Deja View

Part of the joy of travel for me is taking photos of the places I go. I realize that the world really doesn't need any more shots of the Eiffel Tower and that mine stands no chance of being better in any discernible way from what professional photographers with far better equipment than I have done.

But there is still an air of creativity I like to linger on to. My shots may not be original but they are original to me.

An artist named Corrine Vionnet has turned other people's photos into art. She has rummaged through photobanks like Flickr and collaged pictures of world landmarks in a unique way. She superimposes hundreds of photos over each other. The results are hazy dreamlike montages. She takes concrete images and turns them into impressionistic memories.

A series of 23 of her images can be found here. I haven't been to every place in her gallery but I was shocked with how many I have. And how do my photos stack up against the collective soul of the photo taking public? Here are some examples:




We nearly missed the Brandenburg Gate on our visit to Germany last summer. Our tour guide had some last minute disruptions and asked us what we still wanted to see. We ended up taking a nice leisurely stroll along the path of the former Wall to arrive at the gate. It was the day of a World Cup match and the locals were streaming to an outdoor festival with video screens. The streets were alive with a united Berlin and I cannot imagine events that would force a scar down the center of such a beautiful city for so long.




The Colosseum in Rome is an amazing contradiction because of both how much of it is left and how much is gone. I was amazed to learn that after the fall of Rome, the ancient monuments of the city were used as an open air quarry for centuries. many of the gorgeous Christian churches have this ancient center of lavish entertainment in their roots.



There is no more iconic geological formation representing the American West than the Mittens in Monument Valley. But I imagine only the hardest core of fans of old westerns know where they are. Part of my trip last year to Arizona was planned to deliberately brush into Utah to see this area. The local Navajo tribes have done a wonderful job of making this remote area accessible while still letting its natural grandeur speak for itself.






Tienanmen Square is fraught with symbolism, both for Chinese Communists who are the current stewards to this enormous palace in the center of what was once the largest city on Earth as well as the freedom advocating protesters who have used this center to bring attention to their own struggle. Now the plaza is regularly patrolled for demonstrations, but unrest may someday return.



Every time I see the Golden Gate Bridge I marvel at how such a utilitarian piece of engineering can blend in so well with the surrounding natural beauty. The sheer challenge of such a structure demands awe and appreciation.



London has so many iconic views, but perhaps Big Ben is the best emblem of a Victorian sense of monumentalism and lavishness of detail which may never return.



Even older than the ruins of Rome or the pyramids of Egypt is Stonehenge which shows that our combined eagerness to build things and to look at the heavens predates the written history to explain what fascinates us so.



And finally, the Eiffel Tower is perhaps the most iconic structure in the world. There is a certain majesty which demands attention.

I guess my humble takes pale against the weight of thousands of others. But these photos are my memories of what I have found graceful and beautiful And if others have taken inspiration of the same views from the same locales so be it.

Easiest 'Where Is Yellojkt Now?' Ever

Not to be too arch or beat around the bush, but I went to a baseball game tonight. Can you guess where?

Bourbon Trail Day 2

The second day of my Bourbon Trail Tour in Kentucky back in April had a very ambitious itinerary. We had stayed in a bed and breakfast in Lexington because that was very close to the three distilleries seen on Day One as well as Woodford Reserve which we couldn't do on Sunday.

From there we had to dash over to Bardstown and finally south to Loretto before heading up to Louisville for the night. It was a lot of driving which kept the tasting to a minimum, but here is what I remember from the day:

Distillery	Woodford Reserve	Heaven Hill	Makers Mark
Giant Conglomerate Which Actually Owns The Distillery	Brown-Forman Corporation, the same people who own the much larger Jack Daniels in Tennessee, which is also technically a bourbon but sold as Tennessee Whiskey.	Private family owned business which brands more than a dozen different bourbons including Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, and Henry McKenna	Fortune Brands which among many, many other liquors owns the much bigger bourbon brewer Jim Beam.
Photo Of Me Doing Something Silly
Grounds	In a heavily wooded hilly area deep, deep into horse territory, Woodford Reserve is a boutique small batch distillery specializing in the rustic traditions. While the distillery was rebuilt on the inside in 1993, the building dates to 1838 and they look it.	Heaven Hill is large sprawling area filled with storage rickhouses on a breezy hilltop. The grounds are decorated with whimsical sculptures made from bourbon barrels.	Maker's Mark is way, way out of the way. It's over 45 minutes from Heaven Hill and it's all narrow country roads. The site was built as a tourist destination and it shows. All the buildings have a distinctive black and red decor.
Pre-Tour Movie	Fifteen minute movie emphasizing the age of the distillery and the old-fashioned techniques used.	We missed the movie so we could catch a tour that was just starting, but by now they were all looking the same.	They dispense with the movie, instead the original family house has been converted to a museum with all sorts of interactive exhibits.
Production Area Tour Bourbon is made by malting and then distilling a mixture of grains which must be at least 50% corn. The distilling process also has odd arcane rules.	The only tour to charge money, it costs $5 to take the standard tour. The production area is all vintage style equipment including cedar fermenters and pot stills.	After a massive fire in 1996 which destroyed the distillery and several warehouses to the point the nearby river caught on fire, production was moved into Louisville, so the actual distillery can't be toured.	The production area is very polished with lots of copper and brass but they don't let you get close to much except the giant fermenting vats.
Storage The other crucial definitive aspect of bourbon is that it MUST be barrel aged in virgin white oak for at least four years.	As a small batch distillery, they have only one storage warehouse and it is just as vintage as the rest of site. The warehouse is just as old as the distillery and the rails they use to move the barrels between the two are very cool.	The landscape is littered with warehouses and the smell of the "angels' share" is overwhelming. Since the tour basically consists of just the warehouse it is very detailed with examples of the ramps and lifts that used to be used to move and rotate the barrels until modern machinery took over.	Most of Makers Mark is stored in off-site warehouses that litter the road as you drive up but they do have one display warehouse with a lot of tools and paraphernalia on display.
Bottling and Labeling Bourbons would all just be fancy brown booze if there weren't cool labels and improbable stories about the founders for the fancy shaped bottles.	They were upgrading the equipment when we took the tour so it was closed but on a previous visit I had seen them empty a barrel into the trough for the small batch mixing.	While bottling and labeling are done on site, it is not part of the tour.	Bottling is done on site but was not in production the day we were there so they skipped it.
Tasting There is no reason to go to a distillery if you aren't going to get to sample the goods.	Since they really only have one brand, the sample is just one shot of the bourbon. That's pretty chintzy for a five dollar tour. They do have ice to add and bourbon balls to sample. The gift shop also has a sandwich bar where you can buy picnic supplies to take or eat on the grounds. Surprisingly it was one of the few places which sold food. It seems the local laws often don't allow that.	The tasting room seats about two dozen people and is in the shape of an enormous barrel. The tasting consists of two premium bourbons including an 18-year-old Elijah Craig which was the second best bourbon we had. The tour guide gives a very detailed and entertaining talk about the enjoyment of a fine sipping bourbon. It really evokes the genteel snobbery of bourbon drinking.	The tasting room is one corner of the gift shop with a large bar and seating area. Kids (and there were a surprising number of them on our tour) are kept across the room. They sample Makers Mark and the specially flavored Makers 46. Since it was near Derby time they also gave a shot of their mint julep flavored special edition which was awful.
Gift Shop	As the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby, they had all sorts of Derby related special edition bottles. They will also emboss or engrave bottles for you. Most of the accessories for sale were very high end.	The gift shop is right outside the tasting room and is Disneyesque in its displays and merchandise. They had a very wide array of the brands they sell including some very expensive special batches. Also a lot of different bourbon flavored foods and sauces.	Lots of branded merchandise. Since their 'mark' is the wax sealed top, they have a special area where you can wax your own bottle (and that's not meant to sound dirty) but we didn't see anybody doing it.
Tour Highlights There is a lot of repetition to the shpiels and patters from each tour, but they each do a good job getting across what is unique about their brands approach to making a product which is rather tightly defined.	The most vintage of the distilleries, if not really the oldest, it gives a good feel for the original methods and systems used. Definitely the most picturesque production area. They even have a cat who has the run of the plant.	While the warehouse is very generic, the tour talk was one of the better ones and the tasting talk really helps you appreciate fine bourbons.	The place is out of the way but worth the extra drive just for the overall picturesqueness. Personally I use Makers Mark as the dividing line between mixing bourbons and sipping bourbons. It's upscale but not wildly pretentious.
More Photos	Woodford Reserve	Heaven Hill	Makers Mark

A business junket which included a tour of Woodford Reserve was what inspired me to take the entire bourbon trail and if you can only visit one distillery, this would be the one to go to. But each of the others has its own merits as well. I wish Heaven Hill had more to their tour because the knowledge of the guides and the tasting experience was the best of all the stops. This is all getting me thirsty.

Windshield Replacement Reading List

For reasons too complicated to explain, I find myself in the Fort Wayne, Indiana branch of a major autoglass replacement chain. Here are my reading choices:

Guns and Ammo - April 2010
American Rifleman - 5 issues, July 2009 through January 2010
Handy - 3 issues, Aug/Sept 2009 through Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Car and Driver - April 2011
Family Circle - August 2008
Woman's Day - March 2009
Fort Wayne Living - Nov 2010-Jan 2011
Fort Wayne Business People - 2 issues, February and March 2011
Planning Your Wedding, 2011 supplement to Fort Wayne Business People

Bourbon Trail Day One

For my spring break vacation this year I decided to head towards Kentucky and learn all I could about bourbon as I hit as many distilleries as I could find and talk my wife into enduring. Since I knew they would all blend together like a fine whiskey I knew I has to post some notes while I still had distinct memories.

Distillery	Buffalo Trace	Wild Turkey	Four Roses
Giant Conglomerate Which Actually Owns The Distillery	Sazerac Company A privately-held and family-operated alcoholic beverages company with headquarters in New Orleans	Campari	Kirin Brewery Company of Japan They kept telling us that Four Roses is the top brand of bourbon in Japan
Photo Of Me Doing Something Silly
Grounds	Gorgeous rolling pastures on the way in to a quaint but kinda crowded working area. It's a little surprising how free visitors are to wander around.	A huge complex sprawling all over the landscape. The area is so big that a tour van is needed to get around to the different areas.	Done is Spanish Mission style, the building look less like an industrial plant than a overly busy Mexican style resort.
Pre-Tour Movie	Ten minutes going over the distilling process in a theater room decorated with old-timey equipment.	A five minute show in a stuffy gallery overlooking the mash pots featuring the ancient brewmaster and his son who has been waiting for dad to keel over for 30 years so he could get a promotion.	Fifteen minute film in the tasting area which was surprisingly informative even after two previous distillery tours.
Production Area Tour Bourbon is made by malting and then distilling a mixture of grains which must be at least 50% corn. The distilling process also has odd arcane rules.	None. To see the production area, you have to take the Hard Hat Tour which requires reservations days to weeks in advance.	Wild Turkey has just built a brand-new shiny state of the art building with double the capacity of its old plant. I mean brand-new. They were still paving the roads to it and painting the stair railings. Most everything is looked at through windows but they do let you up close to the fermenters to stare in.	The most up close and personal tour. The aging equipment is front and center and you can reach out and touch nearly everything.
Storage The other crucial definitive aspect of bourbon is that it MUST be barrel aged in virgin white oak for at least four years.	Since they don't let you see the production you linger a long time in the warehouse which is very interesting in its own right. The rows and rows of barrels are mind boggling and its fun reading the dates and labels on all the barrels.	The Wild Turkey warehouses dot the landscape like 2001 monoliths. The one you tour goes back to the 1880s and smells like it too. It overlooks the recently abandoned original factory so it is also a great photo op.	The bourbon is barreled, aged, and bottled at a different site, but they do have photos of their single story warehouses which they claim result in more consistent flavors than the seven-story behomoths of their competitors, which oddly have two warehouses on Four Roses grounds.
Bottling and Labeling Bourbons would all just be fancy brown booze if there weren't cool labels and improbable stories about the founders for the fancy shaped bottles.	You are allowed to wander up and down the filling station line while about a dozen employees process and fill the small batch specialty bottles. They are friendly and fun. While we were there they spilled about half a barrel of aged bourbon all over the floor.	All the bottling is done at the main corporate bottling plant in Arkansas. You can see the giant tanker trucks leaving the site.	Also done off-site. But from a branding perspective there are roses everywhere.
Tasting There is no reason to go to a distillery if you aren't going to get to sample the goods.	They let you taste the "white dog" or unaged undiluted moonshine before it becomes sellable bourbon. They then let you taste a small batch and a single barrel variety but not the super-aged expensive stuff. They also have a bourbon cream which makes Baileys taste like haf-and-half.	They let you try any two of six flavors. My wife and I mixed and matched to get four total. The most interesting was the super-sweet American Honey style.	Four Roses only sells three varieties, an 80 proof blended, a 90 proof small batch, and a 100 proof single barrel. You get to taste all three and the pours are generous. For four bucks you can keep the tasting glass.
Gift Shop	They had buffaloes on everything imaginable and a few things unimaginable. A lot of trinkets and geegaws and even food, but surprisingly little booze. We got a bottle of the bourbon cream since that isn't sold nationally yet and a case of bourbon jam for gifts.	The gift shop tour center is an old-fashioned building all off on its own with lots of tee shirts edging towards the trashy side. For gifts I got two sets of three packs featuring their premium brands.	Four Roses had the classiest selection of accessories and books. The small bottles of the the Small Batch were a little pricey but nice.
Tour Highlights There is a lot of repetition to the shpiels and patters from each tour, but they each do a good job getting across what is unique about their brands approach to making a product which is rather tightly defined.	As a mid-sized distillery this had a nice mix of folksiness and scale. They people were all super-friendly, but the Hard Hat Tour really needs to be less hard to get.	The size of this operation is stunning. It is a huge operation closer to an oil refinery than a moonshiner's still. And the contrast between the brand new factory and the rickety old warehouses is intriguing.	For getting an up-close look at the process this plant can't be beat. Not only is this the most intimate tour, the equipment has a great patina to it.

You can really learn all you ever need to know about bourbon and any one of these tours but each had a cool unique aspect which made glad I went to each one. Plus the samples are always nice.

Prater Power

Some of the best things we did on our tour of Central Europe were not on the official itinerary. For example, in Vienna we were told about an amusement park. Not having anything better to do that evening we hopped the subway and headed out. We got to the park just before dusk. We weren't really expecting much, but we were quickly overwhelmed. What a blast we had. It was as if Coney Island had been dropped in the middle of Austria.



Our group of five first headed to the large ferris wheel near the back of the park where we got a great overview of the park. It went on for acres and acres.



After a couple more thrill rides, three of us decided to tackle the Prater Tower (or Praterturm in German). We had no idea that at over 100 meters tall it is the highest swing ride in the world. Check out the video. It does tower over everything else in the park.



After a few more thrill rides (including one I was too chicken to try), it was time for some liquid refreshment in the beer garden near one of the many funhouses.



But before we left, I insisted we ride the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel that dates back to 1897 and which has been featured in several movies including The Living Daylights.

We didn't leave the park until nearly midnight and the fairgrounds were still going strong. So when in Vienna, make sure to take a turn on the Praterturm.

For more picture of the Prater, check out the Flickr set.

Standing On A Corner

When I went to Arizona this spring, there were two pictures that I just had to take. One was of me at Four Corners doing the one limb in each of four different states Twister pose. Alas, that was not to be. The place where the four corners is was under renovation. And how do you renovate a geographical fiction? The mind boggles. I had a little WallyWorld moment there as I shook the gate in rage.

The other picture the entire trip was planned around was for me to be standing in Standing On A Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona. This artifact of Americana made famous by The Eagles was also under renovation. They were putting in a new brick sidewalk around it and they were installing in the middle of the intersection a huge island shaped like the Route 66 road sign. Fortunately, by just moving a few orange cones, I was able to make my photographic dream come true.

But my ambitions were even higher. The next morning we went back for more pictures and I wanted to film myself actually singing the song. Now the yellojkt clan is rather infamous for not being able to carry a tune even it came with handles. 'Happy Birthday' in our house has been known to make housepets howl in pain.

My wife who has a much lower threshold of public humiliation than I do refused to even assist in an act that could only result in shame and mockery. This was very painful to me because I had spent much of the vacation rehearsing to the point where I nearly knew most of the words. My plan was to play the song on my iPod with one earpiece in my ear and just sing along a capella karaoke style. Even I knew this performance had the chance of being rather painful. After a heated discussion where the word 'divorce' was never used but clearly implied, my wife went to hide in one of the two catty-corner gift shops that form most of the other corners in Winslow.



That left me to pressgang some poor fellow tourist/Eagles groupie into being the camera crew. One very nice tie-dye clad lady who refused to be identified or photographed (and probably for very good reason) decided to help me out. As I was showing her how to operate the camcorder, the gift shop where my wife had just moments previously disappeared began playing its repertoire of Eagles songs for the day, beginning with 'Take It Easy'.

Taking this as a divine sign of approval for my quest, we quickly started filming. My lyrical knowledge was still a little shaky and if I accidentally hit a right note, it still hasn't recovered. And my little shimmy during the instrumental break is the same not-dance move I have been using since middle school.

I was ecstatic to finally achieve a bucket list level goal of mine. After eight days of travel seeing some of the most fantastic scenery in America, my trip was made by being able to warble tunelessly in a town that if it weren't for the genius of Jackson Browne would have faded off the map like so many other victims of the closing of Route 66.

Was it worth it? Hell, yeah! Because as the song says, "We may lose and we may win, but we'll never be here again, so open up, I'm climbing it. Take it easy."

More pictures here and if you are real glutton for punishment, here is the full three minute and eighteen interminable seconds version in all its glory.

Wasted At The Wine Festival

Last weekend we braved the icy pit that is post-Snopocalypse Washington DC to go to the D.C. International Wine and Food Festival. Held in the lobby of the Reagan Trade Center (ironically, the largest government office building in the district), there were over a hundred wineries pouring samples.

Knowing that I had no hope of remembering how many wines I sampled or even what they were, I took to videoing a short clip of me sipping each wine I sampled. Count along as I go through them:



As you can see, there was more than wine there. The food portion was on the balcony overlooking the main floor and was the most disappointing portion of the show. But the wines were the draw. Spain was the most prominent exhibitor with several tables and dozens of wineries.

Our favorite was Red Cat from Hazlitt 1852, a winery on the Finger Lakes. They served their wines over ice with a fruit garnish billing them as picnic or hot tub wines. I don't have a hot tub, but I will definitely hunt down a few bottles this summer.

And while I didn't feel any less sober after three hours of wine sipping, we did take the precaution of riding Metro back to our hotel. Definitely the way to do this type of event.

Chin-chin.

Where Is Yellojkt? Winter Getaway Edition

I'm having a hard time getting up any sympathy from coworkers, but my boss decided I was the right person to go with her to a conference in a climate known for its warm winter weather although last week that definitely wasn't the case. Today though, it is expected to be in the upper 70s.

Never wanting to miss a chance to turn a business trip into a romantic getaway, I arranged for my wife to come along. Since we had waited so long to make reservations, the official convention hotel was sold out at the Conference Package Rate and only had rooms available at the Rape Winter Tourists Rate. Instead we found a 'resort' just down the road to stay at. It offers two-bedroom condos for half the price of a hotel room.

In reality, this place is a residential development that bottomed out with the Florida Land Bust of '08 and converted the unsold units into short stay rentals. And when we arrived, we had been mysteriously upgraded to a three bedroom townhouse. The place was as big as my townhouse in Maryland. And while daily maid service is not included in the rate, they do have towels folded swan style when you get there.

My boss is in a unit of her own, so just my wife and I are rattling around in this huge vacation rental more suitable for family reunion or a traveling softball team. Last night we had dinner at Tu Tu Tango which has live starving artists and belly dancers and fortune tellers. Tonight I'm going to try to talk my wife into a cheesy dinner theater and hope she doesn't spend too much money while I am in long boring seminars.

So this morning, not having to go to dreadful meetings until later this afternoon, I jogged the 1.25 miles (as measured by the GPS/pedometer feature of my Droid) over to this building:



So the challenge for this round of Where Is Yellojkt is:

1. What city am I in?
2. What is that big odd building?
3. What conference am I attending?
4. Bonus round: What 'resort' am I staying at?

And just so you can sympathize with me a little, the top on the rental convertible doesn't even work.

A Tale Of Two Turkey Dinners

For reasons I'm still trying to sort out, we found ourselves on a thousand mile road trip to Savannah for Thanksgiving to eat the fried goodness of Paula Deen. Along the way we picked up our son in Atlanta who has learned were all the good food is made. So before we hit the road again, we stopped at a trendy burger place in Atlanta. Here is how the two stack up against each other.

Restaurant	The Lady And Sons	Flip Burger
The Sign
Location	Savannah In the historic district near the waterfront.	Atlanta In the industrial Howell Mill area.
Cooking Show Connection	Paula Deen is a Southern style fixture on the Food Network with a bevy of shows. Her two sons also have their own travel style show.	Top Chef Season Three runner-up Richard Blais is a 'consultant' to the restaurant.
Decor	Southern antebellum as designed by DisneyWorld. You enter through the gift shop and are assaulted by about everything Paula Deen related. I bought a kitchen towel with her macaroni and cheese recipe on it. The restaurant is three floors tall with the main dining room on the top floor.	A hip trendy night club with lots of neon and dim track lighting. In keeping with the 'flip' theme, all the tables and booths are mirrored on the ceiling.
Reservations	Only taken for holidays, which is part of why we went. Normally only same-day times are available starting at 9:30 am, so getting good time is hit or miss.	None. First come, first serve. There is usually a line and they do a lot of take-out business.
The Food	For Thanksgiving dinner they had a buffet with the requisite turkey and ham, but there was also plenty of fried chicken. All the southern style sides were there as well, including mac and cheese, green beans, creamed corn, succotash and the like.	The special Thanksgiving burger was a turkey patty topped with cranberry sauce, green beans, and fried onions. For dessert I got a pumpkin pie milkshake.
Verdict	Paula Deen is force of nature and her high volume tourist trap moves the people through. Still, the comfort food is well cooked and free of the extremes found in kitschy	The burgers are all cleverly designed with unique ingredients. The side dishes are varied and tend towards the trendy
Will I Return?	Probably. I would like to eat off the regular menu. What is the point of going to Savannah if you can't put some South in your Mouth.	Most definitely. The burgers are great, reasonably priced, and very convenient to the Georgia Tech campus.

More Mystery

It's not typical for me to be able to play Where Is Yellojkt Now? two weeks in a row, but I am on the road again. Her are more pictures and clues for where I am this week. To win you need to give the state, city and street where these pictures were taken.


It's not THE Capitol, but this capitol on Capitol Street sure looks familiar.


While not anywhere near the city limits, this street is a center for live music.


The bionic man doesn't live here, but another Steve, Stevie Ray Vaughn is a local hero. Blues is a popular format including J. T. Coldfire pictured here.


Rod Stewart may not play here, but Maggie Mae's is a local landmark. As is the Blind Pig Pub where Joe Vega plays every night except Monday's and alternate Thursdays.

I would be very impressed is somebody can solve this without Googling any of the bars or performers mentioned. Go ahead and leave your guesses in the comments or check out this Flickr set to more clues (as well as the answer).

Factory Tour

I drew the short straw and got named as the company representative for a boring, overly technical factory tour. Fortunately the social part of the trip included a much more interesting factory tour. So it once again time to play "Where Is Yellojkt Now?" Check out the hints and pictures (I apologize for the fuzzy quality of my sad Palm Treo lens) below to see if you can name the state, city, and company that I was at tonight.



This fiberglass horse is overlooking a fine mountain stream running through the woods. If you ford the stream, you'd find plenty of real horses.



We do the mash, the sour mash. Sorry, that was really corny.



That is a fine kettle of, well, not fish you've got me in. In fact, I am really steamed.



I don't know jack about barrels but these are in high spirits. Those aren't concord grapes in those casks.



Roll out the barrel and let's have a barrel of fun. The proof is in the sipping. 90.4 proof that is. Reserve me a bottle.

I just wish that I could fit a fifth or two in my carry-on bag for the flight back.

Air Blogging

I am currently at 34,000 feet using my AirTran GoGo WiFi free trial. It would be more useful if the airplane seats were wide enough to touch type instead of hunt and pecking to avoid jabbing the people next to me with my elbows.

We were in Atlanta for the Georgia Tech homecoming. The Yellow Jackets defeated #4 Virginia Tech 28-23 in a game where GT led the entire second half but could never quite put the game away until they caught the desperation onsides kick with less than two minutes to go.

While in Atlanta we ate at two more Top Chef cheftestant restaurants. That is us posing with Chef Eli as he prowls the dining room at the end of the evening. Look for those reviews in future posts. Hint: Don't knock fois gras as a dessert until you try it.

I also took tons of pictures of the Rambling Wreck parade which is always a hoot. Few of the really daring entries really work well, but that they work at all is amazing. In a way that makes them like blogging from the center seat in coach on an airplane. The novelty that it can be done at all is what makes it interesting.