The Magichour Blog

Cabo wedding

Last day in Cabo. Breakfast at the Office. October 1 is “opening day” in Mexico. Celebrating the opening day of tourist season. My pancakes were 50% off.

Wedding images to come.

SCUBA is a Blast

Just finished a 2 hour “Discover SCUBA” class in Coronado. I love the feeling of doing something that we humans were never meant to do. I spent 20 minutes underwater. And it was GREAT! I’m gonna sign up for the certification for open water. Should come in handy on my next trips.

Matisyahu

Last Sunday, Amy and Gabe and I went to the Matisyahu concert at Humphrey’s. We, of course started at the Bali Hi with a couple world famous MaiTai’s. While enjoying the beverages, waiting for the opening act to finish their set, I saw a very tall man jog by. Despite what Amy and Gabe thought, I knew it was him! We then finished our drinks and walked to the venue. And there he was again. This time stretching near his tour bus. We ran over and politely asked for a picture.

Me, Gabe, and Matisyahu

It was great! He was very calm and spoke extremely clear. We thanked him and went inside to our seats. High off the thought we watched him rock the audience with his reggae, rap, metal tunes. Great night!

My next job

I’m planning on fabricating a child and a smoking habit if and when I change careers. I feel a little discriminated when I see co-workers, stop working and go outside for 15 minutes every hour. And then you have those that can’t come in to work because little Johnny is sick or little Suzy doesn’t have a baby sitter today. I never call in sick or take breaks. But when I take a vacation I catch hell.

Home and rested

I came back with 700 plus images and videos. I’ve narrowed it down to around 60 or so. I’ve spent a couple days editing them to my liking. I shot many subjects in preparation for HDR images but after looking at them and working them in post for hours, I kept returning to preferred image style. I slight color bypass and vignette. As always I wasn’t really confident with them at the time of shooting. The iPad2 did great as a back-up image bank and image viewer. It allowed me to slim down my gear significantly which was very appreciated. I no longer have to bring an image bank nor laptop and hard drive with all the accessories and power supplies.

I also cam back with a new outlook on “vacations”. I’ve never really been able to stop and relax. I learned! Well… I had a good teacher too.

My travel pet peeves

Yes these are MY travel peeves. Not what is right nor wrong. Just observations and instant blood pressure raising situations.

1. Be organized and not a moron. Don’t delay me because you have been too busy watching the Kardashians for the last five years to know that you can’t fucking bring liquids on a plane. And yes… Sun block is a liquid.

2. When the plane lands and the bell rings, this is not your queue to shoot to your feet, grab your Wal-Mart bought carry-on and place your ass in my face for the 15 minutes that it takes to exit the plane. It’s just like the schools bus (some shorter than others) when you were a child. First on/first off.

3. Do NOT. And I stress, do not use my seat back to lift you bloated big gulp chugging ass out of the seat behind me. This could result in a swift punch straight to the neck. And no one wants that.

4. When boarding the plane, put the before mentioned bag up or down and step out of the isle. If your in seat 9A it’s safe to assume that you’re on the right. Now MOVE!

5. When at the baggage claim, don’t huddle around the carousel. Now this doesn’t usually apply to me but in the rare case I am asked to check my one and only bag I have to deal with you jack holes. it’s simple… If you all clammer tightly around the damn thing no one else can see the baggage. And when someone does win the baggage slot machine, they can’t lift it and move it out. So stop, take five steps back and relax.

Keep in mind I’m writing this from the floor of a crowded airport in Phoenix. Waiting for my delayed flight to leave. A couple more small tips on whether or not toeven travel.

- If you haven’t showered in a week, don’t travel.
- If you weight a metric ton, don’t travel.
- If you have more smaller less intelligent life forms than you have arms, don’t travel.

Last Trasmition Europe 2010

My last night in Europe.  And as predicted a massive chest cold.  I’m not sure if it’s the candle being burned at both ends or just the foreign germs and bacteria coating these towns but I seem to always get sick at the end of the trip.  Some times worse that others.

I started the day with a true “English Breakfast”of eggs, toast, beans, and bacon.  The real bacon that you cut with a knife.  The weather was clear and bright but very windy.  I took advantage of the canal bus again, traveling out to the outskirts of town.  Wandering through the street markets.  To take advantage of the weather I chose not to do the Van Gough Museum.  Instead I tried to get as much of the city in frame as I could.  The illness however, had other plans.  I missed the bike tour but rented a “MAC”bike for the rest of day.  This is truly a great way to get around fast.  Just make sure you rent the 3 speed other wise you’ll be huffin’it pretty good.  I have a new respect for the Amsterdamers.  They make it look easy cruising around.  I had a hard enough time getting this 210 lbs. frame up to speed.  I found myself going the wrong way and crossing streets when I shouldn’t be.  I guess the good news was, only one car door opened into me.  If anyone is pondering a Europe trip, I recommend Amsterdam.  It’s a very easy city.  Most all signage is in English.  And most everyone speaks it as well.

Well… 5 Cities, 2 Countries, and 7 hotels.  It’s been a blast.  I’ve sampled some great Belgium beer and put many many miles on the dogs.  I’ve learned so so much about these wonderful cities and their way of life.  I’ve also successfully rebooted the mind and soul.  I’m ready to come home and get back to work and life.  I miss my friends, family, bed and my truck.  I’ve typed this before but I feel this is my last trip alone.  I invite any of you to join next time.  Put a flight on the credit card and take a chance on an adventure you will not soon forget.  It’s so hard to really appreciate the simple things in life until you are away from them.  Explore and see how other parts of the world spend their days.

Thank you everyone for following along.  I’ll be on a flight home leaving Thursday at 10:30am local, 1:30am in S.D.  See you soon!

Hello From Amsterdam

So as you can see I’ve made it to my final city and country of the treck.  I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday late morning.  My concern was getting a room for Tuesday and Wednesday so there was no time to waste.  The room I had book for last night wasn’t ready so I dropped my luggage and wondered from hotel to shady hotel.  I’m staying near the train station with is in the heart of the city as well as near the “Red Light” district.  It turns out this is still the peak season as well as a large convention in town making it hard to find an affordable room.  I finally settled on a pretty pricey room around the corner.  So then it was back on the streets shooting.

The city of Amsterdam was originally “Amstel” then after a Damn was built it was also added to the name.  I’m gonna breeze through the Wikipedia info as I’m typing in a crappy smelly internet cafe paying by the minute.  There are more canals and bridges than Venice Italy.  The water is mostly salt water with one canal being fresh.  They say the canals are 3 meters deep…  One meter water, one meter, mud, and one meter bikes.  You can’t imagine the amount of bikes in this town.  One must be careful when walking as it’s very easy to get smacked by a cruising Amsterdamian.  I’ve been hit once but it was my fault and everyone was unhurt.  The streets are built around the two-wheeled mode of transportation and definitely have the right-of-way.  The Central Train Station has a 3 story bike parking lot that holds 2,500 bikes and it’s full.  They’re working on a new structure to hold the other 9,000+ bikes left around the station.

I woke this morning to the sound of rain on the slanted roof top hotel room window.  And it has continued to be a miserably wet day.  With my naked skull and jacket, I am pretty weather proof, however, the camera is not.  And this isn’t the type of rain I can shoot in.  Even if I expose the camera the images is gray and soft.  If you know me, you know that I have a hard time sitting still and a real hard time not shooting but my weather luck had run out.  I spent time at the Anne Frank House/Museum.  What an incredible story.  The foundation has done an incredible job restoring and educating.  The tour ends with an exhibit in a dimly lit room with the actual museum.  Then it was back on the covered water bus that I took to the Heineken brewery “experience”.  This is truly the Disneyland of beers.  It’s a self guided tour quickly through the brewing precess and history then it’s on to the packaging, marketing, games, and advertisements.  Complete with a simulation ride and a chance to make your own beer commercial.  What they don’t tell you is that the beer is crap!  No one in Holland drinks it.

The rain has really taken it out of me.  One of my hardest days exploring.  I have one more full day tomorrow.  I plan to visit the Van Gough museum and if the weather holds up I might rent a bike.  My hotel has no connectivity so no pictures for the rest of the trip and no more phone calls home.  I’ll check in for my final post tomorrow.  I miss you all and look forward to coming home.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Hello from Antwerp

I’m getting pretty run down but should be able to relax once I get into Amsterdam.  I’m still a little worried that I have a defective passport.  I shouldn’t have trouble on the train but getting through the airport on Thursday will be the test.   Talk to you all from Amsterdam!

Made it to the Netherlands

I made it to Amsterdam with no passport issues.  And I was able to get a room for Tuesday and Wednesday night.  My room tonight doesn’t have internet but I should be able to check in tomorrow in the new room.