Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Category: bucket list

Puerto Rico 2013

Happy almost-end-of-summer! (It’s not officially fall until September 22nd, right?) Chris and I just returned from a sort of unplanned trip to Puerto Rico last week. I say “sort of unplanned” because I am an obsessive travel planner and I usually have trips booked or at least outlined a year or so in advance. We originally thought we’d drive to Toronto for the long Labor Day weekend, but we decided a few weeks ago that we could use a longer vacation. Being close and on a direct flight path from Dulles International Airport, Puerto Rico fit the bill. Plus, we found an amazing deal on flights + hotel through Travelocity. So off we went!

We knew that we might run into some bad weather since it’s prime hurricane season, but we figured that staying at a huge resort hotel in the city would provide us with enough to do on a rainy day if needed. It turns out that a few of our booked activities did get cancelled due to a tropical wave that turned into a tropical storm, but we did have good weather most of the time and we found plenty of things to do.

The second full day, we took our little green rental Fiesta and drove to El Yunque rainforest for some hiking. The waterfalls were amazing. We hiked the trail to Cascada La Mina, and even got in the water beneath the falls. It was cold! And a little scary – I couldn’t see what I was stepping on.

That evening we headed into Old San Juan and took a ferry across the water to the Casa Bacardi rum factory. The tour was brief and we only saw a replica of the distillery process, but there were free drinks at the end!

Because our sail/snorkel trip was cancelled, we were able to spend a little more time exploring Old San Juan. What a cute city! The buildings are so colorful with ornate details. I took several new images for my collection of door photos.

We toured the two castles in the city, Castillo de San Cristóbal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and enjoyed learning about the history of each. We may also have played House Hunters, saying things like, “This is a great space! It has good light, and plenty of room for a king size bed. Oh, here’s where we could put our office…”

The last full day of our trip, we drove to Seven Seas Beach and spent the afternoon snorkeling right off the shore. It was definitely my speed – I like when I can just pop out of the water if when something freaks me out. Thankfully all of the fish were the friendly kind, although I did see my first spiny black sea urchin! I forgot to photograph or video it, you know, on account of being scared of it. I’m getting a little more brave each time I go snorkeling though, I promise. I’m not committing to it, but I may even try scuba diving soon.

Puerto Rico 2013 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.

September 10, 2013
Tortola 2013

Hi friends! Chris and I are back from spending an amazing week on Tortola, BVI. We’ve been planning this trip for a year, and were especially excited to go back to the Virgin Islands after last year’s trip to St. John was affected by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Issac. I was also really disappointed that our side-trip to the BVIs was cancelled due to the weather last time, so this year we figured we’d go straight to the British side of the islands to see what it’s like, NOT during hurricane season. We rented a beautiful villa above Brewers Bay called The Refuge, and spent the week visiting Tortola’s beaches, eating and drinking in fun little beach bars, and we even took a day trip over to Virgin Gorda to explore The Baths. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all week long – it couldn’t have been more perfect. Here are a few photos of the house, our view, beautiful sunsets each night from various beach bars, and our snorkeling adventures at The Baths and Smugglers Cove (and if you make it to the end of the post, there’s a video!):

So, I brought my SLR, a point-and-shoot, a GoPro Hero 2 AND my iPhone (overkill), but I actually ended up taking more video clips than still images if you can believe it! So (and please keep in mind that I’m a photographer and not really a videographer) here’s a short video I put together of our adventure:

Tortola 2013 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.

May 12, 2013
Published!

Truth: there’s something really neat about seeing your name in print alongside one of your photos in a major publication, and this is the first time I’m seeing just that! I know my photos have been in the paper and in magazines before, but not with my name (e.g., engagement/wedding announcement photos, second-shooter photos representing another studio, etc.) and I’ve had photos published online, but this was the first time I’ve had a photo printed in the Washington Post with credit to Susan Solo Photography. Pretty darn cool, and yes I went out and bought a copy. 🙂

And here’s the link to the online copy of Nicole & Colin’s beautiful wedding day story in the OnLove section. It was such a pleasure to photograph both of them, and to meet the wonderful Ellen McCarthy from the Washington Post.

February 14, 2013
Colorado Recap: The Obsession Continues…

Chris and I were in Colorado for Christmas a few weeks ago, and while we were there we took a trip out to Steamboat Springs for some snowboarding with my sister and brother-in-law. They are locals and longtime skiers, and they love Steamboat so we decided to give it a try with them. The resort is huge, and the skiing/snowboarding was amazing. They had just received something like 14-inches of new powdery snow, so it was definitely the softest, snowiest ride we’ve ever experienced. And it was COLD. The base of the mountain was 12 degrees, so you can imagine that as we went up (and up and up) the lifts, it got really chilly even with lots of layers on. Plus there were flurries throughout the day. Here we are, smiley but cold!

The view from the lift was just so pretty. The view down the mountain:

And the view up the hill. Plus an action shot of me! I’m happy to report that my skills are improving vastly – I can link turns consistently and make it down a run without really falling. I do still have a little trouble when the trail is really really narrow – that kind of spooks me because my turns are wide, but I’m sure I’ll continue to improve this season. We have several trips planned – I’m obsessed with our new hobby.

Most importantly, while I was in Colorado I got to spend quality time with my family for the Christmas holiday. I love them so much! We chatted a lot, and I personally ate a lot, so thank goodness for the snowboarding to burn off the calories.

And I got to see my nephew, Andy the Weimaraner (pictured below), and my niece, Fiona the Snowshoe Siamese kitty! So that’s always nice.

Counting down the days to our next trip out there!

January 18, 2013
Shredding the Gnar

It was (almost) around this time last year that I started to learn how to snowboard! It’s something Chris had tried a few times before and he wanted to get back into it, so I thought I’d give it a try so it could be something we could enjoy together. Though I admit I was pretty scared to try it – having both of your feet stuck to one board that you can’t easily detach (like skis) while barreling down a slope seemed like a bad idea to me.

The first time I went was in Colorado where we signed up for a private lesson with one of the instructors at Eldora Mountain Resort. I was warned ahead of time that the learning curve is quite steep, and that’s an understatement! But I was immediately* in love with it, despite also being so frustrated with how HARD it is. I think it took me about five snowboarding trips and many many bruises before I really “got it.”

*Edited to add: Chris just reminded me that I wasn’t quite immediately in love with it. I was pretty flustered with the first few hours of the lesson. Our instructor had us practicing on a small hill, where we’d ride down and then climb back up with the heavy board strapped to one foot. It’s probably the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done! So actually, I think I said, “I hate this,” when we were on break.

Our instructor, Amir, was awesome. He was patient and really focused on the basics and a good foundation. He pushed me to challenge myself, but not too far past what I was comfortable with, alhough I did take a hard fall at the end of the day when he let me go down the bottom of the trail by myself. I’ll never forget laying on the ground looking up at the sky when Amir rushed over and said, “That was AWESOME!” Apparently I had linked turns a few times at the end of the run (by accident) right before I fell. Okay, awesome, but painful! My tailbone still isn’t quite the same.

I left with a few skills under my belt (and a very bruised tailbone), and once we were back home I immediately went out and purchased my own board, bindings, boots, helmet (critical!), and goggles.

We went nearly every weekend to Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania to practice, practice, practice. Thank goodness for the small hills and gentle slopes of a PA mountain, unlike the “real” mountains of Colorado. Much better for a beginner! Though we don’t have much in the way of real snow here – it’s mostly man-made snow over a hard layer of ice, so there are pros and cons. (Falling on ice is a major con.)

Here I am taking a short break on the side of the beginner trail. In addition to the learning curve, snowboarding as a beginner is exhausting! Thankfully all those waterproof layers allow me to sit in the snow off to the side and rest every once in a while.

I finally learned to connect everything together once I actually got OFF of the bunny trail, and went to a more difficult but less populated green trail. Look how crowded that bunny hill is! So many people to run into. Once I had a little more room, everything just clicked, and I started linking turns – this time on purpose. Yay!

And with that, I crossed off #49 on my old 101 in 1001 list for prosperity and to you know, keep it official. I’m really looking forward to our second season, hopefully with fewer bruises! P.S. We don’t really say, “shredding the gnar” except to joke around, but snowboard slang is pretty fun. “Sweet cherry cherry pow-pow” means fresh, untouched snow (powder). And there were a few occasions where I “scorpioned,” meaning I fell face-first downhill with my board overhead. There are no pictures of that, thankfully.

So what about you? Are there any new hobbies you want to try? Want to give snowboarding a try?! It’s (apparently) one of those things that you have to push through no matter how hard it is at first, and if you’re patient (and stubborn) enough, everything will just click and it gets really fun! Let me know if you decide to try it! And if you need any advice on protective crash gear, I’ve done TONS of research on pads, helmets, wrist guards, etc. And I’ve done lots of crashing, so I can vouch for what works. 🙂

December 12, 2012