Category Archives: Travel

crazy stories, Entertainment, Music, Photography, Reviews, Travel June 2, 2018 No comments

Butcher Babies Meet and Greet Corpus Christi

On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, we went to go see the Butcher Babies in Corpus Christi. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to a concert. I think the last one we went to was Katy Perry in January. Sit and back and relax because this is going to be one crazy story.

At around 5 AM, I woke up to go to the bathroom and feed the cats. It was dark and I couldn’t see where I was going. I slipped and fell and heard something on my body crack very loudly. My thought was, Well that sounded expensive. I start panicking because I don’t know what to do. I yelled out for my dad to come help me because there was no way I could do it by myself. I felt bad because my dad should not have been deadlifting me off the floor because of his health. He helped me get into the chair. I waited there while my mom got dressed.

Surprisingly, I didn’t pass out from the pain. I have never broken anything before. I’ve passed out for being 10 minutes later for class, but a broken ankle is no big deal. Luckily, we have a wheelchair that my dad uses sometimes, and my dad wheels me to the car so that my mom can take me to the Emergency Room. I didn’t realize how far the hospital was from our house until I was sitting in the car in pain for 20 minutes.

The hospital workers in front bring a wheelchair to come get me, and I get in the chair. I had forgotten my glasses so I tell them, “Just so you guys know, I’m blind and can’t see anything.” Now to be fair, when I don’t have my glasses I can’t see anything farther than 3 inches in front of my face.

One of the guys says in amazement, “Wow. How did you know where my hand was?”

I was like ” Oh, my god. I just meant I don’t have my glasses. I’m sorry.” I had a good laugh. They didn’t think it was that funny. They ask me all the standard questions and then they take me in for an X-Ray.

About an hour later, they tell us my ankle is broken in 2 places and that I need surgery. They put my leg in a splint and send me home and refer me to an orthopedic surgeon. I get to the surgeon at about 10 AM and they do another set of X-rays on me because they can’t find my other ones. They come back to tell me that I will definitely need surgery and that I will be off my feet for a minimum 6 weeks.

I asked the doctor if it was okay to still go to the concert since it was indoors and I had the wheelchair at home. He said it was fine. We were originally going to leave around 12 PM, but I didn’t leave the doctor until about 12:45. We just barely made it to Corpus Christi with 30 minutes to spare. The venue is the House of Rock. They had some really good pizza there. Heidi was freaking out that I broke my ankle that morning, went to the emergency room, saw the doctor and got a splint, then drove 3 hours to Corpus Christi for the Meet and Greet.

“That’s dedication!” said Heidi.

I was on pain meds so I’m not sure but I think Hank was the one that said, “If that was me, I would have bailed. That’s awesome that you still came to see us.”

My dad says, “In our family, that’s not enough to stop us.”

We didn’t get to stay for the show, but I got a wristband and the whole band signed my splint. It was the 4th best night of my life: concert edition.

Photography, Travel June 28, 2017 No comments

Please Enjoy These Rejected Adobe Stock Photographs

Here are a few photos that Adobe Stock rejected for not having any commercial value. I disagree, but since I’m being generous you can check out these photos for free. I thought a lot of these pictures came out pretty good, but I suppose I can see why they weren’t accepted. I learned a lot about what makes for good stock photography. I brought a photography guide with me so that I can try to take better photographs. Even though it was published in 1974, it still had a lot of timeless advice that translated well into modern photography. I took over 3,000 photographs and barely had 200 photos that came out relatively good. I have definitely improved my photography skills over the years. It helps to have a nice camera, but as I tell anyone who asks me, it doesn’t matter what camera you used to take photos.

If you would like to purchase some of my accepted photographs, feel free to check out my Adobe Stock contributor page. There are some really awesome photos that people submit. Stock photography isn’t what it used to be. There’s a much wider selection available now. I find it better to take my own photographs for blog posts, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using stock photography.

What I would take away from this experience is that you should always take lots of photos to maybe get one photo. A majority of the pictures I took were while we were going 70 MPH in the car. I was actually shocked at how good some of the pictures came out since we were going so fast. My favorite one is one of the trains and I was a little hurt that it wasn’t accepted because I thought it came out great.

If you like the way I take photographs, you can also check out my Instagram.

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Instagram token error.

Travel May 31, 2017 No comments

Forget the Alamo, But Not San Antonio

I recently read an article on CultureMap saying that people who visit the Alamo in San Antonio are frequently disappointed because the building is so small. I live in San Antonio, so I don’t really go to tourist attractions unless it’s a special occasion or for special people, like when my cousin and his girlfriend came from Florida to visit for Spring Break. They were only here a week, and I know how hard it is to sight see when you’ve only got a week to do anything. Spring Break is also quite possibly the worst time to go to any tourist attraction because there is a line for everything. They say 1.5 million people visit the Alamo every year and I’m almost sure 30% of the visits come from that week alone. That’s a rough estimate, so don’t quote me on that. I informed my cousin that if we wanted to see most the stuff worth seeing that we would have to get up because in San Antonio it gets hot fast. The last thing I wanted was to be walking around outside at 11 AM, but that’s what happened. We got a late start and didn’t get down there until 930 AM. We could have waited maybe an hour in line to see the inside of the Alamo, but I figured it would be better to look around the grounds and get some photos of my cousin and his girlfriend. We also watched a short documentary about the history of the Alamo which they really enjoyed.

When we got done exploring the grounds, we went back to the front to see how long the line and it had tripled in length. I wasn’t going to stand in line for 2 hours in the heat. So, we headed for the Riverwalk which is beautiful in its own right. My cousin asked me if I had eaten at every single restaurant on the Riverwalk since I’ve lived here for 23 years and I reminded him that although the Riverwalk is a historic and central part of San Antonio, it’s still a tourist attraction and most of the restaurants are incredibly expensive because, well, they are tourist traps. At the time, my cousin and his girlfriend were scavenging for geocaches and after looking all over the Riverwalk for an hour we only found one.

Our next/final stop was the Tower of the Americas, which I will admit I’ve only been to once or twice before. We missed the matinee time by 5 minutes and I barely look my own age so I couldn’t pretend to be a senior and they have no resident prices. Probably because it’s not geared towards the residents that live there, but as a couponer, I was disappointed about that. I got some awesome footage from the glass elevator of us going all the way to the top. I also got some cool pictures of the city from the Tower. Then, I started freaking out because I lost my phone, but luckily someone turned it into the ticket booth. So I called my grandma and told her to come get us. All in all, we walked ten miles that day in 100-degree heat.

I did a short interview with my cousin’s girlfriend Melany to see how she felt as a tourist visiting San Antonio.

Did you enjoy your visit to San Antonio?

Yes, it was beautiful and full of culture. I liked the blend of modern and traditional architecture.

When we went to the Alamo, do you think it made a difference that we didn’t go inside?

No, because we were still able to reflect on the historic event and appreciate the significance of the Alamo and its defenders.

What was your favorite tourist attraction (the Riverwalk, the Tower, the Alamo, etc.)?

My favorite tourist attraction was the Riverwalk. I loved all of the greenery. It was beautiful and peaceful with a lot of hidden treasures.

Here are some pictures I took as well.

Source: CultureMap;

life lessons, Travel July 17, 2016 No comments

She’s Never Been To The Beach

When I saw this picture, I immediately thought of this memory I had with Janet and the Aquatic Science field trip when we were at the beach. We took a trip to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Down the street from the aquarium, you could walk on the beach in the sand. I was standing there in the water, letting the water splash against me. Janet walks up behind me, quietly moving her toes around in the sand. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” She said with a sigh.

Being the sarcastic person that I am, I joked, “Back in my day, the beaches were a lot cleaner.” She frowned a little and looked away. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been to the beach before.” I looked at her perhaps too astonished, because she looked away from me again after seeing my expression. “I’m sorry this beach has to be your only experience, this place is a dump compared to a lot of nicer beaches.” I bent down to pick up a really pretty seashell. “Here,” I said as I handed her the shell. “This will make your experience at the beach special.”

She looked at the shell in her hand, tossing it around. “I don’t get it. What makes this one so special?” I smiled a little to myself. I picked up another seashell. “You see this shell? It’s got a piece missing. Your shell is whole. No pieces missing, no chipped off edges. It’s perfect.” She looked at the shell again. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We spent the rest of the day in the water, playing in the water. We ended up getting back on the bus soaking wet. We were the first Aquatic Science class at my high school and I enjoyed taking that class much better than I would have if I had taken Physics my senior year.