Tri-state Sunday

Nangati ang pwet ng pamilyang Elabdouni at namasyal. Tito Mo, Tita Chon, Omar and I hopped in the car with no destination in mind. Tita Chon simply wanted to go somewhere where the fall leaves were nicer for photos. We took the Triborough bridge and ended up driving through the towns of Connecticut and upstate New York. We drove past ginormous houses and drooled at their sprawling lawns with their own little ponds and fountains. We couldn't stop to take photos of the houses since it was the kind of neighborhood where they'd probably suspect you were up to no good if you lingered around taking photos of their front doors and lawns. Living in houses similar to those ones by the lake has been my dream since I was 13. They will forever be a dream.

The feel of autumn is much more visible upstate than in the city. The trees look lovely and the roads and nearby woods are covered with an assortment of yellow, red, orange and purple. We started taking photos late during the day and night began to fall. I tried to take as much as I could and not having a tripod didn't help with the lack of available light.

Ang gagaling namin umarte. Kunwari hindi naninigas ang mga buto namin sa lamig.

It was also very much colder out here and I wasn't appropriately dressed for the cold. I tried to take as many photos during the night despite having stiff knuckles.

I love how this shot was taken. By this time, it was already very dark and I was already shooting at ISO1600 and had to meter at the darkest area. The first few shots were drab and no reflections could be seen on the water. Then Tito Mo did something ingenious and turned the car's headlights on full and directed it at the scene which lit the water, the far off bushes plus highlighted the ducks on the water!

We had dinner at a Friendly's nearby and it was hilarious how Tita Chon was so fascinated by the restaurant, the food and the menu. I couldn't understand why she was so amused by it at first until I realized why. You see, restaurants like Chili's, Applebee's, Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory and IHOP which are in abundance in California, are sparsely seen here. Our neighborhood is full of specialty restaurants that cater to different cuisines depending on the area. This is also one of the reasons why I love this place. We never go out and eat in places like Chili's. My father-in-law loved Chili's and I count how many number of times he took us there for dinner. Hahahaha!

I took a short nap in the car after dinner thinking we were on our way home. I woke up a while later to find out that Tito Mo took another detour and took us to New Jersey! We drove by the Hudson River coastline and picked the best spot to take my first ever photo of the NY Skyline. We were pretty high up and the wind was fierce and cold but we still managed to take a few goofy shots at Omar's request.

this image is better viewed at a larger size so *click*

We took the Lincoln tunnel to Manhattan and crossed through midtown going home.

I've been too lazy to download clips from my Flip the past several weeks so I'm dumping most of them here now.

Halloween Parade:


HodgePodge of clips from the last couple of weeks: