I have been wanting to get some of the images up here since we got married back in July. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out at Chapel Dulcinea where we got married. Heather Van Gaale, a good friend from San Diego, flew in to do the photography. I think she did an amazing job. This shot of Heather is everyones favorite.

It started off a little hairy, I was actually late to my own wedding! I had to stop at a country store on my way out for gas since I was on empty. It hadn’t occurred to me until after I got back in my X-terra that I hadn’t turned off the ignition while filling gas!!! Holy Moly!
I can hear the sherriff informing Heather now: “I’m sorry to regret that your fiance will not be able to make it to your wedding because he blew up due to his own stupidity.”

Once I got out there things calmed down a bit and the small ceremony got underway. It was so beautifu. Heather looked awesome! My mom and sister were there, Heather’s parents were there. Chris, my best friend, officiated the ceremony.

I’ve posted a few of the best photos here, they were all taken by Heather Van Gaale (the other Heather in my life). The other 200 of the good ones are here.

The Barton Creek Greenbelt has been beckoning for a little over a year for Heather and I to come back and take the hike down to Sculpture Falls. We had gone a couple times before with our good friends Amber and Sarah (We’ll be visiting them in South-East Asia this summer if we can wrangle up some duckets).

With the wild outdoors calling and our winter-leaguered & pent up dogs, Moen and Luke, Heather and I decided to use the weekends to walk on dirt instead of treadmills.

Barton Creek Greenbelt and Sculpture Falls.
This is a beautiful hike that can be approached 2 ways. One is from MoPac and 360, and the other from a few miles west off of 360 through a residential area.
Hiking in from MoPac is probably the way to go unless you take supplemental oxygen, as the hike back up to the residential area is about a 10-15% grade for about a quarter of a mile.

The dogs love to cut loose at Sculture Falls. Luke, our Chow/Corgy (Chorgy), goes maniacal! He has two speeds fast and faster, that is until he hits a rock or slips on rocks, for about a second, and then he’s off again.
Moen’s slowed down a bit over the past 2 years, but still enjoys trotting along and getting wet.

We’ve also taken the dogs out to Bull Creek and Lake Georgetown. They were nice in their own right. But Barton Greenbelt such a great hike, and if someone was enterprising enough they could start a Sherpa outfit on the backside of this hike and make a pretty penny!

Here is a great resource for hiking in Austin 

I started giving it some thought as my own wedding approached. I had the other Heather in my life, Heather Van Gaale from San Diego flying in soon and we were talking often. We would reminisce about the hijinx we would get into while shooting weddings together. That’s fun. That’s exciting. That’s why I started shooting weddings, for the energy and the great photos you can get from each wedding. Maybe it’s just one photo that blows your mind from any given event, but every Saturday you photographed was one of the best Saturdays ever for a group of people. And that was fun to be a part of.

After being gone for a year in Thailand, and living in Austin for another 18 months I recognized I missed it.

In that light I’ve decided to throw my hat back into the ring and dust off the camera, and possibly document some of those Saturdays.

I saw an interesting article in the Statesman the other day and I realized that I had a much better photo than what they had.

We chose Puerto Rico as our Honeymoon location because it was a cheap airfare and it held a fascination for both of us. The lure of Old San Juan, the Taino culture, the potential for amazing beaches to lay out on, and most definitely food! Oh… and apparently P.R. is the Hawaii of the Atlantic, boasting legendary surf spots (just not while I was there).

Perhaps Heather and I are spoiled from the unique, warm and inviting nature of the people in Thailand. We had a lovely time, but Puerto Rico didn’t quite live up to all we were expecting.

I suppose the trip can be divided into two. The first half was truly amazing. We stayed at the Gallery Inn. The picture to the left is taken there. The Gallery Inn is this old building in San Juan that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and both of San Juan’s forts. We had an incredible room. We also had an incredible rainstorm that woke us up suddenly when our old shuttered doors were blown open. Earlier that evening we were introduced to one of the worlds most delicious uses of garlic, plantains and butter; Mofongo! I am a huge fan of anything Cuban and Plantains, and this was truly amazing and we both highly recommend it.

The next day we went to one of the forts and explored and played and photographed. Then we headed out of San Juan in the direction of Luquillo on the Northeast tip of P.R. I was quite excited because I heard it had decent surf, and we were going to stay in an apartment in the El Yunque Rainforest.

Some of the highlights were:

• The waterfalls, they were everwhere.
• Sue’s Place. Our apartment, a twenty minute drive up a jungle mountain through small villages and chickens and dogs in the street, when you finally get there you walk on your deck that is surrounded by super dense green jungle and millions of tree frogs, called koqui, that sing to you at night.
• On a whim, Heather and I climbed through the jungle to the very most highest point of Puerto Rico.
• Surfing at La Selva. It was sloppy, mushy and small, but it had been almost two years since I’ve caught a wave. Plus, it was a cool mile long hike through the jungle to get there. (On the hike back I got stung by some kind of flying insect that made my arm swell up and turn red! Cool!)

We stayed in El Yunque for two days and loved it. When we left Luquillo is when our trip turned to the somewhat unpleasant second half. I think it was a combination of wanting to explore a lot of the island in a short time colliding with the slow island life pace of life. The best example was when we went to the Camuy Caves. I was told that it would only take a few hours to do, but it ended up being a four hour wait in line for a 45 minute guided tour. The caves were quite remarkable though, and I’m glad we went.

The restaurant we went to after though was a different story entirely. I won’t say much, other than it took an hour just for us to order.

One thing that shocked both of us is that while the plane flight was somewhat inexpensive, the hotels were at least one hundred dollars. Regardless of where you went, you were looking at dropping a Benjamen.

Our last night, tired from driving, tired from paying exorbitantly for meals, we ended up at a small South Beach style hotel. We figured it was going to be expensive no matter where we went in San Juan so we booked it. Talk about swank! We were offered complimentary room service drinks, and to top off our night we found our way out to the beach deck area the ultra comfy canopy beds in the sand. We cuddled up with each other and looked out to the lights dancing on the San Juan Harbor, drinking our Puerto Rican rum filled drinks and listening to the DJ spin some mellow house tracks and thinking about everything from the past few days and the long plane ride home the next day.