My Vacation: Roadtrips, Concerts, Cocaine, Bruins and Brew Pubs!

Ok man - let's get back in the saddle and ride this think into July! You ready? I am!

Vacations never seem long enough, do they? And this one was no different. Mainly because the storms we got hampered my plans greatly. Friggin Mother Nature! Valerie didn't have the week off so I was planning a solo trip up the mid coast of Maine, to Acadia and beyond- but the storms and forecasts pretty much ruined those plans. I can't even tell you how much I REALLLLLLY wanted to go, too! Ugh.

So - I made the best I could with the good days I had....

Here's one I shot up in New Harbor Maine. I loved the sea ice that had pushed it it up against the docks. This was Monday, the morning after a snowfall.

Here's another from Pemaquid Point Light in Bristol ME. This is what they call "The Bell House" (because there's a giant bell on the ocean side of the building). It was built 126 years ago to house a fog alarm for passing ships. She sits high above the rocky shoreline- and I caught it before anyone else had gotten there. I actually got up at 2:50am - which is earlier than i get up for work! - just to make it there in time for sunrise. It was 3 degrees.....haha

And this is the lighthouse that stands next to it (just off to the left of the Bell House)

I know some of you might think it's weird that I travel long distances by myself to photograph a place, but it's become my kind of therapy. And when I'm shooting, it allows me to go where I want, when I want - on a moments notice. It's fulfilling to me and I always feel better after having done it.

Tuesday's weather sucked - so what do you do when your wife is working and the weather blows? You go see a movie about a giant bear that ate a ton of cocaine!!!

Haha- it was EXACTLY what I thought it would be- so bad- it's kinda good!! Stupid as all hell, but watching that bear act like Tony Montana from Scarface after he stuffed his face in a mountain of blow - was pretty funny!

I got to meet Heather and Jim Soucy from Candia! They purchased one of my canvas photos - and they are longtime listeners, and were wicked nice! Great to meet you guys!!

The Brewery tour continued - (we've trying to visit breweries and brew pubs we've never been to once a week) - and this time we landed in Londonderry NH at the Long Blue Cat Brewery for BREAKFAST!

And yeah, I had a beer for breakfast!! Hahah - I'll be damned if I can remember which brew it was though!

Headed to Portland to see one of my favorite singer songwriters- Sarah Jarosz! She played with Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin at the State Theater! Great show with all 3 of them on stage the entire time, playing together and telling stories!

ps. I LOVE Portland Maine. Such a cool city.

Yeah, I'm a "folkie"- when it comes to music. Sure I love rock music, but man can not live by one kind of music along, right?

Tuesday and Friday- I did what many of you did. TRIED to get FOO FIGHTERS tickets.

But failed. Ugh.

And if you haven't heard- the FOO FIGHTERS will not honor any transferred tickets. That means if you bought your tickets to the show at Bank of NH Pavillion from a "secondary seller" (any seller other than the venue, band or Live Nation/Ticketmaster)- those tickets will NOT be honored. It's the bands way of trying to fight secondary ticket sellers that have been ripping people off for years, charging exorbitant prices for tickets.

When tix for shows like this sell out in minutes - its because resellers use computer bots to make online purchase. Re-sellers are partly the reason WHY you can't get tickets to bands like this. The buy tix and resell them at 3, 4, or 5 times their face value. And that's unfair to music fans everywhere- let alone the artist and venues that actually do the work to put the show on!!!

I've railed on ticket re-sellers for years and IM glad someone is standing up to them. I know this move will hurt some - who bought tickets from re-sellers before they knew of this policy. I totally get that -but if every artist started doing this- then it would put resellers out of business.

Im sure we'll be talking more about that on the show this week -

Moving on...

Down to Beantown...

Braved the storm on Saturday to head down and watch the Bruins beat the Rangers with Valerie!

And I'll leave you with a little bit of sunshine from the NH coast...

Hope you guys had a good weekend- and Im looking forward to being back this week!

g

ps. I've started a new Instrgram page specifically for my photography- @GregKretschmarPhotography- if you'd like to follow me! Thanks!)