Well the final day is here! The only thing we have planned is an audience with the pope and ill tell you what my grandmother would be really excited for me right now. The experience itself was unreal. I never in a million years thought I would ever be able to experience this. And the fact that this is my favorite Pope in my life time makes it that much better. If you haven't see The Two Popes on Netflix you need to; like finish reading this and go watch it its fantastic. 

After spending some time with the Pope we headed back to pack and spend the next 30 hours either in airports or on planes; needless to say im not looking forward to this part of the trip.

I have a lot of pictures still to post so ill be posting online when those are up, but in closing what can I say? Finland your country is very inviting, clean, unfortunately your food is bland but your people are so nice. Rome; your history is overwhelmingly facinating, your pasta is unbelievably good, your streets are pretty dirty and your people are assholes. Im sorry you hate Americans so much, but you live in a country probably mostly reliant on tourism so get over it. Plus just be kind its free and the right thing to do... and I can swear in all the years I spent in Catholic school there was something in there about being nice to each other in order to make it to heaven so get on it Romans!!

This trip has been amazing and I hope you have enjoyed following me as much as I have enjoyed telling you about our journey.

Like I said there will be many more pictures posted; until then arrivederci!

Today we head to the Catholic Mecca; Vatican City. This entire trip in Rome I have been questioning whether these people could really be this rude or not and today just confirmed that they can be. Of first stop was a little cafe for breakfast and the lady behind the counter was exceptionally rude and rolled her eyes more than once at us, but when the roman woman walked in she was all smiles. Well we ate I talked about how rude they were, loud enough for her to hear, and then we headed out. 

I wish there were words to express how it felt, as a raised Catholic boy, being in the Vatican. The words don't even exist. The history was amazing, the vastness of it overwhelming and the sure historical religious symbolism incomprehensible. I think ill just let the images speak for themselves.

Our last stop on the Vatican museum tour was the Sistine Chapel and if I didn't have words before I definitely do not now. Now it is forbidden to take pictures in there, I think its for copyright issues but what do I know, so naturally I snuck some. They aren't great, but they give you the idea.

Just when I thought I couldn't experinece anything else that would blow my mind we walked into St. Peter's Bascilica. I sat here for five minutes trying to figure out how to explain it and I gave up. Lets just say that this entire place is HUGE and it makes you feel like an ant in a huge world of art. How these people were able to accomplish such a feat over 500 years ago is astonishing. 

After wandering aimlessly throughout this massive building Cliff and I got a wild hair up our ass and decided to climb to the top of the dome. Now don't get me wrong it was worth every painstaking step, but I have to admit I was reevaluating my life choices many time over on the way up. This was one of the images from the top, let me know if you think it was worth it or not?

After that cardio work out we decided to carb load at a local pasta place and it didnt disappoint either! The food was fantastic; I have to admit their past amazing; their pizza not so much. Now their gelato on the other hand; out of this world. 

After heading home for a much needed nap we went back out to the Coliseum and took some pictures at night of it.

Tomorrow will be our last day and we have a scheduled audience with the Pope so this Catholic boy is really excited!

Wow what a day!! First we started off early by heading down to Vatican City to watch the Epiphany parade; a parade to commemorate the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child. Everything online said it started at 730, but as I have come to learn nothing Roman starts that early in the morning... ever. So, we walked around taking pictures until it started. As we walked around we found ourselves in the Jewish ghetto, the word ghetto here has a much different connotation than it does in the states because this was a very rich part of town. After learning this place was just to rich for our blood and that Romans are very into their holidays; meaning everything is closed once again, we headed for lunch.

**For those of my Movie buffs can you tell me what movie this location plays a huge part in?**

Today was also our Coliseum tour; I learned many new things about the Coliseum and the first one is that its not really called the Coliseum its actually called the Amphitheater Flavio; in other words Flavio's Amphitheater. Our guide Dario was absolutely amazing! He enlightened me to so many incorrect "facts" I knew about the amphitheater. 

Directly after the Amphitheater tour we headed straight to the Roman Foro; this city has an astronomical amount of history and all of it is amazing. After being bombarded about things I had no clue of as well as being overwhelmed by the fascination of the age of the structures I was standing next to we headed home for a much needed rest. 

We swore we wouldn't sleep the day away like our past two days and we didnt. After a short nap we headed out to dinner at Il Grottino, WOW so far the best food we have had it here it was amazing!

We then took a short ride to the Trevi Fountain; thankfully it wasn't crowded and the view did not disappoint especially at night. Well after all that we were exhausted so we headed home and crashed! So im writing this the next morning before we head to the Vatican which im very excited about!

Once again thank you so much for following us on our journey and come back tomorrow for some images of the Vatican and tales from our adventures. Here is the link to the images I Have uploaded so far, I have so many to upload still...

EPIC Photo Trip 2020
 

Today we decided to try our hand again at the public transportation here and jumped on a bus right outside our apartment. It was a nice ride until it passed our stop and then wouldn't stop; apparently the stop button in the buss doesn't mean what we though it was. So we got off at the next stop which happened to now be about a mile from where we wanted to be, but when in Rome... walk. It was a great walk so I can't complain. The streets are very narrow and the drives not very empathetic that you are walking so it felt a little like a big game of frogger at times. We took this opportunity to get some great shots of the landscapes and buildings as we walked toward the catacombs. We were using google maps to get to our location so of course it took us to someones driveway as opposed to the entrance to the catacombs, so we had to back track some more. Finally we made it to the catacombs; excited to get pictures of it only to find out cameras were prohibited inside. Thats ok the experience was still amazing. It was crazy to find our the history of that place and that over 500,000 people were buried there. 

After our tour we got onto yet another bus; after learning that it too didnt stop where it said it was going to we decided to take it back around to where we knew we can get off. After over an hour of riding this bus and getting kicked off because of shift change we finally made it to what looked like civilization again. We started walking towards our apartment and walked right by the Colosseum and many other great locations. I have to admit some of the sites aren't what I thought it would be and the city is a lot dirtier than I expected, kind of like San Francisco is; but the history and timeless walk through the centuries makes up for that.

We stopped at a nice little hole in the wall restaurant. I have learned that the nicer the people are the worse the food tastes; so I was really glad to come in contact with this waiter with no patience and in a hurry for everything because that meant the food was going to be great and it definitely didnt disappoint. 

After that we headed on our way back to our appartment. We once again decided to make the horrible mistake of taking a nap. We laid down for an hour and 6 hours later woke up mad again. This won't happen again ill make sure of it. Tomorrow we tour the Colosseum and hopefully the Pantheon and Jewish ghetto. Very excited about seeing those sites and getting some great images.

Well today has been a bust for photography. We woke up very early to make it to the airport; we had two flights to catch. Once we finally made it into Rome we constantly got bombarded by people asking if we want a taxi ride; do we seriously look that's much like tourists? We finally make it to the train station and Cliff; being the people person that he is pisses off the first Roman we talk to. To Cliff's credit she was pretty damn rude and he did say grazie with a smile. After we almost got onto the wrong train we finally boarded the right one. I have to admit that train ride is the first time I have sweat on this whole trip and it was 40 mins long. We continue to traverse the metro station which reminds me an awful lot of the New York subway station.

Luckily our apartment is literally across the street. We drag what feels like twelve pieces of luggage and our tired bodies across the street expecting to get into our apartment. Ya that doesn't work out. We call the guy and ring the bell like we are supposed to an no answer. So we sit outside for an hour waiting for something to happen. All of that waiting to find out the guy was in there the whole time and didn't get our messages. Well Flavio, our host, is fantastic. He goes over everything we meed to know and recommends so good sites and food locations so things are looking up. The only problem now is the lady is still cleaning up our place and we can't leave until she is done, because if you take the key out of the wall all the power goes out. Italy is a very interesting city. She finally finishes, after stopping cleaning to argue with her Romanian exboyfriend on the phone, and we head out for something to eat.

We settle on pizza because we wan to go back and take a nap before hitting the night life in Rome. We come back to the house to sleep for about an hour and well that turned into about 5 hours and we decided its 10 pm so going out on the town is probably a bad idea.

Looks like tomorrow will be the day for the images. We have a tour of the catacombs in the morning and a lot of exploring to do after; well the amount of exploring depends on if we can figure out this bus line or not so we will see, but either way prepare to be bombarded by images tomorrow. Its midnight now so I'm headed off to bed. Thanks for stopping by and Ill see you tomorrow. 

P.S. The images posted today are not from Rome the are from Finland.

Today I got up at 4 am and couldn’t get back to sleep; damn time change. I decided to not fight it once again and get up and pack. We are headed back to Helsinki to fly out Saturday for Rome. So, we loaded the car and headed south. Today wasn’t much of a photography day it was meant more for traveling, but we decided we were going to try and get some in anyways. We stopped at the Glass museum, but of course they are only open on the 25^th this month; I want that kind of work schedule. 

So, off we went. We finally made it to Helsinki and Cliff wanted to stop by some rapids they have there at an old electric plant. I love old stuff so I was definitely down. Well I thought Tampere was cold, and I was wrong. This place had the most freezing cold windy I almost stayed in the car. This was the fastest location shoot in history. After knocking off the phalanges we lost from frost bite we decided to go get something to eat. We landed on a place called Classic Pizza; ya not so much. I love pizza and I know the debate of whether pineapple belongs on there or not, but I think we can all agree that blue cheese, tuna fish and reindeer meat doesn’t. 

After lunch we checked into the hotel and headed up for a nap. So, one thing I have always known about Europe is that things are just smaller here; I always forget but get quickly reminded. Well have you ever slept on a Tampax pad? Well Cliff and I each had one at this Hilton. And of course they were 3 feet off the floor so falling was not an option. I have never slept so still in my entire life. 

After our 1-hour nap we had to go drop the car off; the Fins are a very trusting people. You drive up toss your keys in slot in an empty van and that’s it. Of course we had to walk through the entire airport to make it back to our room. After visiting with one of Cliff’s old foreign exchange students; Jerry (very Finnish name). We headed off to bed. It was only 7pm, but we had to be up by 2 am so we decided it was time for bed; plus it was 8 am California time which means we should have still been sleeping anyways. 

Tomorrow we are headed to Rome and I am extremely excited about it. Thanks for sticking with my trip. The last leg of it will have many many photos to view so I hope you come back.

Well Day 3 is complete and what a day. Well still trying to get used to the 10 hour time difference, but I got up anyways. We headed to the corner grocery store to turn in our plastic bottles; Finland is very much into recycling and it shows. Well we made enough to get a couple pastries and still got money back, so it was worth it. After that we headed out to see what kind of trouble we could get into. Since the sun doesn’t come out very much here the first trouble we met was the chilling cold outside. We drove around to get some pictures and while I was minding my own foreigner business taking pictures this old couple walks up to me and continues to carry on a full-blown conversation with me, in Finnish. Of course, Cliff was too far to save me so I stood there and stared at them as they continued to talk. Now I know how my friends growing up felt when they came to my house and my Portuguese speaking grandma chatted them up. As I stood there with this stupid look on my face I’m sure they were thinking, is this guy slow? Where is his guardian? Finally, Cliff walks up and takes over the conversation; I didn’t know what either one of them were talking about, but turns out Cliff was pretty lost too so I didn’t feel so bad. He got by and got rid of them so it all worked out in the end. 

Then we decided to head downtown to buy Cliff a beanie. I’ll give you one guess where we parked; yup in the same spot we have been parking this entire trip. Honestly, this town is huge, but apparently everything we needed is located next to this parking spot. After realizing the store, we went to was more like a Nordstrom and not like a Walmart we decided to leave and head to the mall. Of course, as soon as we got there people wouldn’t stop talking to me in Finnish. I tried to ask Cliff how to say “sorry I don’t speak Finnish”, but honestly, it’s easier to just stare at them and look stupid. As we walked around I wondered why people kept looking at us and I kept thinking “can they tell we are foreigners?” then I noticed everyone who lives there is wearing glove, hat, and a down jacket and then there is Cliff and I in our jeans and hoodie… Ya maybe we do look like tourists?

After leaving the mall we went in search for the historic liha piirakaa, Cliff has been talking about them since we planned this trip. Well after driving around in circles for an hour we finally found the last surviving liha piirakaa vender in town. After which we decided a nap at 1 pm was the best option for now.

After waking up from a much-needed power nap we headed to meet Cliff’s friend Matti for a photo shoot. Matti was a fantastic host and lined up a great model; Stina. 

I have many pictures to edit, including this one above and things to post, but right now my bed is calling me so ill have to stop there. Tomorrow we start our plans for heading to Rome and I cant wait! Thanks for stopping by and come back tomorrow.

Well the day started off earlier than I anticipated; I woke up at 3am and couldn't fall back asleep. So after wasting 4 hours in bed trying to fall back asleep and tripping the breaker because apparently my iPhone drains to much power from this wall socket I decided to give up and get ready for the day. Cliff fixed us a traditional breakfast; Karjalan piirakkaa it was very good. I have learned that the Finnish don't care so much about spices and much of their food is pretty bland, but that's not anything s little hot sauce can't fix.

We left the house after breakfast and remembered very quickly that it was a holiday because nothing was open and no one was around. But that didn't stop us from exploring. we drove around looking for some locations to shoot and found some very interesting places. We didn’t spend much time at each spot because this California kid isn't used to the -3-degree weather.  So, we moved very quickly as to not get frost bite on any extremities. Our last stop before connecting with Cliff's friend Janne in town was the Pyynikin näkötorni; in other words, big tall tower. Apparently, they have the best Munkki (Finnish doughnut) in the country, and honestly I’m not sure if it wasn't the best in the world, it was so good. After devouring that slice of diabetes, we headed up the tower which just reminded how absolutely out of shape the two of us are. The view was fantastic, the freezing wind; not so much. We contemplated jumping off to warm up, but decided against that and just climbed down instead. 

So we haven’t been to many places in this large city, but we have found ourselves parking in the exact same location over and over again to get to where we are going and meeting Yanna was no exception. Believe it or not the only thing that was open was the McDonalds so we decided that was as good as any place to have a conversation.  One thing I have noticed here is that the Fins are very nice people and Janne was no exception. He was so much fun to talk to and get to know! After chatting with Janne for a few hours we decided to get back into the car and look for some great pizza. We drove around for about 5 minutes looking for a place and finally googled it and found a place literally across the street from where we had originally parked. I’m telling you we should have just got an air B&B next to this parking space. So, I love pizza and I’m also willing to try anything once, but I never thought that I would have a pizza with falafel on it; and I’m pretty sure I won’t ever again. It wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t pizza. After experiencing that we decided we would go back to the apartment and take a short power nap. With the intentions of sleeping for 2 hours and getting back up to explore the reality of it was I slept through two alarms and woke up 5 hours later. But I have to admit I was refreshed and ready to go; now that it was 9 pm. So, cliff and I grabbed our camera gear and headed out to find anything we can shoot. Obviously, it was dark because this time of year we see about 5 hours of daylight a day, but we weren’t going to let that stop us. What we did let us stop us however was the rain. The cold, wind and rain were just not conducive to photography so we accepted defeat and headed back home, but not before scouting some shooting locations for tomorrow. 

So, we will try again tomorrow and see what that brings us. Again thank you so much for stopping by and hope to see you tomorrow. Here are some images from the day….

EPIC Photo Trip 2020 Images
 

Well I got off work this morning  and headed to Cliffs house. We loaded our  luggage and headed to the Bart station. After being up for 24+ hours I was pretty tired so I decided I was going to sleep on the way in, but as history has shown you put myself and Cliff in a car and no one sleeps because neither one of us will shut up. Well the Bart ride seemed like an eternity, but it was nothing compared to the endless line at the TSA that we had to endure. I have to admit after standing that close to many people headed home to Europe I feel that the X-ray scanning machine everyone goes through should also apply a think layer of deodorant; whether you think you need it or not... and take my word for it you need it.

**iPhone Image**

So after all that our first flight was delayed an hour so we weren't Finland bound as soon as expected. So we decided to grab something to eat while waiting the 3 hours before we could board the plane. I know we talk about corrupt companies taking money from the poor folk, but lets talk about SFO for a minute... seriously $6 for a bottled water and I'm stuck in the terminal and can't get it from anywhere else... sounds an awfully like a monopoly and I felt used... and not the smoke a cigarette after used Im talking about he bad kind.... and I had to pay for my own dinner.

**iPhone Image**

Well after what felt like the longest boarding process in the history of the world and an even longer flight we finally made it to Frankfurt.... I have yet to smell fresh air as we have been from stagnant terminal to stale plane back to stagnant terminal, but its only been 43 hours since I have slept more than 20 mins at a time so Im still holding on to hope. I did however obtain my first image of the northern lights, it was with my iPhone at 38,000 feet through an air plane window, but nonetheless its a shot.

**iPhone Image**

Its apparent that no matter where I go Im either saving a life or I am putting mine at danger because as soon as I get off the plane and onto the first escalator I have to catch a band from falling down the escalator and seriously hurting himself. I have a feeling that the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed on the plane didn't help his coordination, and in hindsight the jerk never said thank you so I should have just let him fall and as he was rolling past me I could have tipped my hat and said "sorry Im off duty". Well we have a short lay over here in Germany and other than my run in with Capitan Drunk Pants everyone has been very nice. Or next leg is a short 2 1/2 hours and we will have made it to our first destination; Finland. I can't even tell you how excited Im about the fresh air, comfortable seats and extensive leg room on this next plane.

**iPhone Image**

Well we made it to Helsinki! After walking across the airport 3 times we finally got our rental car and made it out of a damn airport!! Before I continue I have to first give a PSA "Seriously folks please for the sake of all mankind wear deodorant when we need to be in close quarters of each other!!"... moving on... as I sit here writing this I have been up for 53 hours and Im seriously exhausted right now, but its its only 60 minutes until 2020 so .... I ... must ... resist... the ... sleep ... ya that's probably not going to happen. It will still be 2020 when I wake up. So as far as Finland is concerned; the food we have tasted so far is good, the people are very nice, its really dark and even though I have heard that Cliff speaks fantastic Finnish from Finns im a little concerned after being in the grocery store and him asking someone where something is and him walking away saying "Have no idea what she said, but she pointed this way so lets go". These two images are just a glimpse into the grocery store in Helsinki... ya don't ask...

I do have to admit the place we are staying at is fantastic!!! Im sorry that all of my pictures today were traveling pictures; tomorrow that won't be the case. Thank you again for stopping by and I hope you come by tomorrow to continue to follow us on our adventure. 

Welcome to my EPIC Photo Trip 2020 Blog!!

Tomorrow Cliff and I embark on our next EPIC Photo Trip adventure. This time we are headed to Finland and Rome! I know I know not exactly the mix of countries, but its going to be EPIC either way. We are leaving first thing in the morning and we are beyond excited. For those of you who have followed my other blogs; I love you and welcome back. If this is your first time welcome and go back and read the others so I can love you too!

I will be posting every day with our adventures and some images from the day. So stay tuned and come back tomorrow for the first official posting. That's when the fun will start and the pictures will be posted.

Our first stop is Tampere, Finland. I don't know anything about this place, but Cliff assures me its fantastic so that's where we are headed. We will have many adventures in between and end in Rome, Italy.

Im looking forward to sharing my next 10 days with you! FYI the photos posted arent mine... I havent even been there yet! But you will see mine soon!

Well today was just comminuted from yesterday because I only really slept an hour; but I’ll fix that later. We packed up and left our AirBnB and got into our cabs. I think our drive was auditioning for the voice because he seriously sang his entire conversation the whole time we drove to the airport. And I also why he is a cab driver and not a professional singer. We got to the airport and had no idea where to go; there were absolutely no signs regarding where we needed to be so we asked someone who worked there and her response was “oh yes you walk all the way down that corridor and then ask someone else” at first I thought she just wanted to get rid of us or had no idea what we were talking about but that wasn’t the case we found the boarding pass location. Of course we couldn’t go through an airport with out a problem; we got to security (where the wheels usually fall off) and Hanon got “randomly” selected or at least we thought so, but really she had bought a big decorative rock and they wouldn’t let her carry it on because they thought she was going to use it as a weapon. After we passed that fiasco we headed to wait at our gate. Of course we weren’t there 10 mins before some foreigner in a foreign country decided to get crazy with me. Long story short his wife took my sisters seat and I was trying to explain that to him and he got crazy and well let’s just say he sat back down.

Finally to the plane! It was a pretty big plane and completely full except for the seat next to me and my brother! Regardless it was still pretty uncomfortable with my back and all I wanted to do was sleep, but of course that wasn’t going to happen. Luckily the flight was only 2 hours. 

Well we landed and my sister and brother checked their bags so off to baggage claim we went. It’s different here in Europe the plane doesn’t drop you off in the terminal you have to take a bus to board and get off the plane to the terminal. We got to baggage claim and the conveyer was moving and people were getting their bag and then all of a sudden it stopped. No more bags! We waited for about 10 mins while my sister freaked out a little and then luckily the belt started again  and their came the last 3 bags.

We then drove home and immediately passed out! It was 8 am and we didn’t get up until 3pm... it was a much needed “cat nap”.

After waking up we all showered and headed to go exchange some more money except when we got there the lady said that the government had shut her down the day before. Her family has been exchanging money there for over 100 years; you could see in her eyes she was ready to cry over the entire situation.

After leaving not knowing what we were going to do for money because the banks closed at 3 and dont open again until Monday.

We decided to walk around downtown window shopping for when we could exchange money. We drove around the island a bit and then headed for dinner and home we were pretty tired.

Well today we pretty much got up whenever we wanted which was great; except that we missed some things we wanted to do by not leaving the house until 1pm. Either way I got dressed, ate a slice of leftover pizza and took off. 

We decided to take the tour bus to check out the other side of town; wasn’t as good as the first one. After that we decided to go check out the Benfica stadium. Benfica is one of the professional futbol teams here in Portugal. Unfortunately, the tours had finished at 3 and we got there at 5:30... oops. After that we decided we should eat something so we found a pasta place. It was actually really good; I did notice that this country isn’t about the spicy food and I am so that’s a bit of a problem. 

We then hurried home to check out the bullfight; which we were all surprised to even here was happening because yesterday one of our taxi drivers said they don’t do them anymore except for a few times a year. Well we find out they have at least one a month so I’m not sure what that guy was smoking but it was good stuff! 

I have to admit this bullfight was very much different then others I have seen. First of all there were protestors out front; which saddens me because this is something deep rooted in the Portuguese heritage but whatever. And secondly when the crowed wasn’t happy about something they sure let them know. It got really intense during one of the bulls. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed it very very much.

We then headed to the street to hail a cab; that was funny because there were a bunch of us and we finally had one coming and some lady who had been standing next to us for a while went up ahead in the street and stole it from us; I can’t even be mad it was very smart of her. Touché lady touché. We got into the cab and headed to Barrio Alto which is supposed to be the bar scene in Lisbon. Well it was a very interesting scene to say the least all the bars were up in these very sketchy looking allies and every time we looked up one all the people standing outside looked at us like a juicy steak.... I felt like I was in the Walking Dead. Needless to say we didn’t lay there long and headed home. We jumped into a cab of a guy who looked like Mario and honestly I think the guy thought we were in Mario cart because this guy was definitely in a hurry. He was going up allies at 90 kph and not slowing down for anyone in the middle of the road! We were drifting corners and running red lights like nobody’s business! Anyways we made it safe and decided we were all hungry so to the pizza place it is! After all that we really only had two hours until we had to leave for the airport; so I packed and took a one hour nap before we had to leave.

Well our day actually started off at a normal time. We headed down to the bus station so we could take a bus 90 mins to the city if Fatima. If you know anything about Portuguese Catholic religion you know that Our a lady of Fatima is very important; well we went to the location of where she came and spoke to the three little children. Anyways we visited that holy place and it was amazing! Very sombre and incredible. 

There were people there who have prayed to her to help their sick children or to help themselves with an ailment. Once their prayer is answered they come here and they crawl on their knees from the entrance to the church which is a very very long way on marble the entire time praying to thank her for answering their prayers. Like I said it was a site to be seen. It really was an amazing place to visit.

After that we walked back to the bus station and got on the bus and my sister and aunt decided they wanted to practice for their UFC fight and got into with some other people on the bus. Luckily no blows were had; I saw it and knowing my family I just put my headphones in and fell asleep.  It was difficult to sit on that bus the whole time with my back, but good music makes everything better.

We headed back to the house to change before dinner. I walked down the street to the local market looking for some Ice or ice packs or something; I didn’t find any of that but I did find a whole plucked chicken I could take back for 8 euros, which I thought was a steal at twice the price. After I got back with a bottle of water instead of ice we took a cab ride to dinner. I have to tell you the lack of give-a-shit about laws here is unbelievable. People just stop in the middle of the road and park their cars and leave! I’m honestly surprised there aren’t more accidents here how quickly and with out care people change lanes here. We finally got to the restaurant and everyone lived; surprisingly. I kept staring at my driving thinking he was going to have a hard attack or die from old age right there behind the wheel!

Dinner was at Irish and Co.; yes everything here is in English too.

After dinner we headed back downtown to the strip and had some desert. Watched a drug deal go down that was really interesting; the guy seemed really scared and the dealer was scolding him the whole time. We grabbed desert and headed home; we were all pretty tired.

We decided to sit down and play Kings cup (well a modified version because we didn’t have alcohol at the house). Anyways we laughed so hard the entire time we played. If you know anything about that game there is a chance to make new rules; well my rule was everyone had to talk in an Indian accent and Sarah’s rule, well one of them she had plenty of ridiculous ones, was that you had to wink after everything you said. Well we played for about 2 hours pissing off the neighbors I’m sure. We then got hungry and I decided to walk across the street to this tiny pizzeria that was only open from 6pm-2am... it was so good! Finally pizza that compared to the US. After that we called it a night; well a morning and went to bed.

Well 6 am came quickly; especially after going to sleep at 2:30 am. We packed up and headed to the airport; it was the first time this whole trip that it rained more than 5 mins and enough to get you wet. So not sure if that’s a good omen or bad but we are leaving anyway. 

Well once again we had problems with the TSA; I don’t understand why they wouldn’t let my sister carry on a Costco size bottle of hairspray but whatever. We then finally boarded our plane, late of course. I’m not sure why? The plane sat like 250 people and only about 30 of us got on. The ride was fine and when we landed in Lisbon the weather was perfect. Our AirBnB was pretty awesome. I felt like I was on an episode of road rules European edition. We got settled into our place and headed out looking for a taxi. I’ll tell you what it’s hard to hide the fact you’re a tourist when you are walking down the street with 8 people and 5 of them are in flip flops and one in a bazinga shirt.

Lisbon isn’t as pretty as everyone claims it to be. Lots of graffiti and trash everywhere. It honestly reminds me a lot of San Francisco; so much so it even has a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. I have to say though the history is very rich here which is fantastic. I did something today I have never done in my life and that was take a double decker tour bus; I normally don’t like doing the touristy stuff but this wasn’t actually bad. We used it to get our bearings and decide where else in the city we wanted to go later so it was good. Then we went downtown to the square to watch the futbol game that was pretty intense. After those festivities we did some shopping on the strip tried pizza again and I’m sold on the idea that pizza here sucks. I’ll just stick to the local cuisine from now on. After eating we headed back to our AirBnb; planing on getting to bed early because we have to get up early,  but it’s already midnight as I write this so I doubt that’s going to happen. Tomorrow we are headed to the city of Fatima and I’m really looking forward to that. Hopefully I’m not as sore as I was today... sitting in that plane really killed my back.

Well one more morning has come and gone and we slept through it. Apparently no matter what time you go to bed here you wake up after noon. We decided to skip breakfast because well it was already 2 pm and we headed out the door.

Our first stop was in the city to exchange more money; and of course in two days the rate has changed and we get less money. We then headed to a cafe called Athanas. Apparently it has been there for like 100 years and I could tell why! After stuffing our faces we headed to the country side. Wow the views were absolutely amazing. I love how all the walls and roads are still all made from stone. We visited a few little towns and the beach. We then headed up to the top of this mountain called Serra do Cume to get an amazing view of  most of the island.  Out next stop was Praia da Vitoria, it’s the only other City on the island other than Angra de Horismo which is where my grandparents live. We did some tourist shopping and walked around a bit. One thing we noticed is that being on this island you think a lot about food. So of course it was time to eat. So we headed to place called Boston Pizza; no joke it was the closest thing to American food on the island. I have never had pizza in Boston but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it doesn’t taste like DiGiorno from the freezer isle because this stuff did. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t terrible, but definitely not the caliber of food I’m used to here on the island.

We took the trek home and packed for Lisbon tomorrow. We have to get up early tomorrow or we will miss our flight and that won’t be good. We got home and some random person had left us a home made desert at the door; everyone else was excited and all I could think of is who is going to be the guinea pig to see if anyone dies? Needless to say I didn’t eat any. We were home early but getting to bed early was another story we still didn’t fall asleep until 3am... it’s going to be a rough morning.

Well I must have shaken my crippled ass to much last night because I was hurting this morning. I’m not sure what it is about this place but you can’t get up early no matter what you try! Good thing we didn’t have to much planned. We got up around 2 and ate the traditional breakfast; fresh bread, cheese, butter and marmalade. I’m not sure why it’s so damn good but it is.

Today I’m walking a little better so things are looking up. We got ready and headed to the bull fight. We watched the last bull de corda because we didn’t get up early enough to watch the whole thing. After that we headed to the bull fights de praca which are the ones in the arena. They are fantastic. The second bull was the largest and he came out and rammed himself right into the wall and broke his horn so he went right back in. Apparently it was in the water because on the last bull they were pretty much done and he ran into a wall too and broke a horn; which was probably for the best because the matador kept messing up and was getting booed by the crowd. They take their bullfighting here very seriously.

After the bullfights we headed back to the city and ate at yet another delicious restaurant where the chef came out and cooked our meal on a rickety cart right in front of us; it was like Benihana’s but more authentic and I think our chef was a little tipsy.

We then asked for the check and the lady asked why were were in such a hurry and my aunt said because we wanted to watch the fireworks and the lady said “oh they will be done by the time you get there”; they weren’t. I think she just wanted us to stay and buy desert. It’s the last day of the festival so they go all out. And after that, that was it the festival was over. It was only 1215 am what were we going to do with ourselves? Now it was to early to go home! I mean honestly it’s only 5pm at home! Well because we are such party animals we headed home, and I’m glad because my back could use some icing. 

Tomorrow we have some more site seeing to do and hopefully I get to some WiFi and then we pack for Lisbon.

Well once again we started our day off late, but mostly because it was hard to move. Once we finally got moving we headed to the pharmacy to try and get me some drugs... ya that didn’t work so well mostly because the lady had no idea what our English named drugs were so we gave up. I guess Motrin and Tylenol will just have to do. 

We then headed up to do some sight seeing. We first stopped at Algarve do carvao which was a cool cave created by a volcanic eruption. Once I got to the bottom I realized the huge mistake I made because now I had to climb back up every single step; my non existent asthma started kicking in about half way up.

Next we headed to furnas do enxio which are natural sulfur plums coming out of the ground. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, but honestly do they not have escalators in this country?! We continued to drive and check the country side. This place is absolutely gorgeous! We stopped in Biscoitos to check out the man made pools. The ocean was pretty rough so they weren’t letting anyone in, not that I could climb out of there if I wanted to after getting in.

We stopped at this place to eat called Caneta. Honestly you would never know it was a restaurant. It looked like an old liquor store until we walked in and then I was completely shocked!! The food was amazing of course. And then we drove back to the house. The views there are truly amazing. I threw the drone up a few times, but it was to windy so I’ll try again tomorrow. Luckily it only takes 40 mins to circle the island so I can make many trips back.

We got home around 10 pm, I iced my back while we all sat in the living room and reminisced about my grandma and the other visits we had here. Hanan decided she would play a word search game on her phone since she had no idea what we were talking about and of course sucked us all into playing so we all ended up playing a fierce game of Word Crossy instead of reminiscing; it’s amazing how stupid you feel when you can’t come up with the correct 3 letter word combination.

After conquering that damn game we got ready and headed back to the festival. Hung out a little by the marina and then found this band performing. Everyone in the crowd seemed to know who they were except for us so we just called him “The Portuguese Pit Bull” the lead singer looked exactly like him. They actually weren’t that bad. I had never heard “Reggae Portuguese” music in my entire life, but it was hot!

After a long intermission these four people showed up on stage one dressed as Mario, one dressed as a Ghostbuster, one as Indian Jones and I have absolutely no idea what the last one was supposed to be but he was wearing a Christmas sweater, my guess is that they were supposed to be the “DJs”... anyways they started off by playing some 80s music which I’m completely down with, but things escalated quickly when we went from I want to dance with somebody to I’ll do anything for you. And two random ass people got up on stage and did some interesting rendition of something from what I can only describe as a dance from Dirty Dancing. Immediately after they were done “making love” on stage the “DJs” mixed right into MC Hammers Can’t Touch This obviously the only choice after that fiasco.... so our little group consisted of myself, my brother Brian, my sister Marlene, my brother-in-law Rome, my god daughter Sarah and our new bomb ass house mate Hanan... well I tell you all this because while all these American songs were playing we were singing very loudly and dancing along and everyone else in the crowd (the Portuguese people) had no idea what to think or how we knew all the words... then all of a sudden they played a song that turned the tables... we were lost and everyone else was rocking out; needless to say it was a hilarious state of affairs. As we continued to rock out my sister tried to snap chat a picture of her and my god daughter; anyways some guy tried to creep up and get in the picture so Hanan grabbed the phone and with the pen on snap chat scratched out the weirdos face and then continued to show him the new image... he wasn’t very impressed by her photoshop skills, but I found them fantastic!!

When we thought things couldn’t get any worse Christmas sweater guy comes on stage and covers some songs; the only reason I knew he was covering them was that he was reading the lyrics off his cell phone while singing to the crowd. So my only guess is that we were witnessing Portuguese karaoke at its finest. Needless to say we all looked at each other and in unison said “wtf is happening right now?”. 

So the entire time all of this was going on they were playing random videos on these big screens in the background; we knew it was time to go when topless women and umpalumpa midgets hit the screen. 

As we started to leave this new DJ came on and she was off the hook! So of course we couldn’t leave. Everyone danced their asses off; well I performed more of a crippled shuffle but it still worked out. We closed the place down and left the feistas as 5 am... headed home to ice my back and head to bed.

Well I slept ok, but woke up feeling like I got ran over by a semi. Honestly it’s better than yesterday so I’ll take it. We had the traditional Portuguese breakfast for these parts which is bread, fresh cheese, butter and marmalade; it was delicious!! It’s amazing to me how the other half of the world lives sometimes especially in areas like this one. I’ll shoot a video of the house and post it so you can see what I mean.

Today we got off to a very very late start and didn’t leave the house until 1700. We headed down to the travel agency to get tickets for the main land, boy was that a fiasco. Finally a hour and a half and 3 arguments later we had our plane tickets and AirBNB location reserved. We then headed down to Copa Cabana to get some food and gelato... seriously folks you haven’t had soft serve until you have had it here. 

We rushed home to change for the bullfight. I have been watching bullfights in California my entire life, but this was a completely different experience it was fantastic! Half way through my sister sent me a video she found online of me getting rocked by a bull the night before. Now I can see why I hurt so bad. If you want to see it too I’ll post the link at the bottom of this blog post; warning it’s not easy to watch.

After the bullfight we headed out to the fiestas; I know you’re probably asking me how am I walk me around in so much pain? Well I came all this way I’m not going to lay on the bed (a piece of what feels like plywood) the whole time. So off to the fiestas we go!

We parked the car in the city and walked was felt like 6 miles so I’m not sure exactly why we even drove, but I was thankful for the car either way. They had a band playing down by the marina so we headed down there. Picked up a few delicious snacks while we were down there and then sat and listened to the band; they were actually pretty good. My aunt and sister wanted to walk down and get some “chocolate shots” so we did. It was a shot glass made out of chocolate filled with raspberry liquor ( honestly it tasted like a cup filled with cough syrup. I didn’t care I was just hoping It would help with the pain I was in... it didn’t. 

About 4 am we decided we had had enough and walked back to the car. I was very tempted to get a taxi to the car, but figured that was bad form so I just walked with the rest of them. We got home and called it a night. I have to admit being taken out by a bull is really kicking my ass. I guess we will see what tomorrow brings.

https://youtu.be/FXO6TOyRWgI

We finally arrived in Terceira at 0800 local time. It honestly wasn’t as humid and muggy as I thought it would be when I stepped out of the plane; then we stepped into the hot humid cattle line that is better known around these parts as “customs”. After sweating through that line and contemplating joining a nudist colony we finally reached baggage claim. And boy wasn’t that a new adventure. After wondering if our luggage got rerouted to Guam, we finally got our bags an hour later.

Then we were headed out to go see the island... but not before customs “randomly” selected Brian to search his luggage. I have a feeling it was racial profiling because he was wearing a Stockton sweater and apparently word has made it al the way here of how thug life they are there. After being severely questioned behind a closed door they finally let him go; he was walking a little funny after but we didn’t question it.

We headed to my grandparents home and got settled in. Looks like I’ll be sleeping with my feet in the dresser tonight (apparently I was unaware that my grandparents were 3 foot 2)

After getting settled we walked down to the city; the buildings are fantastic on this island... the humidity is a different story. After developing some serious chafing we finally reached our destination and bought some bullfight tickets for tomorrow and Sunday. I’m really looking forward to those.

We then walked down to a little restaurant called Chefes do Patio... the food was phenomenal, the muggy indoor weather was not. After that we headed to pick up my uncles car and headed back home. The girls (Sarah and Hanan) and I were ready to go, but my Aunt and uncle wanted to play with tractors (snoring). So naturally the girls and I took of and left them. We headed down to the marina to get some shots and take in the scenery; which is gorgeous everywhere you look.

After waiting for about 40 mins for my Aunt and uncle to pick us up; and looking like homeless kids on the street corner looking for scraps because we were wearing the same clothes for the last 36 hours. We headed to Feteira to see the Todors de Corda (bulls on rope). While Hanan and Sarah coward like little girls on the rock wall, my brother Brian and I headed out to play with the bulls.... I just mostly wanted to get the shot. Well that escalated quickly.... I was taking shots and keeping my distance from the bulls and well one of them made a quick u-turn I took off and immediately slipped and he took me for a ride... needless to say Scotty-0 Big Ass Bull -1.

The worst part is now I’m to sore to go to the festival tonight which I’m pretty bummed about. I guess I should rest anyways I have been up for 51 hours and counting.... so I guess I’m going to have to call it a night... I hope you come to hear about day 2 tomorrow....
 

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who spent time on the blog it means the world to me. Please come back and see the entire story!

-Scotty

We made it home.  It was a fantastic journey to Las Vegas and back was filled with inspiration and comradery.  The expo got me fired up to shoot more and inspired me to challenge myself.  We shot every day except during the expo and very little on the drive home.  I think we were pictured out, but we did find some projects to complete at a later date.  Now we must process the thousands of images we took and get them out to the world to be admired and worshiped, OK, maybe just appreciated and enjoyed, but you get the point.  We do this for us but the true joy is in sharing the treasures we discovered.  Thank you for enjoying our passion!

-Cliff

After we were done breathing in 10 pounds of dirt in the canyons and that amazing roller coaster ride back, we took the 5 hour drive back to Nelson to get some light painting and Milky way images. We luckily pulled into nelson with 15 minutes to spare before they closed. We then spent the next 3 hours shooting images and it was great! I have to admit today was awesome and we got some great images, but im exhausted!

I hope you guys enjoy these images and I cant wait to upload all the images we got from the trip and share them with you!

Thank you again so much for following us on this great trip!!

-Scotty

Today started too early!  It was the most epic day of our epic trip.  This week has been the most amazing experience.  If my brain was working I could tell you epic tales about today's travels, but it has shut off in a quite epic fashion. I can tell because I keep epically repeating the word epic. Tomorrow is the final epic leg of our epic journey. Good night. Epic!

-Cliff

Well today started off like the last two with more workshops. They were all about video and Ill tell you what; it was extremely motivating and it has a million ideas running through my mind for Snapshot videos so look for those in the near future.

After the conference Cliff and I jumped back in the car for the 3 hour drive to Zion National Park. Honestly I could spend a week alone in this place shooting, but unfortunately we only had part of today and tonight. I got some images, but not enough time to get everything I wanted unfortunately.

Im super excited about tomorrow. We are headed to Antelope canyon in the morning and then back to Nelson Nevada for some more light painting. So come back tomorrow for some of those images!

Well these lazy guys finally showed up today to shoot with us, and all they were there for was entering and leaving the park.

Thanks again for checking out the blog and see you tomorrow!!

-Scotty

-Scotty

Today was a busy day!  Got up early (too early) to get tickets to Midnight Madness. It had better be worth it or I'm walking home. Scotty dragged me to two, count them two Joe McNally sessions. I am now a McNally convert. The next thing you know I'll be selling my Canon gear to buy Nikon!  NO!!! I have to draw the line somewhere. Today has been an amazing day in photography for me. I am energized and motivated to take my art to the next level. 

Well Last night was just short of amazing. Dave Black is a great teacher and we had a blast at the light painting workshop!!

Today was the official first day of Photoshop World conference and so far it was a pretty good day. I do have to say we have been attending for the last three years and if you ask me attendance has really dropped in the past two years. So I dont know whats going to happen next year. Our first seminar was with Dave Black who we had the workshop with last night and he is always a good speaker. The second speaker was a little disappointing, but that's ok you can’t win them all. We saw another interesting one after that with Dave Black which was pretty inspiring, but my favorite was the last one with one of my favorite photographers Tim Wallace. His workshops are always so inspiring and insightful. So all in all the day was pretty good! Tomorrow is another full day of workshops and learning So we are looking forward to that.

The images we uploaded today are from last night’s light painting work shop with Dave Black. Cliff and I have done a lot of light painting before, but this workshop taught us a few things we didn’t know and also showed us a really cool place to visit that we are planning on stopping at on the way home. This image (below) is what we saw in the day light; we then waited until the sun went down and it was pitch black and we added the light you see by painting it in with flash lights (second image).

Also we can’t forget about these two… Always causing trouble, and really lazy. They don’t even pull their own weight; it’s like Cliff and I are constantly carrying them around.

-Scotty 

First day of the Expo and it all started with a line.  I missed the first half of the keynote address waiting in line to have my camera sensor cleaned by canon for free.  BUT, I got my camera cleaned!  For FREE!!!  We went to two of Dave Black’s sessions and they were both great. The last session of the day was stellar, a panel of three photographers giving pointers on going pro.  I ran into Peter Hurley and showed him a headshot one of my students did of me in his style.  He thanked me for sharing the story with him.  I love this expo for experiences like that. With that said, if this trip ended tomorrow it would have been a fantastic trip, BUT wait there’s more!  Another day of the expo and Antelope Canyon and I’m trying to stay in the moment.  I hope you are enjoying our images so far and the rest when this whole thing is over.

-Cliff

Tonight we are having a precon workshop with Dave Black which both Cliff and I have been looking forward to very much. So stay tuned tomorrow to see those images!

After registration for the conference I sat down at a The Big Bang Theory slot machine (which I never play), but really like the show so put in a few dollars into the machine and after one spin got $43 so I cashed out and walked away! BAZINGA!! I know it’s not much, but it was free cash and I’m always up for that.

I really want to thank everyone for following us on our journey it really means a lot. See you all tomorrow for our next post.

-Scotty

We started out at 2:00 AM this morning sitting in the dark in Red Rock Canyon waiting for the sun to come up.  By the way it was about 250 degrees and the air is so thin I sound like I just ran up 37 flights of stairs.  Tonight is the big night; we get to attend a workshop led by Dave Black.  I have been an admirer of his photography for a few years now and I have talked with him before, but now I get to “sit at his feet” and partake of his photographic wisdom.  We still have some pretty cool events planned for the next few days, but tonight has been much anticipated.  As for Scotty I have dedicated myself to be the lead weight on his balloon of life.  He is a real trooper dragging my dead weight all over the place, all in the name of photography.  Tomorrow is a full day!

-Cliff

Well to continue our story; we woke up this morning at 3am and packed the car to head back to Mono Lake. The hotel we stayed in (which will remain nameless) was very worthy of its extravagant 2 star status on yelp. Not only did the A/C not work, the front door kept opening on its own; oh and the toilet was pretty much just a hole in the floor. I almost had to help Cliff up off the ground after he used it. We got to Mono Lake and were a little bummed that we hadn’t gotten there sooner, because we missed some great Milky Way images by about 20 minutes. It was so nice that you could see the Milky Way with your naked eye; and that is the only thing Ill permit Cliff to having naked this entire trip! After we set up and did some light painting of the Tufas we waited for the sun to come up. I have to admit I was a tad disappointed in the sunrise, but we still got some good images.

We left Mono Lake and headed for breakfast; in case anyone is wondering 6:30 in the morning is too early for the town of Lee Vining because they didn’t have a single place open, not even the gas station. After we finally found some where to eat we headed on the longest drive ever on the longest road ever (ok that may be a slight exaggeration, but I doubt it). Anyways after what seemed like forever we finally reached Las Vegas.

Tomorrow we will be headed out to Red Rock Canyon and then we have a light painting workshop with Dave Black. I really hope you enjoy our images and we look forward to having you back tomorrow!

P.S. I wanted to introduce you to our travel buddies; Jayne and Mycroft. Look for more images of this handsome duo.

-Scotty

We have named this trip the Epic Photo Tour and so far it is living up to its name.  I have taken a few hundred images and I can’t wait to share them.  I can’t believe how much fun this is and I am looking forward to the next five-plus days despite our lack of sleep and Scotty complaining about my DJ skills.

-Cliff

-Scotty

Hey everybody Scotty didn’t lose me; my wife can sleep well tonight.

­-Cliff