Philly Vacation

So, I'm back from vacation and back at work. A new part time job as the Director of Casino-Free Philadelphia and my other part time job with Training for Change is ramping up. But, I managed to find a few hours to edit photos from vacation. Here are some highlights:

On Memorial Day, we went to Asbury Park, NJ, home of the Boss (Bruce Springsteen). We had a great time since we got to the beach early, before all the other Philly and NYC people descended for a gorgeous day. We spent the day at the beach, and went to the Pinball Museum where we got unlimited play on 50-year-old pinball machines for an hour, for $10!

Turns out Asbury Park has more than just the club Bruce Springsteen got his start at. It's also got a beach!

Then we headed out on a party boat with a crew of Rutgers researchers who were studying black sea bass. We fished and fished and fished and tried to catch anything, but to no avail. Even the experienced folks weren't getting any fish. Guess they just weren't biting!

Casting our first lines

Afterwards, we came home to Philly and braved the Franklin Institute, full of kids and not enough adults, so Max could ride the sky bike.

Max, on the SkyBike at the Franklin Institute

We walked across half of the Ben Franklin Bridge, which it turns out is the longest suspension bridge in the world!

Philly skyline, from New Jersey

We went up to the top of City Hall, just below Billy Penn's shoes, to see the City from above. It was one of the highlights of the trip! If you're ever in Philly, do it!

Looking up to north Philadelphia, from the boots of Billy Penn

There was lots of other things, but I'll finish by sharing 2 photos from the Legendary Crystal Ball. Ballroom culture is a pretty amazing thing that I had no idea about - basically, gay and trans people of color get dressed up in costumes or outfits and perform on a runway. It's brutal, and amazing. I'm lucky to get to see it! Wikipedia explains it OK, if you want to know more.

Great costume!

A fancy move I've forgotten the name of where you stand on one leg and then fall backwards onto your back. Seriously impressive!

The other thing Max n I did during the vacation was write up our own list of the top 50 foods to eat in Philadelphia. This list will be coming to the blog soon!

In other news, I've got my first two real paid photography gigs this month. The first is photographing a series of conferences in Philadelphia put on by Philadelphia FIGHT. It's called AIDS Education Month. The other is a quick gig photographing Pride this Sunday for Metromix. My flickr buddy Holly hooked me up, since she couldn't do it. It's nice to find people who want to help me get into this work, instead of getting grouchy b/c I might be cutting in on their turf.