It's hard to take poor photos in a disgustingly picturesque city such as Charleston, South Carolina. Things are so old there and as everyone knows, old stuff makes for good photos. I may have cheated by shooting mostly in black and white which makes old things look even older, but everyone probably also knows that I'm not above cheating.


All paths in Charleston lead to one of two types of places. The first are churches and their graveyards.


So many grave markers. They just pile them up in corners.


The second type of path go to parks.


There a few water fountains in these parks, but not enough and not everywhere, especially when tourists are about to die of dehydration.


This is the courtyard of our hotel. Classy. As. Hell.



More photos from South Carolina can be found in one of three Picasa albums:

• Charleston: The City
• Charleston: The Doors
• Charleston: Not Charleston, but Cypress Campground where we got some old time religious revivalism

In my experience as an adult, I've visited places by thinking about it for a few days, planning for a few months and then going on the trip. Boom. Done. I've been fortunate that nothing has really held me back, including funds, vacation time or having any sense of responsibility. Just kidding. I don't have any real funds except for my lucrative weekend juggling act. 

The one place that has eluded me for the past 20 years (this includes non-adulthood for all those keeping track of my age) has been the glamorously, famous, shallow city of Los Angeles. Ever since my teenage years when I dreamt of going to college in L.A. or running away there and opening a donut slash snack shoppe (notice my fun way of spelling 'shop'), I've had great illusions of what the city looked like, how it felt, how it sounded, and how easily I could zip from Malibu to Inglewood and all points in between on the many splendid highways. 

I can now report that all these illusions were shattered. But in a fun, not-punched-in-the-gut way! Before I get to all that I experienced out there (my god, how long can I keep up this rambling? DON'T CHALLENGE ME!), I need to address the burning question: Why L.A.? Well, I'm not going to answer that. You like me being a mystery, you know it. Next: Why did it take me 20 years to visit? It's not like it's Antarctica or the island of Mauritius. I might have made that name up. Anyway, WHYYYY? I have no good reason. I have a bad one: I blame it on France. She and Canada kept getting in the way. Honestly, though, I think I didn't really want to go back to those teenage years and remember why I wanted to escape. So I never considered going to L.A. since I've become an adult.

But I finally did get out there based on a number of circumstances that no one (not even me) cares about at the moment. And what did I do?

• Stayed downtown with friends so we hit a few bars, including The Must and Wurstkuche that had a great local feeling. Friends have a rooftop pool area in their loft which is where the above skyline photo was taken.
  
• Grand Central Market - tasty tacos and pupusas.
  
• Hollywood Walk of Fame - Found Celine! And lots of other famous people's stars, including Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, and Kermit the Frog.
  
• Grauman's Chinese Theatre and other historic theaters on Hollywood Blvd - Grauman's is where many movies premiere with the red carpet.
  
• Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills - as over-the-top ridiculous as it's purported to be. There were valet parking for stores, for crying out loud.
  
• Sunset Strip - lots of famous locales on this road, including The Viper Room and Chateau Marmont.
  
  
• Amoeba Records - largest used cd store in the country. It was amazing how huge the French section was. Yes, I'm that predictable.
  
  
• Hollywood Forever Cemetery - many old famous stars are buried here.
  
• Paramount Studios - rode around the entire lot on a cart and saw some stars. Walked through the set of Monk and sat in the studio audience for a little bit of a Nickelodeon show.
  
• Venice Beach - also known as Muscle Beach, there are crazies and medical marijuana stores on the boardwalk.
  
• Santa Monica Pier - ferris wheel and roller coaster that no one was riding.
  
• J Paul Getty Museum - huge, beautiful museum complex filled with art overlooking the city
  
• Mulholland Drive - where James Dean died; it has great views of the metro area and the houses built into the hillside are amazing.
  
• L.A. and Long Beach ports - so many ships and crates and crate-movers and the Queen Mary docked and used as a hotel.
  
• Cole's - one of two places in L.A. that claims to have invented the french dip sandwich. Did you know french dip was invented in L.A.? Me, neither! It was good and tasty.
  
• Watts Towers - highlight of the trip. See:

These are just three of the seven towers that Simon Rodia built by hand. Two of them are almost 100 feet high. He dedicated all his spare time when he wasn't working on this project over the course of 33 years. I'm not a big fan of folk art, but this is inspiring, amazing and crazy. The tour guide was a wonderful gentleman named Mr. Powell who grew up in the area and was so passionate about art and the history of the area. Watts is in the South Central L.A., a.ka. The Hood. This artwork is huge and should be everyone's tourist itinerary, even if you don't like art or history. You like crazy, right? This is crazy, but in a wow! wow! wow! way.

And that's pretty much how I felt about L.A. It lived up to my high expectations, just not what I expected. I know that doesn't make sense, but consider the source. Ok, so the traffic is as bad as they say it is. Holy moly, how is there rush hour no matter what time of day it is? But that won't stop me from going back. I did get to ride the subway and while it's not extensive, it suffices for going to the touristy places. Next time, though, maybe a whole day at the beach, lots more tacos from taco trucks and Watts Tower again.

I just won't wait another 20 years.

I was lazy and instead of doing a trip website, I just put up photos here. Don't feel compelled to click on it. 

Las Vegas was the second half of this trip, but since it was my seventh time, I don't have much to say about it, except:

• Hitting a 4-of-a-kind in video poker makes me feel like I have a superpower. Which I do, it's just not that.
  
• Hanging out with friends from ATL was a blast, especially when Tecate and cosmos are involved.
  
  
• Red Rock Canyon State Park was beautiful, but for sheer spectacular-ness, I would recommend Valley of Fire over it, even though it's one hour away. Red Rock is only 20 minutes away.
  
• Downtown Vegas is as classy as ever. Fruity dragonberry drinks that come in a football shaped container was genius.
  
• Football watching at the Hilton during NFL season is the best thing ever invented, not counting Isabelle Boulay. Me betting and winning almost every game makes my head huger than normal.
  

We spent about two days in San Francisco and saw a good bit, although there's definitely stuff that we'll have to catch next time. Here's a quick rundown for my own sake because I'm liable to forget in my old age:

• Chinatown - our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and ordered too much dim sum
• Golden Gate Park - ginormous park
• Healthy Spirits - the first in a series of alcohol-related reasons why Cylinda may need help
  
• Lombard Street - crookedest street in the country or world or something like that
• Hyde Street Seafood - had the cioppino (local dish) which was great, but I'll stick to my New England clam chowder
• Toronado Pub - small bar with awesome beer list; found an imperial porter that goes straight to the top of my favorite stouty beers ever
• Union Square - awesome if you like shopping; ehhhh if you don't
  
• Momi Toby's Revolution Cafe - Cylinda's uncle used to own this cafe
• Paulette Macarons - the Frenchy staff let me speak French to them
• 21st Amendment Brewery - in the shadows of AT&T Park where the SF Giants play, this brewery served up some good beers, including a watermelon beer.
• Alcatraz - took a ferry out to the island and toured the prison
• Pier 39 - the lazy ass sea lions live the dream life on Fisherman's Wharf
• City Beer - this beer store had a good selection of bottles but also had a few on tap; we know the apocalypse has arrived if this was ever possible in Georgia
• Golden Gate Bridge - beautiful, like it was intended

Some thoughts on our recent trip to (not France) the Bay Area, CA where we escaped from Alcatraz, drove around golf courses for 17 miles, bought beer in wine-land Napa Valley and stormed a castle on an Enchanted Hill:

Macarons
Seriously, I know it wasn't Paris, but it was confusing with all the patisseries selling macarons. I only visited one because my family wasn't dying to take a tour of 7 cookie shops. I don't know what's wrong with them. Actually, maybe I... nevermind. I got a dozen macarons from Paulette Macarons and they were good. Not Pierre Herme good, but gooder than anything I've had in Atlanta, which isn't saying much. That doesn't sound like a very nice compliment. Lemme try again: They were awesome.

Pommeau
This is an apple apertif that is a blend of calvados and cider and it is unbelievable. It's available absolutely nowhere in this country or so I thought...until I found two different bottles of this magic elixir in a package store in Santa Rosa, CA. I only bought one because of all the...

Beer
Cylinda bought and consumed so much beer, my family was impressed. And they're not easily awed. Just kidding. They think driving in the rain is a feat of magic. But anyway, we checked two boxes of beer onto the plane and shoved a few more bottles in our luggage for good measure. We could open a small craft beer shop if Cylinda would quit drinking all the merchandise. Our Napa Valley day trip was beer-filled, as well, sacrilegious as that may be. We did visit Sterling Vineyards which has a self-guided tour after taking a boring skylift up the hill. It was very pretty and didn't cost as much as some other places. We got 5 tastings and I liked the one so much, I drank four glasses in a row (from everyone elses' glasses that weren't finished) and I paid for it with a pounding headache.

Oh yeah, the beer... Toronado Pub in San Francisco lived up to its hype. I had a Black Diamond Imperial Porter that's only available on tap out in CA so I'm sitting here crying tears over not being able to drink its chocolately goodness for a long time.

Hearst Castle
I now have a shirt that says "Hearst" on it and that's all I've ever really wanted in life...unless I can get a shirt with Patty holding up the bank on it. That would rock... or be offensive. Either or... So the mansion and its guest houses and pools are all beyond ridiculous in its ornateness and the setting on the hill high above the Pacific Ocean is perfect. After getting tickets, we had to take a 15 minute shuttle bus up to the house. They don't let you loiter around the property ever because after the tour, we were bussed back down immediately. There are a few different tours to take which we'll do sometime in the future when we can spend a night in San Simeon, CA.

All in all, it was a great trip. I can't believe it's taken me this long to tour the area since my family's lived in San Jose for years now. There's more stuff to see so I guess I'll visit them again next year. I guess...

Yes, Stevie Nicks, I'm getting older, too... I like to spend my birthdays on Jekyll Island, one of Georgia's Golden Isles. I'd say it's the best isle, but I don't want to get into this argument again because I never win. Everyone luuuuvs St. Simon's. That's fine. Stay away from Jekyll because the less people are there, the happier I am.

Although it's been a few years since we've been there, everything looked the same. That really means that there's still nothing to do and not many good places to eat. We went inland for dinner one night and ate at possibly the best restaurant in all of south GA. It's called Cargo Portside Grill in Brunswick. Other than that, we saved our eating skills for Savannah. We had Cylinda's favorite cheesesteak in the whole wide world at Bernies on River St. We ate at Lady and Sons, which is Paula Deen's restaurant. She really tried to kill us with butter, but I still seem to like her. There was an adjacent store with her face on everything...on things her face probably shouldn't be on. It was awesome.

We went on a haunted pub crawl which wasn't much of either. It wasn't expensive so I guess it was almost worth what we paid, but in the future, I don't think we'll be combining stories of spirits with the liquid spirits.

We took a damn lot of photos. If you're on Facebook with me, check it out. If not, well, you need to be nicer to me and then we'll talk about friending each other.

There were lots of sitting time, too. We sat on the beach on Jekyll and sat on benches in the squares of Savannah. Here's a video of us in Reynolds Square listening to a wonderful dixieland jazz band playing for a wedding.

I spent a week by myself in Annecy and Lyon, France. Short trip report: Annecy = charming; Lyon = huge. See the entire trip report, complete with videos, photos, and most importantly, me. You wouldn't want to miss the part about me.

Annecy at dusk.

Lake Annecy

Chimneys of Lyon

I've just returned from my third trip to France (aka the motherland) and for the third time, I didn't look forward to eating all the traditional french cuisine in restaurants. I was in Lyon this time, known as the gastronomic capital of the country. But did I go looking for a bouchon to eat in? Oh no, that would be sensical. When I'm in France, I head for Monoprix or Franprix and I buy processed food that I can't get in the US.


A dinner of roasted chicken potato chips and a bottle of cider blows my mind.


A late night snack of cider and Tresor chocolate hazelnut cereal after a dramatic Isabelle Boulay concert? C'est parfait.

Tresor cereal is really all I need to survive if France would ever let me live within her borders. It's got the all-important hazelnut food group that's essential to nothing, but embodies deliciousness itself. Combined with milk, it gets even dreamier. It's extremely unfair that Kellogg's doesn't think Americans would like Nutella-stuffed pockets of joy for breakfast. I guess I could try recreating this cereal with Cap'n Crunch and a jar of Nutella, but it'll probably be weird and I don't want to disrepect the Cap'n.

We spent four hours at the Sloss Furnaces yesterday in Birmingham, AL. That may be kind of weird, but since it's a National Historic Landmark, we had a reason. Hey, I didn't say it was a good reason.

The furnaces are basically what built Birmingham. When it closed, the city stopped all construction, too, and got stuck in the 1950s. That's not true, but if you've ever been there, it seems like did.

It was actually an immensely interesting place to take photographs. I'm just learning the technical skills needed to properly use a dslr and this was a great place to practice. I royally messed up my exposures for the shots that included the sky so here are some non-sky shots that don't deflate my ego.

We began our new year hung over and reeking of smoke in Las Vegas...with my family. It was awesome. They drove from California and we flew in from Georgia and collided on the Strip. There was lots of video poker and sports betting and Cylinda hardcore gambling into the wee hours of the night. You know, like all our other trips to Vegas, except this time, I didn't see Celine and I'll spare y'all my tears. No wait, here are a few: hoo hoo hoo.

We did see Mystere which is the first Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. It was amazing, as those shows usually are. This one seemed to have more humor in it. We also drove north about an hour to the Valley of Fire State Park. It's a sight to see, all the red rock formations shaped by water over time. There was also some ancient Indian art paintings on one of the rocks. This is a short video of one area of the park, although it doesn't begin to capture the beauty and openess of the area.

TripAdvisor Honors 2008 Travelers' Choice Award Winners (CNN Money, January 15, 2008)

From travel website TripAdvisor.com, a partial list of the winners:

Best Luxury in Europe - The Ritz-Carlton Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Best Bargain in the World - SeaCoast Inn, Hyannis, Massachusetts
Best Bargain in Europe - Arcadia Residence, Prague, Czech Republic
Best Hidden Gem in the World - Golden Well (U Zlate Studne), Prague, Czech Republic
Best for Romance in the World - Legends Hotel, Grand Gaube, Mauritius
Best for Romance in the U.S. - Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Island of Hawaii, Hawaii
Best Pool in the U.S. - Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, Poipu, Hawaii
Best Inn & B&B in the U.S. - Foxfield Inn, Charlottesville, Virginia

The one that caught my eye was:

Best Luxury in the U.S. - Signature at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada

Really? Luxury? Also: Us? In a luxury hotel? Odd. It was very nice when we went stayed there last fall, but really? That's luxurious? I hear Inigo Montoya telling me that, "I do not think it means what you think it means."

He's right, but I'm not sure if he's talking to me or to TripAdvisor.

Dalai Lama
Who needs anger management classes if you got the DL? Not me! Yen: Compassionately-enabled since October 2007.

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." -- Dalai Lama

Technology
A new laptop and a cellphone has brought me closer to current societal standards. Aggregating RSS feeds and relearning the finer points of XSL transformations for work - fun, but it's still work.

France
I was just reminiscing about this trip the other day... and sorely missing the Chinese food from a takeout counter in Nice. Yes, inappropriate, but I get to try again this year. This first trip to the mother country was everything I hoped it would be and more: friendly, frenchy, beautiful. Wait, are we talking about the country or the women? Har har. It was less, too: chaotic, crazy, inaccessible. Sitting at the park on top of the gorge in Gourdon was one of my best moments of the year.

Maladies
A radar head and some kidney damage in the boys and a bout of bronchitis in and a hospital visit for me makes this the year of the sick.

Novel
I originally wrote my time jumping meth meets Pony Express story three years ago and I finally rewrote half of it for Nanowrimo in November. I'm actually proud of it which is difficult to admit because I find my writing extremely tedious like that.

Isabelle
First the woman releases my new favorite album of ever and all time in April - De retour de la source. Then she smiles and winks and talks to me during her concerts in Quebec. How, I ask, how can I not be insane in the membrane over her? I do have my limits, though. Obsess over her? Yes. Create a painting and selling it online for 15,000 euros?

Maybe.

Sandwiches
Po' boys, banh mis, croque monsieurs, cubans...bring it. I love you all so much I don't know how quite to express it.

I think I'll end the year on that note. See ya, 2007.

We're heading to a magical land where the highest temperature will be 12 degrees F colder than the low at home. Think about that for a second. That's crazy! According to all known definitions throughout time and history, this prevents the trip from being called a "vacation". Instead, it may be more appropriate to call this an "expedition," "bad planning" or "who the hell goes to Canada for a vacation anyways?"

Just kidding! We went to Disney World.

If I could stop lying long enough (I can't), I would let everyone know that a recounting of the long-anticipated trip to France in the form of a website is ready to be viewed.

...smart. Usually, I care because lucky people annoy me with their luckiness and winning lottery numbers. Right now, though, they can keep their stupid lotteries and the demographics who benefit from them to themselves (senior citizens and kids trying to get an "education", I'm looking at you, you lazy leeches).

You know why? I just scored a double-double with Isabelle. Holy hell, I wish that meant something more inappropriate, but sadly (for me, not her), it doesn't. Last summer, I got two sets of tickets to see her in concert twice. One was in the third row; the other was first row dead center. Lucky, eh, for my first time seeing her?

Nope, as it turns out, it's just my awesome karma being totally awesome. This year, I (even more luckily) got two sets of tickets for two shows, both in the front row. And one pair is for the very center again. I get to swoon at Isabelle for two nights obstructed only by my sense of propriety and not by someone else's head. Ah, who am I kidding? I wouldn't let someone's else head get in the way. Heh heh heh. Mwahahaha. Ha ha...bleh.

(Look at her! Over to your left. See? She brings teh hawt in a hot, hot way.)

So, anyways, why don't I think this is smart? Because these tickets aren't cheap. And I can't stop buying them. Of course, they're all in "Canadian dollars" so I'm not even sure if that's real money.

I was just in Montreal recently with my dear friend what's his name. It's on the tip of my tongue... Anyways, we had a grand time even though we had to fend off mooses and beavers. Just kidding. There were only beavers, but a whole lake of them!

We walked a damn lot around the city and up the damn mountain and stalked, I mean, saw, the prettiest woman I have ever seen in my life. What's his name would agree, except he was ogling her guitarist. I must admit, he is a beau type.

Martin Bachand

There were beaucoup amounts of attractive people in Montreal. I normally don't look but I think all the French made me notice, #1, people, and #2, people who spoke French. It was all very enlightening. And incomprensible. No, for real, I know some French. No one else in Montreal seemed to understand my "dialect" of French, though. Snobs. But really nice snobs. They were really nice and friendly people.

For more on our adventure in this very foreign city, please see these award-winning pictures on this award-winning website.

Project 365 photos

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