Bill and I drove home to be with friends and family in Michigan over the Alpenfest week in July. My cousin Greg and his family drove up to visit one day, and a friend of ours from Germany, Franzi, was also in town. We had fantastic weather and enjoyed wandering around Alpenfest and watching the various musical venues. On Saturday, my dad ran a 5K, taking 2nd place for his age division with a time of 23:30. Overall we had a great trip home and it was great to enjoy the time with everyone during Alpenfest.

View 2010-7-17 Alpenfest Week in Gaylord Photos

We were invited to spend the 4th of July holiday with Brad and Andria at Brad’s parents lake house on Lake Anna. The weather was perfect and we spent the days drifting along on rafts keeping cool and enjoying the weather. We watched fireworks on Saturday night from the dock that were just across the inlet. We had a great time and it was a perfect way to spend the 4th.

View July 4th at Lake Anna Photos

Over the weekend of June 19th, Bill and I flew down to Jacksonville, Florida to see Bill’s niece Kelli get married. We enjoyed meeting up with the Heath family, lounging by the pool, and seeing the beautiful bride Kelli get married to her new husband Adam. The weather was hot but kept the pool nice and warm so we were able to keep cool and still enjoy being outside.

2010 Kelli and Adam’s Wedding Photos

Bill and I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Switzerland. We visited the traditional Swiss lake side town of Lucerne, the quaint village of Wengen, the capital city of Switzerland, Bern, the French speaking town of Vevey on the Swiss Riviera and the fast paced city of  Zurich. All which allowed us a nice overview of the country. I kept a blog while we were away and also posted our photos on our photos site.

• Blog Site
• Switzerland Photos

Bill and I spent the past weekend up in Baltimore checking out the Kinetic Sculpture Race – put on by the American Visionary Art Museum. We met up with Andria and Brad, and their niece Michael and also ran into Trina, Jasmyn and Derrick. It was a hot but beautiful day and we enjoyed following the ‘sculptures’ around and checking out new places in Baltimore.

Bill and I decided to spend our beautiful sunny Saturday in Solomon’s Island. We had a great time hiking in the Calvert Cliffs State Park and wandering around the town of Solomons and visiting the Solomons Island Winery. We even checked out the Tiki Bar – complete with real Palm Trees!!

View Day Trip to Solomons Island Photos

Bill and I had a fantastic morning for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race in DC. The sun was shining but it was cool enough that we didn’t overheat. The sights were great – running by the Washington, Lincoln, Arlington Cemetery (sorta), the Jefferson, and then out to Haines Point. It was an inspiring race to be at and we beat our previous race pace (for a 10K) by almost 50 seconds per mile! We finished the race in 1:40:58 – so a 10:06 min/mile pace. I’ll take it!

We had a cheering crew with us – our friends Trina, Jasmyn, Andria and Brad, which made us push that much harder. They all brought yummy snacks too so that was a good reason to finish! I’ll be adding more photos in the day next or so.

2010-04-11 Cherry Blossom 10-Miler Photos

We had a beautiful Easter weekend and enjoyed taking advantage of the springtime sunshine. We spent Saturday over at Brad and Andria’s house with her family, then went to the Saturday night Easter service at McLean Bible. Sunday morning we took off for a run and then worked away to put together an Easter dinner at our house with Fred, Lindsey, Bailey and Terra. It was a busy weekend but we had a great time!

View Easter Photos

I met up with Brad, Andria and Allison on a brisk morning in March to run the Brambleton Ribbon 5K. Bill came along as well and was our photographer. We had a great time and got to tour some of the neighborhoods of Brambleton. It was a perfect morning for a run and it was a great time with friends!

Last September, I wrote up a blog entry on photography being a potential creative outlet for me to explore. Since that time, I have learned a great deal simply playing around with my camera but feel as though I have a lot left to learn. I’ve been looking for classes for a while now and decided to try out the Washington DC Photo Safari class to get me started. As luck (or my luck I should say) would have it, for the day of my safari, the weather was nasty – cold, windy and rainy.

We started the class by standing in the cold for 45 minutes and looking at example photography prints of good and bad photography. Why we didn’t get a nice warm place to be, I’m not sure. However, I found this part of the class the most helpful as this was the only portion where we were being instructed. For the rest of the class (which was 3.5 hrs long) we just wandered around monuments and got a history lesson on DC. While all of this was spendid, I would have preferred a much more in-depth explanation on the functions of the camera. I suppose this was a great launch point and I’ll have to find additional classes to help me move forward from here.

2010 Washington DC Photo Safari Photos