Julie’s Baby Shower…!

First off, Julie wanted me to thank everyone for attending her baby shower last weekend and for all the lovely gifts… she is truly blessed to have so many great friends! We also wanted to thank Julie’s sister Susan for making the trip down from Canada and organizing the entire event… it was truly a special day! We know that there were some of you who couldn’t make it to the shower and we do understand and hope that all is well. For those of you who were fortunate enough to make it and those of you who were unable to attend, here are some photos I took during the festivities. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and look forward to seeing everyone again very soon…!! (View Photos & More»)

The Macy’s Day Parade 2009!

This past Thanksgiving, Julie and I traveled to New York City to spend the holiday weekend with her family and take in some of the sights of the city. One of the highlights of this trip would be a front row seat at the starting line of the Macy’s Day Parade! Julie’s sisters place is a half a block from the starting point of the parade at 77th street and Central Park West, so since neither one of us had ever seen the parade live before (and we happened to be in the neighborhood)  we decided to check it out first hand. Wow… looks like everyone else in the city had the same idea!! I’ve added some photos from the event, but I have not had a chance to add captions yet. As you look through the photos keep in eye out for the one’s with Cindy Lauper… she was on the pink castle float! Enjoy…!!! (View Photos & More»)

July 4th Fireworks in DC!

Well here we are… another year, another July 4Th and yes another boating trip up to Washington DC for the best Independence Day Fireworks show in the country (or so I’ve been told.) This year will mark the second anniversary of our new boat, so we where truly excited to be able to spend the entire weekend out on the water as we did last year. Saturday started out with the usual meeting of friends out at Belmont Bay for the pre-trip festivities and then around 4:30 we pulled the anchor and started the hour long cruise up to DC. Our goal… find a good spot to anchor for dinner and then relax & enjoy the show.

Charlie & Nichole were the first from our little group to make it under the 14Th street bridge and almost right away found an open spot in nearly the same location as we anchored last year. Just up river from the tidal basin with a great view of both the Washington Monument and the Fireworks show… who could ask for more! After getting everyone tied up and settled in for the show (and the evening) we broke out the grills for some shrimp, steak and veggie kabobs and then kicked back for one of most relaxing and pleasant evening on the Potomac River we’ve had in a very long time! (View Photos & More»)

The 2009 Clarendon Cup

The Air Force Cycling Classic – 2009 Clarendon Cup was held this past Saturday in Arlington, Virginia. This is an annual cycling event featuring both amateur class and professional level races which takes place on the streets of Clarendon. Unfortunately I’ve missed this event for the past several years because of travel, but this time I just happened to be home for the weekend and I took full advantage of the perfect photo op! I’ve uploaded a small collection of some of the more than 500 photos captured during this day long event. Most of the photos in this gallery are from the 100 lap men’s pro race.
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Sant Ocean Hall…

Well I’ve finally had the opportunity to visit the new Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and I must say I was impressed. Julie, being with NOAA‘s office of communications, had already seen the exhibit once before during the Grand Opening Ceremony last September and she’s been raving about it now for months. So last week my parents, Julie and I were all invited as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s NMNH ‘Charter Members’ group to a wine & cheese party being held there at the Sant Ocean Hall. It turned out to be a nice casual event with very little hand holding which gave us more than enough time to see the entire exhibit.

Julie beside a NOAA mural created by Janet Ward (NOAA WORLD)

One of the highlights of the evening was seeing a NOAA photographic mural which was created by one of Julie’s co-workers, Janet Ward of NOAA World, hanging in the entrance way to the hall; We somehow missed it on the way in, but made sure to take a photo of it as we were leaving. If you ever find yourself in Washington DC, and you have the time, I highly recommend that you visit the National Museum of Natural History and take a tour of the new Sant Ocean Hall… you won’t be disappointed! (View Photos & More»)

Gloggfest…

One of our favorite holiday social events has always been Sally’s annual Gloggfest and this year would prove to be no different! It’s always nice to get together with friends during the holidays and share the stories of the past year. This year Sally had a good turn out for the event and it was literally standing room only! I would estimate  close to thirty people total and that’s a lot for her little DC apartment! But oh what fun… the Glogg and food was great! And while there were several close friends that couldn’t make the party… catching up with those who did was definitely the highlight of the evening. Here’s wishing everyone the happiest of holidays!

Cirque Du Soleil – Kooza!

Yes, the circus is in town and the whole family went to see the show last weekend. Kooza, which is one of Cirque Du Soleil’s newest traveling shows, will be performing on the Plateau at the new National Harbor in Maryland until December 14, 2008. If you’ve never been to one of their shows, I highly recommend taking the time to go. The performers of the French Canadian Cirque do an outstanding job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats for the entire show.

For this show, there were a total of ten different acts with my favorite being the wheel of death! Kooza is a brilliant combination of music and acrobatics with a stunning and electrifying stage set! (View Photos & More»)

Alice & Carl’s Wedding Pictures

UPDATE: I have finally finished editing all of Alice and Carl’s wedding pictures from this past July. As I stated in my previous post, Carl has asked me to keep the pictures password protected for now so I’ll only post a few of the not so personal ones here. If you were at the wedding or have permission from the bride & groom, you can access the entire wedding photo collection and even purchase high quality professional prints from the gallery at Smugmug. Please note that this gallery is copyright protected.

Aquapalooza 2008…!

This past weekend Julie and I took the boat down to Fairview Beach for Aquapalooza 2008. The ride down was uneventful and took us just over an hour even with a pretty good head wind. Once there we realized right away why this event is called the biggest water party in the world. There were boats and people as far as the eye could see… it was truly unbelievable! There was a floating barge just off the beach which was used as a 2 story performance platform for the 7 different bands that played the event.

Oh yeah… you would think that being a big boating event they would have played some Jimmy Buffett or something right!? Wrong… the music was all country which really kind of sucked. I don’t mind country music, but it’s normally associated with rednecks… I’ll let you drawl your own conclusions!

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Alice & Carl’s Wedding…!

This past weekend we traveled to Charlotte NC to help celebrate the long awaited wedding of our good friends Alice & Carl! Julie and I planned to attend the wedding on Friday evening and then spend all day Saturday in downtown Charlotte doing the ‘tourist’ thing before flying back to DC Saturday night. The wedding ceremony, which was set to begin at 7pm sharp, was held outside on a large patio overlooking a small sunlit forest. It was a little on the warm side, but the slight breeze and covered patio made it much easier on the guests. The beautiful natural backdrop was perfect for an outdoor wedding and made the event very pleasing to the eyes!

(View Photos & More»)