jeffblaylock.com
Hiker. Blogger. Photographer. CrossFitter. Dog Owner. Texan.
Solar Eclipse Sunset
May 20th
A partial solar eclipse, visible at sunset, as seen from North Texas.
We took a short drive to the little town of Ponder to view today’s solar eclipse. We’d planned to see it from the Northwest ISD complex, but a large and dark cloud stood between it and the sun. With moments to spare, we packed up and drove north, finally reaching the Ponder ISD football stadium. These photos were taken from the top of the bleachers, beside the press box. God bless high school football!
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St. John Snorkeling
Feb 19th
A barracuda swims by me as I snorkel off Mary Point in Virgin Islands National Park.
During our honeymoon, my wife and I went on two guided snorkeling trips. Our first, with Cruz Bay Watersports, took us to Lovongo Cay just outside the boundaries of the national park. There our new underwater camera failed, the second one I’ve “lost” in the Caribbean (The first is at the bottom of the Bio Bay on Vieques.). The next day, we took an all-day snorkel sail with Captain Jamison and the crew of the Kekoa. Jamison happened to have the same Canon camera that I was carrying, and he happened to have the nice underwater case for it. And he just happened to let me borrow it for our snorkels off Mary Point and in Leinster Bay near Waterlemon Cay. These photos are from those two snorkels.
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Reception No. 1 in Photos
Jan 10th
One of the few traditions we upheld was the ceremonial cutting of the cake. As neither of us are dessert people, the only bites we had of it were the ones we ceremonially fed each other.
On our wedding day, we held a reception at the Wildwood Inn in Denton. We had rented out the hotel for the night of and night before the wedding. We had taken most of our photos before the ceremony, but we had a few to take at the end. So we arrived about half an hour after most of our guests.
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Our Wedding Ceremony in Pictures
Jan 9th
It was important to each of us that we walk down the aisle together. This was one of several wedding ceremony traditions we turned on its head.
Here are some highlights of the wedding ceremony itself. The ceremony began precisely at 5:30 p.m. on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. In Denton, Texas, it was sunset, and the last rays of the setting sun shone through the west-facing stained glass windows.
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Before the Wedding
Jan 9th
Angels sing on our shoulders in Cole Chapel.
Here are some highlights of wedding day photos, taken by Karen Scruggs and her excellent assistant. Lisa was already thoroughly photographed before my first turn before the cameras. Since we were going to escort each other down the aisle, and take photos beforehand, we decided to have a formal “First Look” moment for my first view of my bride.
Prior to our wedding ceremony, we had a few moments with just the two of us (and the photographers) so I could get a "first look" at my bride.
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‘Tis the Season
Dec 29th
It's time to take down the Christmas lights. Since this is Texas, I have to dress for the wintry weather, which means cargo shorts and no shirt. 'Tis the Season!
The Toast
Dec 27th
My best man toasts the happy couple during our wedding reception.
My best man Brett quoted Edward Abbey in his toast to the bride and groom:
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets’ towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottoes of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you — beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
