Category Archives: Travel

A two week stay in Chicago was the perfect reason to FINALLY go back to visit my alma mater. I haven’t spent any real time there since…well, since I was paying to be there. Seeing campus in its deserted state let me take all the time I wanted. And made me remember the first time I fell in love with the place as a senior in high school.

 

Arnie’s Arch. Ok, it’s technically the Weber Arch.

 

My First Dorm: North Mid Quads

 

My Second, Third, and Fourth Dorm: “The Plex”

 

So many memories…

 

It is what you think it is. Thank God for this place.

 

The Black House Porch

 

In four years, I set foot in Deering Meadow once. But I walked by it at least 4 times per day.

 

The Library

 

Tech: In the pantheon of uninviting structures, Northwestern’s main engineering building manages to barely edge out the Death Star

 

Tech Lobby: this is about as inviting as it gets. And it hasn’t changed in 20 years.

 

Shakespeare Garden. Probably one of the least well-known but most beautiful gems on campus. I couldn’t remember how to get there and had to look it up on a map.

 

I spent more time here than anywhere else in college. I worked here all four years, and in my senior year I clocked 30-40 hours per week. Many of the people I’m now closest to were also 4-year Norris-ites. This is where I moved tables and chairs for money, where I was a Center Manager (which basically meant I wore a tie and carried around about 30 keys to unlock every door in the building), where I met celebrities, where I did never-ending problem sets, where I had an office in the basement, opened my grad school acceptance letters (and cried with my mother on the phone as I shared the news), pulled finals week and Dance Marathon all-nighters, and saw the OJ verdict. When I have fond memories about my college years, its a pretty safe bet that Norris is at the heart of them.

 

I think I made it to Chicago maybe twice in all of college. Great city. But I didn’t find out until I’d already left.

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  • Ama

    Awesome photos. NU has changed a lot but is still the same. A fellow NU Alum.

  • Angelique

    These photos are gorgeous! Makes me want to go back myself and chronicle the places I frequented, some that would clearly overlap yours. :)

  • Maeyen

    Beautiful!

  • Lesley Grossblatt

    Northwestern . . . where the cool kids went. :) Great photos.

    I miss Chi-town. My favorite memories of the UofC were the days I skipped class to take the 6-Jeffery bus downtown to hang out at the Art Institute all day long.

During a recent trip to NYC, I happened to be working with this view. The Freedom Tower. And then a storm came along, which meant a 10-minute work break to get a few shots. The clouds kept getting more and more dramatic, until my 10-minute break had become an hour. The mental respite was more than welcome…nothing stills my mind the way photography does.

 

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Plan? For what? Not a single hotel was booked. No tourist attractions were researched. Destinations uncertain. Just 5 days and south on 95.

Charlottesville was the first stop, mostly because I was tired. A quick, damp tour of UVA’s campus reminded me of my last visit, nearly 25 years ago. North Carolina was *completely* skipped…even on the way back…and Charleston (and all 82 of its Fahrenheit degrees) was second on the list. Much of my family is from its outskirts, and taking in the sanitized southern charm of Charleston’s historic district always creates conflicting emotions. One of the positives: the food. We finally got as far south as Savannah, and if I had nothing to get home to, I might still be there photographing oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. Beautiful. But the most memorable part of the trip was rediscovering why road trips can be so great: hours and hours in a car without worrying about where you need to get to next = fantastic bonding time.

 

Wormsloe Historic Site (formerly Wormsloe Plantation), Savannah, GA. The family who owned these 822 acres still lives in a private area of the grounds in a home that site guides still refer to as “the big house.”

 

Charleston Old Slave Mart Museum – Former marketplace for auctioning slaves.

 

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church

 

 

 

 

 

The Lawn – University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

 

 

 

 

 

DSLR Selfie

 

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I’ve finally found a tournament that I might like as much as the US Open. The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells was amazing. Serena’s return was an absolute tear-jerker and my favorite moment, but watching the game’s best players from the front row of the outer stadiums was a very close runner-up. Don’t know what took me so long to get down to SoCal to check this out.

 

Ana Ivanovic

 

Victoria Azarenka

 

 Stan Wawrinka

 

Sam Stosur

 

Taylor Townsend

 

Heather Watson

 

Ivanovic

 

Sloane Stephens

 

Yulia Putintseva

 

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

 

Azarenka

 

Thanasi Kokkinakis

 

Azarenka

 

…and, of course, Serena.

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Since the very first time I saw a picture of Tiger’s Nest (Taktsang Palphug Monastery), Bhutan has been at the top of the list of places I’ve wanted to visit. We began planning the trip this summer, and based on how fantastically thorough our tour company (Bhutan Scenic Tours) was throughout the process, Serene and I expected great things. From the moment we touched down in Paro until the morning we were dropped off for our return flight, Bhutan over-delivered in just about every way. The country is more beautiful than we’d imagined, even after having seen hundreds of photos. The people of Bhutan were more welcoming that we expected. And our guides, Rinzi and Tandin, were absolutely amazing. And in a stroke of 100% dumb luck, Serene and I actually met and had a private conversation with the King and Queen of the country!

Several friends have asked how we managed to wrangle the visas and other logistics for the visit. It was easy. There seems to be a lingering perception that visiting Bhutan is both cumbersome and expensive compared to visiting other countries. Neither is true. This was actually one of the easiest to plan and most affordable international destinations I’ve ever visited. I couldn’t recommend it more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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