Happy Anniversary Troy & Adrienne

Today is Troy and Adrienne's 9th anniversary. Congratulations to them!

Here are pictures from that happy day!

http://www.eriksmith.com/Family/TrAdWeddingPhotos1.htm

Another Wedding Photo

This was the last photo taken at our wedding by our photographer, Rick.

http://www.eriksmith.com/Wedding/receptionp8.htm has some good wedding reception photos.

Fremantle Sunset

This photo of sunset is taken from Fremantle, Australia, a town of the west coast just outside of Perth. I stayed at a nice little youth hostel here and took this picture after having an amazing seafood dinner near the beach.

Here are the rest of my Fremantle photos-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Australia/Fremantle.htm

The Legend Martin Becker

There is a story behind this. First of all, the year and the Island on the photo are incorrect. This is South Manitou Island in July of 1997. The funny part of this story is that the three bottles you see laying on the ground by Tone are the only three bottles of beer we had on the island with us. The Manitou Islands, part of Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, are undeveloped and you have to take all your supplies with you to the island. That makes carrying a cooler full of beer almost out of the question. We took these three beers with us so that Keath, Tone and I could each have one beer with our campfire that first night. We chose this beer because it was appropriately called Manitou Amber Ale.

Olympic National Park

This picture is from the Hurricane Ridge part of Olympic National Park in Washington. This day started out rainy and I nearly didn't even venture up to this part of the park because i has assumed that is would be too cloudy to see the mountains.

Here are more pictures from Hurricane Ridge-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Pullman05/ONPhurricaner1.htm
http://www.eriksmith.com/Pullman05/ONPhurricaner2.htm

Bill Clinton Presidential Center

This is the Bill Clinton Presidential center in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have been to a few of these places and this one is my favorite. To be fair, I am an unabashed fan of Bill Clinton.

I have made two visits here and links to both visits are given below-
April 2007- http://www.eriksmith.com/OutWest2007/BillClintonPC.htm
March 2005- http://www.eriksmith.com/deepsouth05/BillClintonPresCenter.htm

Lindsay & Puppy Fluffy

This picture is from early 1997. The little dog on my sister's shoulder is Fluffy as a puppy. As a puppy, she was a frenetic burst of energy. she would race around jumping up on every piece of furniture she could find.

Ellis Island

The is the Great Hall at Ellis Island from my visit in June of this year. Ellis Island is truly one of the most impressive National Parks I have been to so far. It is important to the history of the United States and the stories are both uplifting and heartbreaking.

Here are the three Ellis Island pages-
http://www.eriksmith.com/NYC2008/EllisIslandNMp1.htm
http://www.eriksmith.com/NYC2008/EllisIslandNMp2.htm
http://www.eriksmith.com/NYC2008/EllisIslandNMp3.htm

Venice

This is a pictures of me in Venice from 1998's Europe trip with Tone & Stan. I like Venice because it is very unique. It was also cleaner than when I visited with my family in 1986.

Here is the page for Venice, whit pictures from both my 1997 & 1998 visits- http://www.eriksmith.com/Europe/Venice.htm

Engagement Photo #1

Janeen and I both really like this photo. Our wedding photographer, Rick, from Precious Memories in Canton, took these photos a week before the wedding as part of an engagement session. We had this one blown up to an 8x10 and displayed at the wedding with a matted frame that our guests signed.

Here is a link to more engagement session photos- http://www.eriksmith.com/Wedding/EngagementPhotos.htm

Shenendoah National Park

This is a Photo from my visit to Shenendoah National Park in Western Virginia. The highlight of the park is driving Skyline Drive, the park's scenic road which runs right along the crests of the mountains and provides great views in to the surrounding valleys.

Here are more pictures of my hazy day driving through Shenendoah- http://www.eriksmith.com/VADC/shenandoahNP.htm

Canberra

This is me standing on top of Australia's Parliament Building in the capitol of Canberra. This is the equivalent of standing on top of the U.S. Capitol Building! The building in the distance is the Old Parliament Building and across the lake is ANZAC parade, a long boulevard dedicated to Australia's armed forces.

See the article about and picture of Canberra here-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Australia/Canberra.htm

Dad's favorite pic

This is one of my Dad's favorite pictures. Troy has one of him & Colin doing the same thing. Maybe I will find that one and post it later.

Here are some good (and funny) pictures on my Dad's page-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Family/dad.htm

Monaco

This is a picture of Monaco Harbour in 1998. The King's Yacht is the big boat in the center of the photo. Monte Carlo's famous casinos are on the left side of the picture.

More Monaco Photos here- http://www.eriksmith.com/Europe/Monaco.htm

Grandpa Smitty & Nana

This is a picture of my Dad's mom & dad. I never got to meet Grandpa Smitty, as he died 3 years before I was born. He looks a lot like my dad's brother Bob. Nana says she thinks she was about 18 when this photo was taken.

Here are more pics of Dad's Side-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Family/smithfront.htm

Grandma & Grandpa

This is my Grandparent's Wedding Photo. I was lucky enough to take care of them for three years in Mount Pleasant before they died, and I miss them every day.

There are lots of great photos of the two of them on this page-http://www.eriksmith.com/Family/Fuller.htm

Highway Scene

I like this random photo from my 2007 Out West trip. This was taken on I-40 somewhere in Central Oklahoma.

Here is a link to the 2007 Out West page- http://www.eriksmith.com/OutWest2007/outwest2007home.htm

Montezuma Castle NM

As the title states, this is Montezuma Castle in Central Arizona, from May of 2003. The dwelling did not actually house Montezuma, which is confusing for a lot of tourists. Unlike Mesa Verde, You can not walk around inside this ruin.

See more pictures (and pictures of Montezuma Well, a native America watering hole) here-http://www.eriksmith.com/sw03/MontezumaCastle.htm

Alamo 1996

This is a picture of my college friends Keath, Tone, Mike and I at the Alamo in San Antonio. They had come to visit me while I was on Spring Break from teaching in Houston. We also visited Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore on this trip.

This is usually where I link to the pictures on my website from the trip- But I can't find the photos from this trip to scan them!

Janeen & I - Disney 2007

Janeen and I visited our parents in Florida in February of 2007. While we were there we spent a couple of days in Orlando visiting my sister and brother-in-law and going to Disney. This is a picture of us a Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, where we stayed.

Here is a link to that trip's main page- http://www.eriksmith.com/Florida2007/florida2007home.htm

Chocolate & Churros

This is a common breakfast in Spain. The churros are a deep fried doughnut that come is many different shapes, and the chocolate has a little less consistency than pudding, and is served warm.

This picture is from my 1999 trip to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco with my parents. Here is a link to that trip's home page- http://www.eriksmith.com/SpainPortugal99/SPM99.htm

Coronado National Monument

This mounment is located in Southern Arizona and preserves the area in which Coronado made his first trip into what is now the United States. The land in the background is Mexico.

See more Coronado NM photos on this page-http://www.eriksmith.com/SW04/coronadoNM.htm

Charleston Harbour Dolphins

These dolphins were in front of the tour boat I took out to Fort Sumter National Monument in February of 2007.

Here are the rest of these unique photos- http://www.eriksmith.com/Florida2007/CharlestonDolphins.htm

Sleepy Dog

Fluffy has travelled with me on three of my National Park trips. She loves to fall asleep this way, when the road is smooth enough that she isn't constantly being jarred awake by bumps or potholes. She has been to 21 states, that's more than most people!

Two Daily Websites

Here are links to two websites I check everyday.

The first, http://www.electoral-vote.com/, is a site about the 2008 election run by an American college professor who is living overseas. He uses poling data to construct what the electoral map might look like if the election were held today. The is also link to many interesting political article and a section where both House and Senate races are updated. I don't hold it against him at all that the last map he posted before the 2004 election had John Kerry winning. Polls aren't always correct.

The second site is http://everything-everywhere.com/. This is a travel site by a man from Minnesota who is on a multi-year trip around the world. He posts short articles a couple times a week and a photo from the trip everyday. He is usually pretty regular with this but has become a little erratic lately. There are links on the site to his photo pages which are very cool. Recently, he has started doing podcasts. I guest posted fro him while he was in Paupa New Guinea. Here is a link to the article on yellowstone that I wrote for him.
http://everything-everywhere.com/2008/05/14/yellowstone

Berlin Wall

Here is a picture of me and one of the few remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall. This photo is from my 1998 Eastern European Tour.

http://www.eriksmith.com/Europe/Berlin.htm has the rest of my Berlin photos.

Bangkok

This photo is from Bangkok. These teeneagers are having a school lesson. It doesn't seem like a very effective place to have a class, but each culture does it differently.

Here are the rest of my Bangkok photos- http://www.eriksmith.com/Asia/bangkok.htm

Natchez Trace Parkway

The Natchez Trace Parkway runs almost uninterrupted for 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It runs along almost the same path as the original Trace, which was used by first the Native Americans, then by the first Europeans. It is now administered by the National Park Service. It has no stoplights and a 40 MPH speed limit the whole way.

See pictures here-(follow the Next links at the bottom of each page to see all five pages of pics-http://www.eriksmith.com/deepsouth05/natchezNHTp1.htm

Making a New Friend

This picture was taken at the Australian Wildlife Park outside Sydney. I visited the park on my tour of The Blue Mountains. Koalas sleep about 20 hours a day as my sleepy friend here will attest to!

Here is my page for my Blue Mountains Tour- more posts about this tour will follow-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Australia/BlueMtsTour.htm

Hang Time

This picture is one that always makes me laugh. Obviously, this rim is not 10 feet high, but it was about 9 feet 3 inches. I was in a little better shape then and had some pretty good ups.

Our Wedding Party

This is our wedding party. The bridesmaids from left to right- Lisa Hacke, Lisa Huckleberry, Karen Slowinski, Khris Daniel, Amy Smith, Junior Bridemaid, Alexis Jackson (up front). The guys from left to right-Troy Smith (my brother), Matt Jackson, Martin Becker, Keath Patterson, Mike Johnson, Ken Tedford, Kirk Stueber. Colin and Eli Smith, the ring bearers (up front).

The chick in the white dress is my beautiful bride Janeen.

See more formal pics here-
http://www.eriksmith.com/Wedding/formalpics3.htm

Las Vegas

This picture is of three Las Vegas casinos, Flamingo, Bally's and Paris from my trip there in May of 2004.

See the rest of the pictures from the Las Vegas Strip here-http://www.eriksmith.com/SW04/lasvegasstrip.htm

Amateur Traveler podcast

Here is a link to the Amateur Traveler podcast. http://amateurtraveler.com/
It's my favorite podcast, and not just because I was the guest for episode 121. The host, Chris Christensen, does a nice job of finding unique destinations that most people will never have a chance to visit (Madagascar, Tunisia, Cambodia), but also those places that many people will travel to(Boston, New York, Disney).

Here's a link to the episode I was the guest for-http://amateurtraveler.com/2008/01/19/episode-121-americas-national-parks/

3D

This is a photo of all the guys who lived on my floor my Sophomore year of college. We lived on the third floor of David Hall, so we called ourselves 3D. Legend like James "Gleemo" White, Billy Bishop, Mike Johnson, Keath Patterson, Steve Boldt and "Wild" Bill Wargo were created here.

See more photos here-http://www.eriksmith.com/Friends/collegefriends.htm