It's already October, which ususally means work is starting to slow down for me. Well, not this year. My first October shoot was taking me to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After spending the day photographing the circa-1772 woman's only boarding school, Salem Academy, I went for a little walk around Old Salem. Winston might be the more urbane half of the North Carolina Twin City, but Salem was settled during the colonial era by Morovians. They were, and still are, a protestant sect that settled here via the modern Czechia (Czech Republic). The neighborhood is a living museum with restaurants and residences intermingled with homes-turned-museum spaces.

I had a job back up in Park Rapids, Minnesota, so we made a weekend out of it. As we tend to do we stopped at Revel Brewing for beer, kombucha, root beer and pizza. We got the small pizza on accident, but it would do. Looking back from previous times we've been here the pizzas used to be bigger.  I think we just ordered the larges in the past. My bad. This year Theo has suddenly discovered he likes reading. When he finds a book he wants at the bookstore we have to say yes. 

Scott was leaving yet again on another work trip. I asked my dad if he could come help me out. After the kids were out of school we thought we'd go bowling at Elsie's . We ended up in the only lane left which didn't have bumpers. Theo's ball kept getting stuck in the gutter which meant at his every turn an attendant would have to come retrieve it. When a bumper lane opened up they moved us and gave us a free game. That was super nice of them even though it was our fault. Theo usually requests waffles. I guess we were on an old home tour run as of recently. We thought we would check out the Gibb's Farm in Falcon Heights.

For a second time this year (well, ever) I had to travel to Cincinnati for another shoot for the namesake university. I spent the day out in the suburbs shooting 360s at their satellite campuses before heading to neighboring Covington, Kentucky for dinner and a walk. I ended up at  KungFood Amerasia  for the good vibes and decent Chinese American food. Covington kind of feels like a bonus neighborhood of Cincinnati. 

We ended up going on some rad adventures this summer, but most of my 360 photography gigs took me to hot and humid climates. The second school starts, I schedule a gig up in Humboldt County. We debated about having them tag along, but I ended up traveling solo. Breakfast at La Joya Cafe was so, so good. Meadow didn't want to miss school, but Theo was all for it.  I flew into SFO and stayed just outside of the city. I had all day to get up to Eureka, so I took my time traversing San Francisco. The weather in San Francisco was gloomy, but that didn't stop me from exploring a new neighborhood, Visitacion Valley. The outlying San Francisco neigborhoods are whole different world from the Victorian row houses and dense core of the city. Viz Valley has such a vibe with the muted pastel pallete. And these ornate gates were everywhere. Something I'd also see in another predominantly Asian neighborhood, Flushing Queens. Almost 60% of the neighborhood is of Asian descent with another...

While Scott was exploring ( I was working...) California the kids and I were back home. Porch breakfast and planning for our upcoming Washington road trip. Today we had plans to go apple picking and hiking. I packed us a picnic lunch for our day. Meadow had earned some money recently and with her money bought herself a music stand. It arrived today. Then the kids and I drove to Whistling Well Farms to go apple picking. We had been here a couple times in the past few years. 

Meadow and I had a million errands to run on this day. Scott needed trim paint for the garage. Good thing we get the contractor discount at Sherwin Williams. Cause they're super expensive. But are their paints really that much better?    Meadow looked at coats at Goodwill. She didn't like that the sleeves were short on this coat. Agreed.    I love that Goodwill has EV chargers. It seems that no one knows that they are there. We stopped at REI and I liked this 20 degree bag. I don't believe the temperature ratings on these. This is probably good to 40 or 30 degrees. AKA Brooke has major blood circulation issues.   Theo spent the morning playing the Switch, of course. Once he was done gaming, Theo joined us in helping to paint the garage. Scott had all the green done so it was my turn to paint the trim. Don't let them fool you. I painted the rest of the trim. But I suppose the one day they helped sped things up a bit. Break for lunch. The rest of the garage t...