Boston/Paul McCartney

I met Clark, Jeanne & Mitchell in Boston for the Paul McCartney concert at Fenway Park. I've never been a huge fan of McCartney's, but must say that he put on one helluva show. I fell in love with this city too. Absolutely beautiful & so much of our nations history.
Here is one of the streets in Beacon Hill. Very cool neighborhood of Boston as they have the gas street lamps.Fenway Park where the Red Sox play. They should NEVER tear this down. It is a beautiful piece of Americana. McCartney put on quite the show.
McCartney on the big screen. Favorite song he sang was from his time with Wings, "Band on the Run". Awesome!!



This is Paul Revere's house in the North End of Boston. Obviously you all know the story of his ride, but did you know there were 2 other riders named Dawes & Prescott? It is kind of hard to make words rhyme with Dawes & Prescott and that is how the poem of Paul Revere came to be & this is why he is the better known of the three.
So I walked the whole Freedom Trail while I was in Boston and it was pretty cool. Here I am at the last stop of the day which is atop Bunker Hill Monument overlooking Boston in the distance.

Chicago

I traveled to Chicago with my buddy Pendergraft for the weekend. It was a fun trip, but the weather wasn't the greatest. This is absolutely one of the prettiest cities in America in my opinion.
We took a riverboat cruise which was the highlight of the trip for me. Pretty cool to learn about the whole construction of the river & how it all came to fruition.
Here is a pic of "the bean" as they call it in Chicago. If you look closely you can see Steve and I in the middle of the pic. This is a pretty cool piece of artwork.
Steve and Jim out one night. It was crazy how packed all the bars were this particular weekend since it was Market Days. Market Days is a big street fair with live music. This festival was definitely not for me.

Peru

Carla, Jeanne & I traveled to Peru for one very unique adventure. None of us had ever been to South America and it was truly a beautiful place. It had been several years since the 3 of us had been able to take a trip together & I must admit that it was a lot of fun hanging out with my sister & sister-in-law.
Destination Lima, Peru.
Let's get this trip started. Here are Carla & I before leaving outbound from Atlanta.
Carla & Jeanne getting ready to board the bus that would take us to our river boat in Puerto Maldonado.
On the boat ride over to our resort. Do you notice who that is in the background? None other than Julia Louis Dreyfus (Elaine) from Seinfeld. She and her family were staying at the same resort as us. Absolutely beautiful in person.
Cool shot aye? Two butterflies in the butterfly house at our resort.This is what the inside of our cabana looked like. It was awesome.
After a long day of traveling these hammocks came in handy. Jeanne enjoying the simple comforts of our trip.
This is the outside of our cabana. The name of the resort was Inkaterra & it was unbelievable. Notice the ginger growing right outside our door.
The infamous tree that Carla couldn't get enough of. haha.
Me Tarzan!!!! On our hike through the rain forest.
Here we are above the rain forest. We climbed 200 feet & were amazed at the beautiful views.
Here I am crossing one of the suspended bridges that connected us to multiple platforms in the forest.

Crossing the canopy.
Carla & Jeanne before we took our LONG hike in the forest to Lake Sandoval.
Dang girl, lose some weight. So we get to Lake Sandoval and all of these Rickshaws are there in the middle of no where.
One of my favorite pics from the trip. Carla hates it because she looks like death warmed over, but it is beautiful with the sunset overlooking the rain forest.
Another shot overlooking the rain forest.
Here I am at Sacsayhuaman. Carla called this "sexy woman". :)
Carla & Jeanne after their Peruvian makeovers.
We had a blast white water rafting while we were there as you can tell by this shot.
Man overboard! We thought we were going to lose Carla. Dang Cletus, get a grip!
The Apple Dumpling gang before our horseback riding through the Sacred Valley.
I think Carla & Jeanne are actually bigger than their plugs :)
Giddy up cowboy!
Overlooking the Olay tambo River in the Sacred Valley.
Fun night in Cusco enjoying our Pisco Sours.
What is that on the plate you might ask? Why it is Cuy otherwise known as fried Guinea Pig.
Tastes like chicken. The guinea pig actually tasted quite good minus a few hairballs.

Actual video of the experience.
Later in the evening after enjoying too many Pisco Sours. As Jennifer said, "nice cavity".
Market in the Sacred Valley
Here is a picture of our resort in the Sacred Valley called Sol y Luna. Ron Howard was actually staying at this same resort while we were there.
All aboard the Orient Express which takes you to Machu Picdhu. A beautiful train ride that takes you through some amazing scenery in Peru.
Some of the native Inca dancers as we are boarding the train.

Cool video of the dancers. Bless the far little guys heart in the back. Poor guy just doesn't have rythym.
Jeanne & I enjoying the views from the train.
I just want to say that Ron Howard could not have been a more gracious person. He took countless pictures for all his fans. Here we are as we arrived in Aguas Calientes. He stayed at the same hotels that we did for the next several days.

The back of the car they had entertainment adjoining the bar. Hmm, go figure :). Here are some of the musicians getting the passengers involved.
This is what I wanted to see most on this trip. Machu Picchu is truly a sight to behold.
This IS my favorite picture of the trip. We made it! Yay!!!
Another shot of Machu Picchu in the background.
Carla & Jeanne at the gate of Machu Picchu.
What's the password to get in?

The Inti Ramey festival.
Carla & Jeanne with some of the native dancers that were participating in the Inti Ramey festival which is the shortest day of the year in Peru.


Go Carla Go! Dancing through the streets of Cusco.
Here I am with 2 cute little girls & their goat in Cusco.