I have finally posted a bunch of photos from our early 2008 travels in my photo gallery. So far this year, we did plenty of skiing (my camera was broken!), took a weekend trip to Chicago, took a trip to Washington, DC for Melissa and Dave’s Wedding, and took a trip to the eastern shore of Maryland for Sarah and Greg’s Wedding. Last weekend we stayed in Boston and went to a free show on the Esplanade featuring Cracker and Cake, and drove up to NH for a short hike up Mt. Cardigan.

We decided to try a new trail, the Holt trail - which was said to be pretty steep. I loved it for all the open rock and boulder fields, but Manda was convinced there should have been ropes. In any case, it was certainly not a trail you wanted to be stuck on in the rain.

Also, pixtures.org now supports Piclens, a very impressive plugin for your webrowser that support a full-screen 3D interactive photo wall. You really should try it out - it works with all the major photo sites, and is a great way to browse through a lot of photos very quickly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pick up my captions right now, but it is certainly worth trying out. I think you will be impressed.

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Well, not a photo update…yet…but I upgraded the server Pixtures is running on. I started from scratch, and changed a whole lot of things under the hood. What it means is that photo load times will be dramatically improved. The photo map works much nicer now, so you can browse my photos via a Google map, and it will take you to the album pages. Album pages load photos 4 times faster, and come up in an overlay window, so go check it out!

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Our big vacation for 2006 was a 2 week trip to Peru. My friend Rebecca was living in Lima for a few months while working on her PhD, and a bunch of us decided to use this as a great excuse to go to Peru. So, Manda and I packed up our hiking gear and set off to South America. We flew into the capital city of Lima, which was shrouded in sea fog the entire time we were there. The gray skies did not help the mood, but I enjoyed my time there, and we certainly got a taste of expat life in Lima. It certainly helped that Rebecca has spent two summers there, so we got to see a bit more then the typical tourist circuit.

From Lima, we flew to Cusco, the gateway city to Machu Picchu. Here we tried to get used to the altitude (11,500 feet) and the food (rough on the stomach). In between everyone fighting fevers and stomach troubles, we were able to take some hikes to amazing Incan ruins, do some shopping in the markets, and take a horseback ride into the mountains. With everyone in varying states of less then perfect well-being, we set off for a fully outfitted trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Lets just say the results were less then ideal. Manda and Noelle will be the first to point out they completed the extremely rugged four day trek to Machu Picchu, while Bob, Rebecca, and I were defeated by the ghost of Incas past. In the end, it worked out fine for all of us, with Noelle and Manda climbing to heights of nearly 14,000 feet and exploring Inca ruins, while the rest of us took the train to Aguas Calientes and witnessed the Virgin Del Carmen festival, and got to explore the ruins at Ollantaytambo.

We all met up again at Machu Picchu, and had a full day to explore the ruins and the neighboring mountain peak of Waynapicchu, which is the pointy mountain you see in every travel photo of the site.

After relaxing in Aguas Calientes for another day, and catching some more of the Virgin Del Carmen Festival, we all went back to Lima to come up with a plan for our last few days. We decided to head south to Paracas to see the “poor man’s Galapagos” (the Ballestas Islands), then took a side trip to the Huacachina Oasis near Ica to round out our trip before returning to Lima and heading home.

I took a ton of pictures on this trip, and it has taken me a long time to go through them all, and select the best while still telling the story of the trip. You can click on individual links above to take you to the various place we went, or click here to go to the master photo album. Take your time, there is a lot to see.

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Here is another trip from this past summer. Hey, it’s cold out, so I am thinking warm thoughts! This was a trip with a big mix of people from New York and Boston; Americans, Bulgarians, Czechs, and Indians. My friend Adriana planned this mash-up of hiking and canoeing, with a return trip to the Spruce Moose Lodge. Manda and I were a bit wary of hiking in the rain on the first day, so we slept in and waited until the weather cleared to hike Mt. Tom near Crawford Notch.

Our second day, everyone hopped into some rental canoes to take a 7 mile run down the Saco River. We had a great day, with fluffy clouds overhead as we all kicked back for a leisurely paddle down the river.

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Winter has arrived, and I finally have made some time to post pictures from this past summer. This small set of pictures is from June, when Manda, Noelle, Kyle and I drove up to Franconia Notch to try hiking the Kinsman ridge. We did the quick hike up to picturesque Lonesome Lake, then continued up the Fishin’ Jimmy trail to the top. This was my first time hiking in the notch on the west side of the highway - it is a beautiful vantage point on a clear day.
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This past weekend, Manda and I headed south for a weekend of relaxation with friends on Block Island, an hour ferry ride off the coast of Rhode Island. We met up with Geoff for the ferry ride, then rode our bikes a short distance out of town to the house that Kyle rented for the week. Kyle and Mike were waiting for us on the wraparound veranda of the grand Victorian. My time on the island was short, but packed with hiking, biking, partying, and maybe a little relaxing.
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Well, after 12 years of extremely reliable transportation, I have finally sold my trusty 1995 Nissan 240sx. I bought the car new when I got my first job out of college, a company called Miltope in Montgomery, AL. My car had just under 150,000 miles of road trips and commutes all the way up and down the east coast. My 240 saw action as far south as Mobile, AL and as far north as Millinocket, ME. It never really had a major problem, and with the right tires (as I quickly found out) was pretty decent in snow, even with rear wheel drive. A few years back I picked up a used 2002 Mazda Miata, which is going to be my only car for now…well at least until winter rolls around again. I was surprised to find I miss the car, but am happy to have passed it along to a young woman who was really excited to get it. Her boyfriend raced 240s, so I think it went to the perfect home.

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After all the rain we have had in Boston lately, everyone was ready for a nice weekend, and we got it! Temps in the low 80’s and clear skies greeted us on the day we chose to drive up north to hike something in the White Mountains. Manda, Sarah, and Noelle were my partners in crime, and we set off for northern NH. The blue skies in the mountains steered us to climb an old favorite, Mt. Eisenhower, because of the sweeping vistas and even grade of the Edmunds path. We were all challenged by the hike, but when we started above the treeline everyone forgot how tired they were and boogied to the top. This weekend, the rain has returned, otherwise I would be out hiking again. At least I have time to post these pictures now!
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A sunny Sunday afternoon game at Fenway is something many die-hard baseball fans never get to experience. I feel very fortunate to have Fenway Park a short walk across the river from my apartment. I feel even more fortunate that I received free tickets to see the Orioles at Fenway a couple sunny Sundays ago. I can’t even explain how lucky I am to get 4 box seats right on the field at Fenway. I am talking about the first row, right by the on deck circle. Fantastic luck, fantastic seats, and a fantastic experience. Manda, Jason, and Ted were the lucky ones that joined me, and none of us could believe how the game changes from the front row. You are riveted on the duel between pitcher and batter, and are ever aware of the potential screaming foul ball. Having Miguel Tejada walk right over to me made me feel like a kid again…well, until he handed the foul ball to the little kid next to me. See the photos »

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Welcome to the new pixtures.org! After 5 years of running the same old boring site, it was time to switch over to a new webserver. With that change comes a fresh look, and a lot more features. One of the main things this website lets me do is post little blurbs like this one to announce my new photos, complete with a backstory. Lucky you. Now I will subject you to not only my fuzzy pictures, but to my wordy prose as well. Hah. Well, enjoy. Make sure you check out the full Photo Gallery.

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