Melissa and I just got back from our trip to NY, and we both agree that not taking tomorrow off from work was a mistake. We are both very tired from a very busy few days. For me, I have been traveling for the past week and am pretty worn out from it all.
On 5/17 I left to go to Philadelphia again for another DR test for work. The test went fine and I even had the opportunity to catch up with an old college friend, Jess, whom I hadn’t seen in just about 10 years! That was really cool and we are looking forward to keeping better in touch now that we have gotten back in touch. We had a lot of catching up to do. It’s amazing how much happens in 10 years. I returned from Philadelphia on Wednesday 5/20 and had to start packing in preparation for Melissa and I leaving early Thursday morning to go out to NY.
We left a little later on 5/21 then we wanted to, but that is because we were up later packing than we had expected. Mainly because we had to do laundry because of my Philadelphia trip in addition to the normal packing steps. The ride was nice, especially for Melissa as she had never been further east than Sandusky, OH. Knowing this I opted to take the scenic route out through lower NY and came in through the mountains. The scenery on that route is a lot prettier and more exciting than the way we came home, which is straight out the thruway.
While out there I ended up having to rebuild Mom’s hard drive as it crashed shortly before I arrived. I guess that is better than failing after I left though. This made for a couple of very long nights for me, as I needed to make certain I got this fixed before I left. Also while out there I tried to show Melissa around as much as possible and spend time with family, we even got to go see Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation at the old Hi-Way Drive In where I used to work for a few summers.
On Saturday the 23rd, though, we spent the day in celebration with an old friend of mine, Stefan, at his wedding. This is actually the reason that I went out to NY to begin with, as he and his now wife Kate, gave me the honor of being their wedding photographer. Over the course of this one very busy day I took over 1300 pictures! That is by far a personal record. This makes the third wedding that I have taken pictures out. I am starting to think I should make a side business out of this.
Along the picture taking note, we also stopped by a couple of cemetaries and walked around them and took some pictures. This is something of a hobby of mine. I find the old large headstones to be remarkable and beautiful, and the detail that goes into some of the newer monuments are simply amazing. Hopefully it wont take me too long to get these pictures processed and into the gallery (who am I kidding? It will take a while).
On Sunday night we went up to my brother’s camp site and spent a very nice time with the family up there. Melissa was kind enough to take many pictures of me with my family, which I am very thankful for as I often end up staying behind the camera and not getting in the pictures. (I will do my best to get these off the camera and up on the site also, as I know I have a number of pictures that they family wants.) It was a very fun night, and if I lived closer I know I would spend a lot of time up there as I find it very peaceful and relaxing to be at camp sites and out in nature in general.
Today we left bright and early and drove back home via the thruway, as I mentioned earlier. Melissa agrees with me that the scenic route out was much better and she is very happy I took her that way so she could see the mountains and such. Hopefully the next I go out not only will it be for an actual vacation but it will be a little slower paced and I will be able to bring Kylie. As I am sure she would like to go out there again, and I know for a certainty that everyone out there would love for her to come out.