The Year of 2019
While all the local day trips around the DMV and all the visits to Colorado, I find that nothing quite as wonderful as going to a completely new area, especially if I have never visited it before. This past year, I had the opportunity to visit Las Vegas for a work-related trip. During this trip, I extended my stay to visit some of the natural wonders of Nevada. Later in the summer, E, Shirie and I rented a car to drive to Colorado. We stopped at various towns and cities along the way, including Chicago. I had never had the opportunity to go to Chicago before and it had been one location on my list to visit in the US.
Nevada: Red Rock Canyon + Valley of Fire
In June 2019, I had my very first ‘business’ trip. My company had a tradition of hosting a company-wide meeting at a location outside of their offices. This year, that meeting occurred in Las Vegas. Unfortunately (or fortunately from a business growth perspective) the company has grown drastically and can no longer host such a large event. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience this meeting. Since several members of my team are remote workers and most of my team work in different offices across the US, this meeting provided an opportunity to meet the coworkers, who I have only seen via video chat.
Like many of my coworkers, I extended my stay in Las Vegas to do some exploring. Since I had been to Las Vegas multiple times before, I opted to visit some of the natural wonders of the region. Two co-workers (co-photographers), agreed to go hiking with me to areas around Las Vegas. We chose to do a quick trip to Red Rock Canyon and then a day trip to Valley of Fire. Despite a desert rain storm at Red Rock Canyon and sweltering heat at Valley of Fire, the sites we came across did not disappoint. All three of us discovered some wonderful photos and my coworker had an opportunity to take out the drone for some video footage. Even now, I still find so much beauty in the desert. The colors, the jagged lines, and the diversity brings so much life into photos. I look forward to any other opportunity to visit, hike, and photograph more areas in the western part of the US.
Chicago, Illinois
As previously discussed in the last post, E, Shirie and I took to the road across the US from Maryland to Colorado. While we pushed to arrive in Colorado as quickly as we could, we spent a bit longer on the drive back and opted to stay a couple of nights in a hotel in Chicago. I will Chicago is an interesting city and not at all what I expected. I expected Chicago to feel more like a mix between Denver and Omaha- a decent size city, with midwestern charm. However, Chicago felt more like New York City, with less hustle and bustle. We couldn’t do many indoor activities since we had Shirie with us and we did not want to leave her in the hotel. Therefore, most of our activities consisted of walking around the city. I can’t complain much because wandering the roads in a new city will always be my favorite travel past-time.
Until next time,
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