2014 The Year in Review - Part Two

Part 2 of my 2014 year in review.

my Canon 5D Mark II gave up the ghost after being caught in a torrential downpour on a bike ride home in Paris despite it being weather sealed complete with L lens on it.  It was a $2500 camera so I thought twice about getting a new one but in the end I knew I couldn't be without a camera so I got the Canon 6D and have been able to bring you this blog throughout 2014.  

Met my parents at the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon festival in Glens Falls, NY.

Solenne the Sommelier I met a few times at restaurants around Paris

I did 3 illustrations for Penthouse magazine

Bob was moving back to New York from Colorado so I flew out so we could take an epic road trip back.  We did 3000 miles from Aurora, CO through Austin Tx, New Orleans LA, Memphis TN, Nashville TN, Louisville KY in about 5 days.

 before we left we went around Colorado a little bit.  We drove through rocky mountain national park up to 12,005 feet.

We drove through the north east corner of mexico on the way to Austin and it was beautiful.

I love chips and I love flamin' hot and there was an insane amount of flamin' hot flavored products out west.  They even has some Xxtra flamin' hot products!  How does this trivial thing make the best of 2014 list?  You don't understand, I LOVE chips.

waiting for the Congress Bridge bats to emerge at dusk and fill the sky like the opening credits of a batman movie but there is probably a lesson in something to be learned here.  As each minute ticked past we were closer to the estimated time they would emerge but also losing a minute of austin fun time.  In the end on our 5th or 6th wave of accepting defeat they finally came out.  Not very many at all and it was super underwhelming and we weren't very happy about it.  Apply lesson now.  We made a beeline for party time.  Austin is pretty cool though.  We ate the best food of the trip here at Lambert's BBQ too.

New Orleans on Frenchman street.  We saw a brass band play and it was awesome and good times and everyone was drunk and dancing and a girl kept talking to bob.  She was like 55 and later her dancing friend in the back was passed out in the bathroom and had to be taken out by the EMTs on a stretcher.  As bob's brother this might have been the funniest moment of the trip for me.  hahahahah

Elvis' jungle room at his home, Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.  Graceland was actually pretty cool, the waiting and the shops across the street and the just missed tornado weather was horrible though.

locked the keys in the car in Louisville Kentucky but it worked out because we ate a hot brown at the Brown hotel while we waited for the lock smith to get there.  This might be the second funniest moment of the trip because bob was so un nerved by me locking the keys in his car.  hahahaha.  The most shameful part of the trip was when we ordered a fried chicken bucket family meal that was supposed to feed like 4 large people at the end of the trip and still ate a lot of it.

made this big 24"x36" poster illustration of the house I lived in for 1 year in paris, my aunt and uncles house in the 13th Arrondissement.  They have since moved back to Seattle but still own the house.  I think they are still working out what their plan is, I wonder what will be come of this house.  It was an amazing 1 year living in it.

West Village Halloween parade.  I believe that we did have the best costumes.  We got a lot of shout outs and love.  Jigglypuff and Psyduck.  I also enjoyed how I lied to bob and said it would only take 2 hours each to make these and then it took two days.  hahahahah

Full page portrait of Andrew Carnegie for The Smithsonian's 100 most signifigant Americans of all time special issue.

took jen to maine for her birthday.  we stayed in Kennebunkport and went to portland and kittery.  We had the best lobster roll ever in Portland 

a series of Illustrations for the Wall Street Journal about how you dress and how you're percieved

surprise birthday gathering for jen who was bummed none of her friends wanted to even get birthday drinks with her and then BAM!  We really got her, she didn't see it coming at all.

driving home for thanksgiving in this was not cool and very stressful.  People fishtailing all over the place

saw a ford mustang rental special online and couldn't believe it.  but low and behold they had it for me and it was the same price and a crappy ford focus or similar.  This is the second best rental i've driven after the Mercedes Benz E class in Normandy.  American muscle, not awesome gas mileage.  excess.  But for a day it was pretty sweet.

worked on this big Pharmaceuticals project before the holidays

went ice skating for the 1st and 2nd times ever and I was so xxxxxtreme that the skin on my ankles is still healing.

Probably the best photo of the year.  Bob with Christmas Goose, Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY  and what is up with blogger effecting the colors of my photos, it looks horrible.  They look good until they get uploaded to blogger.

Maybe the best thing I ate all year......that's a tough one, I was in Paris, Normandy, Maine lobster, all of america from colorado to new york.....  Bob was in NYC for his birthday.  He loves Chef David Chang so we took him to Momofuku noodle bar.  This is their famous pork belly bun.  The ramen was the bomb too.

Saw a lot of this guy in 2014.  What a guy

Christmas crackers and overall holiday festivities broke their previous record from last year.  It was assisted by Steven (a Brit) and Sophie joining us for Christmas.  Crackers are British and they snap open and inside there's a crown, a price, and a bad joke

The Raish Brother's Meat Bang also escalated in 2014.  This time we purchased a real gong to commence the Meat Bang and added red eye gravy to the mix.

My dad took us up on the hill to shoot 2 rifles and 2 hand guns

Our grandpa showed us his box of stuff from when he won the Irish sweepstakes with his brother Tom and they went to Ireland to collect the winnings. 

Ice skating in Corning NY with Steven Hedley the Ice Wizard and my whole fam.  The holidays were really jam packed with goodness.

We made christmas village again this year but out of basically none edible gingerbread so we decided if we're not gonna eat it we should destroy it.  We ended up setting it on fire and it was pretty cool and cathartic.  And props to my parents for letting us do this and participating.

New Year's was spent meeting Jen's fam in DC

So that's it for 2014.  What a year, another one for the books.  There was a lot of travel still but at least half of it was done inside America, which I hadn't seen a lot of and since its so huge I still haven't seen a lot of it.  I think in a few more years I will be able to say i've seen a lot of USA.  I'm looking at your Hawaii and California and Chicago.  Even though I'm back living in New York adventures were still had.  With my new camera by my side i'll be keeping the blog alive in 2015.  Stay tuned, 2015 is bound to bring good things.