Justin's Beach House: August 2006

My Mother's Birthday

Justin: Click the August Archive on the right to see all the pictures as there are quite a few, again.

My mother's birthday was this week so we went to Knoxville to be with her and celebrate. My sister and her family came in on Friday where Stace and I went in Sat morning as we both got out of work late Friday. Throw in the storms in the area and having to drive through the mountains, well, yeah - we opted to wait. So we got in before noon and we all just hung out and visited, which was nice. Later on, after a wonderful dinner of grilled steaks, we lit the candles on the cake and my mom opened her gifts. This is where the budding photobug in me decided to rear its head. The only photos in the list here with a flash are the blowing out of candles and my mother licking icing off of her fingers. I am a huge fan of natural light and love to pull off shots using everything "au natural", so to speak, which is why I don't mind having some blow outs, like the window behind my mom, the highlights in Stace's hair, etc. These pics are untouched and I am actually very pleased with them. The light in the living room at that moment was just plain fun.
We all stayed up late talking and catching up, having a couple glasses of wine and relaying stories of our most recent antics.
Sunday my mom fixed a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, waffles, bacon, cantelope and bananas and apples. We cleaned up for her and then took Hayden out to the new little water park there in Powell next to the high school. This is where most of the pictures come from as I wanted to experiment with the camera and the water, etc. There are a few things I wanted to try but didn't... oh well.. Practice, practice, practice..

I hope everyone else had a great weekend.
Be safe.

Oscar pup. (aka. Pinball)

Hayden's legacy...

The Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens

Justin: You might want to click on the "August 2006" archive on the right so you can see all the pictures...

So last weekend we were muy busy. Saturday we helped one of Stacey's friends move into her new apt., went out on Saturday night to Cabo Fish Taco for dinner, then headed out to a martini bar named "The Loft". Now let me say something about The Loft. Ever been in one of those places where you just don't feel like you were supposed to be let in? Sure, Stacey and her friend Mary could get by the bouncer as they're both lovely women, but me? Ha. I guess they took pity on me and let me slide. This place was on the second or third floor and had a very impressive wrap around balcony view of downtown Charlotte. Next time I go I'll have to sneak in the "picture taking box". And the people... the people were beautiful. Like, ALL of them. Guys and girls. Now I personally prefer women but I'll admit when a guy is good looking. I ain't skeered. Heck, even Stacey was poking me and subtley pointing out women, "Look at her!". Something about the place was off, though. Whether it was the music, the lighting, the combo of them... Not sure, but it just wasn't a very comfortable place that night, not even to people watch so after an hour or so we headed out.

On Sunday we woke up and piled the gear into la Focus and headed out to Gastonia. Belmont, to be exact. Our roadtrip was to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Here are a few links:

http://www.dsbg.org/index.php
http://www.gastontourism.com/TOUR%20Folder/DSBG.html

According to Wikipedia, "the garden dates back to 1989 when Daniel J. Stowe, a retired textile executive, set aside the property and established a foundation to develop the garden. In 1995 site work began, and the first gardens opened to the public in 1999. A series of gardens have since been added, with Geoffrey Rausch as landscape architect. As of 2006, fundraising is underway for an 8,000 square foot orchid conservatory as the next step within the garden's 40-year master plan for development".
NO JOKE - this place is HUGE. Inside the entrance pavilion there is a model of the Finished Project and the model alone is massive. There is an admission fee of 8$ per adult (probably to cover the water costs - yikes!) but there is also a membership package, etc., if you think you'd be coming back several times through out the year. I believe all of those options are listed on their website...
When we were planning this little jaunt earlier in the week the weather called for overcast, possible showers. Perfect for a photo-op!
HA. NOT.
Not a cloud in the sky and it quickly hit low 90s or so. All in all we spent about 3 hours or so wandering the gardens taking pictures and enjoying the flora en masse. I have to really hand it to Stace for being so patient with me. She wasn't pushy or antsy to leave or move along. I'm constantly surprised with how supportive she can be and is towards this whole photography thing... Oh! And there were several fountains along the way - the most interesting of which was the one over the walkway down in the picture. The multiple streams would randomly drop in water pressure and absolutely soak whoever the poor person was beneath, so you never knew if you were going to be doused or not. Great fun. Unfortunately my inexperience with this camera and the full blown sunlight did not leave me with many shots that I was actually semi not unhappy with... But here are a few.

I hope everyone is having a great day and keeping cool.
Be safe.