Last weekend was insane. Really insane. On Friday I loaded my wife, my daughter, my mother-in-law, my camera bag and approximately 200 pounds of luggage into my Nissan Versa and drove to New York City. It was supposed to be a busy weekend – I had a photoshoot scheduled for Sunday, meet with some friends, give my mother-and-law a tour of Manhattan and drop her off at JFK on Monday for her flight back to Belarus. To make the long story short, it rained cats and dogs the entire time. My photoshoot was cancelled. I spent the entire day schlepping around Manhattan in pouring rain. I was wet and miserable. Finally, toward the end of the day we met with a few friends who took us to the roof of their apartment building in Manhattan; even through the rain the view was absolutely breathtaking! View from Liberty Park in New Jersey City Manhattan through the rain, photographed in pouring rain from the Ellis Island Ferry View from my friends` apartment building

We got up at 6 AM and drove from Daytona Beach to Sawgrass Park in the Everglades. That was my favorite part of the entire trip. A woman chatting with a peacock at the park`s visitors center. A soft-shell turtle swam up to the airboat The gator was so close to the boat that I could extend my arm and touch it.

By day 3 I managed to successfully hurt my shoulder (I`ve no idea how or when or even where). Carrying a DSLR became somewhat of a chore, so most photographs at the Kennedy Space Center were taken with a Canon SD1000 point-and-shoot. We managed to find our way into an actual NASA facility… This camera was blown apart by the shock waves generated by a shuttle launch When we finally made it back to our hotel, we went for a walk on the beach. And of course, who could possibly resist a cool jumping shot…

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is a pretty neat place to visit. I`ve never been to a lighthouse before, and barring climbing over 200 steps to get to the top and realizing how pathetically out of shape I really am, it was an interesting experience. If you are ever in Daytona Beach area, I highly recommend visiting Ponce Inlet (www.ponceinlet.org).

Initially my wife and I wanted to go on a road trip – drive from Pittsburgh to New York, Boston, Bar Harbor, Nova Scotia, etc. Basically, cover most of the northern East Coast. But, the weather in Pittsburgh has been really miserable for the past month or so, and we decided to skip the road trip and go somewhere warm. The flight from Pittsburgh to Daytona Beach exposed us to all the wonders that are today`s air travel. The flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta was over an hour late and we missed a connecting flight to Daytona Beach. Then we had to stand in line for an hour to get on another flight and sit for another two hours at the airport waiting for the next flight to Daytona. However, when we arrived to the hotel, all the troubles were immediately forgotten. The hotel staff was incredibly nice and helpful, they upgraded us to a room with the view of the ocean and the best part is that I got to take my first nap in at least 6 months.

I woke up at 7 in the morning to a spectacular sunrise After breakfast we decided to check out the famous Daytona International Speedway. I`m not particularly interested in cars or car racing, but it was still a neat experience. Even though we did not see an actual race, we got to check out an antique car show.