Black Friday

A number of years ago my family started a tradition of brewery crawling on Black Friday - no real shopping for us! This year we stuck to the Akron area. I carried my camera all day but only thought to take a few photos. Its funny how much more chill I've become about that. Before I was full time I would have been snapping all day - now I do allow myself to just enjoy things and leave my camera in the bag. My friends and I actually rode our bikes to all the stops this year. Some people joined up at different portions of the day too.

Thanksgiving Football

Thanksgiving morning football has been a part of my for a long, long time. I can't remember when I joined the Milo family's game but I know I still lived at home(down the street from them). A couple of us even went out to toss the football around in the pandemic years to keep the streak/tradition alive. This year I was unfortunately sidelined with my sciatic nerve pain but it did allow me to capture some great photos.

Hikes & Beers

A hike back on the blog!? Yup. It didn't feel like a good day to ride so lets get back to our roots here. Ben Erin and I went for a hike at the Pine Lane Trailhead in the CVNP right outside of downtown Peninsula. A trail I have only hiked a couple of times but does intersect with a bandit trail we cross on our bikes. After the hike we went to Hudson for lunch then out to Hinckley to try a new brewery. So yeah - this blog could have been written 10 years ago - but my photos are better now.

Cinci Fail?!

I went down to Cincinnati with Erin for her work retreat. Well - I wasn't really there for the retreat but I was there to photograph the retreat. I took portraits of all of the employees. Since Erin had a hotel we thought we would spend the next day exploring - but there was a really wet snow and neither of us felt like drinking(we are cutting back a bit). We had brought the bicycles all the way down there for nothing. It was still a paying gig and Erin had to be there - but after some coffee and a walk we decided to head back to Akron. I did capture the above photo of Erin and the below photo of this mural by one of my favorite artists(Ralph Steadman).

Kill the Hippies

This was a pretty amazing night. A band that I have been friends with forever(and who helped my band along the way) was playing in Kent(their original hometown) at a place called Bar Lucci. The interested thing is Bar Lucci used to be a run down, hole in the wall, DIY venue called The Mantis. You would never know it in its current, modern, cocktail bar iteration. A buddy from the music seen owns it now too. Anyways - when we met Kill the Hippies they would book us as their opener in the old place. So lots of memories - and then on top of it all my old friends(and bandmate) Pete moved back to town and made it out to the show. Lots of familiar faces in a legendary place.