Travel archive at andipantz

Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Feb

Still alive.

By Andrea 0 Comments

Categories: California and Travel

I know many of you have been wondering…where are the photos? Where are the stories? I was on the road for two weeks and a day. I was too tired on most days to formulate any thoughts into a blog post. So there are none for now.

I am now in LA. I arrived last Friday. The cross-country drive was a bit more tedious than I had expected. But I am so so very happy to be in California. I love it here and it’s my favorite state in the nation. The weather makes all of the difference in the world to me. It’s just one of the many reasons I love this state.

When I’m feeling inspired to finally write, I’ll post some more about the rest of my road trip and hopefully have some photos to share from California.

Feb

Pantz Across America, part 1

By Andrea 6 Comments

Categories: Pantz Across America, Photography and Travel

I had previously written that I was moving out of Philadelphia and traveling across the US to ultimately end up in California for a couple of months. Well, I left last Thursday before the east coast got hammered with that huge snowstorm. I knew it was coming and Thursday was my window of opportunity to leave so I took it. As I was leaving York County, Pennsylvania, I passed graffiti that read “It can get better”. Perhaps it was a sentimental goodbye from Pennsylvania to start my new work/travel life.

I drove as far as I could until I hit rain in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. I think I was on the road for about 11 hours. I was exhausted and ready to find a hotel. I chose a hotel that was part of the Wyndham chain hotels, thinking that it would be good. I did an inspection of the room before agreeing that I would take it and everything looked good. But then I pulled down the sheets and there were hairs and a mysterious brown stain. (Not to mention that there really were mirrors on the wall). I probably should have taken photos, but I was so disgusted and tired. I ended up finding another hotel a couple of exits further that was much better except that it smelled like fragrance plug-ins. It’s come to my knowledge in the last year that I’ve become super sensitive to smells and I hate fragrance plug-ins.

I woke the next morning and drove to Atlanta, Georgia in pouring rain. As I was leaving North Carolina, I stopped at a random exit to get gas. There were two weird abandoned buildings amongst the fireworks stops that seem to be overwhelming in the southern states. Every exit that I stopped at in the south seems to have some kind of interesting abandoned place.

I knew a few photographers from istockphoto and an old friend from California who live in Atlanta. We went out for dinner and it was great to see them. I stayed at my friend’s house in East Atlanta, which was quite eclectic and filled with many craftsman homes from the 1920s. I probably would have liked the area, but I was eager to get off of the east coast and away from crappy weather so I left Atlanta the next day.

I drove through Alabama. In my opinion, Alabama is possibly one of the strangest places in the country. And if you know me, I LOVE strange. The Salton Sea in California is one of the weirdest places I have ever been to. Alabama is like the Salton Sea except that it’s a WHOLE STATE. A whole state of weird amazing subjects. I was so tired when I left Atlanta, but I became all giddy as I drove through the back roads of Atlanta on my way to the coast. I passed some awesome places. I’m kind of kicking myself for not stopping to photograph some of them (such as the abandoned “Hurricane Drive-in”). But the reality of it was that I was a bit more scared about being shot in the back woods of Alabama than in Northeast Philly.

I ended up in the Mobile, Alabama area for the night where I had a huge southern BBQ sampler dinner complete with cole slaw, baked beans, and sweet tea. At 4am, my stomach was not so happy with me.

I drove along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans on Sunday. Again, amazing things in Alabama.

So yes, I arrived in New Orleans on the day of the Superbowl. I wasn’t even planning to go to New Orleans, let alone be there during the Superbowl. I am in New Orleans now. I have family that live here whom I haven’t seen for a while. I went to my first-ever Superbowl party last night. We had a fun time and since the Saints won, the city went crazy. And being that Mardi Gras is a week away, it’s party week in New Orleans!

Jan

A New Chapter

By Andrea 3 Comments

Categories: Life and Travel

As I had written a couple of weeks ago, I am moving out of Philly. I will be moving out in two weeks. After I take care of some necessities, I am taking road trip across the southern US to visit some friends. I will ultimately end up in Los Angeles where I am meeting up with one of my best friends. We’re renting a place there for a little while and going to explore (and re-explore) many places in California.

So I’ve been busy packing up my most prized possessions and tying up loose ends here in Philly. I’m a bit stressed out because I have so much to do in the next two weeks. But I am happy to get out of Philly. I knew it was time to leave when I got a parking ticket the other day in a place where they had just added new “no stopping” signs. Surely, it’s time for a big change and a new chapter in my life.

Perhaps my next blog post will be from the road in somewhere, USA. Until then…

Sep

Family visit to Philly

By Andrea 1 Comment

Categories: sports, People, Philadelphia, Photography and Travel

My cousin and my grandpa arrived in Philly on Sunday morning. We went on a boat ride on the Delaware River on the Spirit of Philadelphia. I had always been curious about this boat, but it’s even cheesier than I ever imagined it to be. Picture wedding dance party with cheese dance songs on a cruise and that would be it. Nevertheless, the food was good and we saw as much of the Delaware River as you really could see. I mean, let’s face it: there isn’t much. We celebrated Heather’s birthday!

In the evening, we went to a Phillies game. It was the first MLB baseball game for my cousin, the first one that my grandpa had been to in a while, and it’s the first time that I got to go to a Phillies game and sit in the 6th row! We were right by third base and it was awesome! Our tickets were expensive, but we had a good time. And since it was my cousin’s birthday, someone came to the seat to bring her a card and the whole section around us sang happy birthday to her while having confetti thrown on her. It was nothing short of awesome!

None of us really slept well, but we were troopers and woke up early enough to catch a ride on one of those Big Bus tours around the city. The tour is great if you have a good seat, but I don’t recommend sitting in the back. We had stopped off at City Hall to take a trip to the tower, which is something that I hadn’t done in years. The weather was perfect for a great view of the city. We finished off the day with a lunch at Sabrina’s.

I was surprised with the amount of energy that my grandpa had while he was here. I was pooped afterwards, but he really kept up the competition for us! We all had a great time!

Oct

weekend in the north

By Andrea 0 Comments

Categories: pets, Plants, Animals, Landscapes, Macro, Photography, Pennsylvania, nature and Travel

I went to Binghamton, NY this past weekend. It was quite a packed weekend. A highlight was seeing the incredible leaves changing in the area of Salt Springs State Park in Pennsylvania. I don’t recall seeing such a dramatic variety of colors in autumn. Just beautiful. Unfortunately, my photos don’t convey the variety of colors, but sometimes a memory is better than a photograph.

And there were llamas at the state park!

And this is Frankie….

Sep

camping in rural Pennsylvania

By Andrea 2 Comments

Categories: Plants, flowers, Birds, Macro, nature, Photography, Pennsylvania and Travel

I had been wanting to get in at least one more camping adventure before the really cold weather arrived. Chris and I were planning on going to Hawk Mountain over the weekend…a place that both of us had wanted to go to for a while, but had never been. It’s currently the season for raptor migration so it’s definitely the best time to go. I managed to convince him that we should go camping at Locust Lake State Park, about 50 minutes from Hawk Mountain. I’d never heard of this State Park, but the photos looked nice. After running some errands on Saturday morning, we were in the car on our way to the park. Everything was about an hour and a half to two hours from Philadelphia so it wasn’t that far away. We picked out a campsite and set up our tent before heading out to dinner. We didn’t think that we’d find a good restaurant anywhere nearby, but we had a fabulous dinner at a somewhat upscale restaurant in Pottsville called The Greystone Restaurant. Honestly, it was probably the only upscale restaurant in Pottsville or maybe even a 30 mile radius. After we had full bellies, we headed back to the campground to start a campfire and make s’mores for dessert and being geeks with our headlamps. It was a cold night, but I prefer that.

In the morning, we packed everything up and then headed out for Hawk Mountain, stopping at a small old hotel for some breakfast. It was a beautiful day outside and we were ready to see some raptors! We arrived there and hiked to the first lookout….and then the second. I was in a crabby mood. I didn’t find Hawk Mountain as appealing as I thought it would be. Granted, the weather wasn’t right for birds, but even on a bad day, I’ve seen more birds at hidden gem lookouts closer to Philly. I guess there are some other perks about Hawk Mountain, but I couldn’t see that it was all that much better. Maybe on a good day. Nevertheless, the weather was nice and it was really funny (and cool) to see so many people looking for birds.

We made a stop at the New Bethel Cemetery that I had first visited with Albert and Steve. It was a sunny day and not nearly as spooky as the foggy, cold day when we had visited in May.

We stopped at Cabela’s on our way home. Neither of us had been there either. Chris bought thermal pants. I bought…FUDGE. Yes, FUDGE. Who would have guessed that Cabela’s has awesome fudge, but they do. So if you go there, go to the fudge shop because it’s AWESOME.

That is all.

Jul

road rallying through maryland

By Andrea 2 Comments

Categories: People, Photography and Travel

What seems like 2 months ago was really only less than 2 weeks ago. My dear friend Robyn was coming home to Maryland for her family’s annual road rally. They’ve been having this road rally for at least 5 years and I have never been able to make it. I had never been in a road rally before. In my mind, it sounds like a bunch of white trash road races on a dirt racetrack in the middle of nowhere. And honestly, in some places of the US, I’m sure that’s exactly what it is. But no. It’s actually a scavenger hunt of sorts where you’re given clues and have to answer questions and locate specific points along the way while driving in your car….with a team. A team being two or more people. Robyn’s boyfriend, Roy, was coming along and also a novice so he and I formed our own little team: me as the driver and Roy as the navigator. Everyone else had a team name, but I don’t think we really ever formed one.

Roy and I started out on our course of adventure, full of hope….only to drive down the street and realize that we had no h*cking idea what we were doing. We drove around in a circle…Roy suggested that I keep driving and I suggested that we go back and ask Robyn how the hell we play this game (as you know, it’s the woman who always wants to stop and ask for directions!). We went back to the starting point and as soon as we show up, Robyn is laughing at us….but ONLY because she thought we were coming back to tell her that this road rally is dumb and we quit. We are not quitters! We continued on.

Shortly into the rally, we happened upon another team of two people that we knew….each of us trying to make conversation about the game and trying not to give away hints or answers. “Yeah so we’re trying to figure out what that flag is there.” “Um…yep.” “Do you know what it is?” “Yep, but we think we might have missed something previously.” “Oh, what did you miss?” “Well, we can’t say.” “How do we know what this flag is if we aren’t from around here? Oh wait, can I use google on my iPhone? Can I phone a friend like they do on who wants to be a millionaire?” “OK. Well, we’re leaving now. See you at the end!”

Road Rally

We didn’t see them at the end. We saw them at least one or two more times. We eventually thought that it was silly that we just keep following them so Roy and I decided to pull over and have a heart to heart discussion…about body over (I think it was the parking lot of a Popeye’s nonetheless). Because, you know…this is common conversation between people who don’t know each other. And I’ll have you know that neither of us were stinky; it was a discussion about other people’s stinky B.O.

Both Roy and I ended up with the worst stomach aches in the history of gastrointestinal fallout.

We got lost in Annapolis. We realized that we were lost in Annapolis when we couldn’t find our clue and just drove around the traffic circle in the center of town at least 6 times before Robyn called to tell us that we were slow and needed to get our asses to the finish line with some help from her. We were the last ones to begin and we were the last ones to finish the rally so everyone clapped upon our return.

We did not take home the trophy, but instead headed to the “after party”, which included Sangria. yum!

I made friends.

I stayed overnight in Maryland at Robyn’s house. Her mom made us a really great quiche for breakfast. I didn’t get to make a departure before taking some photos.

Jun

Day 6: New Hampshire and Home

By Andrea 4 Comments

Categories: Maine Roadtrip, sports, People, Photography and Travel

First of all, I’ve gotten word from a couple of people that comments are not working. Supposedly it hangs and doesn’t go through? Is anyone else having problems?

So Monday night’s sleep was quite nice until those damn cleaning people woke me up by knocking on the door at the ass crack of dawn. Those “do not disturb” signs never seem to mean crap. I grabbed some of the free continental breakfast before hitting the road again. Of course, on the day that I am leaving Maine, the weather is gorgeous outside.

I didn’t have to drive too far to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where I was meeting my ever-talented buddy, Rob Sylvan and his lovely wife Paloma for lunch. He also gave me what he calls the “nickel tour” of downtown Portsmouth. It’s a cute little town. Rob is a NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) Help Desk Specialist and you may have seen his column “Under the Loupe” that appears in every issue of Photoshop User magazine. Rob is also writing the book Lightroom for Dummies that will hopefully hit the bookstore shelves shortly after Lightroom 2 is released. You can even pre-order your own copy at Amazon if you so desire. Rob is also a member of iStockphoto and you can check out his portfolio here.

After leaving Portsmouth, I headed to Nashua, New Hampshire to see my good friends Matie and Dave who I haven’t seen for quite a few years. I met Matie when we worked together at Fort Irwin Training Center for the U.S. Army in the Mojave Desert of California for two years as wildlife biologists, primarily doing natural resources conservation and studying desert tortoises…and sometimes doing archaeological work…and sometimes avoiding the flying ordnance. We shared some good times together and it’s hard to believe that we’ve known each other for 10 years! Man, how time flies! Matie and Dave had a cute son who is now 22 months old and quite a smart cookie! He’s definitely going to be a sports pro in the future…you should see him work that hockey stick!

Matie has been boxing for at least a few years now. When they moved to New Hampshire last year, she found West End boxing gym in Lowell, Massachusetts that she goes to a couple times a week to spar. She was planning to go on the night that I was visiting so I had the opportunity to tag along with her! I was thrilled because, though I’d photographed a boxer last year, I’d never been in a boxing gym and this gym was like something out of the movies. We drove up to this huge old unmarked warehouse and went inside. The fluorescent lit gym held two boxing rings, a load of bags, and other workout equipment…along with a couple handfuls of extremely buff and sweaty boxers.

Matie’s sparring buddy is a man named Frenchy. He’s…well…French and fights in the Lowell, Mass area. He has a youtube page where you can view some of his fights as well as sparring with Matie.

It was pretty cool to see them sparring because it’s another thing that I’d never seen. I wish I wasn’t such a shrimp (or a wimp) because it kinda looks fun. Talk about a quick way to get in shape! Matie is one of the most tough girls I know and also one of the sweetest and most interesting. I realized that I don’t get to see my long-distance friends enough. And I also realized that I have some of the coolest friends in the whole world! So thanks to my friends (new and old) who made my trip worthwhile and fun despite the crappy weather. Even though I didn’t get many photos, I had a lot of great experiences and met a ton of great people in such a short period of time.

I drove back to Philly yesterday from Nashua. It didn’t take too long, but I got stuck in a really bad traffic jam (shut the car off and parked) in Connecticut that was the result of a very bad accident. A car ended up in the trailer part of a tractor trailer. It was not pretty. As a result, I got stuck in the beginning part of NYC rush hour traffic.

I returned my rental car today and picked up my own car that was in the shop to get fixed. Dropped a small fortune to get the air conditioning system replaced, but I guess I can’t complain too much since I’ve had the car for almost 7 years and haven’t had any major problems until now. Of course, now that I say that, something else will probably happen. And I got home and somehow my shower is broken, too. It never ends.

Jun

Day 5: Last day on Mt. Desert Island

By Andrea 1 Comment

Categories: flowers, Insects, Maine Roadtrip, Plants, Landscapes, Photography, nature, Macro and Travel

Monday pretty much sucked. My second night of camping was not the greatest. I finally managed to fall asleep after the tick fear incident, but then I woke up at 1 am to what I thought was some large scary animal making noise not so far from my tent. That large scary animal eventually became the noises of a man and a woman having loud sex in the campground. And yes, there were other people camping in the campground, too.

Just as I had fallen back to sleep, I woke up to a torrential downpour and thunder. Water was slowly beading and running down the inside walls of my tent. Whatever. If I was going to get wet, I might as well sleep until that happens. When I woke up, it wasn’t raining, but there were small pools in the corners of the tent and the outside of my sleeping bag was wet from what I think was just a lot of moisture accumulation. The inside of my sleeping bag was still pretty cozy warm and dry. A hot shower felt so great.

I got word that there was a pink lady’s slipper blooming in one of the sites, but I didn’t get to see it. There were beautiful wildflowers throughout the campground.

After hearing that the weather forecast was rain and thunderstorms for the next two days, I figured that it might be in my best interest to stay somewhere warm and dry for the night. It wasn’t raining yet, but still gloomy, gray, and cold. I headed out to get some food, but got a call informing me with the latest news on my car that is in the shop. What was initially a small air conditioning problem had turned into a huge air conditioning problem that pretty much involved overhauling my whole A/C system and replacing most of the parts….now costing me a LOT more that originally told. Great. That put a damper on my day and thought I should stay overnight outside of Mt. Desert Island where it was cheaper. But since it wasn’t raining, I decided to take a drive around to some of the recommended areas of Acadia while I could.

My first stop was the Wild Gardens of Acadia, which is located in Acadia. I love plants and this was like going to a botanical garden, but strictly the native flora of Acadia separated into the various ecosystems that can be found throughout the park. As always, the bog flora was my favorite, but the mosquitoes were quite active as they are in all bogs. Fortunately, a lot of the other insects were pretty inanimate due to the cold weather so I was able to snap off some shots. I probably could have spent the whole day there just taking photos of the insects that I saw, but I wanted to get on to see other areas before it rained.

And for those who don’t know, I’ve had an interest in ethnobotany for a while and sphagnum moss is one of my favorite plants for that very reason. It’s a common ground cover in the wetter areas of wetlands and bogs and is a staple for the micro ecosystems that thrive in those environments because it retains water really well. If you ever see some when you’re out hiking, you should pick some away from the ground and squeeze it. You’d be amazed by the amount of the water that these plants can hold! For this very reason, the native Americans actually used sphagnum moss as diapers for their babies.

I drove to Thunder Hole. Located along the southeastern cliffs of the island, Thunder Hole is a small, naturally created cavern that creates a loud thunder sound and large splash when the waves rush in and force air out. However, during low tide, it’s not as dramatic so I didn’t get to see or hear “Thunder Hole” at its best. Nevertheless, the coast is still quite beautiful.

I took some time to explore the rocks and check out the nearby tidepools.

The plants in the tidepools were amazing, but there wasn’t a whole lot of marine life. I imagine that I would have seen more if I had the chance to check out the other nearby areas, but it started to rain and my equipment was getting wet.

I headed off of Mt. Desert Island and drove a good distance to Portland, Maine where I stayed for the night. I was excited to see moose crossing signs along the drive. And I saw a huge eagle nest on some electric pylons.

And here’s a suggestion for future traveler’s: I’ve always seen those little discount hotel coupon books at the highway rest areas, but never really looked at them or used them until this trip. The coupons are generally only good for one night and walk-ins only, but if you decide to take a last minute road trip and you want to stay at a hotel, there are some really good deals in there!

Jun

Day 4: A Cold and Rainy Day

By Andrea 1 Comment

Categories: flowers, Birds, Maine Roadtrip, Plants, Landscapes, Photography, nature, Macro and Travel

First of all, I finally added some photos to the Day 2 post.

My first night of camping on Saturday night was awesome. It was cold, but I loved it and slept like a log for the most part. I woke up a couple of times because my sleeping bag was so warm that I was sweating. I showered and the prepared to leave. The showers and bathrooms at the campground were awesome and so clean. I don’t think I’ve ever been at such a clean campground before, but then again, the peak season really hasn’t begun yet.

I knew that the forecast was showing rain, but I was preparing to go explore Mt. Desert Island and Acadia…and take some photos. Well, right as I was about to leave the campground, I got to chatting with some of the guys from the campground. The one man, Scott, was hosting the 10th annual Acadia Birding Festival. I had heard that the birding festival was happening, but didn’t know exactly when. Just so happens that it was happening while I was in town and yesterday was the last day of it. They were going on a whale/bird cruise yesterday and Scott had taken me under his wing to take me along on the cruise. Thanks, Scott!

I had to be in Bar Harbor for the cruise so I decided to grab some breakfast before heading over. I had pancakes with Maine wild blueberries. yum!

There was a group of about 8 of us who were going on the cruise that was being led by Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company. It was a pretty large boat for a whale watch. This was the fifth whale watch I had been on (3 in California and 2 in Alaska), but the first one I’d been on here on the east coast. In the past, I’d seen an amazing Humpback whale display in California that probably no whale watch could top. And I’d seen Orcas (killer whales) in Alaska, which is supposedly pretty rare. But I was really excited to see other possible whales and sea birds that I hadn’t seen before….with a group of Maine birders who knew what they were looking at.

We no sooner go on the water and saw a bald eagle. We saw a humpback that has been identified as Gemini who has been spotted in the area every year since 1977. He hung around our boat for a while so we saw some tail displays. We also saw a North Atlantic right whale in the distance, which was really cool, and I guess also rare. We also saw a bunch of seals and porpoises.

We passed Egg Rock and lighthouse, which is supposedly a good breeding ground for pelagic birds.

We reached Petit Manan, which is a famous breeding ground for puffins and other sea birds. And yes, I finally saw a puffin. There were hundreds of them and it was amazing! We couldn’t get too close, but close enough that you could spot them and they’d fly right by the boat. So cool! I was so excited about seeing the birds that I forgot to take a photo of the really cool lighthouse at Petit Manan.

I’ve been keeping track of the birds I see and here is a list of many of the birds that we saw on the trip yesterday:

On the way back from the watch, it started to rain and it was so incredibly cold. I’m glad that I brought my rain gear along because it definitely came in handy yesterday. I knew that camping was not going to be fun.

I ate some lunch food and then went to meet up with the bird festival folks for a social gathering at the Museum of Natural History that’s located at College of the Atlantic. I met a few of the other people who were organizers for the festival and also Maine birders. Everyone was so nice and though the weather was crappy, I had a fun day.

I had some time to kill before it got dark so I decided to take a quick drive around the Acadia park loop, which I hadn’t done yet. Although it had stopped raining, it was still really cloudy and cold. I took a drive up Cadillac Mountain, which offered some lovely views of the Island. Took some photos of some plants along the way, too. The day was capped off by seeing a Pileated woodpecker fly right in front of my car and land on a rock outcrop right next to it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to stop the car, grab the camera and get a shot…but I was really thrilled because I had never seen one before. Some things are best left captured in the memory than in the camera. Unfortunately, my memory is like a sieve these days.

As it got dark, I headed back to the campground. It had stopped raining, but everything was wet and cold. I had wanted to have a campfire until I realized that there were little tiny bugs all over EVERYTHING. I freaked myself out thinking that they were ticks (not deer ticks, though), but I now believe that they were just spiders. Still, I hate ticks and I hate spiders so the thought of having either all over everything forced me to go inside my clean, dry tent and warm sleeping bag.

And speaking of ticks…I forgot to mention that the other day I heard two people talking after a hike. The girl says to the guy, “So we saw a snake and a tick. Maybe the snake ate the tick? If the snake ate the tick, I’d feel so much better.” …and while that whole statement is rather silly, I have to say that I can’t disagree. I’d feel better, too. Did I mention that I hate ticks? yeah. But other than the little spiders last night, the bugs haven’t been bad at all. There were mosquitoes every once in a while, but I wouldn’t say that they were bad.