Karen Jacot / the blog » travel

vegas 2010

Karen — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:59:26 +0000

A couple weeks ago Jeff and I went to Vegas for a few days of playing. We try to go every year…it’s the only place I vacation that I keep going back to regularly. What I love about Vegas is that everyone (on the Strip, anyway) is on vacation, so you’re always surrounded by people who are just having fun. And I love how over-the-top it all is. It’s a surreal week in some ways but it’s so much fun.

mommune 2010

Karen — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:27:38 +0000

I’m late with this post (what’s new?). Two weeks ago I took Lyle to upstate New York to hang out with friends for a week. Not just a few friends, but a LOT of friends, from all over the U.S. (and one who came from London). Mostly moms and kids, with a few husbands thrown into the mix, too. At the highest point I think there were 17 kids and nearly as many adults. We slept in various spots in two big houses–the host’s and her mother-in-law’s house next door. We spent the days hanging out and talking. We cooked together and ate together–there was always something happening in the kitchen. The kids played together and loved it–the house full of toys, all the other kids, the snow outside.

Lyle was particularly enamored of a 6-month-old baby who laughed with him the very first night we arrived–Lyle referred to him the rest of the week as “that baby I make laugh.” He also really liked “the boy in the orange shirt,” even on the subsequent days when the boy was no longer wearing an orange shirt.

snow + spa

Karen — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:17:01 +0000

This weekend I went to Dallas to sit in a 170-degree sauna. It’s the fire sudatorium at the Korean spa, and it’s totally amazing. They have several other saunas that are not as hot but that all claim to be good for your health in various ways. I just know that after spending all day sweating and soaking and napping and eating Korean food, I feel the most relaxed I’ve been in a long time. And if I get a body scrub? Where you lay on a table and get scrubbed by a woman with scrubby mitts over and over and over until you have no more dead skin left anywhere on your entire body? Then I feel the cleanest I’ve ever been. Love this place.

The building itself is set back off the road behind some self-storage units, and you drive underneath some giraffe statues to get there. (So random.) My favorite is the sign that says, “RIGHT ON.” Korean spa…right on.

Also, Dallas got 12 inches of snow last Thursday, which is a record and a crazy amount of snow for Dallas. It doesn’t usually last long once it’s on the ground there, but there were still a couple inches on the ground when we got there Friday night. Lyle spent Saturday morning playing in it.

so I can check off “blog” on my to-do list

Karen — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:40:45 +0000

I got a lot of things done that had been on my to-do list for a while, so I can’t let the productive day end without blogging again. (This is one of the things that has been pushed off…oops.)

My favorite thing about New York is just how much there is. How much energy, how many different things are going on at once, how many different shows, how many places to get street food, how many little hidden gems there are right in the middle of everything. I love how walkable everything is.

I also love that there are things like the cupcake truck. Cupcake. Truck.

nashville!

Karen — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:57:48 +0000

This past week I was in Nashville for the annual photographers’ convention called Imaging USA. It was three very full days of going to classes and visiting booths at the expo and attending parties. I saw some fantastic speakers–like wedding photographers Dane Sanders, Joe Buissink, and Jose Villa–who gave inspiring talks and gave me lots to think about. I also ate fried pickles for the first time ever. (Pretty tasty.)

The convention was at the Opryland Resort, which was a crazy hotel. It is huge and easily rivals anything in Vegas. The only thing missing was the casino. (And in fact it felt so much like Vegas to me that after I got back I accidentally referred to it as Vegas a couple times, leading my husband to suspect that I hadn’t been at a photo convention at all but instead had snuck off to Vegas without him. Haha.) This hotel had several garden conservatories that made you feel like you were walking on paths outdoors, except you were still inside the hotel. The food in all the restaurants was overpriced (captive audience, I guess, it was possible but not easy to leave the resort)–I had some seriously expensive sushi in front of waterfall that was served in takeout containers. What is up with that? At least for that price I should be paying for nice presentation. Am I right?

My roommate at the hotel was my friend Blonnie, a photographer who lives in Delaware. We laughed a lot and took a lot of goofy pictures of each other. The one below was a random shot she took of me that she probably wouldn’t even have thought was worth sharing, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.

weekend in ny

Karen — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:48:22 +0000

People! How come I am SO BAD at updating this blog?? I hate that I am behind on posting session images. I know several photographers who post “sneak peeks” of pics the same day as they shoot the session. I wish this were me, but I have not managed it yet. (Or gotten anywhere close, really.) So…some more session images coming soon.

In the meantime, I managed to get away to New York City last weekend to visit some friends. I had so much fun, even though my feet were killing me because I stupidly chose to bring just one single pair of shoes–NEW shoes that I’d just bought earlier that week. Not smart!

boston trip

Karen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:18:25 +0000

Our trip to Boston was a very quick two days. Our Sunday morning flights didn’t pan out quite the way they were supposed to (one was canceled) and we couldn’t get rebooked until the next evening. So, we flew up on Monday, arriving around midnight. We flew back home Thursday, leaving around noon, so we could have had time to get up and do something early that morning, but we didn’t. We just hung out at the hotel. Tuesday and Wednesday we were out on the town having fun. Jeff was at a conference during the day, so Lyle and I were on our own most of the time. It was cold, and there was a lot of snow and slush on the ground, and Lyle didn’t like any of that one bit. But I think he had fun anyway.

This was my first trip back there since I moved away 3.5 years ago. It was fun to go back to the familiar places.

One of the places we went there was the Children’s Museum, which featured this awesome three-story climbing structure made up of a series of ramps. Adults were allowed to climb on it, too! This thing was seriously the highlight of my trip.

And now I’m back in Houston with 80-degree weather and no pretense of winter anywhere. I had to turn on my air conditioner today because it was so hot and stuffy in here and the ceiling fans weren’t helping enough. And it’s only March!

favorite place

Karen — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:01:56 +0000

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows what my favorite place is: Colorado. And while I don’t live there right now, I still visit regularly, and I’m planning to increase the length of my visits in the coming years. I have been spending too much time away from the place where I really feel at home.

I don’t have details worked out yet, but I do plan to be in Boulder for part or all of June and/or July this summer. I am really looking forward to getting in a lot of hiking and biking and playing in the amazing Colorado outdoors. I’ll also be booking photo sessions there during that time. I’ll put up more details when I have them worked out.

And I will be posting here more. I mean it.

family session

Karen — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:18:22 +0000

Ok…a couple of pics from my very last photo session in San Diego. I am trying to get everyone’s galleries up so I can get orders in so I have time to order from my lab and have them back in time to deliver them before I leave town. Whew. It’s coming up quickly. I move in TWO WEEKS, people. Hard for me to believe, really, but that’s a whole other post.

Here’s the S-H family. We did these on the grounds of the Marston House in Balboa Park, which is beautiful. I’ve got color versions of these, too, but I think I like the b&ws best.

bad blogger!

Karen — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:36:59 +0000

I don’t mean to neglect this blog; really, I don’t. But I’ve just been SO BUSY lately with all kinds of stuff that I haven’t had time to post about it. I’ve got about 10 things I want to post about, but I don’t have time now for any of them.

Last week I was up in Portland visiting some friends there. I had a fantastic time, and I’m headed out of town again tomorrow for another week, so I’ll probably be scarce for a few more days. Then, updates galore, I promise! With lots of cute photos, too (I just have to find time to edit them–eek!).

I’ll leave you with two photos from Portland, which was gorgeous.