theparkerfamily.org

Month: September 2006

  • Hike: Saguaro National Park, Arlzona (part II)

    The first hike was so good that I decided to come back, take a wrong turn, get stuck in the desert after dark and anger not one, but two venomous western rattlesnakes. Mmmmmmm.
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    Saguaro National Park, Arlzona

  • Travel: Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona (part II)

    Much like the trip to Ramsey Canyon, our first stop at the Desert Museum was MUCH too short. Unlike the trip to Ramsey Canyon, the Desert Museum was 15 minutes away (as compared to 1 hour and 45 minutes). It’s a very photogenic museum — some of my favorite Arizona shots came from here.
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    Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona

  • Hike: Saguaro National Park, Arlzona

    After the disasterous hike this morning, a small group of us who were staying through the weekend broke off and hit the western branch of the Saguaro National Park.

    We all had our role — Simon was on amphibian patrol, Steve pretended he could analyze animal poo and Jonathon evaluated the sharpness of cacti needles. Oh, and I ran around taking pictures, all the while rediculously underestimating how far away we were from the summit.

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    Saguaro National Park, Arlzona

  • Travel: Ramsey Canyon, Arizona

    A Nature Conservancy preserve, just on “our” side of the U.S. / Mexican border. It came complete with an I.N.S. (what are they called now?!?) blimp and everything. Due to a scheduling snafu, we spent a whole 45 minutes on the ground … *sigh*.

    On the way back, our bus was forced to stop at Border Patrol checkpoint. The most fun of the trip so far was trying to convince an English ex-pat friend of mine that he should hide in the bathroom to avoid being deported. He kept dismissing the idea as “poor” as “it might arouse suspicion” … *sigh*.

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    Ramsey Canyon, Arizona

  • Travel: Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona

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    Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona

  • Travel: Continental Divide, near the New Mexico / Colorado Border

    Work is sending me to Tucson, Arizona for a marketing conference and I will be staying on for a couple of days after the meetings close. On the flight out, we overflew the continental divide, which is not something I have done before … at least not knowingly. I’m excited about crossing another state off my list (22 down, 38 to go).
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    Continental Divide, near the New Mexico / Colorado Border

  • Travel: Kayaking the Shenandoah, near Bentonville, Virginia

    Ye Olde Annual Canoe Trip. Great pictures this time, because of good cloud cover. It looked like it was going to rain all weekend, but it held off until we were out of the kayaks. Much worse resolution, because the Canon 20D stayed home (and dry) and I proke out the two megapixel PowerShot A60.
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    Kayaking the Shenandoah, near Bentonville, Virginia

  • Photos: Stony Man Cliffs, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

    I always seem to go shooting between 1 and 4 pm, which is great for getting a good night’s sleep, but pretty lousy for pictures. Looking for a place to hit at sunset, I took a chance on Stony Man Cliffs, soley because it faced west. Not spectacular, but much better than doing it in the dead of the afternoon.
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    Stony Man Cliffs, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

  • Wedding: Done, aaaaand done (almost).

    So, our “come to Jesus” conversation work. Well, it worked if Jesus was a Capitalist and signed contracts for wedding reception locations (after he was done turning water into wine, I presume). Anyway, we have inked a deal for our reception, though no word on free heavenly booze as of yet.

    And the winner is…
    http://www.15ria.com/

    The reception will take place at 11:30 am on Saturday, October 6th, 2007. Eggs, bacon, made-to-order omelets, champagne, wine, bloody Marys … We are still negotiating loaves and fishes, but (while signing a reception contract is indeed miraculous) we aren’t expecting the second coming quite yet.

    We also finalized the paperwork for the Church, though I am honestly not sure what we are waiting on … let me check. This just in, we were waiting on me to say yes. Which I just did. So the contract for the Church will be turned in first thing in the morning.

    There IS one proviso. The church has this event called a “pre-Cana” weekend … which entails a group of soon-to-be-newlyweds getting together for a weekend of bonding, sharing their religion views and helpful tips on being married. This sounds like a wonderful experience for the more “expressive” portion of the Protestant religious spectrum, but sounds like cruel and unusual punishment for an Episcopalian. We are checking to see if what the refer to as “traditional wedding counseling” is available for those marrying more “inwardly focused” (ie. lily-livered) men.

    It also looks like we are just about set on a group rate for a block of hotel rooms. The reception location (15 RIA) is in the Hilton Doubletree, and it looks like we can have as many rooms as we want for $129 a night (which is a pretty fantastic rate for D.C.).

    T-minus 389 days and counting. Next up is the Photographer, Florist and … hmm … something else that will have to wait for another day.

  • Photos: The State Arboretum of Virginia, Boyce, Virginia

    On the way to Shenandoah for the 1,846th time, we saw a sign for the State Arboretum. I’m usually biased towards arboretums, because it’s like flower porn for your camera — This one was no different. Actually, it made the National Arboretum in D.C. look vaguely underfunded.
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    The State Arboretum of Virginia, Boyce, Virginia