If you're any kind of banshee person in the morning like me, you'd be lucky to even recognize the sound as some sort of moving object. But I was lucky that morning, my friends, and for some reason I stopped in my tracks a few feet before I reached the road, to see a massive, full-grown, gray ghost of a moose come striding toward me at what we New Englanders call 'a pretty good clip.'

My first instinct was to scream across the road to my family at their campsite so they could see this spectacle, too.  But moose are big, people. They're big, and they don't look like they take a lot of grief. So yelling MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE! across the road didn't seem like the best choice.

I clamped my hands over my mouth - because I don't have a lot of self control - and watched as the moose trotted by, and then as my brother, sister-in-law, neice, and ArcherVision all turned around to see it running by at just the right moment. In the relative distance, I heard my brother half-screaming, half-whispering Moooooooooooooose! as he held up my neice so she could see.

As the moose passed, I ran across the street to share the moment with the fam, and we were all equally dumb-struck. Even Oscar the Dog got in on the action, marking his territory and ruffing - as soon as the moose was well out of sight, of course. He ain't no dope.

Alas, these little life moments are rarely accompanied by a camera, so I don't have a photo of this amazing creature. I did look up 'moose meanings' though, because I like to surmise what's going to happen in my life next, based on random events. This site had a particularly cool description that I latched on to...'you will be full of contradictions...Awkward yet graceful.'

Lack of moose pictures notwithstanding, there were some other photo-worthy moments this weekend. Enjoy.

The maiden voyage of our new Eddie Bauer tent and sleeping bags, complete with zip-up carrying cases. Both are awesome!

SiL and the Bean pontooning on the Otis Reservoir. They look like they're in a parade!

JaxBro by the fire

Oscar the Dog was a good boy

We made bacon on the fire in this grill basket that Max and Cindy gave us

This was another fortuitous meeting on the same dirt road as the moose sighting. Dick, a Camp Host for the Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, is charged with assisting visitors to the Tolland State Forest. He takes the job a step further by giving free tours in his pontoon boat of the Otis Reservoir - our trip was two hours long and included a cruise through a cloud of dragon flies like I've never seen before. Dozens of bright red flashes sailing over the water and on the horizon ... quite a sight.

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Thirsty for More, Cape Cod

Trellace, Forest Park, Springfield, Mass.

Flower Vendor, Dublin, Ireland

Spa and Hibiscus, Bermuda

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Therefore, I've compiled a little collection of photos. File under 'Scenes from My Hometown' - and an electric dedication goes out to Beanie and Mr. T, btw.

ArcherVision chases birds.

I've eaten in two of these places, worked at one, and own merchandise from a third.

There was a fundraiser going on - pinwheels in a lawn in Harwichport

The WMVY Blue Lobster makes an appearance at the East Harwich cranberry bogs.

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When I walked around the corner into a semi-private seating area and saw a long table with rows of wine glasses and stacks of plates, I thought, aw, yeah. This is gonna be good.

Indeed, one of the highlights of the Glacier Country Press Trip to Montana was the six-course wine and food tasting dinner at the chef's table of the Blue Canyon restaurant. For me, anyway, the consummate food-geek.

Blue Canyon has locations in Montana, Ohio, and Texas, and their menu is crafted by Executive Chef Brandt Evans, who hosted our dinner. Chef Brandt is a pretty cool dude - he travels the world mixing his own table wines for Blue Canyon, is a great speaker, and is currently in the process of auditioning for Top Chef, which of course is my favorite show of all time, and makes the signed menu I received from Chef Brandt all the more squeal-worthy. This, btw, is Chef Brandt and Chef Lawrence Coffner of the Montana Blue Canyon:

Here's the run-down:

Yellow Fin Tuna Crudo with olive, fennel, lemon zest, and EVO; WhiteHaven Sauvignon Blanc, NZ 06

Toasted Coriander Sea Scallops with thai chili sweet soy pickled ginger emulsion; Blue Canyon Reisling, Mosel, GR 07 (this wine was my favorite, and as a Cape Cod girl in Montana, I was amazed by how good these scallops were. They were cooked perfectly, but the sauce was also responsible for a lot.)

Roasted Duck Breast and Smoked Tomato Corn Spoon Bread; La Posta, Malbec, ARG 05 (This was another favorite. The duck was tender and the spoon bread was a new taste for me; I was intrigued after one bite, sold after two, and in love after three. What an adventure - ya, I know. Food geek.)

Bison Strip Loin with Brussels Sprouts leaves, coconut curry, red onion marmalade; CG Di Arie, Zinfandel, CA 07 (The bison was surprisingly tender and the curry was a really cool touch. The wine was a red, and my favorite red of the night. Cool factor - it was developed by winemaker Chaim Gur-Arieh, who also invented Cap'n Crunch, Jello Puddin Pops, and a slew of other products as a food engineer.)

Three Acts of Chocolate: White Chocolate Bavarois, Mik Chocolate Pot de Creme, Dark Chocolate rench Macaroons; Blue Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, CA 04 (This was one of the best desserts I've ever had. the bavarois had an orange zest, and the macaroons were just as good as those I had in Lyon, made by Seve.)

In addition to developing some of the wines that were served along with the dishes (which were prepared by the restaurant's lead chef and pastry chef), Chef Brandt also developed a set of spices for rubs, marinades, and dips. We got to walk away with a set each plus recipe cards, very cool:

I'm looking forward to making the neighbors jealous.

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I was hosted, along with four other writers, by Glacier Country Montana - the Northwest corner that includes several ski resorts. The trip was fantastic, if not butt-kicking, and included skis down Blacktail Mountain, Snow Bowl, Lost Trail, and Lookout Pass -- the latter straddles the Idaho/Montana border.

We also took a couple of dips in hot springs, known for their therapeutic properties, had a six-course wine tasting dinner, and snowmobiled along the Lewis and Clark trail -- all of which I'll get into in greater detail in later posts. For now, here's the three-minute version in pictures and vids - the soundtrack is one of our 'songs of the trip.' See if you can spot it.

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So here's the theme this week - 'Up.' I'm not sure how Carmi (Thematic Photographic's creator) comes up with his themes, but they're always broad enough to accomodate any kind of interpretation, while staying off-beat and interesting. 

Here are a few of my shots that say 'up' to me:

Dublin's City Hall

Nikon N90 28-200 Tamron Lens

Hot Air Balloon Media Trip, Greenfield, Mass.

Nikon D70, standard lens

Kite Flying, and Free Advertising for GoNomad

Nikon D70

Energy Stairs

Nikon N70

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I've just booked my next press trip -- this time around, I'll be trekking to Glacier Country Montana to do some big skiing!

It's true that my travel writing gigs most often stay domestic or take me to western Europe, but the gig has yet to get boring. I love tours of U.S. states - they're all different, and they're just as fun to color in on a map, once visited.

Montana is a nice, big square on the map, so I'll have to pick a good marker. Plus, here are some other fun facts: Montana has a slew of monikers: Big Sky Country, The Last Best Place, The Treasure State, and the Land of Shining Mountains among them. It also has its own Film Office, used by directors and producers to site locations for movies and television. The state fish is the Blackspotted Cutthroat Trout (think he's a talent agent for the other fish?).

Montana also has several ski resorts, and I'll be taking a swoosh on four of them. Stay tuned in February for On the Beat updates!

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But it's also the year we embarked on historic change in our political and social structures. The iPhone and Google phone launches were pretty fun, and 2008 was definitely the year of social media.

On a more personal note, I'll always remember 2008 as the year I got married, first and foremost. And survived the planning process. I also saw Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams in concert, took a culinary press trip to Lyon, France, took ArcherVision skiing for the first time, went on my first hot-air balloon ride, went to Bermuda, went to New Orleans, became an aunt again, and embarked on a new phase of my career.

Not too shabby.

Writing-wise, I'm most proud of the pieces I've been to invited to write on breast cancer, young girls and stereotypes, custom-designed jewelry, and the above-mentioned French foodie article. I've also had some really cool corporate and copy-writing gigs, concerning health care, entertainment, technology, and culture. I've even blogged-for-dollars here and there. And on the publicity side of things, I'm working with fantastic people, and have a dynamic roster of clients that I respect and am so excited to help get to the next level, whatever that level may be.

But it's these successes, as well as my failures -- which I choose not to dwell on here or anywhere, because it's a waste of time once you've made your peace with yourself and the world -- that have me totally pumped for 2009. There's a lot of good stuff bubbling up, nationally, globally, and personally. Dare I say, without wallowing in cheese, that the excitement comes from hope and possibilities?

There's a buzz in the air -- a feeling of living in the moment, and the here and now. For the first time in my life, I think, there is nowhere else I'd rather be.

Happy New Year. Let's get on with it.

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Walking in the Garden District of New Orleans last month, I saw this poster in a home's window. When I took the photo ten days ago, I liked the contrast of the blue clapboards and the bright parrot with the 'Hope' poster. Now, I like more the fact that when people see this shot in the future, they won't think of a candidate, but a national leader. No matter what side you fall on, this is an exciting time to be alive.

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I posted a photo montage of our trip a few days ago, but since a lot of people probably don't have the time to watch a six-minute movie (nor the inclination!), here's a little run-down of some high points:

 We arrived on Wednesday evening and took a shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel, the Grand Boutique on St. Charles Street in the Garden District. We wove through the French Quarter first, giving me my first glance - I loved the gas street lamps mixed in with neon signs. The balconies are as majestic and cool as I'd imagined, too.

Our hotel had a very cool, Art Deco vibe, and we liked our room - we checked into Room #1, the first time that's ever happened to me. I didn't even know they existed.

We walked down St. Charles street after getting settled, and noticed that the stretch is teeming with restaurants ranging from little pubs to Emeril's Delmonico (his national headquarters are a bit down the road, too:).

We noticed one that had a sign reading "bar, grill, gameroom, and laundromat." If that isn't convenient, I don't know what is.

We walked a long way down St. Charles, past gallery row, and into the Quarter, where we settled on a German brewpub for dinner. I had the burger with Marzen-flavored sauce (a dark beer) and one of the beers itself. I wasn't really listening when the waiter asked me if I wanted a half-liter or a liter; or maybe I wasn't absorbing how much a liter actually is. Either way, this was the result:

The next day, we walked to a luncheonette on St. Charles, the Trolley Stop Cafe, for what we figured would be a pretty standard breakfast. I wanted grits, so I went with the Trolley Stop Special, and ended up with the best. Pancakes. Ever.

These things were so sweet, so delish, so crispy-on-the-outside and soft-in-the-middle, they didn't even need butter or syrup. ArcherVision theorized that part of the secret was vanilla extract.

The giant plates of goodness were enough to keep us fueled as we walked back to the Quarter to scope out Bourbon Street and the surrounding area. We got caught in a downpour and got totally soaked - but we still got to see a lot of the area and take some photos. I bought my one and only souvenir, a t-shirt, when we spotted this place. It didn't seem right to leave the area without something:

That night, we attended a family celebration for my cousins, Jen and John, whose wedding we were in New Orleans to attend. We joined up with my aunt and uncle, two more sets of cousins, and a couple of members of the wedding party, and went to the hotel's restaurant, Copeland's, which had a snow bar - real ice and snowflakes on the bar and the taps - and an ice wall with bottles of liquor mounted in the floes.

That night went late, and much imbibing did occur. But we were well enough to get out the door the next morning for a second visit to the Trolley Stop and a little photo safari around the Garden District. Here are a couple of my faves:

...and one for the many cupcake-lovahs in my blogosphere:

Then, it was on to the wedding (video here)- and what a gorgeous, Victorian affair it was. The ceremony and reception were held at the House of Broel on St. Charles, a private estate the owner, Bonnie Broel, rents out for wedding services for which she serves as officiant.

The ceremony was in a garden with white lights scattered in the greens and a koi pond stretching into the middle of the seating area - and dancing took place in a parlor with a hardwood floor and a full mirror-wall on one side, facing an array of tapestries. The whole house has a Versailles kind of motif going on -- easily one of the cooler venues I've ever been in and ideal for a gorgeous wedding.

The only part of the trip that wasn't fabulous was the plane ride back - ArcherVision already wrote a pretty comprehensive post about it, so I'll let you take a gander over there. We'll definitely be going back, though - we have yet to take a cemetery tour and get our voodoo on. That's the rule - always leave something for next time. Thank you, New Orleans!

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I give you New Orleans, part two.

View Part One here.

P.S. - If you don't have time for the whole thing, definitely go to the 7:00 mark for the best man's speech. Nice.

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enjoy! 

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We've just returned from our whirlwind trip to New Orleans - a city that seems removed from the rest of the country in its culture as well as its geography and architecture.

What a beautiful city with an old soul. Unlike newer urban areas with their slick high-rises and clean lines, there's a quirky beauty in even the smallest nooks and crannies of the Big Easy.

There's also a pervasive exuberance that I think must be a big part of the fighting spirit of New Orleans - we felt like there was plenty of positive energy to soak up, made only that more festive by the city's preparations for its second-favorite holiday - Halloween.

In addition to the voodoo vibes across the French Quarter, the celebratory air of the city was evident in the ghostly deocrations we spotted on storefronts, front porches, and of course balconies, everywhere we looked.

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Skelington in the Sun

Jack Skelington in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens during Scarecrows in the Garden, an annual October celebration. Shot while on a press trip for this story.

31 Days post #14

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That's what happened to me last weekend, when ArcherVision and I went to the Cape for the Cranberry Harvest Festival and to celebrate JaxMum and JaxDad's anniversary - 51 years!

It was a rainy weekend, and we found ourselves driving up Route 28 in search of cool coffee places. On the way, I pointed out the Zooquarium, a tourist trap in Yarmouth that I've never actually been inside before. We swung in with a 'what the hell?' attitude and paid the $9.50 to get in out of the rain -- only to find that half the zoo is actually outside.

It was a fun time, though. We saw lots of animals indigenous to the Cape, including scup:

turtles:

and this freaky albino chipmunk.

Outside is a petting zoo with sheep and goats and alpacas, as well as a lot of birds and a couple of snuggling tortoises. ArcherVision and I checked out the magic mirror for a minute

and that's when I saw it. I don't remember if it was in the laundromat near my parent's summer home or the Ground Round near my sister's college, but at some point in my childhood, I frequented a place that included THE FUN CHICKEN.

This is the deal. The chicken, powered by a mere quarter, comes to life by spinning in a circle and going 'bawk! bawk! bawk!' for about 10 seconds. Then, the machine spits out a plastic egg with a prize inside. Prizes are little rings and bracelets and bouncy balls; but if you're super lucky, you might get the coveted golden egg, which usually has either double prizes or a cooler prize. I think I recall that, sometimes, the golden egg had actual money inside. But this may be a kid-sized urban myth.

The entire experience was damp, but a nice escape into juvenile bliss.

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Yes! was my immediate answer-- she'd trumpeted the awesomeness of this outing to me a few times in the past, but I'd never gotten a chance to go. Now was my moment.

The Golden Gavel is an auction house in Connecticut that holds a live auction every Thursday night, from 7 p.m. until everything in the place is gone. The wares range from sets of drinking glasses to full bedroom sets, with everything -- and I mean everything -- in between. The goods come from estates and businesses unloading things, so on any given Thursday, there could be furniture, electronics, clothes, ephemera, or, as there was when I went, a box of dead butterflies and a full Ronald McDonald clown suit. Both of which, might I add, sold.

Erica, her friend Liz and I headed down to the auction after work, and upon arriving, registered and were given bidding numbers. I was 158. We then made a quick stop at the snack bar, a makeshift diner staffed by two Flo n' Alice lookalikes. Erica had a baked potato and a piece of apple crisp; I had a good old-fashioned hot dog. They buttered and grilled the bun. Color me impressed.

After taking our seats, the first of three parts of the auction began. One of three auctioneers took the stage -- I gathered his name was Pat -- and started the bidding as what seemed like a massive staff grabbed items from tables and walls and brought them to the front. We watched the process both on the stage and via one of a row of closed-circuit televisions that zoomed in on each item: a lamp, a neon sign, an ottoman, some Ikea shelving, a Coca-cola sign, a couch, one of seven TVs, mirrors, computer hard drives, WWII memorabilia. The breadth was really amazing, but what was more amazing were the prices some of these finds were going for. I watched in awe as a like-new, teak, four-piece, ceiling-to-floor entertainment center with glass doors went to the highest bidder for $150.

Pat led the auction until the bulk of the merchandise had sold. Then, he turned the gavel over to another auctioneer, Ralph, who kicked things into high gear with that classic 'auctioneer babble' style -- "Five, five and ten, ten, ten hubbada ten, fifteen? huddaba hubbadahubbada SOLD to the lady in black for $20."

Ralph also led the $10 round, which starts the bidding at $10 for every item. Some still go for more, and some less. The $10 round then switched to the $5 round, and finally a third auctioneer, Ron, led 'the walk-around,' during which you can buy a whole table of sundries for $2, and take what you want.

The Golden Gavel does routinely sell high-end items that sometimes go for as much as $10,000, and I heard a few things go for $2,000-plus the other night. But, it's also easy to get a pair of never-worn, $75 shoes for five bucks, LIKE I DID! Woo! They were in fact the first item I tentatively raised my laminated number for, after it seemed clear that no one else in the room wore a seven-and-a-half.

Here's a similar pair:

I also scored these fantastic wood carvings that are perfect in The Orange Livingroom:

and this cool tureen. I needed a serving dish with a cover on it:

Erica got a Bulova clock; neither of us spent more than $40 on the evening, including dinner. And even if I hadn't bought anything, I think the people-watching alone would have made the trip worthwhile. Auctions are definitely a cross-section of humanity.

The verdict? I'm sold. And, I think I want to be an auctioneer when I grow up.

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Lyon is known for its Beaujolais wine, but it's also famous for candies and desserts, and an interesting entree called quenelles -- a mixture of dough and meat (seafood, chicken, truffles, you name it) served often with a creamy sauce.

I'm going to search for a recipe and post it here soon.

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