An earthquake and a hurricane kinda week

This summer has gone by rather quickly.  Isaac spent all of June and July studying for the bar exam.  He took the exam the last week of July, yay!  I spent the summer photographing a kids adventure camp.  I hung out on a cliff photographing kids rock climbing, rappelling, and zip lining.  So for the most part we kept pretty busy trying to keep up with all the things we had going on.  I kept thinking all summer, if we can just make it to the end of August...  Well, we had a very interesting end of August here in Richmond. 

Tuesday the 23rd, I was photographing my last day of camp.  I was enjoying the beautiful day and being outside.  We had a few weeks of very hot and humid weather this summer, so an 80 degree day with a nice breeze was a welcomed event.  I was waiting for the kids to come to the spot where I was so I could photograph them before they went off the zip line and I felt the ground shaking.  It sounded like a train was passing by and I thought, hmm that is weird that I can feel the train all the way over here.  There are train tracks across the river from Belle Isle where the camp is so I am used knowing trains come by, but you can only feel them when you are under them or on their side of the river.  The kids came and then I began photographing them without another thought of the shaky ground.  Well, a little while later Isaac sent me a text saying he thought we just had an earthquake and wanted to make sure I was okay.  Of course, the ground shaking would equate to an earthquake, that would make sense.  I had a hard time texting him back but I was okay and he was okay.  He was working on a document review in the governor's office in downtown Richmond.  His initial thought was "I'm in a government building I wonder if this is a bomb."  Thankfully it wasn't. 

It is not a common occurrence for there to be earthquakes on the east coast.  This earthquake was a 5.9, which from my limited experience with earthquakes is rather large.  In California a 5.9 usually does a lot of damage and many people are affected.  The amazing part with earthquakes on the east coast is they can be felt for many miles away.  We read that a 5.5 earthquake in the east can be felt up to 300 miles away, so it is no surprise that this 5.9 earthquake was felt from Georgia to Canada to Illinois.  Thankfully there was little damage and no one was hurt.  The Washington DC temple lost the tips to four spires and the Washington National Cathedral sustained some damage, which I find interesting that there was more damage in DC than in Richmond and we were much closer to the epicenter.  But again, I'm so glad no one was hurt.

Later that night, after I finished all the work that comes along with well, working, I got on my computer for a few minutes and some one on facebook made a comment about "we just had an earthquake now we have to watch out for a hurricane."  I thought, "What!  A hurricane is headed our way?!?"  So it goes.  With a hurricane it is nice to have a little forewarning, but after that all you can do it wait to see what course it is going to take and how strong it is going to be when it gets there.  So we progressed through the rest of the week, knowing Saturday would be the day. 

Funny how things go.  With the Virginia Professional Photographers Association (VPPA) I am the current Governor to the Capital District.  What that means for me is I am in charge of the Capital District (here in Richmond).  But also for our yearly Seminar, I was in charge of registration.  For months I have been collecting people's registrations for this event, and now we are anticipating a hurricane.  Hmm.  We decided to go ahead and have the seminar.  The nice thing about the seminar is it was held in Lynchburg, about 2 hours west of Richmond.  The hurricane was not supposed to affect much that was west of Richmond so that meant Lynchburg was a great place to be during the hurricane.  Everyone made hotel reservations in advance so I said, "Why not?  Secure the house and get out of harm's way."  I just hoped we wouldn't have a tree through the house when we returned, but at least we would be with friends and not feeling too many effects from the storm.  So Saturday afternoon, before the storm got really bad but not before it really started raining and the wind blowing the trees around and the power blinking on and off, we drove west to Lynchburg.  I did feel it was important to bring our 72 hour kit with us just in case we had no house to return to and needed to use it.  The seminar was great, we had power and friends and learned lots of great things. 

Saturday evening we got a call that church was cancelled on Sunday.  Not that we were in town and would have been there, but it was good to know.  So we called the people we home and visit teach to let them know and to see how they were doing.  A few were without power already but otherwise they were good.  We returned home late Sunday night and found power on at our house and no tree through anything.  That was a relief.  The next morning we would find out that most of Richmond was still without power and there were trees down everywhere and electric poles and wires down all over town.  I still ended up meeting with and photographing a client because we had power but they still did not.  A few schools were supposed to start on Tuesday but were being delayed a few days because they did not have power.

Hurricane Irene was pretty unique.  Most of the time a hurricane forms in the ocean and then ends up running perpendicular into land and dies out once it gets over land.  Irene ran all the way from the Bahamas up the east coast touched land in North Carolina and kept going parallel to land all the way to New York.  This hurricane affected so many states!

The week after...
So we went on through the week.  Many stop lights were out so the city put up stop signs to keep traffic organized, but it was crazy trying to work a two lane road with stop signs.  Slowly places around town were receiving power.  Many people did not have power at home but could go to work.  We tried to check on any we could to see if they had their power back and if we could do anything for them.  I wanted to help everyone so badly.  I feel there are few things we can actually help people with that they are not able to do for themselves, but this time I felt so blessed to still have a house and one that had power that I wanted to help anyone who was not as fortunate.  There were many electric crews who came here from other states, (we saw some all the way from Georgia,) to help restore power and we are so grateful for them.  I don't know how long it would have taken if they weren't here.  There are still a handful of people without power but hopefully they will receive it soon.  I can not imagine what it would be like to go without power for an entire week.  Thankfully in this situation there were many places who did have power and that power was slowly being restored hour by hour. 

Now we just have to keep an eye on Katia, another hurricane, that is currently in the Atlantic, but has a projected path right up to North Carolina and Virginia.  I just hope we don't end up in recovery mode again in a week. 

Our adventures in Greece

I believe it was our first date when Isaac wanted to play a game of questions, you know, "we need to get to know each other so we will ask each other questions."  Well, you know Isaac, and his questions were things like, "If you could have any super power what would it be?"  Well, I am not as creative as Isaac so I asked where in the world would you want to travel.  And Isaac said Athens.  He wanted to be where ancient philosophers like Aristotle walked and discussed life.  Now it took many months for me to decide I wanted to marry this man, but as we discussed getting married, I thought it would be so great to go to Athens so he could visit the place in the world he wanted to go the most.  We talked about going to Greece for a while and decided if we could go, the best time would be after he graduated.  And this is how we came to visit Athens, and a few other lovely places in Greece.  As an added bonus we invited our wonderful mothers, since they have done so much for us, and we were delighted they were both able to come.

Our adventures began by getting lost, of course.  But getting lost is not always a bad thing, I was able to find a great place to photograph the sunrise the next morning.

Here we are lost.

Here is the sunrise from the next morning.

I loved all the wild flowers growing everywhere.  Greece is beautiful in May.

Even though we rented a gps with the car, it was only somewhat helpful.  Without it, we would not have found anything, but it still drove us crazy.  It could take us to the city center, but not to an actual address.  We arrived in Athens Saturday morning.  We found our hotel, The Mare Nostrum, in Vravrona, about an hour outside of Athens. 

Here are a few images of our hotel.

 We decided we wanted to go to church on Sunday, because how cool is it to attend church in another country.  So Saturday we tried to find the church so we would make it on time Sunday morning.  We entered the address into the gps, and it could not find it.  Mom Katie had printed directions to the church from the church website before she left home, so we tried to follow them.  We had the hardest time finding street names on streets, so we drove for a while without ever finding the church.  We ended up driving in Athens, which is crazy because there is so much traffic.  And we were all so tired because we barely slept on the 10 hour flight over.  It was all we could do to keep our eyes open, so thank you Mom Katie for driving us safely around and back to our hotel without incident.  After we got back to the hotel we all fell asleep for a few hours.  Our initial goal was to stay up until bed time and then go to bed so we would be on Greece time, which is 7 hours ahead of Virginia.  Normally this is doable if you get more than an hour of sleep on the plane, but since none of us accomplished that, we took a nap around 3pm, got up at 8pm, ate a little dinner and then went back to sleep.

Sadly, we did not make it to church on Sunday.  I was really excited to attend church in Greece.  The church is true, even in Greece, and I thought it would be awesome to take the sacrament in Greece, even if I didn't completely understand the language, I would have understood the Spirit.  And I love that the apostle Paul walked and taught here.  We walked where Paul walked.  I love that!  Funny enough, later in the week when we were visiting Athens, we ran into the missionaries and they directed us to where to find the church.  It was easy enough, you just need to know it is across the street from Hadrian's Arch.  So now we know, and next time we go, we can attend church there.

After our first night we found there are a lot of mosquitoes and they like to eat you while you sleep.  The moms left their sliding door open during the night to enjoy the cool night air.  Well, the mosquitoes ate them for a midnight snack.  Luckily we figured out that they do have screen doors, just not like we are used to.  They are more of a door with slats in it that lets in air but also keeps out the sun.  So we learned to use those the rest of our trip.
Poor moms...

 We visited the Temple of Artemis, which was in Vravrona and close to our hotel.  This temple is dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of childbirth and virginity.

Some photographs of our lovely mothers :) and the Temple of Artemis.

Monday we drove up to Marathon, about an hour drive north.  The gps took us exactly to the city center, yes, right in the middle of a neighborhood.  So we drove around a little more and then followed signs to Marathon Lake.  The drive up the mountain was beautiful.  We arrived at the lake and found a bridge that was very narrow.  Notice the sign that has an explosion behind the car.  So if you drive across this bridge, you will explode.  Really, the bridge only allows one way traffic so you must obey the traffic lights so you do not cause an accident.

After our adventure across the bridge we decided to head down to Sounio at the bottom of Attica, the island Athens is located on.  The drive through the little towns along the way was delightful.  I wanted to photograph the Temple of Poseidon, located in Sounio, at sunset.  We were a little early so we drive up to the little town of Lavrio.  I loved this little town.  I could be partial because we ate lunch at a little cafe and had the best gyros ever!  I wish I had taken a picture of the gyro, but I was so excited to eat it I forgot.

Here is a photograph of where we ate at least.

After we enjoyed lunch, we still had time before the sun was to set, so we drove around looking for a beach so we could sit and relax.  We eventually decided to hike down to a little beautiful, secluded beach near the Temple of Poseidon.  The water was absolutely gorgeous and refreshing.

And the hike back up...

At the top of the cliff where the Temple of Poseidon sat was beautiful.  We enjoyed walking around while waiting for the sun to set.  Eventually as the sun was setting it got a little cold, sorry moms, and we were not prepared for that, so we were a bit chilly in the breeze up there.  But we managed to take a few fun photographs.

And eventually the sun set.

Tuesday we went to visit a few of the Saronic Islands.  It was a beautiful day.  We took a ferry with a French tour group.  Why didn't I take more French.  But one of the guides spoke English and was very friendly to us.  And there were people on the boat who spoke Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and Japanese, oh, and of course Greek so we were not completely lost.  They taught us how to Zorba dance.  That was fun to watch. 

The first island we visited was Poros.  We didn't have very long on this island so while the moms shopped, we wandered the street and photographed.  Mom Katie thought Isaac needed a hat so he didn't get sunburned.  Thanks mom, he looked so handsome and didn't burn his head :)

And a few more images of what we saw.

The houses were built right into the side of the mountain.  The walkways between the houses were very narrow.  And the street along the water had cute shops and cafes.  I love the boats and cars parked outside the homes.  It was a fun island.

Then we went on to Ydra (pronounced eedra.)  Ydra does not have any motor vehicles.  They get around on donkeys.  Yes, and momma Celeste and mom Katie enjoyed, well I'm not sure if enjoy is the correct word, but they took a ride around town on a couple of donkeys.  Isaac and I just walked around photographing, of course, would you expect anything less :)

More images of the island.

The last island we visited was Aigina.  This island is much larger and has lots of agricultural land.  They grow lemons, olives, and pistachios, to name a few.  We visited the Temple of Aphaea and a pistachio factory.  The pistachios produced on this island are roasted with lemon juice and salt.  They are delicious.  We also came upon a fisherman mending his nets.  Aigina was bustling with activity.  An interesting fact about the Temple of Aphaea, the Temple of Poseidon (we visited the day before), and the Parthenon (which we visited the following day), is that they form a perfect equilateral triangle.  Amazing!  The ancient Greeks were phenomenal at math, science, and so many other things.

And a few fun photographs.

So after a long, fun day touring the islands, we did not get stranded and were not forced to live out 15 years on a deserted island, instead, we returned back to the hotel for some rest so we could enjoy more adventures the next day.  Wednesday we planned to go into Athens, called Athina by the people of Greece.  Thank you momma Celeste for finding out that day was International Museum Day and all museums were free.  So we went to the Acropolis.  The Acropolis includes the Parthenon, the Agora and the Acropolis Museum.  We started at the museum and learned a lot about the history of the Parthenon.  I am amazed at the development of the Acropolis over the centuries.   I also loved the design on the Acropolis Museum.  They built it on top of ruins and put glass walkways over it so as you walked you could look down and see the ruins.  And the top level of the museum was a to scale replica of the Parthenon.  You are able to walk around it just as you would be walking around the real Parthenon and look at the sculptures, called Friezes.  Some of the sculptures were stolen by an Englishman in the 1800′s and now reside in a museum in England, but the Acropolis Museum was able to get replicas to display along with the originals.  It is incredible!  The Parthenon in currently undergoing restoration.  It is amazing the technology we have to be able to restore such ancient ruins.  And it is amazing many of these ruins have survived so many centuries.  We could also view the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a theater built by the Romans, where they would host plays and other events.  Today they are still open and host live theatrical performances and events.

 A few more fun images of us at the Odeon, Parthenon, and the Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient Greek theater near the Odeon and below the Parthenon.  Isaac and mom Katie practicing their photography skills.  Everyone waiting out the little bit of rain we had after we came out of the museum.  And of course us!

Next we went over to Mars Hill, or as the Greeks call it Areopagus.  This is where the apostle Paul gave his famous sermon on the Unknown God.  From here was a beautiful view of the Parthenon.  It was very cool to stand where Paul stood.

 
Next we headed over to the Agora, or shops.  We came across a group of boys who got into a fight.  We just stopped and watched as they yelled at each other.  Eventually an older boy got them to stop long enough for the crowd which had gathered to pass.  And then we walked thought the streets toward the Agora.  There was graffiti everywhere.  It is so unfortunate that such a beautiful place is covered in such degradation.  We wanted to go in the ancient Agora, but when we arrived at the place to enter, we found out it closed at 3pm, and we were sad to have arrived too late.  We discovered many of the historical sites close at 3pm due to the economy and the government having to lay off all of the part time employees.  We continued walking the streets of the modern agora and found a few shops and fruit stands.  It was fun to watch the vendors calling out to the crowd to come buy there delicious fruit.  We also came across a few street performers.  

 

We made our way over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch.  This is when we ran into the missionaries.  They were very friendly and very helpful.  We also visited the Olympic Stadium.  In 2004 the Olympic Marathon finish occurred here.  This is a pretty cool stadium, a little differently shaped than the tracks I've competed on in my life. 

Finally we walked back to the metro and took a bus back to the hotel.  We did a lot of walking in Athens and we were tuckered. 

 Oh husband...

Thursday we drove to Delphi.  It is a couple hour drive northwest of Athens.  It was a rainy day but everything was vibrant and beautiful. 
Momma Celeste with her "rain gear," a beach towel.  None of us had an umbrella.  Crazy us, traveling without rain gear.  

 We double checked the closing time for the Oracle at Delphi so we didn't run into the same problems with the site being closed before we got there.  And we were driving so far we definitely didn't want to get there after it closed.  We looked up closing times on their website and found they closed at 7:30pm.  So we drove and arrived around 2pm.  When we bought our tickets the lady said they closed at 3pm so if we wanted to see the site and the museum we'd better hurry.  We were very upset that we could not find this information anywhere even though we did our research, we did not have much time to view the site.  So we hurried through the Oracle.  Citizens used to come to the Oracle to ask questions and receive prophecy.  There was a stadium at the top that was very over grown, but it was neat to see where the starting line was and the seating.  So we made it through the site and got out just before it closed.  Luckily, the other sites, the Sanctuary of Athena Nike and the Gymnasium were not surrounded by a gate so we were still able to see those.  It turned out to be a splendid day.  The rain stopped just as we started climbing the mountain to the Oracle and was just lovely.

We drove down the road to a cute little town and walked around and found lunch.  We also had a little photo shoot, because you know that is just how I am :)

Yes, it's true, I married that crazy man.  He does have a few normal photographs from this session, but as you know, that is Isaac :)
I do love this one!

Friday we enjoyed a relaxing day by the pool and went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.  It was wonderful.  I would advise the use of sunscreen.  The Mediterranean sun is quite intense. 

And later in the day we went out to find another gyro.  We loved the one we had earlier in the week and had to have another before leaving.  The place we found was very friendly and they didn't mind us taking a few photographs either.  Again, I forgot to take one of the gyro.  I really need to learn better.

And I thought I'd add a few more of my favorite images.

And then we had to fly back to the states. 

 We had the best time, I really couldn't have asked for a better adventure in Greece.

Fresh Pear Bread

Somewhere one day many years ago I came across this recipe for pear bread.  It is absolutely delicious.  So I am sharing it with all of you.

Fresh Pear Bread
3 eggs                               2 tsp cinnamon
1-1/2 cups sugar               1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup oil                        1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla                     4 cups (about 4 pears) finely chopped peeled pears
3 cups flour                      1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp baking powder        1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

In mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Mix well.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Stir into egg mixture just until moistened.  Toss pears with lemon juice.  Stir pears and walnuts into batter.  Will be thick.  Spoon into two 9x5x3 greased loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack.
Enjoy! :-)

DC National Zoo

We went to the DC National Zoo.  It was so much fun.  Our friend Mindy and her husband, Dickson, were in DC so we ventured up to visit with them.  We enjoyed doing some sealings at the temple and then wandered around the zoo.  The weather was beautiful, although a little humid especially for this time of year. 

We were very excited to see the Panda Bears.  So we went to their habitat to see them.  We were not having success, but at last, we found them having an afternoon snack, munching on some eucalyptus.

Then we came across a couple of otters tumbling around in the water.  It was entertaining to watch as they played.

The Gorillas gave me a hard time when I tried to photograph them.  Every time I walked around to get a better angle, they walked the other direction.  But we managed a few photographs anyway.

 Then we saw an Orangutan chilling.

We visited with the reptiles.  This Caiman wasn't to happy to see us, and we were pretty glad to not be to close to him as well.  We learned unlike the alligator, the Caiman does not have any commercial value, like to make boots and such.  His skin is too hard.  But Isaac is looking into making some armor with it since he's so tough.

Don't you hate it when someone takes a picture of you sleeping with your tongue hanging out.  Sorry Blue Iguana.

We saw some Lionesses lazing about. 

And playing with the cubs.

And the Lion walked around and roared.  It was pretty cool.

Some cute cubs were playing with each other as well.

And this, my favorite photograph, was an awesome Tiger.  He looks so peaceful.

We had a great day and learned a lot.