After a few days in The Big Hole, we loaded up the cars and drove north to the lake house on Flathead Lake, just outside of Polson. This is a staple of the annual return to Montana, although this year the early August weather wasn’t as cooperative. Cold temperatures hampered by overcast skies and a lot of rain made summer clothes a tough sell and a steady wind across the lake made water-sports difficult. But the lake is the lake and we had a great time!
Tiffany cooks blueberry pancakes with real blueberries. As with most cooking, she is very interested in ratios, resulting in the hand-placement of each and every blueberry on the pancake.
Behold, a spaghetti cheeseburger! It was as delicious as it looked!
When we got the the lake, we met up with Rachel’s boyfriend Travis. As a teacher, he hasn’t been able to make our previous family events because they happened too late in August after his classes start, but this time things worked out. Travis showed up at the door after spending a summer of adventure, hiking, camping, hitch-hiking. He had a beard. Which he then gradually reduced over a day or two:
The full “Mountain Man” look on the first night.
Travis sporting what I like to call “The X-Games” beard. EXTREEME!
The “Redneck” or “Budweiser” was short-lived. It was very elusive to capture on film, and shortly after this image was captured, it was lost forever.
And, of course, we had some fun on the boat too – even though it was cold.
As I said, vacation is often a state of mind. Despite our proximity to home, the leisurely pace, eating out and general discovery of the area really made it feel like a destination vacation; we might as well have been a thousand miles away.
Annapolis was great, too. Down on the pier, there was always something going on. There was a yacht of very drunk party-people. There were kids eating ice cream. And there were dogs. Tiffany liked the dogs:
One of the best parts about being so close to home is that we were also very close to our friends. On July 4, our friends Mark and Lindsay always host a rooftop barbecue in Baltimore to watch (and shoot some) fireworks. Since we were so close, we could still go!
Despite living only 30 miles away, the first time I was ever in Annapolis (as opposed to driving through it) was in June when I shot weddings with two Annapolis photographers. Annapolis has a certain artistic flavor to it that attracts creative people. I saw more pro-style photographers in Annapolis than I can ever recall seeing, and for good reason. There are some really awesome photographic opportunities!
First, there’s the American Main Street. Annapolis actually served as the U.S. Capitol between 1983-4 and was the location of the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which recognized American Independence. It was, therefore, an appropriate place to spend July 4.
And then, of course, there’s the Chesapeake Bay, which gives the city a distinctive laid back beach town feeling. The docks are filled with sailboats of all sizes and types – there’s even a pirate ship for the kids.
Annapolis is also the home of the United States Navel Academy, the campus of which is a photographers’ dream. Tiffany, who was getting tired and hungry, indulged me for far longer than was reasonable while I bounced from building to building to see what new photographic opportunities I could find:
And finally, on Saturday night, we went to listen to the United States Army Band on the pier. I ventured around and got some really awesome back-lit shots of the bassist.
The classic Beach Boys Song, California Girls, is a staple of American rock and roll. It may be silly to look for deeper meaning in a song that was inspired by a musician’s first LSD trip, but I’ve always suspected that the primary meaning of the song isn’t what most people think it is…
Most people take the meaning of the song from the chorus which is simply one line, “I wish they all could be California girls.” On face, this seems to be high-praise for the women of The Golden State – indicating that they are so good the Beach Boys wish that all girls everywhere were like them. This is the point of view I used to have, and it’s the point of view Mrs. Link still has. I think it’s wrong.
The problem is, it’s not supported by the rest of the song.
The Beach Boys sing accolades about girls from all around the country. Their tastes extend to east coast girls, southern girls, mid west farmer’s daughters, northern girls, west coast girls and Hawaiian dolls. If the song were really about the unique qualities of the girls exclusively in California, wouldn’t you expect at least a single line that points out a specific advantage of a California girl (sure, Cali is included in “West Coast girls” but the decision to use the larger geographic area of the entire West Coast merely supports the notion that California is not being singled out as the best source of girls). Outside of the chorus, the only state that gets a specific mention is Hawaii.
Now, maybe the Beach Boys are demonstrating the penultimate quality of California girls by comparing them favorably with other high-rate girls. If that were the case here, you would expect a qualifying phrase indicating that, despite all of the good traits of girls not from California, they don’t live up to California girl standards. That never happens. In fact, a comparison is made, but it’s made between “all kinds of girls” from “around this great big world” with the “cutest girls in the world” being “back in the States” (significantly not state).
So if the song isn’t about girls from the state of California, there are two possibilities that make sense (aside from “he was on LSD and didn’t know what he was writing”)
First, “California Girls” could just be another way for the Beach Boys to say American girls. This explanation manages to satisfy the California ego (California girls standing in for American girls is pretty complimentary), but it doesn’t make sense in the context of the song. If everyone is already a California girl, why would you need to wish they all could be California girls?
Second, The Beach Boys are physically located in California, and they wish that all the girls from around the country were in California with them. This is the explanation that seems right to me. It’s the only way to explain the lyrics of both the chorus and the verses.
Suddenly though, the meaning of “I wish they all could be California girls” is exactly the opposite of the popular interpretation. The Beach Boys aren’t wishing that girls around the country were standardized to California exported specifications. They are wishing they could import the variety of the other 49 states into California. Suddenly, the “California girl” isn’t enough because she doesn’t have the desirable qualities of non-California girls praised by the rest of the song.
So take that, California! Except you, Mrs. Link… You’re the best girl of all!
Tiffany and I have lived in Maryland for more than six years, and we’ve never done the obligatory Maryland crab dinner. That’s like not eating a steak in Montana or voting Republican in California!
Fortunately, our awesome neighbor Brian introduced us to his family (who live just down the street) and they hosted a Memorial Day Crab Feast (their first too). They served up half a bushel of crabs pre-cooked in the regionally mandated Old Bay Seasoning, kebobs and chicken breasts hot off a fancy new grill. Throw in some icy cold beers on a smouldering day and the day was perfect.
Every year since 2007, we’ve done a weekend camping/hiking trip down to Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park. That makes this year the Fourth adventure, and for the first time we did it on Memorial Day Weekend.
Day One is camping. For the first Old Rag Adventure, we actually camped in the park itself, which turned out to be a bad idea. ”Quiet hours” are very strictly enforced at 11 pm. We stayed up until 11:30 and then called it a night. As we were settling into our tents to go to sleep, we were assailed by no fewer than four police cars and eight Front Royal Police Officers who had made the 45-minute one-way drive down to our campsite after the Park Ranger called them to complain about us at 11 pm sharp. It was a mess; they wanted desperately to cite us for something for the trouble of the drive, but we were above reproach.
Anyway, since then, we’ve camped in the horse fields of Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA. It’s a great deal, and it’s free from both quiet hours and restriction on fires. For a minimal investment of cash and beer, it’s a great night. And we got a lot of firewood.
(Bierwagen had a stroke of genius at some point during the night. So far, we’ve always camped/drank first and then hiked the next day. The problem is, as we get older, we don’t recover from the drinking quite like we used to. So the new plan: hike on day one, camp that night. That lets us leave at a leisurely pace the next day.)
In previous years, we’ve had the camping fields all to ourselves, but this year it was full of horse trailers and upper class rednecks who were camping out for a week before the annual Blue Grass Festival (think a blue caller Woodstock). We actually met some of our neighbors, including a shirtless horse rider who told us about his plan to stay for two weeks and to be “lit up the whole tahm!”
There was Savannah Marie (not our sister) who was 10 years old, large and in charge. Imagine Rosanne at ten. Her dad was two sheets to the wind and friendly as hell. At around midnight, he rode his horse into the middle of our camp, proclaimed loudly that he was “The Great White Warrior” and then rode off drunkenly into the night (I think Bierwagen might have captured that on film; I missed it).
Day Two was the hike. We slept in as long as we could before our tents turned into saunas. While we waited for the hangover medicine to sink in, we broke camp and got ready for the 10-minute drive to the Old Rag trail head.
It was a very hot day – it would get up to 90, and sticky. It was also Sunday on Memorial Day weekend. I’d never seen the parking lot that crowded. It didn’t help that the famous upper lot has been closed… for good. They got a green light to build a larger lot, so I guess that’s progress.
We parked, paid (it was May 30, the second to last day on our Annual Pass) and off we went!
As we walked, I happened to look down a side-trail and saw a rather unique sight. A million butterflies just camped out there in the sun. Probably mating or something. Anyway, Tiffany has always dreamed of being swallowed in a cloud of butterflies; and this might actually be her chance. So we took a short detour:
Tiff and I have done Old Rag more times than I can remember. It’s a really, really fun hike. It starts with a challenging climb that eventually morphs into a series of rock scrambles. The scrambles can be tricky – especially if you’ve never done it before.
With the Memorial Day Weekend crowd, there were some traffic jams. Seriously, traffic jams on a mountain. There were also some very interesting characters including a guy climbing in flip-flops, an unwashed hippie with no underroos and a butt-crack on display for the whole world.
This year’s Old Rag adventure featured two Old Rag virgins: Matt Mauer and Jeff Marty made the summit for the first time!
As someone who now works in Washington, D.C., I’ll never forget the first time I visited the city. It was with a Close Up tour my junior year in high school, and I vividly remember how impressed I was by the city itself. Often times, the real thing pales in comparison to the simulacrum of movies and pictures which can make them seem literally larger than life. It’s the effect of seeing a celebrity in real life and realizing they are just a regular person… I mention this because, for me, Washington, D.C. surpassed my expectations.
Luray Caverns, just outside of Shenandoah National Park was a similar expectation-surpassing experience.
Given it’s proximity to D.C., I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard more about the caverns. D.C. residents, it seems, don’t get out of town very often. I’m always surprised by how few of them have visited places like Monticello or the Gettysburg Battlefield which are right in our back yards. Tiff and I had seen billboards on our trips to the Park, but with no world-of-mouth combined with a personal bias that things on the East Coast – from beaches to mountains to even caves – are poor replicas of their western counterparts accounted for low expectations. But it made the list of Nontraditional Things to Do in Washington D.C., and Ruth picked it for her visit, so off we went! And the Luray Caverns blew me away.
The three of us in front of one of the massive pillars. One of the things that really impressed was how huge these caverns were. The “rooms” started out small, but it seemed like each one was bigger than the last. I would never be a spelunker because I don’t like the idea of being trapped in a very tight place with no light. But I never felt like I was hundreds of feet under the ground.
Oddly enough, I can’t find a map of the cave layout – or even better a 3D model of it. It’d love to see what this thing looks like in space.
One of the reasons for feeling comfortable is that the caverns are well lit. By no means is it bright (I needed a stabilizing monopod to shoot without a flash), but the entire system of caves is wired for electricity. It feels a little bit like waiting in line for Splash Mountain (again with the simulacra), but it’s real!
One of my favorite features was a very shallow indoor pond that – because of how the light was set up – reflected the ceiling stalactites like a mirror. It was absolutely surreal to see, helping to account for why the pictures hardly look real. You have to look hard for the imperfections in the surface of the water for proof that it’s not some Photoshop trickery.
It’s fun to imagine this water being there for tens of thousands of years before man even knew the caves existed (by the way, there’s no natural entrance to the caves, they were discovered when settlers felt cold air coming through a tiny vent in the ground; that cold air was, and still is, used as air conditioning). It would have been totally pure; because the caves had no opening, there was no life – plant or animal – indigenous to the caverns.
It’s also hard to imagine the amount of time that went into these formations. Despite a new interest in preservation, Luray is a profit-based tour group and the impact of man is clearly visible throughout. From worn down formations to a concrete pathway, to electric lights to an organ that actually plays the stalactites and stalagmites, this cave is far from pristine nature.
Yet, it remains absolutely beautiful with a seemingly limitless variety of stone types and formations. There are a lot of pictures in the album; I think they’re all worth viewing.
Warrenton is a way-point on a trip to Shenandoah, and more importantly a drive back. After our regular Old Rag adventures, we’re always looking for some good eats.
Rae’s in Sperryville used to be the famous Appetite Repair Shop. Under new management, the menu is eclectic and the service is friendly, but the food is rather boring. It’s good if you’re really hungry – say after a challenging hike or a camping trip. But it’s not great. I don’t crave it while I’m on the trail. We settle.
Frost Diner in Warrenton is about half an hour away from Sperryville. I love diners and Frost is pretty normal diner fare. Again, it’s good if you’re hungry, but not amazing. And a few years back, a group of us were sorely disappointed when half of the menu was out of stock – including ice cream.
On our recent trip to Shenandoah, I think we stumbled upon a winner. A must-stop on a return trip from Shenandoah.
I knew Carousel Frozen Treats was a good when I saw it was packed with people – mostly locals. The menu was daunting – mostly deserts, but also hot dogs and some fries that looked amazing. Both Tiffany and I ordered variations of fudge deserts. They were huge. And they were delicious. I even became a fan on Facebook…
Washington, D.C. is a city built for tourism. Between federal buildings, monuments & memorials and the Smithsonian, a tourist can keep themselves busy for weeks.
But for the resident, every new visit from a friend or family member can mean trekking across the same walking tours between the monuments and seeing the same exhibits at the museums. Again. And again. Eventually, a venture to the same old sites at the National Mall becomes a chore.
While there are staples for any first-time visit to Washington, D.C., I’ve decided to keep of a list of things I haven’t done yet, but would like to do, so that with every new visitor, we can share something that is new to everyone. Enter April’s edition of Washingtonian, which has 62 “Hidden Gems” around D.C. – places that “will take you all over the region to discover treasures that may not have cherry-blossom status but will still very much merit a visit.” I pulled from that, and then did some research of my own.
I’m sure I’ll find other things to add to this list, but from now on, whenever someone visits, I’m going to have them pick an item off the list (that hasn’t already been picked).
On February 21st (the after we got back from Mexico), we went to Marnie’s house to pick up our new kitten. What you haven’t seen yet were the videos we made the day she came home. It’s pretty much just her being a kitten, but who doesn’t want to watch a video of a kitten playing?
