This April, Katie and I enjoyed an eight-day urban vacation through Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This was unusual for us, a trip with essentially no wilderness excursions, but we still managed to squeeze in something like 28k steps each day. The trip focused on mostly museums, food and beer, and tulips.
Continue reading Spring Vacation in Belgium and AmsterdamCategory Archives: Photography
A Week in Scotland
Katie and I spent a week driving around the Scottish Highlands in search of treks, castles, and whisky. The trip was mixed. The highlands were just as beautiful as expected, though the attractions requiring trekking were sparser than expected. The long history of Scotland and its castles were intriguing, especially since I’ve been coincidentally listening to hundreds of hours of a podcast about English history. Visiting the origin of scotch whisky, my preferred liquor, was educational and tasty. The driving, however, was rubbish.
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A Short Mexico Trip
Three days in Mexico City (aka CDMX, Ciudad de México) and three days in San Miguel de Allende (aka SMA) for a wedding served as testing grounds for my new Sony a7C and my itty bitty lenses. Meanwhile, Katie and I scoured the place for tacos.
Thoughts on My New Camera
The Sony a7C is essentially a full-frame mirrorless camera system crammed into a tiny cropped-sensor chassis. The size was its primary appeal. Paired with the miniature kit 28-60mm f/4-5.6, its weight (509+167g = 676g) it’s lighter than my old Canon 24-105mm lens alone (795g). It’s so small I can zip it up inside my jacket or toss it into a bag without worrying about dedicated space or damage from its own weight.
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The Death of my DSLR
Last week, while vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Katie and I were involved in a serious car accident. While stopped at a red light, we were rear-ended hard by a semi truck, propelled forward into a major intersection, and t-boned by an SUV.
Despite the severity of the crash (our car was very much totaled), Katie and I miraculously emerged with comparatively moderate injuries. We are still mired with said injuries and dealing the aftermath of the accident, but life goes on for us.
Meanwhile, my new DSLR (Canon 6D Mark II from 2020 and 24-105mm II from 2021) was annihilated, crushed in the trunk so tightly we couldn’t even extract the memory card.
Maybe someday I’ll have existential ruminations about the destruction of this precious, life-altering piece of machinery, but for now I’m just grateful that Katie and I are alive.
Hiking Honeymoon in the Rockies
Marry a girl whose idea of a good time is climbing mountains.
With an unexpected gap in our schedules, Katie and I scrambled together a short honeymoon — three months delayed — to the Canadian Rockies, mostly Jasper and Banff National Parks. It’s a region we’ve been trying to reach, but most of our vacations are in late autumn or winter, far past larch season. Thus, given this free week in late July, we packed in five nights of camping and loads of spectacular day hikes. Here’s a highlight reel.
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A big day
Hawaii Trip
Katie and I spent our two-week vacation in Hawaii. It’s a popular in-country destination now, but I had no issue joining the bandwagon. We stayed for four days in Oahu, four in Maui, and six in Kauai. Some highlights:
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Maine and Upstate
For the first two weeks of September, Katie and I drove around upstate New York and then Maine, focusing on hiking, camping, and generally just escaping from from New York City and civilization at large. These days, it’s other people who pose a looming health threat to each other. Simultaneously, our newsfeeds pose a constant threat to our collective sanity. And, if you’re Californian, you have actual fires posing an incendiary threat. It’s all bad.
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