Throughout this article you will find hyperlinks followed by the icon. These links take you directly to a picture from the trip. You can also browse the entire 117-image Big Bend Photo Trip album.

The past few weeks in Tallahassee have been absolutely beautiful. As always, spring break means an entire week with no students so the population drops significantly. It is wonderful how quickly one can zip around town with the student body dismissed. It was about then the temperatures finally started to warm up, bringing to an end the winter that would not relent.

There is a very similar student exodus and weather trend that occurs in the Fall as well. Around that time last year on Saturday, 04 October 2008, Claire and I went out for an afternoon of picture taking and driving around. Meeting at my apartment, we had breakfast at Jenny's Lunchbox before heading to the Tallahassee Amtrak Station. Originally built in 1858, this site on the National Register of Historic Places has been closed since Hurricane Katrina when damaged tracks truncated the Sunset Limited service route.

New Orleans is the eastern terminus to this day, although Section 226 of the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 gives Amtrak nine months starting 16 October 2008 to "transmit to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a plan for restoring passenger rail service between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Sanford, Florida."

After an hour at the station we drove up to Havana to walk around the shops and galleries of the historic downtown district. Finally, I took Claire to see the protected oak trees on SR 12 between Havana and Quincy. The venture was an unqualified success and we afterward vowed to select some new destinations and do it again soon.

In February, we started discussing possible dates and destinations. Assembling an itinerary of local sites, several of which I have wanted to visit for a while now, Claire and I settled on Saturday one week ago. As Claire had arranged an entire day's availability, we were able to venture out further than Havana this time.

Our first stop was Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park, site of the second largest Civil War battle in Florida. During the engagement that saw Tallahassee area volunteers including Confederate soldiers, old men and young boys, Union troops were forced to retreat to the coast leaving Tallahassee the only un-captured Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River.

We walked around the monument and then continued down the wooded Natural Bridge Road on foot. The area is an apparent hit with locals, many of whom were fishing or boating in the nearby St. Marks River. The State-owned Rakestraw property sits fenced in on the opposite side of the road, shaded by trees and vegetation of many varieties with ponds and creeks running throughout. There is even a resident gnome with the best setup I have ever seen.

Next on the itinerary is a location I have been to frequently, one I was surprised to learn Claire had never visited, the nearby Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. Approaching the main parking area at the lodge, I could see there were many more cars here than usual. We continued past over to the additional parking areas, which was just as well because it gave us a nice walk through the park. We hit all the usual spots: the boat dock, the view from the high dive tower and the lodge, enjoying the day more as the sky cleared and the temperature warmed. We also noticed there was a wedding taking place on the grounds, no doubt the source of the excess cars.

Although they have a pretty good restaurant at the lodge, part of the trip plan was to have lunch at a restaurant I drove past a few years ago while Mom and Ross were visiting me one weekend. Back in the car and on the road, we set our course for Carrabelle ready to enjoy barbeque at Hog Wild Bar-B-Q on Highway 98. The drive from Wakulla Springs was nice but took us twice as long as expected because of slow moving vehicles. Soon enough however we arrived, sat down and perused the menu.

I have enjoyed some damn fine BBQ before so my expectations are generally lowered, but Hog Wild was an enjoyable find. From the expansive menu I ordered the pulled pork plate with baked beans and cole slaw, a standard platter in my book. The meat was flavorful, tender and without fat. Of the four sauces available, I only tried the sweet variety—a typical BBQ sauce with a nice flavor and not too sugary. The baked beans were good but could have used a hint of marmalade. The Texas toast was crisp and buttery. And the cole slaw, well the cole slaw was like no cole slaw I ever encountered before.

If you ask me, cole slaw is shredded cabbage in a creamy, mayonnaise base and often mixed with purple cabbage, celery seed or pineapple. I do not like it too creamy, but what I was served substituted a watery vinegar base for the mayo sauce all together. The cabbage and celery seed were there but it was a fraud. Suffice it to say, I hope I never encounter this "cole slaw" again. In all, it may not have been completely "worth driving 100 miles for" as their slogan claims, but Hog Wild is certainly worth a stop if you are driving through. The next time I do so, I will try the potato salad instead.

Continuing toward our final destination, we took time to stop at the Carrabelle Beach parking area that has a nice view, picnic tables, grills and is also the former site of World War II D-Day training. We sat in the sun and enjoyed the breeze off the Gulf of Mexico before walking back to the car. On our way, a young boy and his brother saw me taking pictures and precociously attracted my attention. Upset that his older brother got a photo snapped, the younger boy ran up and said "cheese" repeatedly until I took his picture as well. It was a brief but entertaining exchange.

The second detour was in Apalachicola where there are cool shops and restaurants somewhat like in Havana, except here you are on the river and boats are docked nearby. We walked around the boats, through a shop and by an old, overgrown structure for twenty minutes or so and then resumed our course to the lighthouse at Cape San Blas. Located on the property of Eglin Air Force Base, the Cape San Blas Light has an interesting history of destruction and relocation which ultimately resulted in the (I think unusual) framework design.

Approaching the two structures on site, one of which I already knew to house a gift shop and museum, I noticed there appeared to be people walking up toward the lighthouse. The gift shop was unfortunately closed but next to that sign was another advertising lighthouse tickets for sale inside. Everything online had led me to believe there was no public access inside the lighthouse so I was quite pleased to see this. I spoke to the man who opened the door for a few people to climb up and he said they only started permitting access a few months ago. Having only enough cash for myself, I took Claire's camera and climbed up the extremely narrow spiral staircase to the top. The view was nice although by now the weather was starting to change, the clear sunny skies replaced with darker and darker cloud cover slowly moving in from the west.

The nearby beach was deserted except for two men fishing. It looked like a hurricane had just blown through by the trees and other natural debris. Jagged remains of tree trunks poked out of the sand, seashells speared and broken throughout. We sat on a long downed tree listening to the Gulf waters peacefully crash upon the shore until deciding there would be no sunset. The drive back was pleasant and soon enough we were back at my apartment. Since Claire had borrowed my memory card, I made her a copy of the pictures she took before bidding her farewell. Our next little trip should happen one weekend in April, during which we will visit the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum and then take a drive through the scenic eastern part of the county around Capitola. We are both looking forward to it.

If asked to identify myself as either a book or movie person, I would have to say movie. This should not imply I do not like reading, I do, but there is something about a well-designed film that captures my attention. Perhaps aiding this is the advantage film has in diverse creative mediums.

Although under the direction of key individuals like the director and producer, the movie is a product of many different artists. Even a poorly written feature has the potential to be enjoyable when say the cinematography or art direction exhibit aesthetic talent.

When I started hosting a movie night with two friends, I was excited at the prospect of seeing movies I may never have watched otherwise. Knowing I may not enjoy every title, I appreciate the fact that there is bound to be some redeeming qualities. Besides the films I picked for screening, most of the selections to date have been good. And as predicted, the few I did not particularly enjoy were at least ridiculous or funny enough to justify the experience.

It was with this same open-mindedness I recently accepted an offer to join a small, private book club of friends. At our first gathering the evening of 15 January 2009, the group of seven discussed some of the parameters such as selection criteria, meeting format, dates and the like. I am far less interested in the rules than in reading books, something I have been wanting to do more of anyway, so I mostly listened and chimed in only to say pretty much that.

For the next seven months and thereafter if we decide to continue, we will each select a book for the group to read and discuss it at a monthly gathering. I had planned to write a review of each book, but there are many better sources out there for critical literary analysis and I, frankly, find the meeting itself satisfies any need to provide retrospective remarks.

At tonight's meeting to discuss the book, which was widely panned, we read the suggestions for a group name. The winner is Read 'Em If You Got 'Em, a reference to the humorous Rick Moranis line in Spaceballs among other things.

Not discounting all the wonderful travels I have experienced over the past several years, I am very excited to be returning to San Francisco just shy of one decade since my last visit in June 1999 shortly after high school graduation. I will be in town staying in the Mission District from Wednesday, 20 May through Thursday, 28 May 2009. For those who may be interested in meeting for lunch or something, please contact me so we can arrange it.

I started looking into the possibility of going this year with the thought of using collected frequent flyer points to keep costs down and vacationing over a holiday to take advantage of the free day off work. In addition, I wanted two-segment (one layover) flights through Memphis International Airport if possible. In mid-January, I formed a plan that met these criteria and on the twenty-second decided to book my travel.

According to the Northwest Airlines website, I could purchase additional WorldPerks reward points to increase my balance from 19,754 to 25,000, the amount necessary for a domestic roundtrip flight. Sold in increments of 1,000, I spent $201.03 for 6,000 points, much less than the nearly $500 the tickets alone cost. Continuing to the booking page, I discovered that I still did not have enough points to purchase the tickets.

Puzzled and worried I had just made a critical mistake, I re-read the award travel chart detailing how many points it costs to travel to domestic and international destinations. Changed since my last visit to the site, the chart shows most US domestic flights now require 40,000 points for roundtrip travel. I dialed the number for Northwest customer service and waited for an agent, sipping on a freshly mixed cocktail and determined to find a solution.

After explaining the situation to the agent and learning the reward travel redemption policies just changed on 15 January 2009, I was presented with three alternatives to my original plan, each with pros and cons of their own.

    a.   Leave one day later and have two layovers; return on desired date and flights.
    b.   Leave one day earlier on desired flights; return one day later and have two layovers.
    c.   Go with my original plan, but use 12,500 points and an additional $250.

The third plan was unacceptable since I was not willing to pay more after already purchasing the 6,000 points. The first plan was undesirable for the delayed departure and extra layover. Left with one plan, I told the agent to proceed with booking the second itinerary. I was informed there would be a $20 fee for booking via telephone, perfectly acceptable considering my need for the agent's services was self-induced.

The real fee for my oversight will be paid on the day I return home. My flight departs San Francisco International at 0630 PDT, a mere thirty-nine minutes after sunrise, bound for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. From there I will fly to the one airport I specifically tried to avoid, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, to catch a CRJ-900 back to Tallahassee Regional. It will be a long day but I live close to the airport, so as long as everything runs on time I should be in my bed by 2200 EDT.

In the next weeks and months, I will have the chance to prepare a basic agenda, highlighting places I want to go and things I want to photograph. With any luck, the reward travel snafu will be the sole glitch on this trip. I had a dream the other night where I got to San Francisco and realized I had forgotten my camera, of all things. I think after neglecting to bring my battery charger to Japan there is no chance of that happening, but it still amuses me to know my subconscious mind is pondering the trip too.

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Andy Dufresne taught us the value of hope and that it "is a good thing, maybe the best of things." This concept fit the Barack Obama campaign well, echoed by those who voted for him. When you think about it though, very election is about hope. In casting a vote for a candidate, you hope they make the right choices and justify your support. Frequently they will not meet your expectations or worse will embarrass you by acting inappropriately. You make an informed choice and hope.

After the often misguided, discriminatory and embarrassing actions of leaders past, I hope the concept of change is not lost on President Obama when the weight of the nation's menagerie of issues grows heavier. I hope he is able to make more headway internationally with a foreign policy that promotes peace and security without advocating imperialism. I hope he can establish a bridge between the right and left, whose goals can be met with compromise and an open-minded acceptance of the other side.

Critics may claim that a lack of experience will inhibit President Obama's ability to be an effectual leader, but I think a fresh perspective not clouded by the cynicism and duplicity of Washington is exactly what we need. While the outgoing administration used the causes of freedom and democracy to justify many of its actions, I hope the new White House will do more to practice than preach, realizing that it is easier to get others to cooperate with your initiatives like anti-terrorism, disarmament and regional stability when you do not employ the same tactics you proclaim to abhor.

Like many others, I have eagerly awaited this day since long before Barack Obama blew the doors off the good ole' boys club and started his remarkable journey to the top. There were times it seemed it very distant, such as after the 2004 election and when the USA PATRIOT and 2006 Military Commissions Acts were signed into law. Now that it is here, I am excited to see what happens on day one and beyond, to see which hopes are realized.

I slightly regret my decision not to go to the inauguration, but factors like work and money made it impractical (not to mention the bone-chilling weather and enormous crowds). Instead, I will take an extended lunch and watch the ceremony at home via the internet. I will be there in spirit with Erik and Lauren however, with whom I originally planned to attend. They will start their trek to the from Alexandria around 0530 and make an effort to find a decent spot along the parade route.