Fallingwater. There’s nothing like it. Truly ahead of it’s time, and to this day an inspiration that has to be experienced. Hailed by TIME magazine shortly after its completion as Wright’s “most beautiful job,” it’s now listed among Smithsonian magazine’s Life List of 28 places you must visit.

I visited Fallingwater last year and called Charlotte and told her I HAD to bring her down here… I took me a year to get her here, but it was worth the wait. These shots are all done using our iPhone, so it’s a little dicey on quality, but hey, you get the idea

The design was - and still is - revolutionary. Designed with cantilevers throughout - meaning the long overhangs are created using counter weighting rather than vertical supports underneath. Frank Lloyd Wright was passionate about using horizontal forms to make your eye flow out of the house rather than leaving you feeling trapped inside.

He designed with with human scale in mind - large windows, low furniture, large living areas and ample outdoor spaces. In this photo below, you’ll also see the pool that’s feed by fresh spring water… no chemicals needed. Is Nice!

Isn’t this view from the balcony just amazing! And the sound of the fall floods through the whole house. Just amazing.

Above: Guest house, The Fall from one of the balconies, the main living room.

Below: Charlotte did this stunning shot in a rock pool by the stream… beautiful eh?

After we’d finished up a meandering walk through the property, we decided to check out another house Frank Lloyd Wright designed called Kentuck Knob. Very cool property, with a lot of sculptures & installations. We stumbled on three old English phone booths and couldn’t resist doing a cute shot of Charlotte.

Well this ends our long road trip! We arrived back in Toronto on Thursday and are loving being home. We hope you’re enjoyed hearing about our trip - we’ve certainly loved sharing it with you.

I leave you with this cute shot of my beautiful girlfriend and our two precious babies

Savannah - The Most Haunted City in America. Charlotte and I agree. It’s also the most beautiful!!! If  was trippy for sure. From the moment we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by everyone we met. The southern hospitality did blow us away. Very impressed with how knowledgeable and helpful every person we encountered was.

Many films have been made in Savannah… and not without reason - it’s stunning. Beautiful old architecture, Spanish moss drooping from every tree and dozens of Squares scattered through the city, creating a wonderful sense of common public space.

In this photo, Charlotte’s standing (coffee in hand!) by the location of Forrest Gump’s very famous bus seat. Sadly it was a prop bench, and was removed and re-planted after filming wrapped. In Something to Talk About, the Sixpence Pub also features, which is where I’m standing in this shot.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was another classic flick filmed here. We were indulged by our tour bus driver who knew everything about everyone from all the films and was able to fill us in with lots of trivia. This fountain is in Forsyth Park - a very famous garden - and very beautiful - check out the size of the trees we’re standing under!

Adjacent to the park was the old Candler Hospital with a stunning facade, but sadly beginning to fall into disrepair. We heard about a developer who planned to buy it and turn it into condos, but found out he wouldn’t be allowed to remove the 270 year old oak from the parking lot… You wouldn’t believe the size of this tree - it was a monster. We’re both really glad the locals are so protective of their trees though - they really are stunning.

We did several evening walks through the city during our stay. The city goes to sleep really early at night though, so we often found ourselves wandering the streets without seeing another car or person for a few minutes. Kinda cool… and kinda creepy!

I love this shot Charlotte took of me, using the lamplight in front of an old church. Very cool.

So, South Carolina you say… getting warmer by the day, and we’re inspired to keep on truckin until we hit Florida! From what we can tell, Hilton Head Island is a playground for golfers and retirees… and a LOT of tourists!

It’s a carefully planned community well known for it’s “eco-friendly” development style, with strict building codes in place to ensure minimal impact on the environment, with the style of buildings and how they are situated amongst existing trees being strictly enforced. This includes everything down to the colour you can paint the building, the height and even the size and placement of corporate brands. As a great example, there’s a McDonalds that doesn’t even have have their golden arches on the building! Just a small discreet sign among the bushes at the edge of the road. Incredible!

We spent three days on the island, going for long walks and rides along the beach and exploring the many, many miles of bike paths stretching across the island. It was a totally relaxed few days with lots of time to unwind. Perfect

During one of our rides we did spot this gator… scary… I immediately decided not to let the dogs off the leash!! Yikes.

We didn’t have our camera gear on most of the bike rides, so the iPhone was put to good use on several occasions… sorry about the image quality guys!

Greta and Fritzi both loved exploring the beach and digging in the sand… and BOTH managed to find something nice and smelly to roll in!!! They were both treated to a bath when we got back to the hotel… do they look a little guilty to you?

Well, it’s been a long time between posts… We’ve had a fantastic trip and I wanted to share some of our experiences with you all! The body of this post will be short and sweet, but at least you’ll get a feel for the second half of our trip

After Rodanthe, we headed south, necessitating two ferry rides. It’s was a trippy experience to pull our RV onto the ferry, park and proceed to have a relaxed time sitting on the couch, looking out the window at the ocean pass by!! Not something you get to experience everyday.

This shot was done using our tilt and shift lens - enabling it to shift the focal plane so only to bird closest to the back of the ferry is in focus. Pretty sweet lens.

Arriving at Ocracoke, a cozy little port town on a sand barrier island, we decided to settle in for the day and enjoy the beach. The winds picked up and we were forced to stay a couple of days (the ferries don’t run when the wind is too strong).

Here’s a shot of Greta, doing her favourite things, wrestling Fritzi to the ground! Fritty’s such a good sport about it though - he lets her get away with it even though she’s half his size. She gets away with a lot because of those adorable eyes!

These little guys (Sanderlings) are the cutest things. As the waves washed in and out, they would run away from them, then chase them back out and proceed to dig up as many shells as they could.

When we did hit dry land in North Carolina, we were amazed at the vast number of military bases as we drove south. We continued to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. At one spot in particular, there was an airfield with fighter jets landing and taking off every 2 or 3 minutes! It was very cool to get out and stand underneath them as they flew over top. You can see how close were were to them in this shot.

More posts VERY soon

Last week we finally hit coastline at Virginia Beach. We spent a day cruising around and had a great time. With everyone back at school and work it was a little like a ghost town though. The beach was nice, and this King Neptune sculpture was pretty impressive. It stands about 6 metres high and is made of bronze.

The next day we cruised south… passing through some pretty amazing towns along the Outer Banks… for example, Kitty Hawk was the location for the Wright brother’s first flight. We also passed Nags Head - a town I’ve heard about many times over the years - known to be a great location to kite surf, drive dune buggies, do some beach combing or check out a ship wreck. We drove a little further south and crossed a massive bridge, to arrive at Rodanthe. FYI, here’s a map of our road trip so far.

We took an early morning walk up the beach to see if we could find the house used in the Richard Gere film, Nights in Rodanthe. Along the way though we came across something pretty crazy….

This house seemed to have fallen off it’s stilts during a storm! I can only imagine the sound it would have made as it went! After asking a few of the locals what happened, we discovered that two weeks ago during a storm, the waves crashed against the house and brought it down. All the locals were going on about the fact that they built it on 8 foot stilts instead of 18 foot. Makes sense but apparently it costs a lot of money to bring in really long stilts… would have been money well spent in hind sight I guess! Thank goodness insurance covers the damage and nobody was hurt.

How often do you get a chance to lift a house???

The Rodanthe Pier also featured in the film a few times I hear.. for a seafood feast as well as being the convenience store they used. We chatted to the owner of the pier as we took a walk out on it and asked him whether it was always this wobbly. He tells us that it’s designed with a lot of give to withstand the storms. It totally makes sense but doesn’t reassure us much as we stand at the end, shifting left and right about a foot with each wave passing underneath. You wouldn’t find me out there during a storm though!

It gave me opportunity to grab some pretty cool angles on the waves below. This one above reminds me of the feeling as you’re paddling out for a surf and you crest the wave and look back over your shoulder.

Needless to say, my reptile hunt continues… I finally found a snake - I think - it may be a species of legless lizard, but Charlotte wasn’t too keen on me trying to identify it. If anyone out there knows what species it is, can you let us know? Thanks

We spent three days in Rodanthe, with our RV parked about 10 metres behind the first dune - we were all in heaven. It turns out the dogs love the beach.

When it finally came time to leave, we headed south again (searching for that elusive warmer weather). Cape Hatteras is another famous historic location along the outer banks. The lighthouse there has an awesome barber’s pole swirl painted around it.

As we drove out of the lighthouse parking area there was a big swamp area next to the road and I caught a glimpse of what I thought was one or two turtles… We pulled over and after rustling through some bushes we found that there were literally dozens of turtles hanging out, sunbathing and generally just being turtly. How cute is the little guy in the front row!?

Upcoming posts… Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island & Savannah.

After a couple of very cold nights up in Shenandoah National Park, Charlotte and I decided it might be time to head toward the beach and thaw out. (I must digress to warn anyone who plans to take a road trip, that you should check the night time minimum temps, not just the daily highs).

We got our maps out and plotted a course for Virginia Beach. Seeing that it would take as right through Charlottesville, I immediately knew we had to spend a day there checking out Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

You see I’d heard about Monticello during my road trip down in these parts last year, but hadn’t been in the right area to check it out.

We spent the night in a gorgeous little spot nestled by a lake. There were birds, squirrels and we came across a big buck during our evening stroll. We both woke rested and ready to take on the world! On the way to Monticello, we were told we should stop in at Michie Tavern and grab an old-style southern lunch. This tavern is over two hundred years old! (in fact it was built a few years before Australia was even discovered!) The food was actually pretty good… deep fried chicken, bbq pork and the veggies were all cooked like my grandma makes ‘em - that’s to say, rather squishy.

Next on our list was Monticello. To set the scene, it’s a mansion designed by Thomas Jefferson. It sits atop a cute little rounded hill, rising out of open forests not unlike those we see around Toronto’s rivers. For some readers of this blog not from America (perhaps most?!), you may only know of Thomas Jefferson as being the man who wrote America’s Declaration of Independence. Well let me tell you, he was many more things… The third President of the United States, an architect, gardener, scientist & botanist, inventor, plantation owner, and founder of the University of Virginia.

As we arrived on “the little mountain” (Monticello translation is little mountain) we were struck by the grandeur, serenity and natural beauty of the location. It was one of those sun-drenched but crisp days.. you know, where the sun is on your face but your butt’s a little chilly!

We decided to wander on the southern side of the mountain where the sun was a little warmer. This was where Thomas spent each evening, sitting in a small (20”X20”) window filled brick building amidst his garden, no doubt pondering his many ideas (we’re standing in it for the photo above - and yes, I need to shave). Charlotte and I sat there for some time soaking up the atmosphere. The gardens are still used and the produce gathered is shared among the staff to this day.

Below his garden the vineyard begins and falls down the slope deep into the valley. We wandered among the vines and then found ourselves amongst peach trees. When we returned to the top of the mountain we were ready for our guided tour of the house.

The tour took us through each room of the main floor, with all wall dressings, paintings, artifacts and maps being pointed out and explained to us by the guide. The main floor was packed with fascinating relics from America’s early years. We both found the tour fascinating and a very powerful way to be able to step back into the days of when the home was lived in.

As a bonus we thought we’d include some photos we took at a winery the following day… More about our road trip soon… coming up is “Nights in Rodanthe”.

I’m going to travel back in time about a week, to last Saturday… After Jerry’s workshop finished on Friday, Charlotte and I decided to take a day to spend the next day checking out Washington DC. I have to say, if we were to do it again, I  should have let Charlotte convince me (which she tried to ) that we should take a segway tour of the city… ala G.O.B. Bluth of Arrested Development

Washington is BIG. I know it looks like a few buildings surrounding a lawn on a map, but as we soon discovered, maps are deceptively not to scale! haha.

Our first stop was Capitol Hill. We then checked out The Botanical Gardens, The National Museum of the American Indian History, The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (A Must See), then crossed the “lawn” and headed up to The National Portrait Gallery. I tell ya, if you only do one thing in DC, I suggest you check out the Portrait Gallery… it was full of photographs, paintings, sculpture and designs depicting, well, portraits. Duh.

By the time we’d done all this, we were getting a little peckish, so decided to hit Chinatown for dinner. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed… about 5 restaurants and not much else. Either we didn’t actually find it or I’m just used to the bustling markets of Toronto’s Chinatown.

On the way back to our car, we passed Madam Tussauds Wax Museum… Well worth the money to check out… we got to hang out with JLO, Bradgelina and have a laugh with Obama! It’s actually pretty cool to “look into the eyes” so to speak - of some of the great men and women of history… Malcolm X, JFK, Mohamed Ali and so on. It’s unbelievable how real they all look - kind of eerie.

With a very long day behind us we got home to our very waggy dogs… Fritzi and Greta make arriving home a real joy each day. More bog posts to follow soon… We’re catching up!

After reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson last year it’s become a dream of ours to set foot on the Appalachian Trail. Bill Bryson’s book was a big reason why Dave and I decided to treat ourselves with a month long holiday after this busy wedding season. The book is filled with side splitting humour and hilarious anecdotes but also allures readers with the visual descriptions of the beauty of the trail. So being in Washington for this workshop last week seemed to be a great excuse to jump right into our road trip, beginning at Shenandoah National Park.

When we decided to attend (and model in… photos to come!) Jerry Ghionis’ awesome photography workshop in Washington last week, it made perfect sense to turn this dream into a reality. We started planning and after a week in our Washington hotel suite, we moseyed on down to pick up our fabulous new accommodation…. an RV!!

On our first day we drove straight to Shenandoah, an unbelievably breath-taking park constantly dazzled us with expanding vistas and dramatic rocky peaks. When we cleared the gates of the park I honestly did not think that we were going to make much distance on this road trip, we wanted to stop at every look out to take in the jaw-dropping landscapes. Virginia hosts the longest chunk of the Appalachian Trail so we’ll be able to see a lot more of it in the time we’ll be here.

We reached our camp site in about two hours (should have taken us 1/2 an hour! lol) and as soon as we pulled in five deer greeted us at the entrance. I was totally shocked, they were everywhere! I know I live in the city but I’d never seen anything like this. They were soooo peaceful, we didn’t get too close but when we took a few photos they didn’t even seem phased… awww Bambi.

The hiking so far has been fab, fresh air and sunshine!! The only thing that’s freaking me out a little is Dave’s fascination with snakes. He flips over every flat rock he can find in hopes of discovering a sleeping reptile. For his sake I hope he doesn’t find one because I know I’ll either pass out or forget first aid for snake bites. The leaves are all gorgeous, red, yellow and orange tones and rustle lightly in the wind reminding us why on earth we decided to hike so far down the rocky slope when we know were gonna have to crawl back up, oh well it beats the climbmaster at the gym right :).

The dogs are in having the time of their lives out here in nature. Fritzi is great to have on walks, he’s like a little tank and gives you that extra pull you sometimes need. Greta however, works on her beauty sleep and makes sure no one in a 15 mile radius approaches our motor home. She only likes walking on her own terms so we have learned to let her have her way.

We’ll be checking out the Monticello (Jefferson’s homestead) tomorrow and then, who knows…. Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Miami, Key West and beyond!!!!

Kristin, our booking consultant, emailed us with the weather report today… SNOW in Toronto, already??!!