Emily McCall Photography » travel

The Washington Monument

Emily — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:55:24 +0000

All of the recent excitement surrounding the presidential inauguration started to make me feel a little ashamed of the fact that I had never been to our nation’s capital, so Ben and I decided to go! But unfortunately, we didn’t make the trip until two days after the inauguration! Story of my life: always a few days too late! But we still had a great time seeing the sights and soaking up the incredible atmosphere. The first stop on our whirlwind D.C. tour was the Washington Monument.

Gorgeous, right? We went all the way up to the top.

Here’s the view of the White House from the top of the Monument:

And the Lincoln Memorial:

Our shadow:

This sign made us chuckle . . .

There was a neat exhibit in the top of the Monument:

I love these next three shots, all taken at the base . . .

These were taken from the Lincoln Memorial:

Ahhh, and here’s my lovely husband, desecrating a treasured national symbol . . .

Just a couple more shots, this time from sunset:

And finally, we may have missed the inauguration, but we did get to see the cleanup!

More coming soon!

Surfside

Emily — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:48:12 +0000

Last weekend my husband’s whole big family went to Surfside Beach near Freeport, Texas, for a relaxing little getaway. We all packed into a beach house and spent our days swimming, sunning, fishing, eating, and laughing our heads off. It was a pretty nice beach and a really great time, so of course I came back with lots and lots of photos to share! Consider this the obligatory “what I did on my summer vacation” essay–but with pictures!

Rural Texas

Emily — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Driving through Oklahoma

Emily — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:00:00 +0000

And watching the sun rise…

Ireland: Castletownshend

Emily — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:03:31 +0000

Shall we get back to some more Ireland photos? I think so! These are from Castletownshend, County Cork, which is reportedly where Michael Flatley (of "Lord of the Dance" fame) lives. One of our goals while in Ireland was to stay overnight in a castle, so we went there to stay at a B&B called (appropriately enough) "The Castle," which sits right on the harbor.

Our room was at the top of this tower, and our window looked out over the harbor:

There were a couple of swans that hung out in front of the Castle, and they were enormous!

We made friends with stray cat outside too:

Then we walked up the hill to find a pub for dinner, and we passed some pretty sights along the way. The figurines in this window cracked me up:

Castletownshend is a fishing town, and someone's gear was hanging outside the front door:

And this was just plain pretty:

We found Mary Ann's, the town's best restaurant:

Our dinner was delicious!

The next morning we got up early and hit the road again . . . more photos to come soon!

More Ireland: Waterford

Emily — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:43:21 +0000

On our first Saturday in Ireland, we drove south of Dublin down to Waterford. Along the way, we stopped at a pretty little beach we found, called Ennereilly beach. It was rocky and beautiful!

When we made it to Waterford, we ate lunch, walked around the town, and then got a tour of the Waterford Crystal Factory. I had actually taken the tour once before, but it was just as entertaining and impressive the second time around!

This is one of the cutters:

Hard at work:

The cutters have to have every Waterford crystal pattern memorized, but if they ever need a refresher, here is their "library":

A box of glasses, with the Waterford signature cut on the bottom:

A set of engravers' wheels:

We got a first hand cutting demonstration:

And here's the finished product–sparkly!

You can see a few more shots from Waterford here.

Ireland: Around Dublin

Emily — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:55:30 +0000

I spent about a day and half in Dublin during my trip, mostly shopping and seeing the sights. I will share photos of Dublin Castle and Christ Church later, but this post is for the random things I photographed throughout the busy city.

Flowers for sale on Grafton Street:

Homes and gardens surrounding St. Stephen's Green:

A pretty red teapot from the delightful Queen of Tarts, where we had tea and scones (and couldn't resist a slice of pie as well):

A sidewalk artist who draws amazing scenes in chalk and washes them away every night, starting fresh each morning:

The train, called DART:

And last, but not least — by popular demand — lots and lots of Guinness and pubs!

I didn't want to bore everyone to tears by posting each and every photo I took on my trip, but if you are interested, you can see more images from Dublin and Glendalough here. And I'm hard at work proofing, so I will have more to share soon!

Ireland: Glendalough

Emily — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:32:04 +0000

I'm finally ready to start sharing some of my photos from my trip to Ireland! These are some of the highlights from Day 1 of the vacation, when we went to Glendalough, a 6th century monastery at the base of the Wicklow Mountains in County Wicklow.

But first, a shot of the journey over the big blue ocean: this is Aer Lingus at 37,000 feet . . .

After a long day's journey, we arrived in Dublin and drove down to Glendalough . . . and what a sight greeted us!

It was surrounded by so much natural beauty.

But of course, the ruins are gorgeous, too!

I have a thing for grass . . .

Pretty little weeds growing on the ruins:

More wildflowers:

Moss on a headstone in the cemetery at the monastery:

The inside of the monastery:

What a view for these souls!

The monastery tower:

I love Celtic crosses:

These pretty rock walls are everywhere:

The sheep are plentiful, too!

Peeking out from the treetops:

The lower lake at Glendalough:

The beaches were all so rocky:

Water lilies! I love 'em!

After exploring the monastery thoroughly, we hiked up the mountain overlooking Glendalough. This was Poulanass Falls, which we passed along the way.

Shamrocks!

When we finally made it to the top of the mountain (barely breathing!), the view was sooooo worth it!

A little river waaaaaay down there!

So as you can see, Glendalough was a beautiful introduction to Ireland! But there's plenty more beauty to come . . . stay tuned!

The Big Easy

Emily — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:17:06 +0000

Last weekend my husband and I took a little trip to New Orleans. It was my first visit there, and I must confess that I was very impressed! We only ventured out into the French Quarter, but it reminded me so much of Europe that I was in heaven!

We stayed at the Hotel Monteleone, a very cute place:

It's just a block or two off of Bourbon Street, which I tired of relatively quickly!

So after that we stuck to the side streets of the French Quarter, where I found lots of pretty and interesting things…

Cool old hitching posts . . .

. . . for these guys! There were horse-drawn carriages everywhere!

I loved this mannequin in a shop window:

And this window was full of pots and pans–funny!

On Sunday morning we got coffee and beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde:

And then we explored Jackson Square. This is the St. Louis Cathedral:

All in all, we had a really good time. So despite all the bad press, I highly recommend visiting the French Quarter if you get the chance!

Roaming around Iowa

Emily — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:47:21 +0000

Thought I’d post some other random photos from my trip to Iowa. My parents and I drove around for several hours on Saturday trying to find some scenic rural shots, but the weather was so crummy that landscape photos were out of the question. I managed to capture a few other sorts of images, though . . . all dark and moody, kinda like the weather!