Thursday was a beautiful summer day and what a better way to spend it than in downtown Roanoke to participate in the celebration of our new Art Museum of Western Virginia by signing and then watching the last piece of structural steel be hoisted and fitted on the west roof.

I am a HUGE advocate of this generous gift and am certain that even the critics will be convinced that this is a great thing for Roanoke once the building is completed. It will be stunning as we can already tell by this artists rendering..

So here are a few shots of the signing and hoisting event and then I’ll close this blog with a few shots of the fountain in front of the #1 Fire Station. It was indeed a gorgeous day!!

Then, I wandered on over to the fountain in front of Fire Station #1 and took a few shots….

What do you think this one below looks like…….I’m thinking panther…

Tripped up to Assateague last Saturday for what was to be a week of camping at the beautiful Assateague Island National Seashore. Arrived to find the camping area full of happy families with children riding their bicycles up and down the road. Everyone’s happy as a clam in a salt marsh….which they have by the way.

Well….within 24 hours there was a massive invasion of salt marsh mosquitoes that chased away almost every camper in the bayside area. A few of us toughed it out over the next several days, but it was pretty challenging.

The incredible thing about this particular mosquito is its unrelenting activity throughout the day. Most mosquitoes are pretty active in the early morning and particularly late evenings for about an hour or so. At least that has been my experience. Well, not the salt marsh mosquito. This little bugger stays up all day long. And I’m not talking about the occasional unit landing on your leg with a behind the calf surprise attack. I’m talking 30-40 beasts swarming you as soon as you exit a tent or screen house. Deep Woods Off helped a lot, but quickly became ineffective.

It was no question why most of the campers left as most had no screen house. But as a frequenter of buggy coastal National Parks, where there is no insect control spraying, I’m pretty up on the necessity of the screen house and it is a staple of the car camping venture now. Am I ever glad I had one on this trip.

All in all the trip was great, even though a bit shorter than expected. The horses were everywhere but the beach so I didn’t shoot them this trip. Did take a well led canoe tour of the bay (also surprisingly skeeterless) and that was pretty cool. The guide was an Assateague veteran and I had a lot of fun on that…

So all in all, got a lot of sun and a little more car trippin’ up the coast of Delaware and MD to Bethany and Rehobeth which are pretty cool little costal towns. I really liked Bethany which has a small village appeal and that northern east coast charm.

Cheers

Tripped up to DC last weekend to see Dale and Caroline who are back in the States from Jakarta. They’re here for about two months  where they can catch up with their peeps and show off their cute as a button, brand spankin’ new baby Allison.

It was great to see them as the last time was at their wedding there more than two years ago. We hung out with them Saturday and Sunday in between their visits to  other family and friends.  We strolled around Sunday with them, went to the Sunday market in Dupont Circle and then took the Metro down to Pennsylvania Ave and the Mall.

This is one of the coolest new building facades I have seen in DC and there is building everywhere there now. The pic doesn’t do it justice but I tried. A little too overcast to show off the brilliant colors of limestone, but the carving is pretty clear…

Capital Pride was having their parade and festival on Penn Ave this weekend so we all walked around through that (some bitchin antique cars on display there)….

and then over to the National Mueum of the American Indian which had been on the must see list for some time.  This museum is spectacular in design inside and out. Just a real joy to hang out there and look at all the detail. Crowds are nowhere near where they were when it first opened. I think back then you had to stand in line for about 2 hours just to get in. Here are a few shots inside and out…

It was an awesome weekend. Stayed at The Brickskeller Inn. While not exactly fancy, it’s in a great DC location, reasonable,  and has the famous Brickskeller bar on the first floor. The Brickskeller has the world’s largest beer list with over 4000 beers. Just about any beer you could possibly want. Great atmosphere in a premier DC neighborhood.

Saturday was kind of an unexpected treat with the Capital Pride Parade starting right outside our hotel. No question there was a lot of pride in that parade and the crowd was huge. It looked like everyone in DC came out for it, and just about anyone with local name recognition was in it. I’ll close this with a few shots of the parade….it was hard to contain myself with all that COLOR !!

Awesome new restaurant opened in Grandin Village recently and I would be certain this one is here to stay. The Issacs Restaurant (there is a menu on their web site) specializes in Eastern Mediterranean foods with salads, appetizers, sandwiches, and entrees a VERY reasonable prices. I think the three of us got a good sampling of the menu offerings and everything was delicious.

Apparently they are going to be open for breakfast as well, trying to fill a need in the Grandin area for quick full blown breakfast fare at reasonable prices.

I feel so fortunate to live withing easy walking distance of both Downtown Roanoke and Grandin Village. Really, Grandin has everything you really need with the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op and the Mick or Mack, The Grandin Theater, a book store, Pop’s Ice Cream and Soda Bar (with it’s fine weekend entertainment!), a furniture store, consignment shop, pharmacy, and coffee shop. Not to mention all of the great restaurants.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with the awesome Carl Menge of Pixel Perfect Photography for the wedding of Morgan and Josh at the beautiful Inn at Trivium in Forest, VA.Morgan and Josh were fantastic to work with and you can tell what a great couple they are by all of the friends and family that not only showed for the wedding but had a blast.

The weather was beautiful and enough can’t be said about how Donna and the staff at The Inn made everything go off without a hitch. This place is PERFECT for a wedding with beautiful guest rooms, a great ballroom that is has it all, and grounds that make for a beautiful backdrop and outdoor event space. And the staff was friendly and helpful. What more could you ask for.

Here are just a few shots of the day so you can check out this fantastic couple on a “perfect wedding day”.