Now that I’ve moved to the DC metro, I’ve been trying to go dancing as much as possible to make new friends and meet people here. One of my favorite nights of dancing is Tuesday nights at the Jam Cellar. The dance is cheap ($6), the crowd is great and the floor is awesome. It is a little tough some times being in the middle of the week and in DC and the drive is always “interesting”. This week, it was about 90 degrees, but I (and everyone else) soldiered on and as always, it was a fun night.

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A little over a year ago I accompanied Adrian to a conference in Beunos Aires, Argentina. We managed to squeeze (and I mean squeeze!) in a quick side trip to Iguazu’ on the border with Brazil. The falls at Iguazu’ are the second largest in the world behind Victoria Falls in Africa and they are spectacular. The expense and loss of sleep this trip cost us was well worth it.

The edge of Iguazu' falls.

To visit the falls, we flew into Beunos Aires via Ezeiza airport and then had to transfer via taxi to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery about 30 minutes away. We had a short layover and were on the last flight of the day to Iguazu’ so there was some question of whether we would make it. We did, partially thanks to the refreshingly non-TSA-insane security. It was nice to enjoy a flight instead of being treated like a convicted criminal as we are in the US.

The entire area seemed like a lost world, especially our first overcast and rainy day.

Iguazu’ is more than just falls. It is a national park and wild life refuge. There are 100s of colorful birds, including the Tucan Grande and parrots all around the park as well a monkeys and coati. I’ll post some of those images later this week.

Milford Sound is one of the world’s greatest natural settings. Until recently, the only ways in were by boat or to take the 3 day Milford Track. For the last few decades, ever since the Homer Tunnel was completed, the sound has been accessible by car or bus. With that access has come more opportunities to see the sound, such as ocean kayaking. During our visit we spent a full day kayaking the sound and experienced the full range of weather it has to offer up to and including hail and very strong gusting winds. It is the sort of place that lets you know that NATURE is in charge, not you.

Rafted up in the middle of our trip, we enjoyed a snack and a wonderful view. This image was taken looking towards the Tasman sea.

During our day of kayaking we experienced Sterling Falls from up close as well as New Zealand fur seals playing in the water and lounging on rocks. The operator we chose motor boated us out 6 km and then we spent the day paddling back. Many of the other operators have you paddle out and back so you only get to experience half the area we were able to explore.

This year, Adrian and I decided we didn’t want to put up with the crowds or insanity that is the capital fireworks, even from across the river from the Marine Corp Memorial. Instead, I’ve been missing the Seguin fireworks, held every year when there isn’t a severe drought (like there was this year). Their fireworks are held along the river, on the city golf course. You lay on the greens looking up through the huge and very old pecan trees and the show is above you. Watching with my parents is one of my favorite childhood memories.

Here in the D.C. Metro area, I figured that was an impossibility, but we decided to give one of the smaller enclave’s displays a try and headed to Falls Church. Falls Church is entirely surrounded by the city and hosts its display at George Mason High School at Leesburge Pike (VA7) and Highway 66. You watch from the football field and are pretty close to the fireworks, so that was nice. All in all, it was pleasant. It felt much smaller town than the main fireworks and their display was both well orchestrated and long (30 minutes +) and we enjoyed it. And, as a bonus, it only took about an hour to walk to the car (a reasonably long walk) and get all the way home as opposed to the main fireworks last year which took an epic 4 hour trip, including a 3 mile walk, to make our way home.

The works. This is a standard processing (no HDR) of a few seconds (23.8s to be exact) of the show. Thanks to some smoke drifting back over us (it was very still) you get different layers of smoothing and haze which adds a nice effect I think.

A wider view, in HDR. I wonder how many of these people actually watched the fireworks. They are all holding phones. I didn't really look at or through the camera after the show started except for a quick aiming adjustment or two. I just sat and hit the button on the remote. It is quite a lazy form of photography once you start.