A Friendly Visit from a Californian Friend

This post is a little bit overdue, but I wanted to post regardless! My friend Jonathan visited Christina and I here in Florida a couple weeks ago with his brother. I met Jonathan when I moved out to California for a semester of school during college and he was one of my MANY roommates. Jonathan and his brother were on a nationwide road trip and they stopped in Orlando overnight before coming down to us in the Miami area. It was a fun, quick visit and I got to enjoy some good food with them (it seemed that was one of their main "to do" items as they traveled to different cities across the country). So we got some food from foodtrucks, some authentic food in Miami, and coffee from Starbucks. Okay so the coffee wasn't anything overly special or unique haha. We even saw a Showtime show that is coming on next year being filmed while we were in Miami Beach. Photos to follow!

However, the coffee below IS special - Jonathan and his brother picked it up in New Orleans and gave it to us as a thank you. It is called Cafe Du Monde and is from an "Original French Market Coffee Stand" apparently. It's pretty tasty. I think it came in the COOLEST can - it is almost the exact same colors as all of the road signs in upstate NY (I know random, but I love the Adirondacks and went there almost every year growing up so I remember the signs well...what can I say, I'm observant).

They also made us some delicious pie, but I didn't take pictures of it. It was thoroughly enjoyed though. I'll post some photos from the Food Truck night in Hollywood, FL - which was pretty awesome.

South Beach Miami - Paying to Park...for the Homeless

With all that's going on in South Beach, Miami, it was actually really refreshing to see this! There is SO much money, fame, greed, and waste going on that you wouldn't expect to find a program that provides something for free and even more so you wouldn't expect them to actually forward 100% of the money raised! This parking lot is on Commerce Street in between Washington Avenue and Alton Road - a little west of Collins Road (A1A).

Check out these signs for the full info...

Curb Your Dog! But more importantly, a program that helps change lives...

THIS IS NOT A PARKING METER
You Don't Have To Feed The Meters To Park Here.
But The Change You Put In Them Will Change Lives.

By placing your spare change in our donation meters, you are helping change lives. 100% of the monies collected in these meters fund housing and indoor meal programs for people experiencing homelessness.

Miami-Dade Count Homeless Trust

FREE CALL - Homeless Helpline
1-877-994-4357

 I think these are some of the coolest looking parking meters around. I have taken a bunch of photos of viewers (you know, those things that are like "binoculars" or a "telescope" so you can see the view of the beach or city in a little more detail?!) - well maybe I will have to do some parking meters now! Who knew that they varied from place to place. 

Here is the website for Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust if your curiosity has been sparked. There are definitely a lot of homeless down here in Florida. Having lived in New York, Massachusetts, California, Virginia, and now Florida, there are homeless everywhere and we are all aware. But at least next time you are parking your Lamborghini in South Beach or Miami, you can give to the homeless pretty darn easily. 

I know Hollywood, FL has a homeless shelter and ministry called the Homeless Voice - and they help feed, clothe, house, and provide job training for those who are homeless. But there are usually great people doing great things almost everywhere!

A New Camera, A New Photographer, A Not-so-New Model!

BIG NEWS!

It has come - the time to upgrade to a new camera. It is an exciting time! There is some more news that will be coming along with it (good news of course), but it's not quite at sharable status yet. So stay tuned! But in the meantime, I enjoyed taking my Canon 7D out for a "get to know you date" with my lifetime date (aka wife) to get to know how to use the 7D a little better - and of course enjoy time with my wife. Having my Rebel XTi for 4 1/2 years had me so used to the settings, how to change things quickly and make them the way I wanted, I was so used to the weight and size, and everything changes with the 7D. In order to do the very same things, I had to read the owner's manual...the OWNER'S MANUAL! You think, "Who even reads those anymore??" Well, I read a lot of it. It's very informative and a good reminder of settings, but more importantly I needed to actually LEARN how to change the settings quickly, rather than the slow way which I had figured out easily.

Short story long, here are some photos I took of my beautiful wife Christina - we went down to South Beach Miami (look for my next post) and walked around for the day. It was 95 degrees...and humid of course. So it's not a photographer's dream to be sweaty and trying not to drip all over his camera, nor is it fun for a model who is also sweating. These shots were taken after cooling down for a good half hour or so in a coffee shop, enjoying cold drinks and VERY cold a/c (Florida knows how to keep things cool!), so we weren't too bad by now!

Since we were both pretty unfamiliar with South Beach - as far as finding cool spots to take photos - I tried to keep my eyes peeled for some good ones. I definitely like this one we found (above). This is along the sidewalk that follows the beach - I wouldn't really classify it as a boardwalk. But this short wall added some cool dimension to the photo and elevated my beautiful subject, which also helped remove the people walking and cars behind her.

Here's my new photographer! Christina now tells me this is her camera (the XTi). It mostly is, unless I need a backup! I'm so excited to help teach her how to use it at a more advanced level, since she already knows the basics. She'll be a pro in no time.

I don't think I can pick a favorite between this photo and the first on this post. She is SO beautiful! Stay tuned for a post about South Beach!

Summer Favorite's: Weddings and of course Food, Drinks, and Delicious Desserts

I'm back! It has been over a month since blogging, but at least I can say I am a married blogger now! I will post a photo from the wedding first. We are waiting for the rest of our photos to be finished by our photographer - summer is a busy time for photographers!! Keep an eye on Facebook and joellewattunscripted.squarespace.com for the photos - or just check out Joelle's awesome work in the meantime.

Photo by Joelle Watt

Summer is full of weddings. My WIFE and I moved to Florida, so it is proving difficult to attend most of the weddings we have been invited to. Our friends Josh and Whitney got married last week in DC and this coming weekend our California friends Brycen and Marian are getting married. I am close with Brycen's family and his mom, Terri, let me know that they have somewhere around 400 guests attending. FOUR HUNDRED!!! WOW! If they weren't such a cool family, I would question their sanity. Clearly they have plenty of friends and family, but Chrissie and I really wish we could go! Especially since her parents randomly decided to vacation in San Luis Obispo this week for a few days. I love California...surprise!

We also have my brother's wedding coming up one month from today - well, it's on the 13th, not on a Wednesday haha - so we will be heading up to good ol' Long Island for that...we are excited for our first visit with my family and hometown as husband and wife. Here are Katie and Kyle...

Photo by www.NYOccasion.com

Speaking of California, as I often enjoy reminiscing of California, here are some photos for my official SUMMER post. Since food is a favorite thing to enjoy over the summer, and pretty much all year long, I am posting a few photos I took at the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Farmer's Market, which is on Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo, CA every Thursday evening/night. It was one of my favorite things to do when I lived in the area. I'm posting photos of vegetables since one of the photos later will make you think my wife and I only eat the "food of the month" for July...

So slat-blinds are pretty ugly. And when you are renting your apartment, there is really nothing you can do about it. However, I realized that they make this shot of the wine bottle and glasses of wine look really cool. Taking pictures of liquids will usually make whatever is behind it look cool, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The perfectionist in me wants to retake the shot with equal amounts of wine in the glasses...oh well. The photo of the bottle of beer is actually from a while ago when I was on my friends sailboat in Massachusetts. I had my long 75-300mm lens on and saw this beer further up on the boat and it made a cool photo - very summer-ry!

Iced tea is delicious. If you know my family - especially my parents and grandparents - iced tea is a staple drink when going out for lunch or dinner. One of them will ALWAYS ask the following question, "Is the iced tea freshly brewed?" Many of you are thinking "Who are these people? who cares if it's freshly brewed?!" I can defend them saying that mixed iced tea or drinks like "Brisk" are an abomination to true iced tea. If you are from the south, you will say "How could it not be fresh? Everyone has fresh sweet tea...even fast food chains." All that to say, iced tea is a staple summer drink, and if you live in Florida I can vouch for the Publix Deli: Sweet Iced Tea. It is delicious...and when they are buy one get one free I usually buy 4 and that lasts us until the next sale (They cost about $1.40 per gallon when on sale). And by "us," it is mostly just me drinking a lot of iced tea! Oh, and I like to add fresh lemon.

Ok, now on to the good stuff. In the Becker household, we love desserts. Both of our families also love desserts. Christina made these delicious caramel layered fudge brownies the other day. I will probably enjoy the last little sliver sometime today, since looking at this photo and talking about desserts make me want to eat it. I told Chrissie she needed to leave a middle piece so that I could take a fancy photo of her delicious brownies...she cooperated so I have this delicious looking photo...

Also, my sister-in-law and famous blogger, Lauren (of Health on the Run), informed me that July is "National Ice Cream Month." So in honor of it being July we have 6 cartons of ice cream in our freezer. Now you say "But Brett, you said you just found out, right?" Well you are correct, so we actually already had that many in our freezer, but now we have an excuse...right?! Either way, we love our ice cream, so I had to take a photo to prove it...it's all because of sales at the grocery store and being smart-couponers! Flavors inside: S'mores (Edy's), Cookie Dough (Edy's), Cookies & Cream (Publix Brand), Mint Chocolate Chip (Publix Brand), Dulce de Leche (Publix Brand), and Mocking Island Fudge Ice Cream (Publix Brand). Now, you'd think that store brand ice cream isn't good, right? WRONG! It is delicious.

Happy summer - I'll have plenty more photos coming soon and will be better about posting...promise!