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Welp, I’ve got my internet back! I had to wait three weeks for Comcast to set it up properly, and after about 8 phone calls and 4 house visits, I’m back.  Based off of this experience with them, I’ll just say this: don’t ever use Comcast (ever) if you expect anything resembling service. That being said, if you expect large phone delays, incompetent customer service, late technicians, and an overall pissy experience, you’d just love them!

I feel better having gotten that out. How about we talk about the good stuff now? I’ve posted pictures of day 3 of the honeymoon in Denver. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. I think that speaks for itself, yes?

-Ant

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Hello everyone! As I’ve mentioned, I’m back from my honeymoon with tons and tons (750 to be exact) of pictures. That may seem like a lot, but I must say that Denver is certainly a place that is friendly to cameras. I’m just happy that mine was among the many! Oftentimes when Kristin and I were walking around downtown, in the parks, or in any of Denver’s surrounding cities, we felt as though we were disturbing some intricate postcard. It took the wind right out of us.

As soon as we arrived, and after picking up our rental car and checking into our suite hotel, we headed straight downtown to the Denver Chophouse for dinner. I highly recommend this place for its class and quality - did I mention it was a micro-brewery? Amazing beer, fresh cornbread, and our first taste of Buffalo meat cemented this place as one of my all-time favorite dinners. I’m full just thinking about it. And really, that’s the only drawback about it - the sheer amount of food that we had left on the table.

After dinner we rolled along the 16th street mall, which bisects the city from the North-West to the South-East, to eye some sights for Wednesday. Having accomplished that with a few miles of walking, we called the shuttle to take us home.

By 9am the next morning (May 2nd) we were out and about downtown again. Since it was Wednesday, it felt strange to walk around in the almost empy streets while everyone was at work. I guess that is what we get for going right at the very beginning of the summer season (the tourists hadn’t hit the city yet). If that was the worst that we would deal with, then that is just fine by me!

So that is our first two days in a nutshell. I have plenty more to come, but not for this particular gallery. To break up the massive amount of pictures, I’m going to split them up into “digestible” sets of galleries, with maybe 20 to 40 pictures for each one. Fortunately the city itself has a wealth of sites and quirks for us to see in this first gallery. Stay tuned for more soon!

-Ant

Hey everyone,

Well, it’s all done!  I’m married now and back from my honeymoon.  Now comes the pictures…I have over 750 of them.  You know what that means: more galleries are coming.  Stay tuned because I have lots of other stuff going on (I’m in the process of moving right now), but I’m sure that I’ll get the time in the next week or so.  Yikes, that’s a lot of pictures.  Trust me, they are great.
Cheers!

-Ant

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Sometimes it is good to just “up and leave” for no apparent reason.  Perhaps you are getting worn down by the job, or maybe it is just a lack of good things to do at home.  It doesn’t really matter, but you hop out of the office/bed/your house and feel the need to find somewhere new to go, not really caring where.  The only real requirement is that you haven’t been there before.  Regardless of whether or not the resulting trip is good or bad, you’ll have something to remember either way. 

 So I “up and left” home back in September as a result of several things I can’t even remember.  The destination?  Charlottesville, VA.  Okay, okay…full disclosure here: I’m a Virginia Tech grad.  But seriously, the place is ranked in the top 5 places to live almost every year, and the University is a landmark of Virginia.  I wouldn’t be a traitor just to visit!  I just had to go, even if only for a quick weekend.  Having made the decision, Kristin and I packed up quickly and chose to take the scenic route down.  We took Skyline drive down to the nearest exit, and got off to exploring Charlottesville.  After that, we figured that we might as well knock off Monticello while we were there.  We did just that. 

As it turned out, the trip was really good.  It was a good opportunity for me to leave all of my cares back at home, and a chance to see what UVA students do at night (answer: they go to the Mellow Mushroom).  Charlottesville exceeded my expectations, and that is always awesome - whether you are a Hokie or not.

-Ant

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Sometimes I take it for granted that I live close to the National Mall, and all sorts of great architectural elements that DC is known for. Sometimes I get the urge to go out and document as much as I can. I know that I won’t be able to visit as easily in the future, so I’m overtaken (all of a sudden) with this urgency to capture these sights so that I can remember! Who knows how good my memory will be, right?  This gallery is the result of two such visits into DC. Each time I try to capture something different, but these two times I was going for the same thing: structures and sculptures. I’ve chosen to represent them in a mix of black & white and color.

-Ant

My days turned to weeks, and my weeks then turned into months. With my new(ish) job taking the majority of my time and thought, and travel/social/wedding stuff taking all else, I have fallen a bit behind. Sorry about that! I’ve made a promise to myself that in the future I’ll update this site a bit more frequently. That starts now. Soon I’ll put up some park pictures and also start some abstract “miscellaneous” galleries that I think you’ll like.

-Ant

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I got a call from my friend Tommy from Virginia Tech in mid-March. He’s a big hiking buddy of mine, and we quickly decided that I was long overdue for a trip in the woods. I know that I’ve been an office-jockey lately, but I’m very busy! Regardless of the work schedule, it was really time to take off to enjoy the better things in life: walking endless miles in the woods, far from anyone. Now we just had to decide where to go!

So where should we go? Georgia, Tommy’s home state, was out because it was too far to hike in my allotted week. Not that we couldn’t kill 82 miles during the time period, but we had to negotiate a lot of travel (10 hours from DC) beforehand and after. That just didn’t work out. Shenandoah National Park didn’t work out because of the distance and the parking situation. What ended up being the best plan was right under our noses: the Appalachian Trail in Maryland opened itself up only 2 hours away. At a length of 41 miles, we could get Kristin to drive us to the trail head at the PA/MD line (Pen Mar park) and we could hike ourselves home to Harper’s Ferry and then on the train to DC.

It was perfect - we had the whole plan sketched out and all of our equipment ready. The only thing that was up to chance was the weather. As we’ll see, that was a major factor, but it was one that we just had to accept. We headed into the woods on Sunday, May 14th.

Some details
From: Pennsylvania line at Pen Mar park
To: Harper’s Ferry, WV at Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park
Via: The Appalachian Trail
Distance: 41 miles along South Mountain
Altitude: Max 1950 ft.

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I went down for the weekend to visit my good buddy Phil and Tommy Dreamer in Spotsylvania. We were all trying to help Phil move into his new place, and decided to take the opportunity to explore a new park. The park we decided on, after 45 minutes of debate with the map and google, was Westmoreland State Park on the Potomac River in VA. We headed out and were there in less than 45 minutes. We found some great scenery: big cliffs overlooking the Potomac (right before it empties into the bay) and stunning colors that had a saturation I hadn’t seen in a long while.

There is a little trail that leads out to the shoreline where you can examine the composition of the cliffs more closely. It is pretty neat to actually get close to them - they don’t look that big from a distance, but up close they are very humbling! Also neat to see were the cabins strewn across the heights of the cliffs. I’ll have to head back there during the summertime!

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I forgot to put this one in the best of 2005 CD for some reason. I realized my error after sending it out to everyone, so I just had to put it up here. Unfortunate for the CD but fortunate to this site, Rocky Gap is one of the more beautiful destinations Kristin and I visited in 2005. In the heart of the park (it is a state park in my home state of Maryland) there is a huge man-made lake (lake Habeeb) where you can fish, canoe, or swim. Surrounding the lake is a really nice trail that also leads up into the surrounding mountains. Also on the grounds is a full golf course and resort. Kristin and I opted to camp out near the lake on one of their squares. They provide grill pits for cooking and cleared areas to pitch the tent. Really, what more could a couple ask for ? Don’t flog me for that statement, Kristin.We really couldn’t hope for any better of a day. We started checking out the “beach” down near the campsites - it was bustling with visitors from who knows where. After relaxing a bit there, we walked around the lake to its northern-most point (it is a circle, so it turns south again) so that we could see the resort from across the water. After getting back to the campsite we brought out our dinner and slowly cooked it over the fire - delicious! We then took a trip in the car down to the actual namesake of the park - a gorgeous view of a gap in the mountain range. It was truly unique! I would definitely recommend this place as an inexpensive but comfortable getaway for a weekend.

We also decided to head to two other destinations on our trip: Sideling Hill and Antietam Battlefield were on the way home. We were feeling saucy and didn’t want to think about the up and coming Monday, so we gladly accepted the opportunity to spend more time sight-seeing. Going to Antietam finished out my goal to visit all of the battlefields on the eastern front of the Civil War, and I was really excited about that. Sideling Hill, on a similar note, was a total surprise. We didn’t know it existed before we stumbled across it. It spans both sides of US 40, which we happened to be taking that day! I felt lucky.

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Mount Vernon is massive and beautiful. What’s more, it consists of a fraction of the land that it once stood upon! Acquired in the 1670s, the plantation sits just outside the beltway along the appropriately named George Washington Memorial Parkway (also beautiful). According to the official website, it sits along ten miles of the Potomac River. I think that fact speaks for itself - the Washington family was prosperous and important!Kristin and I decided to head down there on a brisk January morning because we hadn’t been there since we moved in. It had been over a year since we arrived in the region, and we felt odd for not having seen the site yet! We made it there in about 45 minutes, and were upon the mansion in no time. I can only say that pictures do it no justice - you really have to see it for yourself. It is elegant beyond belief. You can tour the inside and see some original paintings and artifacts as well as the room in which the President died. It really gives you chills to think that a man of such influence on the country once walked those halls!

Outside of the house there are lots of other sights. There is a dock, several farming plains of differing product, and a small “town” for his many employees. One of the more interesting sites to me was the President’s tomb. While some people elect to have large and elaborate resting places, his was humble and small. It was really surprising to walk so close to where he rests.

I left the place knowing that I’d never see anything like it again. It is one of those things that you write on a list in your head, but don’t actively think about it until the opportunity presents itself to visit. I am fortunate enough to have acted on that list, and I’m glad I did.