Forever Young Photography will be there donating time & photography services to support the event. I hope to see you there!

Planet Earth Celebration
Saturday, April 16, 2011
11am-5pm
Downtown Raleigh in & around the Museum of Natural Sciences
11 West Jones St, Downtown Raleigh

Planet Earth Celebration is a free event. Connect with 100+ local organizations making a difference, Sh0p art and eco friendly products at the Green Bazaar and the Burt’s Bees Tent Sale, create earth-friendly art and music with the Scrap Exchange and Trash March, local cuisine & music, talk to green experts and more!

To Learn more: Check out the Planet Earth Celebration Website & the Lineup of Events.

K9 3K Dog Walk
Festivities start at 10am, Walk Starts at 11am, events through 2pm
SPCA Dog walk in downtown Raleigh to raise money for homeless pets.

To learn more: SPCA K9 3K Dog Walk
Here is the Event Map and more details

All PhotoFieldtrips are for beginner to advanced or sign up for a personal one on one instruction lesson with Maranda Young of Forever Young Photography. Trips are available for Point & Shoot and DSLR users.

2 hour PhotoFieldtrips take place during the week for am or twilight Fieldtrips and on Sunday Afternoons trips. PhotoFieldtrips are limited to 8-10 or less people per trip. Most local PhotoFieldtrips are $125 for the two hour class. A Private Instruction Lesson (1 person) is $250 an hour. Stay tuned for more information on Day PhotoFrieldtrips to the Beach as well.

Contact me to sign up for an upcoming class or pre-register here.

 
Are you friends or family of Susan and Bryan? Anxious to see more photographs, check out their gallery and request to be notified when the gallery is live.

Watch for a future posting to see more from Susan and Bryan’s wedding…

For safety reasons, all of the lights on the bridge could not be turned off, but it is still a rare view to see without the towers lit up.

Not exactly total darkness in the city, but you can see these structures dark: Coit Tower (to the left) and Palace of Fine Arts (bottom right). If you look closely you can also notice other lights that were shut off in various buildings and the glow in the haze around the city was diminished slightly.

Afterward we headed downtown to Market Bar – a restaurant participating in Earth Hour – for a candlelit dinner and some live music powered by people riding stationary bicycles.

“Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.”

Have you signed up yet?  Pledge to participate in Earth Hour here.

A Friendly Game of Musical Chairs to Win the Bouquet

Down to 2 ladies…who will it be??

Fireworks to End the Evening

We took the night tour of Alcatraz which was great as you got to see Alcatraz in the light of day and night. It was pretty cool to see. When I was younger, I remember watching a story about an Alcatraz escape on Unsolved Mysteries. Did you ever see that episode?  A clever bunch carving holes in their cells to escape and making dummies to fool the guards as they worked. Here is a good summary  ” The dummies were made from soap, concrete powder, and stolen paint. One of the guys worked in the barbershop and swiped some hair to paste on the dummies’ heads for an extra touch of realism. For eight months, Morris and the Anglin brothers left their cells at night to drill out the ventilation shaft and collect the items they needed for their escape.”

If you are ever free, taking the night tour also has some perks – extra discussions, special sessions and off the beaten path tours that are not available during the day sessions. We were lucky enough to get included in a tour of the Dungeon and the Chapel – two areas normally not open for the general public to explore on their own. For both locations, we were locked into the chambers so no one else could follow us in. With hardhats and a single flashlight held by the tour guide, we headed into these secluded locations.

The cells were much smaller than you would think

View of Recreation Yard through a small peep window in a door

Darkness falls – view from Alcatraz

Psych Ward – super eerie section of the jail

Down at the end of this hall are the isolation chambers

Down in the Dungeon

Stairs coming up from the Dungeon

I just finally decided that I am going to move to San Francisco to be closer to Justin and more centrally located. My phone number/email/website/blog will all stay the same. The only contact info that will change will be my mailing address & I will keep you up to date on that. I’ll be traveling all around the US for weddings and back to Raleigh numerous times so it will be an exciting year! More to come…

Road Trip!!!
Justin and I will start our road-trip in early February, date yet TBD. Once we head out, I’ll try to write posts each night so you can track our progress.

Have something you need to mail to me? My current address is good through the first week in February. Make sure that if you do have anything to pop in the mail to me to send it out soon. Otherwise, you can send it to my new address. I will have my new address available shortly.