06
Jun 10
South Florida
Sara and I are finishing up our nearly 10-day stint in south florida. Shant and Shaz arrive tuesday morning and the four of us will head to north florida for a night of camping before moving on to tennessee for bonnaroo.
we started our florida stay with five nights at the Rome’s house in Pampano beach, just north of fort lauderdale. As usual, the Romes were incredibly gracious hosts. Here are Matt and his dad in the kitchen.
After leaving Pampano, we headed down to the keys for four nights of camping at the Long Key State Park. The first night was windy and rainy
The wind was strong enough to keep the mosquitos away the first night. unfortunately, the wind vanished the second night and sara woke up covered in bites. turns out she’s allergic.
We decided to splurge and use up a generous wedding gift to stay at the Artists House bed and breakfast in Key West. The hotel was the best part of our time in key west. the building was finished in 1898. our room was in the back, up a flight of steep, rickety wooden stairs and full of light at all times of day.
Sara in her new dress, which was nice enough for an older lesbian to stop and take several pictures while we were drinking on the dock, watching the sunset with all of the other vacationing 50 somethings.
booze boat pulling up to dock on key west.
We needed to drive all the way to mainland florida before we could find another cheap (less than $70) motel. Luckily, the first one we saw was right near the entrance to the Everglades. We saw alligators, we sweated our asses off for 15 minutes before deciding not to leave the car again until we got back to the hotel. By far the most impressive part of the everglades is it’s size, which you can see stretching from horizon to horizon at all times. It’s also incredibly diverse. The photos above were taken only about a mile apart. on the left is a sawgrass field, on the right a dwarf cypress forest.
what i think is a young Lubber Grasshopper
Sara and her medicine cabinet, all for dealing with the mosquitos from long key.
26
May 10
more pictures from the trip
dinner outside
sara’s thumb after she shut it in the car door
dad and uncle louie trying to install a screen in the new skylight
sara and michelle
robert
playing cards at Jane’s Island, MD
trees at jane’s island
25
May 10
Back in America month recap
If there’s one thing i learned from reading personal blogs it’s this: less words, more pictures, better. I’ll keep this post to pictures and captions.
We spent the first month at my parent’s house, which was wonderful. This is from one of the many nights we were able to eat outside.
my dad
we stayed in my sister’s old room. we always had our road atlas out, with the intention of planning our trip somewhat – we didn’t know where we going the first night until we set out that morning.
We didn’t do much while in pittsburgh other than get acquainted with the high costs of living in america. we did go camping one night to see how road-ready we were. we also went down to DC for the night. alex (above) was kind enough to let us sleep on his floor.
the night was incredible. we stayed on dave’s patio all night, pissing off the neighbors. When one neighbor came to complain about the noise, dave told her to move to virginia and i tried to apologize. alex and sara kept loud-talking until 3am or so. dave also showed us a huge wad of cash.
Sara spending time on her new blackberry. We both now have internet on our phones, turning us into chat machines. Sara especially. She says she’s scared of driving but i know she’s just addicted to that IM shit.
Back in pittsburgh we spent a few days letterpress printing and addressing the invitations for our third wedding celebration. It’s mostly family and family friends. When we went with my mom to the reception venue we learned that we’ll also be having a wedding cake. who knew?
my dad working the 1936 vandercook letterpress.
Sara looks at different layout options while my mom cooks.
Sidebar: Sara took any opportunity this last month to inform me that she’s scared of bears, doesn’t want to be eaten by any bears and doesn’t want to camp near any bears. I always tried to tell her there were no bears in the east to worry about. We spent the first night in Shenandoah National Park. At the entrance to the campgrounds we saw a life-size photograph of a bear with a list of tips on how to prevent bears from eating your food. Sara didnt like that. She also didn’t like the picture of a bear in a cage that had been nailed into our picnic table. I laughingly bet her 20 dollars she wouldn’t see one. Five minutes later she walked to the bathroom and saw one ten feet away from her. We spent the rest of the night in the car.
After leaving shenandoah, we planned on spending the next night at assateague national seashore in maryland. We spoke to adam on the phone and he invited us to New York. We decided it was too far. We spoke to our friend Misho who invited us to jersey. jersey was closer than new york so we said what the hell. Turns out Misho lives in jersey city, just across the water from manhattan. That’s the morning after in Misho’s apartment. we saw adam and his sister and lauren shwartz. sara loved it and we’re both looking forward to spending some serious time there in june.
we spent the next night at Janes Island state park in Maryland. The spot is right on the inside of the eastern entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. It was beautiful.
Sara drove part of the way to our next stop. She ended up driving on the bridge/tunnel that spans the bay. she didn’t like that.
Sara needs to drive more.
We spent sunday in a motel in wilson north carolina. Checked in. looked up the best barbecue place in the area. i showered. sara showered while i got take out. we force-fed ourselves. we watched lost from 7 till 11.
obligatory stop at south of the border YOU NEVER SAUSAGE A PLACE!
and now we’re sitting at the shore of lake marion in south carolina. we went for a little hike, sara loves her sweatpants, and we’re about to cook pasta with tuna.
and this: writing a blog, uploading pictures on a park bench. the honda element is powering the cell phone and computer. My computer is using my cell phones internet and it’s lightly raining on our 10×10 blue shade.
next stops:
one week pompano florida at Matt’s parent’s house.
one week camping/enjoying florida
pick up shant and shaz in miami on june 8th
drive to bonnaroo
spend two nights in the great smokey mountains
drive to chicago to drop off the guys on june 17th.
back to pittsburgh.
hopefully we’ll have phone service at some other campgrounds so i can post more often.
13
Apr 10
Goodbye Egypt
some last photos from egypt. we’ll miss it here but FREEDOM BEKONS!!!
permanent human-powered carnival in Bahary
typical late night taxi
permanent carnival in Bahary
Sara in the apartment
outside St. Mary’s cathedral in Gianaclis
06
Apr 10
Laila & Tariq’s Wedding
Saturday night was Sara’s cousin Laila’s wedding. It was the climax of a four-day family marathon that ended yesterday. The wedding was very classy, the food was delicious and it looked like everyone had a good time. Laila’s husband, Tariq, is Jordanian and several of his family members were at the reception. Laila leaves for Jordan today (Tuesday). The mix of the two nationalities and the constant thought that Laila was leaving made the party even more emotional for Laila’s friends and family.
Laila and Tariq greet the crowd and the zaffa, a group of traditional drummers, singers and trumpet players.
The bride (aroosa) and groom (arees) dance in a circle made by the zaffa.
The first part of the reception was held in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Montazah, Alexandria. We all then took turns in the elevator up to the 15th floor for the rest of the party.
More circled-dancing. Egyptian weddings must be tiring. The couple danced for the entire night, with everyone watching and clapping in close proximity.
Laila and Tito dance while Laila’s best friends and sister watch from the sidelines.
Amr, Laila’s dad, grabs for the hand of a dancing partner while his daughter and new son-in-law dance in the background.
29
Mar 10
two more.
I spent the day playing with masking/hue changes. No matter how hard i try, i still can’t get web colors right. so imagine these looking much richer. The background on the top one should be matching the eyes. and the color below is just nice.
27
Mar 10
night with the guys
Sara and Set were invited to Sara’s cousin Layla’s henna night, the egyptian version of a bachelorette party. While they were out, Kenny came over to play with some cameras. I downloaded a new photography program which we set up, along with the lights and reflectors. Soon enough Stevie and Ty came over, then a few other guys came over. We ended up spending the first half of the night playing guitar hero and taking portraits.
Stevie
Kenny
Disho (sp?)
Me
Stevie, Kenny, Ty
Kenny kicking
Sara and Set took plenty of pictures from the henna party, unfortunately they can’t be posted… most of the girls were hijabi and don’t want their un-covered hair and wild antics all over the internet.
Sara and Set came back around 11 and we all joined Misho and his friend Samer for a trip to Cap D’Or, the bohemian/gay bar. We ended up spending the rest of the night there, splitting time between bitching about the big, bald, gay guy that couldn’t stop staring at us, talking about mexican food, and determining if sara and misho looked more puerto rican or dominican.