearby Parque Agua Azul on a Sunday afternoon and you will find three entrance fees posted for the leafy, enclosed gardens: adults-10 pesos, children-5 pesos, photography sessions-67 pesos. Inside the park, amidst picnicking families and young couples looking for a romantic spot, at any given time there are a half-dozen of these coifed and uncomfortable looking princesses being led from flowering tree to picturesque bridge by a photographer and followed by an entourage of mothers, aunts and girlfriends.
I am happy to announce that all of our photos from our South America trip have been posted. During the 5 weeks we traveled South America we took over 800 pictures. After some tough decisions, we were able to cut them down to 241 pictures. To make that easier to digest for our friends and family we have divided them up into three galleries of photos, one for each country (with Bolivia and Chile sharing a gallery).
Peru Gallery (71 photos): Photos from Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Lake Titica.
Bolivia and Chile Gallery (70 photos): Photos from Isla del Sol, La Paz, Salar de Uyuni, Southwestern Bolivian Highlands and a few from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
Argentina Gallery (100 photos): Photos from Salta, Tafi de Valle, Cordoba and Buenos Aires
Inside each gallery you will see thumbnails of our photos. Click on any thumbnail to view a much larger version of the photo. From this view you can click on the "Next" or "Previous" buttons to page through the large versions of the photos. I hope you enjoy all the photos!
Also, I updated the West Coast Tour photos.
Well, Megan and I are now visiting her parents in McMinnville. We've been here since the Sept. 9th and have really been enjoying ourselves. On our way down from Seattle we stopped by our friend Tracy's house in Washougal and had a nice dinner with her. We also got to see her new house and all the hard work she and her mom have been doing clearing out rocks around her yard.
We arrived at Megan's parent's house and we were immediately put to work. Megan helped her mom paint their upstairs hallway and I helped her dad dig out their back yard. They are putting in a paver stone patio in he back and the first step is digging out the area.
Last week Megan and I took an early anniversary trip to Suttle Lake in the central Oregon cascades. We stayed at the new Lodge at Suttle Lake. The lodge was beautiful and we had a great time at the lake.
Then on Friday Megan and I had a picnic up at Kramer Vineyards. We were married at Kramer a little more than a year ago. It was great to go taste their latest vintages and talk to Trudy Kramer. She showed us some of the concepts for their new labels that they will roll out later this year.
This weekend Megan went on our annual camping trip to Nehalem Bay State Park. This year Megan's parents came along and we were able to spend some time on the beach and we walked up Neahkoni mountain. Megan and I also went kayaking on the bay. It will be a year or more before we get to go camping at Nehalem Bay. I'm really going to miss the Oregon coast.
So, tomorrow Megan and I leave Oregon for at least a year (probably two) and I'm really going to miss my adopted home. I lived in Oregon since 1994 and it is my home. I'm really eager to visit my family and friends in California, and I can't wait to start my adventure abroad, but I'm definitely leaving with mixed emotions.
Today also marks some changes to this weblog. Megan has decided that she would like to start posting to the weblog, so I added her as an author. From now on, right under the title of the article with be the name of the author.
Also, you probably noticed that the name of the weblog changed a couple off weeks ago. I've been looking for a new name for the weblog pretty much since I started it and when I saw a sign in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square giving the milage to Guadalajara, I knew I had the new name.
Finally, I will be leaving my computer behind until November so I won't be posting any pictures in the meantime. I'm going to try to post the occasional blog posting while we are in South America, but I can't make any guarantees.
The rest of our West Coast Tour pictures are viewable now as well.
Megan and I are visiting our friends and family along the West Coast. Our first stop was Seattle. We arrived last Saturday and have been visiting with our friend Lista and her adorable kitten Mona. Seattle is a great city to visit and we've been having a great time. We took a walk from Lista's apartment to Lake Washington on Monday. There were some really nice houses along the way and the lake was beautiful, but unfortunately we didn't bring our camera.
Yesterday Megan and I walked down to downtown Seattle. We stopped by the new Seattle Public Library that was designed by Rem Koolhaas. I've seen a lot of pictures of this library, but it was amazing to see it in person. This is one of the most thoughtfully designed buildings I've ever been in. So besides looking really great, this library also is a perfect space for a library. After the library we walked around the Pike Street Market and the rest of downtown Seattle.
Well, today is our last day in Seattle. We'll be heading to Vancouver, WA today for a day with our friend Tracy. We'll miss Lista (though we'll see her in San Francisco at the end of the tour) and her wonderful cat. Below is a picture of little Miss Mona helping me with my blog.
There are a lot more pictures of our West Coast Tour so far and of our Every Thing Must Go Party in the galleries.
My desk at work gets cleaned about once a year or so. The last time it was even slightly cleaned was last September when one my student workers decided to put all of my papers in to piles while I was on my honeymoon. It seems kind of weird that I can keep my computer organized, but for the life of me my actual desk is just piled with papers.
Well, last Friday (March 25th) most of the college was closed and there was no one around to bother me, so I actually cleaned my desk. I decided to take before and after panoramas with my camera phone, and they actually turned out OK. Also, amazingly enough, my desk is still relatively clean one weak later.
I snapped this photo on my way home from work yesterday evening. Even though we have been having extremely nice weather in Portland this month the last few days have brought rain and gray skies. This little pink spring flower was super bright and caught my eye.
A few months ago some new people moved into the condo at the end of my block and for a few weeks this disturbing cement pig head on a pole was in front of their yard. I kept getting creeped out by it's presence. It finally was gone after a couple weeks.
I think it bothered me because it reminds me of the vivid image of the pig head on a stick in William Golding's novel "The Lord of the Flies". Having our own cement Lord of the Flies in my neighborhood was pretty creepy.
“The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business.” - from the "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, taken from Lord of the Flies Lo-Fat
The real test of my cameraphone-blog experiment will be on Friday. This photo represents the last of my photos that I collected over the last year or so and I will now be depending on all new photos. So far in this experiment I have used 7 old photos and 5 new photos over about a months time.
Last fall I snapped this picture of a tree on the PCC Sylvania Campus. It captured the evening light just right.
I missed last Friday's posting due to the flu. It was a strange flu bug though. I didn't have a strong fever or any respiratory problems, and my stomach felt fine. I just was very, very achy. Yuck!
It's not really the season for this picture, but I like it so much. I caught this presumbly father and daughter trick-or-treaters on my way to go costume shopping. That is a real honest to god carved pumpkin on his head.
Megan and I went to a late lunch with our friends Lista and Kartik this Sunday at Gravy on North Mississippi. Besides getting lost on the way there (which I do every time I go to Mississippi) we had a great time. Megan snapped this picture of her and my coffee.
Last spring John Kerry and Howard Dean came to town and I went to the rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square. There are animal statues and fountains all around the Pioneer Courthouse and the police used them to wrap their caution tape around. I found this one particularly sad/disturbing.
John, one of my few regular readers and a co-worker, sent me a link to an article called Cameraphones as Personal Storytelling Media. The article talks a lot about a study in Japan about how people use cameraphones. It is very interesting, but the part I think has the most relevance to my recent cameraphone experiment is below:
In contrast to the traditional camera, "cameraphones capture the more fleeting and unexpected moments of surprise, beauty and adoration in the everyday...Users are still working out the social protocols for appropriate visual sharing, but seem to take pleasure in the adding of visual information to the stream of friendly and intimate exchange of opinions and news."
Lately I have been working on the video for my wedding and we are starting to get close to the 6-month anniversary, so memories of the days leading up to the wedding are also coming back. Since Megan and I were planning and coordinating the wedding ourselves we made frequent trips to Michael's craft store and it's ridiculous wedding section. Above is one of the cake topper's for sale at Michael's. How romantic.
I took this picture with my camera phone and it turned out really nice. When I first got my camera phone I thought it was incapable of taking good photographs, but this is one of those photos that proves me wrong. Plus it has a great "Blair Witch" creepiness about it.
Finally, food for my people! I saw this product while grocery shoping at New Seasons. I really love that store. They have a good deli and prepared foods area and an excellent meat department. The produce is generally really great and almost entirely organic.
A few months ago I went to dinner at the Milwaukie location of Black Angus. After eating more than my share of red meat I saw the contents of today's picture on the sidewalk. It is a yellow felt Star of David. It was pretty crudely cut and sitting all by itself. I didn't know how it got there, but something wasn't right. I think it bothers me because it reminds me of the what Schindler's List showed the Jews wearing in the concentration camps. This of course reminds me of an Office Space quote.
Peter Gibbons: Doesn't it bother you that you have to get up in the morning and you have to put on a bunch of pieces of flair?
Joanna: Yeah, but I'm not about to go in and start taking money from the register.
Peter Gibbons: Well, maybe you should. You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.
I've decided to start using my camera phone to document visual oddities and little moments from my day. These are the first of those images:
Walking out of a movie at the Regal Lloyd Center Ten I spotted this candy dispenser. Yep, you can now eat "Sour Cry Baby Tears". Mmmm . . . tears.
The other day I was buying a few things at the local Safeway when I came across these brilliantly named Captain Crunch clones. Is it just me or is that little squirrel on crack?
The weather was so nice last Saturday that after work I decided to walk from downtown to my apartment. I walked over the Morrison Bridge and down the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. When I got down to the end of the esplanade at the east side of the Steel Bridge, the lower rail span of the bridge was raising to let a boat through. This is the only vertical, telescoping-lift span, meaning the lower span can raise and lower independent of it's upper span and seeing it action was pretty interesting. Earlier in the day I had actually told somebody that the bridge allowed for 6 different methods of transportation (car, heavy rail, light rail, pedestrian, bicycle, and boat).
These two bridges are perhaps the most underated of the 11 bridges that cross the Willamette River in Portland and from an engineering perspective the Steel Bridge is my favorite.
[Updated 2/22/2005 with a link about the Morrison and Steel Bridge and more text and links about Portland bridges.]
I stiched together a few panoramas that I shot this summer and posted them on the web. The first 4 are from a trip to the Jefferson National Wilderness that I go on with Megan and some friends every year. The final is a full 360º panorama that I took on Megan and my trip to the Puget Sound in August. Watch out with that last one, it is a very large .jpg.
I posted a new gallery of wedding photos the other day. These are all photos from friends and family. Thanks to Jesse and Tina, Ivan and Alix and my in-laws for the great pictures.
A few people who have seen my wedding pictures asked about a painting in one of the pictures. We also sent out a photo of the painting in our "Thank You" notes. So who was kind enough to paint a wedding portrait. Well, my very talented sister-in-law Rebeca Smith happens to be an artist and she offered to paint our portait for the wedding. Megan wanted a portrait in the style of Frida Kahlo's wedding portrait of her and Diego Rivera. Rebeca agreed and painted our portrait. We didn't see it until the night before the wedding, but we sure were happy! In the original Diego is holding painter's brushes and a pallete. That didn't really fit my style, so in ours I'm holding an iPod. The photo of the painting is after the jump.
As readers of this blog no doubt know, I recently got married. If you would like to look at the best 139 of the more than 500 photos that our photographer took, here they are.
The wedding was really great. The weather was pretty bad in the week leading up to the wedding and we were getting really worried about the wedding being rained out. We decided it would be best to get a tent for the wedding. There was a wedding being held at Kramer Vineyard the day before ours and we were able to split the cost of the tent with them.
The weather that day was actually not to bad. It rained all morning while we were setting up decorations under the tent, but by the time we started taking pictures the rain had all but stopped. We spent a couple of hours with the photographer getting our pictures taken around the vineyard. Some really great photos came out of this.
After the photos Megan went into the winery owner's house and I stayed out by the tent and greeted people as they arrived. About 45 min before the wedding was to start I decided to try and memorize my vows. I had written the vows a month earlier and hadn't really looked at them since.
The ceremony went well, even if my little brother (age 3) was by the musicians. I remembered my vows and Megan remembered hers. What was most amazing about the vows was how similar they were. We had purposely not read each others vows and in the end they were so similar that most people thought that we had written them together.
The reception was awesome. We provided BBQ chicken (skillfully cooked by my Uncle and a friend) and wine from Kramer, while the guest all provided delicious side dishes and non-cake desserts. The Kramer's gave us a wonderful magnum of their Pinot Noir, of which Megan and I only had a glass of.
After dinner we had some great toasts from my best friend Eddie, Megan's sister Rebecca, Megan's Dad and my Mom. The highlight of the toasts was no doubt from Megan's best friend (and wedding Mistress of Ceremonies) Lista. Lista regaled us with letters that Megan had written her during there junior high years and they included some hilariously bad relationship advice.
After the toasts, Megan's sister performed a great fire dance with her boyfriend Nick. He also played a bit on his didgeridoo.
Megan and I then cut the cake. We got a few questions about the figures on top of the cake. They are a skeleton bride and groom and definitely look a bit "non-traditional". Megan and I both wanted them because they are in the style of traditional "Day of the Dead" decorations from Mexico. Besides our love for Latin American culture, these were also significant since we were engaged on a vacation to Mexico during "Day of the Dead".
After the cake cutting we danced our first dance and then the father/daughter and mother/son dances. After a bit more dancing we had everybody light sparklers and we left under a archway of light to an awaiting car that was to take us to Portland.
I have been happy to hear from many of my friends and family that they had a great time at the wedding. For Megan and I two of our main objectives of the wedding were to make sure that we had a good time, and to make sure the guests had a good time. We seem to have succeeded.
I hope you enjoy looking through the pictures as much as I do. I was so great to get the photographs back and have them be of such and excellent quality. I feel like they really captured the mood of the wedding.
Last night Megan and I went throug our nearly 300 pictures that we took on our honeymoon in Bali and picked out the best 70 photos to post online. We posted them last night in a gallery.
After our wedding (which I will talk about once I post those pictures) we went to the Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland for the first night of the honeymoon. It is a beautiful hotel that I would recomend people stay at if they get the chance. The staff was really helpful. The next morning we took a MAX to the airport and got on a flight to L.A. After about 5 hours in LAX we finally bordered our flight to Hong Kong.
The flight was about 14 hours long, but the food was pretty good and Megan and I were both able to sleep for a few hours. We landed in Hong Kong and spent about 4 hours in the amazing Hong Kong International Airport. This is one of the largest airports in the world and the main terminal is likely the largest enclosed space in the world. We then bordered our short (4 hour) flight for Bali.
We arrived in Bali and were met by my Aunt Jenny's friend Wayan who drove us to my aunt's house in Ubud in central Bail. My aunt is actually in the states right now so we were able to stay in her house for the first few days. Ubud is considered the cultural and culinary center of Bali. It is a great place with traditional dancing almost every night, really good shopping and good food.
We spent 3 days in and around Ubud. The first day we walked around Ubud and did a bit of shopping then we walked throught the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary just south of Ubud. The monkeys own this place, but they are generally calm and just want a bannana.
The next day we visited a number of temples around Ubud. Hinduism in Bali is very influenced by the earlier Balinese religions and is intensly spirtual. There are temples in every small town and offerings are left in front of every doorway and at many shrines. There are almost always 4 shrines in every family complex and every shop has at least one. We saw at least one temple festival or people dressed for a temple festival every day we were in Bali.
The next day we went to the central mountains and vistited a temple and some amazing waterfalls. Later in the day we visited Bali's most famous temple, the sea temple of Tanah Lot. This temple is built on a large rock in the middle of the surf. We stayed there till sunset, since this is the most famous sunset in Bali.
After Ubud we wen to the south-eastern beach town of Amed. On the way to Amed we drove behind a procession to a temple for about 1 km. It was amazing seeing most of a village walking to the temple for a festival. All the men and women wear traditional temple clothing and most carry offerings for the temple.
In Amed we stayed at a resort called Good Karma where we had our own bungalow no more than 10 m from the beach. We went snorkling and relaxed on the beach. Every evening the fishing fleet from the near by villages would sail by with there multi-colored sails.
It was very hard to leave Amed after three days, but we wanted to see more of Bali, so we left for Lovina. Lovina is in northern Bali. It is well known for the resident dolphins that live in the area. The dolphins are pretty well harrased by the tourist boats, so we didn't go to see any. In Lovina we relaxed more. One day was our day of real luxury. We first went up to the Air Panas Banjar hot springs. Later we went to central Lovina and enjoyed a massage. That night we had a great mult-course seafood dinner at our hotel's restaurant.
On our next to last day we went back to Ubud and shopped a bit more. The last day was a journey to the airport. It was hard to leave Bali and Megan and I really want to go back.
I have been looking to create a photo project using my camera phone and I decided on one a month ago or so. On a bus ride home from work I took a picture at every stop the bus made. You can see the results of the project at the Bus Stop. Click on the red dots to see the picture.
Hopefully you will enjoy and this will make up for the earlier downtime.
I added a new panorama to my gallery if you are interested. It is from my recent trip to Cannon Beach, OR for my step-brother's wedding. When I post the gallery from his wedding I might talk more about the event.
A while back Andy posted about his panoramas and it inspired me to start shooting and stitching my own. So if you are interested head over to my panorama gallery and checkout my first four. The first three are from my spring break trip to Arizona and the last one was from my recent trip to Napa.
I used my Cannon A70 Digital Camera to shoot them all and then stitched them using Photoshop 8's built in PhotoMerge utility. It seems to do the job pretty well.
If you want to see pictures from Megan and my trip to Mexico, you can now look at my online album. Also, you can see pictures from a party Megan and I threw back in late october at it's album.
Both these are hosted at my new domain. I hope to start using this domain for my resume, portfolio and blog by the end of the year, but that is looking incresingly unlikely. I also bought another domain for my other blog, but still haven' t had the time to create a decent MoveableType template for either.
Anyway, sorry for the over 3 month gap in blog postings.
