Northeast Tour, 2010 - Part One

A couple weeks ago, my husband Nick and I went on a tour of the northeast. The initial reason for our trip was to go to my cousin Beth's wedding in Connecticut. We figured this would be a great opportunity to see a lot of family, have a bit of vacation and even do some portraits along the way. I say "tour" because Nick is a musician and as we hopped from city to city visiting family and friends, he played gigs of his original music. His music is best described as a combination of blues-rock and funk. But really, it is so many more genres as well. He just loves music and when he writes, it's more of an expression of a story than a specific genre. It's because of Nick's pursuit of a music career that we met 6 years ago. Thank you, I'll be here all night! More on that another time.

FYI, he just had an album release party for his third album, Year of the Ox.
Check it out at the Nick Edelstein band website.

We left Atlanta on a Friday and hit Knoxville, TN. Nick played at a place called Manhattans which is kind of funny because we would go to the real Manhattan a few days later.

From Knoxville, we headed to my hometown of Baltimore. We stayed with my parents a few nights. I had the great pleasure of photographing Noah and Eli, sons of a great family friend who I grew up with. Take a look at my favorite picture from their session here. My time in Baltimore was a real vacation. We got to see some other childhood friends, the youngest of whom was getting married that weekend.

Congratulations, Suzanna! (iPhone picture - forgive the graininess)

After three nights there, we got back into the car and went to Lancaster, PA. We visited with Nick's cousins, Anne Marie, Seve, and Sammy, and went to Longwood Gardens - beautiful place.

Despite being in Pennsylvania, we had not yet escaped the heat and humidity of Atlanta. So the rest of our time there was spent indoors with family.

This is Nick with little Sammy after a pillow-fight. I think that Nick actually may
have had more fun than Sammy playing with all his toys.
Funny how men so quickly revert back to little boys
whenever there's a transformer around.

Our next stop was New York City. We visited with some of Nick's aunts and uncles who live on Long Island. We had a homemade lunch with Aunt Annie and Uncle Leo, and Nick played a couple of his original songs for them.

At Uncle Tommy and Aunt Helen's, we had pizza and admired Uncle Tommy's garden of Bonsai.

That evening, Nick played at National Underground on Houston Street on the lower east side, where we'll be returning this Friday. Come join us if you're in the area! Some of Nick's other cousins came to that show and we had a great time listening to Nick play. No pictures for this evening either, but I did get a parking ticket. HA! Expensive souvenir.

That evening, we stayed with Nick's cousins, Donna and Henrik, and we finally got to meet their son Hunter. We've been trying to get up to New York since he was born, but it was just not possible. Skype is a good consolation for visiting in person. But meeting Hunter, playing with him and photographing him has no substitute. Look at this cutie!

Me, Donna, Nick and Hunter

The next day we headed to Philadelphia. Oh, in case you're keeping track - still no relief from the heat and humidity. The northeast was having a heatwave - perfect!

Nick played a quick show in Philly. We got to see Nick's cousin, Lena, and my cousins DH and Betsy (thanks for dinner!) We immediately left after the show and hit the road.

Next destination: Simsbury, Connecticut for the wedding. But not before some unwanted excitement on the road... stay tuned for Part Two of our escapades.

Are you exhausted just reading about the trip? Don't worry, the beach is coming soon. :)