Back in late October we went to Florida to photograph Lisa and James' spectacular wedding in West Palm Beach.  While visiting south Florida, we took a few days to explore the Everglades and a bit of the Florida Keys.  Here are some of the highlights!

Yes, this is a Pygmy Rattlesnake ... and yes, I am using a wide angle lens, which means I was probably way too close.  Don't try getting this close to a poisonous snake unless you know well how to read their body language.  This one remained very calm and I took a lot of time to ease up to it to get the shot.

In late September we traveled to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, otherwise known as Rocky Point to photograph a wedding.  Aside from the actual wedding day, we spent a couple of extra days in the area exploring and having a little fun!  One of the highlights was renting ATVs and riding them around the nearby dunes.  The only downside to this was the intense heat.  From what I was told, September is a hot month in general, but they were having a freak heat wave that week which made the temperatures almost unbearable at about 105 degrees with 100 percent humidity.  We still had a great time though!

Purple Bill & Greeny being tourists :-).

This was the winter storm to end all winter storms as Arizona standards go!!!  It swept in Monday, January 18th and lasted through Saturday, January 23rd.  It came in waves and brought with it record rains for Phoenix (nearly 6 inches in places) and record snows in Flagstaff and the White Mountains (nearly 5 feet at the base of the mountain in Flagstaff and almost 8 feet at the peak.)  I personally have never seen this much snow at one time in my entire life.  Love it or hate it, you couldn't help but stare in amazement!!

WOW!!!  That's almost all I can say.  This was an intense storm - howling winds, electric out most of the night and nearly three feet of snow on the ground by Tuesday morning.  But what a beautiful sight :-)!!

Monday.

This all began with the booking of a destination wedding in Michigan for Labor Day weekend.  We decided that rather than fly, it would be a great idea to drive and see some areas of the country we have never seen before.  Thus began the planning and execution of the Great American Road Trip!

We really wanted to visit Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park so those were our first big stops.  We spent 2 days in Grand Teton and almost 4 in Yellowstone, both of which far exceeded our expectations!!  We spent much time in the company of bison (my new favorite animal), sometimes finding ourselves within 20 feet of the 2000 pound animals.  It was great!  The rut was in full swing so we got to see plenty of spit-flinging, snot-snorting fights which was also great!  We loved the many geological features of Yellowstone, but not the smell so much :-).

We then headed across the heartland through lovely, and flat, North Dakota, picking up plenty of bugs along the way.  We finally ended up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we spent a couple of days exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the wild shores of lake Superior.  I have always wanted to go there and it was well worth it!  From there we headed down into lower Michigan for the wedding and then continued on to Chicago to have a very quick visit with my friend Daniela (she photographed our wedding last year.)  We left Chicago on Monday knowing we had to make good time ... we had to be in Tucson on Thursday for another wedding.  We did spend a little time in Taos, New Mexico on the way home which was really cool.  After the Tucson wedding we headed straight home so we could be at a wedding in Sedona by Saturday!

So there it is!  Three weeks, 15 states, and 6500 miles later we came full circle on our Great American Road Trip.  Some of the highlights included spending a lot of time with bison, being charged by a male Pronghorn who confused us for a male he was catching the scent of over the ridge, a raging thunderstorm over the plains complete with american symbols in the foreground like bison and bald eagles, seeing the world's largest cow, Salem Sue, seeing my friend Daniela and those are just to name a few.  It was an amazing trip and I am so glad we decided to do it!  We took thousands of images while we were there, but these five emerged at the top!

Bison grazing at Sunrise