Posts in Category: Travel
George L Smith State Park
These are from way back in January 2011. My friend Lori took me to this amazing park with cypress swamps and hiking trails. The light was wonderful and we stumbled upon a farmers field and an old tractor. It was heavenly. I need to take a trip back there.
Sapelo island and Chef Jerome
Saturday was obviously a day tripping day, beautiful weather, great company, amazing locations and food. It seems lately anytime Aly and I go places together strange and wonderful things happen – we apparently have amazing travel karma together. I take this as a huge plus when going places.
The intrepid travel partners
Saturday we set our sights on Sapelo Island and Chef Jerome’s Old school diner and got a bonus of visiting America’s smallest church – I know right – nature, culture, food and god all wrapped up in one quick trip. While we’re both not much on the whole “god” thing, the food and culture were amazing!
The ferry ride out to Sapelo is a fast 15 minutes and the tour is only 10 US dollars, which includes the ferry ride. It was extremely informative and very fun. We took the short trip, runs from 9am to 12:30pm and saw Hog Hammock, R.J.Reynolds mansion (outside only cuz someone was staying there), the light house, the old mill area, the only bar, and the beach. It was jam packed and fun! I would highly recommend it and we are both seriously thinking bout going back for a extended stay in one of the rentals for a long weekend.
So after the morning trip and our huge dose of culture we were famished – the nuts and natural light I had at the Trough just didn’t cut it. So we made tracks and headed to The Old School Diner. Aly had first heard about this place when she moved here and did an online search looking for actual old diners, which this place is not by any means an old diner, but it is seriously old school!
My experience here can only be described in hushed tones of awe during a full moon – it was that good. We walk in the door and Chef Jerome greets us with “Hello Family!” and proceeds to hug each of us – me twice! I was smitten.
Call me goofy, silly, gay, whatever but when the owner and chef of the restaurant comes up and hugs you and treats you like a long lost son you better prepare for some serious treatment – he did not disappoint!
The waitress took over as we wove through the numerous rooms of the restaurant to get to our table. The place could probably sit 170 to 200 in total through out. He had a large single party of 20 he was cooking for when we showed up (oh did I mention he does ALL the cooking himself – with only a few assistants to help prep) but he still managed to find time to talk with us and give us a personal tour at the end of our meal, more on that in a sec.
Say hello to my little friend!
The inside is covered, literally covered, with pictures of people that have come to the diner. Celebrities, autographs, mementos galore! The ceiling has netting on it to give it the low country feel and kept the insulation from falling into your food!
What a bar!
The best thing I can say is it is a giant folk art structure that sings with the soul of its creator Chef Jerome -who is personally responsible for its design.
The Chef and me
This man is a non stop tornado of positive energy who loves food and bringing people together. We decide on our choices for lunch - Aly goes with Scallops (she’d been craving them for weeks).
Scallops and coleslaw
I get the fried grouper and shrimp – we started with the gator tail app and their OMFG good hushpuppies.
Grouper and shrimp with potato salad
Desert was his peanut butter pie – which I have to say was sin. Simple sin.
Half eaten peanut butter pie
We finish the meal stuffed stupid, get our bill and then the Chef comes out. We figure he’s just gonna say hi and thanks and all that – nope not this guy… we get to talking and BOOM that travel karma kicks in… he says “grab your camera and follow me…”
He takes us back into his inner sanctum, where the creation of his southern confections happens. We were both giddy. But it didn’t stop there – no sir…
Where the magic happens!
We keep talking food and begin to discuss his peanut butter pie and I say how it was a hard choice for me because he has sweet potato pie cheesecake. So he motions over to one that is fresh out of the oven and has Aly cut a slice for us!!! I was like WTF this guy is amazing!
Aly and the Chef
We then proceed to try his strawberry one and some dirty rice -which no surprise – were out of this world. The level of hospitality, welcomeness and just general love for people exudes in everything he does. The joy and love that radiates off this man is contagious.
Aly and Chef Jerome
We will be going back and we are bringing people. They are starting karoke on friday and saturday nights and while its a 45 minute drive from savannah it is totally worth it! I cannot recommend this place more for a true southern low country experience.
And then there was the church…
Small doesn’t begin to explain this structure, tiny, quaint, functional that explains it. Nestled in right off the road in a quiet grove of trees it is an idilic spot for rest or meditation.
The littlest church ever!
The inside is well kept, clean and orderly. I was expecting it to be locked – it wasn’t.
I figured Jesus wouldn’t mind if a shot a few experimental photos and said a silent prayer for my mom. so thanks Jesus…
All in all a wonderful day trip and great experience. There is so much that sits around us every day that we forget about and all we need to do is lift our heads out of our daily routines and look around.
Remember to have the eyes of a tourist, the body of an adventurer and the soul of a wander.
Peace.
J
A day of textures and macro shots…
Went to Wormsloe plantation the other week and I’ve just finally gotten the images cleaned up. Did a lot of macro work that day, really enjoyed playing with the depth of field. Here are my favorites from the day.
Alchemy – A north Georgia Burn
How many of you knew that there was a Burn going on in GA the last weekend of September? Not many I imagine. What’s a Burn you ask? Well maybe you’ve heard of Burning man… or maybe not.
Alchemy is a regional burn festival that follows the 10 guiding principles of a burn - radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leave no trace, participation, and immediacy. All wrapped up in a amazingly open festival focused on art installations, community and a giant tent city!
It took place up near Lafayette GA, 6 hours from Savannah but it was well worth the trip. I set out late Thursday night to begin my adventure – solo. Just me, my tent and my trusty photo gear ready to meet new friends and experience what this mini burn was all about. After some brief struggling with the directions and at 1am in the morning I arrived on the farm tired but excited. Little did I know what amazing weirdness and adventure the weekend was to have in store for me.
After setting up my camp next to a glowing blue stripper pole – figured these guys might be on to something – I grabbed a bottle of wine and made my way about the still active camp. There were lights, and dub music emitting from everywhere and it was now 3am! Apparently Burners never sleep. After a few hours of wandering I came back to camp and passed blissfully out for 3 hours.
The next day I met the gents near me and in the spirit of the burn I proceeded to help them set up their camp – a giant 30×50 tarp in 25mph winds. It took us six hours but man it was worth it! I re learned the art of tying a half hitch, and had an amazing lunch that involved shrimp cocktails and summer sausage. Ahh… bliss.
That night the camp next to us, put on a laser show that erupted all across the massive acreage of the burn – drawing contour lines across the tens of acres and throwing patterns and color over the tent city. It was wonderful, stunning and beautiful to watch. Lots of cash went into that hobby and the show was well worth it. The burn was now in full swing and everywhere was jumping. Music, dancing, singing, everyone was happy, open and relaxed. The spirit of community was high and radical self-expression was in overload. There were belly dancers, nudists, ravers, old and young all around, all participating, all just being, all enjoying the tree.
This year the peeps at Alchemy set up a unique community puzzle that once solved the main burn of the effigy would be lit and all sorts of wonderful explosive mayhem would ensue. Saturday day towards the end of the afternoon the puzzle got solved and the burning of the effigy commenced – a giant 3 story structure made up of doors burned gloriously in the waning sunlight. You could feel the power of the crowd erupt as the structure finally crumbled in on itself and then once the heat dwindled the rest of us danced around the coals to celebrate. Tomorrow we would all begin to part ways, but that night… that night we would celebrate till the sun came up!
The morning brought clarity from the joy and fogginess of the night before and with a warm, but slightly heavy heart I packed up my camp, said my goodbyes and headed back home. The drive brought deep reflections on the weekends merriment and what it all means to be alive, to be an artist, to be a human. And what I came up with was this – Life is all about expression. The closer we come to touching on our own truths and then expressing those truths to the world the closer we come to being truly human. Humanity is expression. That is what Alchemy taught me this year.
Here are a ton of shots from the weekend - BE WARNED some of these are NSFW and contain nudity. This was an open event where such behavior was encouraged and welcomed. The photos were taken in part as a record of said event and are meant to present an editorial/artistic view of the festival. In no way am I condoning or condemning any of the behavior or activities of said individuals they take full responsibility for their actions. I am simply recording them and portraying them in the best possible light in view of the principles of the burn. Enjoy!
Last stop Chennai!!!
Well guys I made it back to the states safe – here are the last set of pictures from my stay in India. I will be writing up a post on my thoughts later in the week so stay tuned. Till then enjoy the shots…
Ah New Delhi…
Well kids – here’s some more photos from the trip so far. Thoughts on India to come at conclusion of trip.
Mumbai!! We made it!
I really dont’ have time to write down my thoughts completely here at the moment – so I won’t. : P But I know you all are jonesin’ for some photos… so here they are. As an aside – most of these were shot from a moving taxi through glass windows. More on my thoughts later…
Day 1 gallery
Ah lines…
Waiting for Vlads I-94 card or as he calls it “the what the hell are you doing here card.”
This may be my last mobile post… In 14 hours we will be in Mumbai. We board in 1 hour!!!!
The joys of newark airport
Dunkin donuts, free drinks, and a Gallager steak house. 12 hour layover, cake.
The journey begins
3:30am wake up call and we are off. India here we come! Vlad and I are now running bets on which of us are going to get searched more-so far it’s Jason 1 Vlad 0. Yeah the Bulgarian doesn’t get searched but the American gets the pat down… It’s probably cuz I’m such a looker. 
A wonderful day shark fishing!!!
Today I checked another of my goals off my list of things to do before I die… I went shark fishing! My buddy Justin took Jaime, Liz and myself out on his boat for an afternoon of amazingness. It was a intense day with good fishing and crazy weather. With lightning striking above our heads we called it a day and traveled through what can only be described as a mini white squall. It was raining so hard we could barely see the anchor on the front of the boat. Once we cleared that well then it was time for Justin to teach Jaime how to throw a cast net to score some shrimp – which Jaime and Justin managed to pull in quite a tidy some. We were then graced with one of the most spectacular sunset over water that I have ever seen – unfortunately my phone died so no photos of that today, but I took several with Justins big camera so hopefully I’ll have that to show later on.
All in all an amazing day fishing with friends – here’s some photos for ya to cruise through -
