Finally, after a cold and reclusive winter, May Day at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival arrived with perfect weather and lots of work to do.

Arriving Saturday night, Nathan and I drove through sunset that eventually dissolved in to an excellent view of the May supermoon that lit up the entire Heron property all night. We spent most of Saturday with our friends bringing each other up to speed on our lives at home and making plans for traditionally busy May Day Sunday morning.

I crashed on the Rockcastle’s floor, while Nathan followed his typical idiosyncrasy; sleeping in an uncomfortable position in an unlikely place – this time, the front seat of my car. This is not the weirdest place I’ve found him in the morning, oddly.

Nothing beats a Rockcastle breakfast – they gathered eggs from their chickens, pan fried some bacon, and laid out a smorgasbord of bagels and fresh cut fruit.

Shortly after breakfast, the work commenced as we prepared the Heron land for the hundreds of May Day attendees. Nathan and I spent some time moving picnic tables in to place, making burgers for the BBQ (from the Rockcastle farm), and taking measurements for a future project.

The turnout was amazing, and we have to credit the beautiful weather we had during the entire weekend. The Heron folks arranged for The Haybaylers to play some bluegrass tunes during the day, and everyone was in the highest of spirits. Everyone contributed to the potluck that stuffed probably around 200 people.

We finished the day by wrapping the May Pole. I took some video (posted below). I don’t think that in my time as a Heron volunteer I have ever seen so many people participate in weaving the pole. There were so many children that were part of May Day this year and I know that the festival will have many enthusiastic volunteers for years to come.

Nathan and I took a wrong turn on the way home and wound up about a mile from Lake Erie, so we took a few minutes out of the trip to grab a few pictures (it may be the only beach trip I get this year).

Thanks everyone for a great weekend!

As a major leap in overcoming my extreme case of winter cabin fever, I hopped on a plane and went down to visit my dear friends Michael and Sarah in Arkansas. It would’ve been 13 hours to drive each way, so in the order to maximize my vacation, it was totally worth it to fly.

By the way, ever since I went to Paris with Valerie, I’ve been using her Travel Agent, Canaltown Travel and have had a breeze making travel arrangements. Sites like Kayak and Expedia have boned me during trips via their complicated 800 numbers and automated systems. If a troublesome situation occurs, I know I can call Cathy up anytime and have my problem resolved, and it doesn’t cost any more than internet tickets, so it’s a no-brainer. Seriously, I couldn’t recommend her enough!

We spent tons of time outside during the trip, starting with our visit to the butchers to pick up their half cow they purchased. My favorite thing about Arkansas is that even simple, mundane drives like this are full of truly scenic views, with nearly endless landscapes of rolling Ozarks and shades of green that I forgot existed during our miserable brown Western PA winter.

Friday, we did some shopping and went out to eat (Mongolian Grill FTW), and did some light Geocaching which wouldn’t be complete without some regressive jungle-gym playtime:

The big event of our trip was a camping excursion than the Skvarlas planned. We drove a few hours east from their home in Fayetteville to the Buffalo National River – one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. I spent the whole drive craving some time alone with my motorcycle on those roads.

Our original intention was to camp at Steele Creek right under the stunning limestone bluffs pictured below, but as it was a sunny weekend in a campground that doesn’t take reservations, every slot was full, and we had to explore elsewhere.

We found a campsite in a different campground near Erbie, AR, a little downstream, which had access to the the Erbie-Pruitt Hiking Trail. After setting up camp, Skivvy, Sarah, and I explored a few miles of the trail at a leisurely pace. Like me, Skivvy is developing a strong interest in photography, so we spent a lot of time ambling slowly around the trail, stopping to kick over logs looking for wildlife to photography. While we didn’t see much in the way of animal life, we found some very photogenic plants.

The Skvarlas were a little more accustomed to some of the species we saw, but I had never seen cacti in a forest, nor Reindeer Moss, and it was exciting to explore a different ecosystem then what I was used to.

I suppose that by now, Sarah is getting used to what its like to explore the outdoors with Michael. Every now and then, you turn around and Mike has simply vanished, off to photograph a certain insect, turn over a rock, comb through some moss, or chase down a snake. These photographs should be a great editorial example of what the Skvarla lifestyle is like:

Hiking in Arkansas is nothing like hiking in Pennsylvania. I had few encounters with mosquitoes unlike PA, but also unlike PA, I had to flick about a half-dozen ticks off my pants, constantly stopping to check myself before they found a bit of skin to latch on to. Arkansas residents seem to be used to it, but I was not so comfortable donating blood to a less-than-charitable cause.

But the scenery is worth it. Along the Buffalo River, these kind of beautiful views are common, and the locals seemed to just smirk while I stared up in awe as I viewed the colors and shapes of these beautiful limestone bluffs:

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As the sun moved towards the horizon, we settled back at camp for a manly meal of campfire-roasted rib steaks, corn and Dos Equis. Amazing how the simplest meals tend to be the best ones sometimes.

The pinnacle of the trip was supposed to be a magnificent view of the Lyrids Meteor Shower, and the moonless, crystal clear night allowed for a superb view of a few streaks of light, but after we got to see about 5 streaks in the early hours of the morning, that same crystal clear night had caused the temperature to drop and forced us back in to our sleeping bags. We were a little less than prepared for the vast sweeps in temperatures during the Arkansas spring – nearly 80 F during the day but in the 30′s at night.

By sun-up, we were ready to call it a trip, and we packed up early and retreated to the Skvarla’s home.

It was an amazing getaway I’ll remember forever, and I can’t wait to go back and visit my friends and the beautiful countryside in Arkansas.

We go big for a few holidays every year, Easter being among them. It’s one of maybe 4 total dinners that we eat in the very exclusive Smarto dining room. In keeping with holiday tradition, we got up early and started making a day-long banquet including the Easter staples like ham, deviled eggs, dyed eggs, and the like. But we threw in some new experiments like coucous with dried apricots and pine nuts, Kate’s special macaroni and cheese and cheese and bacon and cheese, and berry triffle.

I wish I could tell you that we got up and did something awesome after dinner, but we ended up being victims of a severe food coma that incapacitated us for the rest of the night. #firstworldproblems

I had the distinct pleasure in participating the wedding proposal from my dear friend Adam to his lovely soon-to-be bride, Krista. Adam had been mentioning a musical wedding proposal for months, but the idea came to fruition rapidly over the last two weeks.

We started with composing the music on the piano and moving it in to Abelton Live 8 for mixing and mastering. Adam’s brother, Kevin, recorded our guitar part, and we spent hours trying to get every section and tempo just right. We had a few dance and vocal rehearsals, that despite not earning us a spot on Broadway, got us ready for Krista. On the big day, we coordinated time with Adam and got all of the wireless microphones, suits and champagne, flowers, speakers, and cameras ready for the big moment. It all came together flawlessly:

Special thanks to Tim Roberts for helping with videography.

Congrats to my dear friends! Adam and I have been best friends since freshmen year of high school, making one of the longest friendships of my life. We’re so glad to welcome Krista to part of our group (in a formal sense anyway, she’s been that way for years). Congrats you two!

Spring has finally sprung around these parts. Mom and I had some free time on a Friday, so we took the pups to Oak Hollow Park for a little exercise. Meanwhile, I spent more time with the camera then with dogs… business as usual.