After three weekends of rain rain and MORE rain,  Stephanie, her cohort in great adventures, Sienna and I finally were able get this photo-shoot done! It could not have been a nicer day.  We met early in order to replicate the Abbey Road shot and after a few tries we nailed it!  We strolled through Pineapple Grove stopping now and then to take few shots and ending our morning at Artists Alley.

Stephanie is an amazing Mom, Yoga instructor, Surfer, an avid Crossfitter, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know she does but am not surprised she does them. She also loves to use lots of exclamations points!!!!!!!  Sienna is a sweet and precocious young lady who excels at Handstands, Cartwheels, and has lots of great ideas.

Thanks, Mother Nature for cooperating!

Have you ever heard any one not liking bubbles?  I mean really, have you?

Last fall when I was at Dam Square in Amsterdam, some street entertainers were making huge bubbles with a wand made from wooden dowels and string.  They were amazing!  I needed to know how to make one.

Well, of course I went to Pinterest and found the instructions there.

Over the July 4th, we spent most of our time making bubbles.  There is a real knack to it, but once you get a rhythm the results are astounding!

I put out a model request on Facebook and Susie contacted me right away.  Susie said she wanted to take this time in her life to focus on herself and feel good about who she is right now and memorialize with a photography session.   The plan initially was to meet at Sunrise on the Beach with her Paddle board. Mother nature decided it was going to be cold, dreary,windy and seas too rough to Paddle board. The weather on Sunday was forecast to rain all day. (of course it didn’t) So, we made the most of the afternoon with the hopes some sunshine would come through. During our session I ask Susie if she would mind letting me use a technique from a course I had taken.  I prompted her with a letter and asked her, without thinking, to come up with a word that described her.  It was pretty funny, which is indicated by the smiling and laughing!

One thing we did appreciate,  the fantastic Sand Facials facilitated by the blowing winds!

I’ve captured many people, places and things this year and here are my favorites:

Had the pleasure of photographing sweet Skyla for a whole year

Venice – what better spot to steal a kiss (and take a picture of it)?

Because it was so spontaneous and exemplifies how much fun they are

It’s Amsterdam after all

Henry out of clear blue really wanted to hold that Alligator!

Miss Carys, who was three going on 23.

My girls

A visit to Florida after a long winter in Minnesota and a purchase of the most awesome earrings.

I love these two!

Gondola

Carys with PopPop on a cold Chicago Day

Everyone was together for Christmas- especially exciting- Ysa, Lucas’ daughter came all the way from Mexico!  A great deal of logistics went in to getting her here, which made Christmas all the better.  Her birthday fell on the week of Christmas and she wanted a Bat Cake.  Not a baseball bat shaped cake, not a Batman Cake, but a bat cake. Those were the only instructions given and I went to work to grant her wish. She really liked it.

Corbin received a lesson on making pizza from scratch, the sauce AND the dough.  It was excellent.

Maya worked on the second cake-she loves watching Cake Boss.

Lisa and Lucas got married in July and when I found out they’d all be together, I made sure to get in a little family photo capture.

I know Mike (aka Chuckie) from Crossfit. Believe it or not, you make incredible friends while paying someone to inflict torture on you.  Mike was very supportive of me and offered a lot of encouragement during some of those sessions. A mutual admiration society started for each other.  Needless to say I was very honored they asked me to help them announce their pregnancy.

Through Crossfit and mutual friends, Mike and Ali (who were friends in high school) reconnected, and the next thing you know they got married!

So now, they are having a baby!  YAY!  Since they wanted to make sure everything was progressing, they kept this a big secret and wanted to announce the good news on FB.  Originally the plan was to come up with a Crossfit themed announcement, but in the end we went with the “We’ve got a secret” plan.

I love you guys and can’t wait to see your little Cross-fitter next May! 

Spoiler Alert!  This is the end of the trip and my final post.  If you want to start from the beginning you’ll have to scroll down a few cities!

Before I finish, I should mention some things that impressed me as we traveled around.

In Germany and Austria, almost every home, no matter the age, was using Solar power.  This really impressed me, especially living in Florida, solar power should be a no brainer.  I was really impressed by that.  As we drove through Holland there were many Wind Farms. We need more in this country.

The vegetables were fresh and sweet and real.  I loved it. I’m thinking of having a garden this year.

German/Austrian beer is delicious.  Italian food, OH. MAH. GAWD.

While I realize there are parts of the US (Portland, Or) that are very bike friendly, most places aren’t.  We need more; and as someone pointed out to me the other day as we were discussing this; yes you can probably ride your bike without getting killed in Delray, but when you get there, there are no bike racks.

Well here we are on this big boat waiting to take a final sight seeing trip before we head home.  What a sight for the eyes. The river is dotted with little stopping points and castles along the way, high up on hills.  The Rhine River is one of the largest in Europe so it was not surprising to see barges carrying ocean containers. If you enjoy a nice Riesling  this is where it comes from, the Rhine River Valley

It was a beautiful day and the scenery did not disappoint!

We spent our last night in Rüdesheim, a little touristy town on the river.  A big end to our tour and a final dinner was on the agenda. The crazy Americans had the Non American crazies singing and doing the Chicken Dance. If they were expecting a nice quiet dinner, they didn’t get one.  With an early wake up call and a drive to the airport, we all headed for home.

One last thing, you hear people say, “Oh, your camera takes great pictures.” Which of course is funny because there needs to be someone behind the camera making them great.  In this case though, I have to give props to a 24-70mm lens I bought used last Christmas.  I’ve struggled with that lens all year, went as far as taking it to the shop to see if I got a lemon.  When I started downloading the files to edit I was blown away. It was the only lens I used.  I guess we just needed some quality time together.

I hope you have enjoyed this little taste of Europe through these posts.  I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to travel not just in the US but in the UK and now parts of Europe.  My advice, suggestion to you is Travel!  You will see life in a whole new light.

auf wiedersehen~tot ziens~arrivederci~au revoir~till next time

Amsterdam is in our sights!  It seemed like a long bus ride from Antwerp to Holland, but then again, they all seemed long.  Our Hotel outside of Amsterdam was set in the countryside and it felt great.  The grounds and the hotel itself were beautiful, again, just wish we had more time to explore the area.

Holland is beautiful, there were so many times I wanted to get off that bus and walk around.

We did stop in this cute town, which we were there early enough to beat the tourists.  I wish I had taken a photo of the waffles and Dutch Pancakes they were serving up.  Those pancakes were AWWW-SOMMMME!

The next day was spent in Amsterdam.  Again, what you see in a travel book is not what Amsterdam looks like.  It’s definitely a city that you need to spend some time exploring.  The streets were jammed with all sorts of people.  The fact that the apartments or houses were tilted every which way had me wondering how they live in them.

And bikes.  I didn’t really bring up the massive number of bikes we saw but Amsterdam had every one beat.  There are more bikes in one square mile in Amsterdam than there is in the state of Florida.  I SWEAR!  If you could chain a bike (or not) to something there one was.  Every one rides a bike in Holland no matter where you live.  And people there are Happy.

While we did not have an inordinate amount of time, one thing I did do, was go to the Anne Frank house. THAT was intense.  On the way back to the hotel that night, I read the biography of Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank.  I realized as she described Amsterdam during the war, the streets, the squares, the madness happened right where I had waited for our group.  So much more to see and experience.

So yes- Amsterdam was my favorite city and I’m dying to go back, tour around in a car, to appreciate how beautiful Holland is. 

Anne Frank House to the right.  It was incredible to experience

Shopping or getting crushed.  It was wild!

Anne Frank would hear the bells chime from this church.  The house is a few blocks away.

So did I mention bikes?

Sunday our last day in Europe, a Rhine River cruise then back to Frankfurt and our journey home.

On our way to Holland, we made a stop in Antwerp, which has a small square with Chocolate shops and restaurants to satisfy your sweet teeth and experience Belgian Waffle.  I was in my element!  The waffle was wonderful, I am recalling it right this moment. And the two cappuccinos with whipped cream on top.  Are you kidding me?

I was on a mission to find a shop and purchase some Belgium linen hankies, something else specific to Belgium.  I left a good bit of my vacation money in Antwerp, the linen store to be exact. The good conversation with the owner was worth it. In the middle of the square there was some sort of Bike competition going on, which seemed out of place but yet, logical.

One last big stop-Holland and Amsterdam with a cruise on the Rhine River.