Two weeks ago, we went to St. George Island on the Gulf Coast.  Ironically, the only gas station on the island is operated by BP :-/

I think we were both secretly a little nervous about seeing a bit of oil, especially as we saw patches of UID brown stuff on a few of the beaches along the way.  Fortunately, the beaches on the island were beautiful.  Part of the island is a nature preserve, so it was great to see that everything was clean.  

The water was exceptionally warm, especially compared to the previous weekend's beach trip to St. Augustine on the 'first coast' as they like to call it.  The water was about 70 with huge waves (well, north Florida huge).  At St. George, the water must have been at least 85, if not warmer.  It was almost uncomfortably hot.  Anyway, we did see some wildlife: two types of jellyfish, horseshoe crab, your standard tiny beach crabs, porpoises (yay!), a large blue crab, a couple of little yellow-finned barb-like fish that tried to school with us, and all your standard beach birds.

It was a pretty good day, I have to admit :)

In July, we threw a surprise party for my mom's 59.5th birthday.  Her birthday is New Year's Eve so her birthday is usually fit in whenever it can be managed around the holidays, and in New York State, it's also really freakin' cold.  Since she has never had a summer birthday party and a day just for her, we figured that this would be the perfect opportunity!

After the party, the family went up to the cottage in the Adirondacks for several days.  It's still a work in progress, but it's great.  It has been my parents' dream for as long as I can remember to have a cottage, and now they are finally able building one right on the boundary of the park.  It will be just beautiful.  During the days we spent up there, I took one day to go hiking alone in the High Peaks area.  Weather started rolling in before I could get to the peak, but that's alright... more time for photos on the way down!  It was a wet hike, but I still very much appreciated having the chance to be outside and on a mountain trail... I feel like I belong there.

Some final edits from Ben and Kathy's shoot at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens here in Gainesville.  They did a great job handling the hot, humid, rainy, bright sunny weather.  Ah... summer in Florida...

At long last, here are a selection of processed shots from Maggie and Todd's engagement shoot in St Augustine!

Thanks for a great day, guys!  Can't wait for the wedding next month :)