Sunday morning, we set out on a small road trip to Eastern UT to visit Arches National Park, near Moab. I know that I’m a bit biased, having been reared in the beehive state, but Arches NP is unlike anything around. Before Last weekend, I hadn’t been there for at least a solid 10 years. Probably closer to 15. So, I was starting to worry that possibly my memory of the place had sweetened it up a bit in my mind. But to my delight, I was just as blown away as the first time that I visited, back in times of yore.

Here are a few of the arches that we hiked to:

Delicate Arch-

Landscape Arch-

Navajo Arch-

Partition Arch-

I forgot the name of this one-

Double “O” Arch-

…and balancing rock-

Here are a couple of additional Landscape shot thumbs. The full set from the man trip is over here.

 

After our flying session, Cuomo and I packed up and headed into the desert to ride some quads and do some camping. I didn’t really end up shooting much while we were out there. I think that a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that I was wearing gloves and goggles for so much of the time.  I know that M. got some good shots, so maybe I’ll post those later. What I did manage to capture was the following morning’s sunrise (above).

[Updated: Cuomo sent me over these shots he got of me riding]

 

After riding the quads around a bit more that morning, we headed back to my parents’ place and exchanged the quads for the fishing boat. My dad also offered to come along and be our guide. We were glad to have his company. Cuomo caught the first fish.

I eventually caught some trout, also. But only after reeling in this crayfish. (photo below by: Cuomo)

On the way home from fishing, we stopped and shot just about every gun in my dad’s arsenal (which is kind of a lot). I was partially deaf in my right ear for the rest of the day.

I’ll try to do this chronologically. Our trip got off to a rough start when thunderstorms delayed our flight to SLC by about 8 hours. So, we finally left NYC around 2 AM Eastern and landed in SLC around 4:30 Mountain. Luckily my younger brother had no problem staying up all night and picking us up. We figured that even though we hadn’t had much sleep, we would just stay awake and fire off a power nap later, if needed.

After having a super early breakfast with some of the fam, we went flying in my dad’s plane (the shot above is my dad taking care of some pre-flight stuff). Here is Wally below, wearing the game face.

Northern Wasatch range, and the Great Salt Lake:

Cache Valley:

The Spiral Jetty, at the Great Salt Lake:

Mount Timpanogos:

Three happy aviators:

 

Yesterday morning bright and early I was at the Standard Hotel shooting the arrival of a traveling piece by KAWS. It is actually one of the same pieces that was at the Aldrich, last year.

Above: still sitting on the flatbed before assembly.  Check out the whole set over here.

Onto equally exciting news– I leave tonight for Salt Lake City with my good friend M. Cuomo. We are headed out for a “man” weekend in the wild west. Cuomo is moving to Italy next month and as a sendoff we felt like some male bonding would be appropriate. The planned activities include:

1. Camping
2. Fishing
3. Hiking
4. Shooting guns
5. Flying
6. Riding quads
7. Breaking stuff

I still have to pack, but I have a feeling it will be pretty easy. The only downside to all of this, is that I started coming down with a nasty head cold yesterday. At first I just thought it was my incessant allergies. When I woke up this morning, I knew differently. Nothing like flying while congested. Dayquil, don’t fail me now.

I had a chance over the weekend to throw together some of the video footage that we shot while on vacay. As I was going through it, I already missed being over there. We had such a great time. I kind of wish that I would have shot a bit more video, just so that we could properly reminisce. Anyway, here is what I came up with.

I also went back through the photos and had a chance to properly edit them (on a normal sized calibrated monitor). Here is a link to the Spain photos. Here is a link to the Paris photos.

This morning we went to Girona to visit our friend Stefanie. We were going to rent a car and drive the coast, but opted to just take the rail, since we would have had to turn in the car the same day (we fly out super early in the morning). It is a pretty awesome little town. There is stuff over there that isn’t much younger than the bible.

We had an awesome time and we are super stoked to do it again. We are equally as stoked to get home and hang out with the Pipster.

 

Unlike our other pad in Barca, this time we are staying in an apartment, a couple of blocks over from the first place we stayed. The view is about the same (other buildings, hahahah). I took a few slow shutter shots from our veranda.

Today we hit one of Gaudi’s more well known structures. The place was mind blowing. Unfortunately the outside of it was covered partially in scaffolding (which it apparently always is). But the inside was crazy. I could not even wrap my head around how much attention to detail went into designing every square foot of that place. The shot above is of one of the cathedral’s side doors. Below is a detail of the same door.

All of this came after a fun filled night of hanging out with friends. One of Reagan’s good friends is from Spain. She happens to be in town visiting. She came to Barcelona and stayed with us last night. We met up with some of her friends and went to a party, then dancing. It was a really good time. We met some really cool people and had a great sample of the nightlife.

Above, Reagan and friends at dinner. Below, clubbing

Tomorrow we drive up the coast to check out some castles and stuff.

 

Yeah, we went back to the tower, this time early in the morning and armed with a tripod. These are some of the results.

Here are some more shots from today–

 

We hit Luxembourg Gardens on Sunday. It is a beautiful spot.

This was after we went through the Paris Catacombs (thanks Jon). The place is crazy. There are the remains of some six million Parisians down there.

These shots are kinda crappy because is was super dark down there and no flash is allowed. But I think that they give a sense of what it is like. I was blown away. Reagan was creeped out.

Here is my favorite shot so far– Reagan with a baguette sticking out of her backpack on our way to a picnic in the park.

One more day in Paris, then back to Spain.