Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: North America

Tourist at Home: Antiques Hunting

Chris and I spent the day in D.C. last Saturday trying out a new-to-us self-guided walking tour app called GPSmyCity. We downloaded the Washington D.C. version on my iPhone and selected the Antiques Hunting Tour 2 since I’m always on the lookout for vintage cameras. We ended up discovering some fun shops that we might not have otherwise visited!

Our tour started off in the Logan Circle area and the first stop brought us to Miss Pixie’s, full of the most interesting knick-knacks, furnishings, and used books.

My favorite find was this bin full of old film prints! I looked through it for a good ten minutes or so before I had to pull myself away. Some of the photos were marked on the back with names and dates while others weren’t marked at all, leaving me to wonder who these people were. I wanted to buy the whole lot (prints should have a home!), but at $1 per print it would have added up to quite a bit. And I don’t even have my own prints super organized, so maybe I should start with that project instead.

Next on the tour we stopped into GoodWood on U Street. I could have wandered around in here for quite a while, perusing the beautiful furniture and unique objects. And oh how I wish we had room in our tiny house for more furniture! I’m not sure what I would do with a shelving unit full of outstretched arms, but the display intrigued me and made for a good photo.

Legendary Beast sits on top of a comic book store also on U Street and it was the third stop on our tour. We only popped in for a moment since we were running short on time, but I’d love to go back and pour over the decades worth of fun baubles. It’s a small store, but it’s packed to the brim with vintage jewelry.

In addition to discovering antique shops, thanks to our self-guided walking tour we stumbled upon CakeLove and self-guided our hungry selves right into the shop. Holy sugar fix in a portable container, Batman. Is cake-in-a-jar the new cupcake?! Or has this been a thing for a while and I’m just now hearing about it? Either way, it’s an amazing treat and it hit the spot after wandering around the city. I highly recommend the Salty Caramel.

Our afternoon also included plans for visiting two of the local breweries so we had to cut the tour short and miss the last couple of stops, but we can easily pick up where we left off next time. And there are several other walks in D.C. that I’d love to do in the future, not to mention tons of other cities I’d love to tour with GPSmyCity. We found the app to be simple and intuitive, and effective for navigating around the city. I think one of the stores may have closed since the Antiques Shopping 2 walk was created (or else we were too hopped up on cake to find it), but we loved the ease of finding everything else. I’ll definitely be downloading apps for each of the cities we’re visiting next year!

Thank you to GPSmyCity for providing me with a complimentary code to try the app. The thoughts and opinions in this blog are my own.

December 17, 2015
Portraits in Washington, D.C.

For anyone who is new here (welcome!), I’ll start by explaining that I used to be a wedding and portrait photographer. Not too long ago, I had a very busy business for six years (before I decided to close that chapter), and one of my favorite parts about the job was the opportunity to explore the areas around me. I live in Northern Virginia just a hop, skip, and a jump outside of Washington, D.C.

Offering such a photogenic background, portrait sessions in D.C. were always in high demand and I found myself photographing couples in front of the city’s quintessential monuments and memorials on the regular. Those sessions inspired me to explore the city further outside of client work and I’ve made it a point to visit more often. I loved my photography business even though I had to let it go, so I thought it would be fun to reminisce by revisiting some of my favorite iconic D.C. portraits!

Washington Monument

It doesn’t get much more iconic than the Washington Monument. At over 555 feet tall, the obelisk can easily be spotted from so many vantage points in the city and it showed up frequently in my photography.

District of Columbia War Memorial

Tucked away in the foliage along Independence Avenue, the War Memorial is a little less traveled by the tourist crowd, so it made a perfect spot for images without a lot of people in the background.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

This is another one where we could often find a quiet spot among the columns for portraits, especially around the back of the building. The Jefferson also offers a beautiful view of the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument in the distance.

Lincoln Memorial

I’m no longer up-to-date on the current photo permit requirements, but when I was doing weddings and portraits you were not allowed to photograph inside the Lincoln Memorial without a permit, and the security guards were very strict about it. If they saw a photographer carrying professional gear with a bride and groom in tow, they turned you away immediately! Every once in a while I was able to get away with a casual engagement portrait if we were discreet. But I’ll never forget taking this photo of Nick and Marjorie in front of the memorial (which is totally allowed) in the rain. It’s one of my absolute favorites.

Capitol Building

My very first time doing an engagement session (eee! nerves!), I was photographing a couple who had access to the Russell Senate Office Building (Shawn worked there) and we were able to get a cool shot of the Capitol from inside, but there are so many other great spots in D.C. to photograph our Capitol.

Cherry Blossoms

Last but not least, and while they aren’t technically a monument, I can’t write about my sessions in the District without mentioning the Cherry Blossoms. Spring is a magical time in the city and the blossoms were the perfect backdrop for magical photos!

December 14, 2015
Catching Some Zzzs at My First Airbnb
Chris and I are no strangers to the sharing economy when it comes to traveling. We’ve utilized HomeAway, VRBO, and FlipKey many times for vacation rentals, but up until our trip to Scotland I had yet to use Airbnb as a resource. We decided to give it a go when our hotel research in Edinburgh returned pricey results. I scoured the Airbnb site to come up with a well-reviewed one-bedroom flat in the perfect location for a very reasonable rate.

Lined with tons of stores and pubs, and situated steps away from both High Street and the train station, Cockburn Street was the perfect place to base ourselves for four days. (Thankfully my brother who lived in Scotland for several years let me know that it’s pronounced “CO-burn” Street and not, well, phonetically.) We could not have picked a better spot.

Our host met us at the flat to give us the keys and go over the usual stuff. Everything looked just as it did in the pictures online and we loved the space. We always enjoy feeling more like a local, and popping in and out of our flat in the city certainly made us feel like we called Edinburgh home. As an added bonus, the pub downstairs carried an extensive beer menu and served a fantastic bangers & mash. What more could we need? (Well, maybe better instructions for the washer/dryer combo, but we figured it out eventually.)

We had such good success with our Airbnb in Edinburgh that we decided to use the site again to find a flat for a long weekend in Toronto. After a bit of research I landed on this new, modern-but-cozy condo on George Street, just steps away from some of the major attractions in the city. We were able to walk to shops, restaurants, and the Hockey Hall of Fame, but the location was quiet enough that we could get some much needed sleep.

At this point we are two for two in the Airbnb luck department, so we’re giving it another try for an upcoming trip next year: Brussels and Amsterdam! We’ll continue to use our favorite sites as well especially for island trips, but I’ll definitely keep Airbnb in my arsenal of travel tools. It seems to be a great resource for finding city rentals in a range of prices.

Do you Airbnb? If so, let me know about your experiences! If you haven’t given the site a try yet, here are a few general tips:
1. Be sure to indicate your preferred Room Type in your Airbnb search. For example, check “Entire Home” in your search if you’re not interested in a shared space. You also have the option of a private room (i.e., your own private room for sleeping, but you may share some common areas with the host, like the kitchen or living room) or a shared space (i.e., you do not have a private room for sleeping; crashing on a host’s living room couch, for example).
2. Get an idea of the going rate for the surrounding area. If most Entire Home rentals in a city center are going for $300, but you find an entire home with amazing photos and a perfect description in the city center going for $50, it might be too good to be true. Do your research.
3. Look for additional information in the reviews. The description of our Edinburgh flat didn’t state that it was located above a pub, but one of the reviews mentioned it and it concerned me a bit, knowing my light sleeper tendencies. The majority of the reviews indicated that the flat was in a quiet location so we took a chance (and it worked out fine), but it was nice to know what to expect.
4. Communicate with your host before you book. If you have any questions, they should be willing to respond. Their response time and the thought they put into their answers will probably give you an idea of what kind of host they’ll be for your stay.
And if you want to snag $20 off of your first Airbnb stay, click here! Happy and safe travels!
November 9, 2015
Photo Friday – PATH

When Chris and I visited Toronto, we knew we only had a prescribed amount of time to accomplish several things on our must-do list. I had heard of PATH, Toronto’s underground mall, and it was going to be our back-up plan if the weather didn’t cooperate. As luck would have it, bright sunny skies and perfect temperatures kept us happily exploring the city above ground, but we did see this elaborate PATH entrance when we stopped by the Hockey Hall of Fame. With stunning architecture like that I would have loved to see the rest of the mall, but we’ll have to add it to the list for next time!

October 23, 2015
The Lockhart: A Bar for Wizards and Muggles Alike

As any dedicated Harry Potter fan would, I felt it necessary to thoroughly investigate a new establishment in Toronto that has recently been all abuzz as a Harry Potter-themed bar. Chris and I were going to be in Toronto anyway, so when I heard about The Lockhart it was an easier decision to pop by than the Sorting Hat deciding to put Draco into Slytherin.

The Lockhart has received quite a bit of press worldwide and at only a month after they opened their doors the bar has a huge following. We actually almost passed on visiting because several reviewers complained about the long wait to get into the bar, and a few people reported that they weren’t even able to get in after an hour or longer. We decided to give it a try right at opening time, so we showed up in West End at 4:50pm on a Sunday and waited for the doors to open at 5pm. Chris and I were first to get there, but not even a minute after we arrived a dozen people showed up to wait with us. After we were inside and seated, the line outside continued to grow.

The nods to the Potter world are subtle, and I loved that. The Lockhart isn’t straight-up Harry Potter-themed, but it does look like it would fit right into Diagon Alley as one of the pubs where wizards and witches might congregate over an elixir. Easter egg drink titles on the menu will entertain hardcore Harry groupies (and one is said to be so obscure that you’ll earn a free drink if you guess the meaning), but muggles would be none the wiser. Other subtle nuggets from the wizarding world such as the stag logo or the “all was well” neon sign could mean anything to those unfamiliar with Harry Potter, so it makes for a fairly neutral spot catering to fanatics and non-fans alike. A few of the drink titles are reserved for Star Trek or Dr. Who fans, but again, subtly so. The only thing not-so-subtle in the bar was me with my camera, geeking out over the photo ops.

I’m a fan of specialty craft cocktails, and The Lockhart’s menu didn’t disappoint. Chris tried the Big Bad Wolf with bacon-infused bourbon, The Beach House (yum), and we split the Befuddlement Draft, served in a crystal ice bucket with two goblets and a ladle. It’s both a shared cocktail and a fun potions class experiment complete with exciting pyrotechnics. The Befuddlement Draft requires a trip to your Gringotts vault at $32 each, but it’s worth the experience to ooo-and-ahh over it one time and then move onto something else like The Shacklebolt.

For a few directly related Harry Potter references, be sure to visit the loo where you’ll find out that the chamber of secrets is indeed open. You can also search the whole bar for a hidden Deathly Hallows symbol. I found it, but I don’t want to spoil the fun for anyone who wants to discover it for themselves. Let me know if you’re itching to hear where it’s located.

So whether you’re a Potterhead or someone who appreciates creative cocktails, The Lockhart has something for everyone. The tapas menu will tide you over if you’re in need of some snacks – we thoroughly enjoyed the Deep Fried Jalapeño Mac & Cheese Sliders. The staff were all Hufflepuff-level dedicated, friendly, and seemed genuinely excited to be there.

I don’t know if it’s worth a trip to Toronto only for the sake of stopping by The Lockhart, but it’s absolutely worth your time if you plan to be in the area. I’m glad we went! Try hitting the bar when the doors open to avoid the line, or be prepared to wait a bit for a spot in this cozy pub. And brush up on your HP knowledge so you can figure out that obscure reference to earn a free drink!

October 14, 2015