Steel City, Stamey. Stamey, Steel City

I needed a break.

So this past weekend, I took a trip to Pittsburgh PA to visit Nabil, my friend from college. The plan of the trip was to have a good time and not think about anything that might be close to work. I thought about posting from Pittsburgh, but decided to go do things rather than sit at my computer.

Should be noted that this was my first trip anywhere since college that I didn't take my camera gear with me. I only took along my new, little point and shoot camera. It fit great in my pocket and not once did I get a "Wow, what kind of camera is that?" or "That sure is a big camera..."

Anyway I figured I better get something posted about this trip or I might never get around to posting anything. The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy.

So here we go....

Pittsburgh PA; Home of the first Big Mac. The only town in PA whose name ends in "gh" and the only city with pro sports teams that all share the same colors. (You know you knew that but just never put it together until now uh?)

Here's downtown Pittsburgh. There are two rivers that join to make the Ohio River smack in the middle of this town. I'm not even going to try an name those two rivers... but they make a point that's home to a state park called... you guessed it.. Point Park. And it just so happens that Nabil is getting his masters from Point Park University. So there you go.



And yes, we rode that little thing up to the top of the big hill. The "lifts" were built in 1877 I believe... two years before the Pittsburgh Pirates became a pro team. They were used to transport steel workers back home. They still serve the same purpose, But now they're a little more touristy.

Speaking of the Pirates. Nabs and I took in the Pirates vs Astros series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With Nabil being a student, he hooked us up with "College Cove" tickets for 20 bucks on the first night. And for that 20 bucks we got a ticket to the game, a t-shirt, and a $10 coupon to the concession stand. So basically we got stuck in deep right field, got a new "work out" shirt, and my first hot dog and beer were free. I'll take that any day.

Here's the view from those seats. Yea, that window thing was kind of annoying, but made for a cool pic.



Houston won game one.

Quick funny story... Houston has a pitcher named Roy Oswalt. He's pretty good. And the Houston fans at the game would shout "Go Roy Ols! Go Roy Ols" I felt like I was back home at the K watching Mike Sweeney again.

I decided to splurge a little bit for game two. When I went to the ticket booth I told the dude "two seats as close as you can get." We were in prime foul ball location ... but no luck. (Side Note: It's been a life long dream to catch a major league foul ball.... or home run)

Before the game, the Pirates retired a jersey of some dude who played for them in the 20's. They had a nice little ceremony before the game where Hall of Fame member Bill Mazeroski made an appearance. As you know, Bill hit a home run to win the 1960 world series. I think it's safe to say that he's a baseball legend.

So here's Bill walking onto the field... and this will also show you our view.

Oh, this was also 1980's Pirates Logo bobble head night.


Pirates won an exciting game two... 21 total hits I believe. Home runs by Carlos Lee and Freddie Sanchez.

For the Rubber Match, we decided on left field. Figured we should try as many vantage points as possible in the ball park that ESPN/USA Today calls "the best major league ball park." So we got pretty close to the field out in Left and watched the Astros win 1-0. Highlights from game three include. 1: Me watching every pitch of the game because I was keeping score on the score card.... was my first time doing that. It helps that Nabil has been a sports writer for some time now. 2: A closeup visit from the mascot.


So after three days of expensive beer I think we were pretty baseballed out. But it was very much worth it.

In college, I took a history of baseball class my senior year. By far one of my favorite classes. But our final project was to write a 10-page paper on who I thought was the greatest baseball player of all time. Very cool assignment. Most people in the class picked Ruth or Mays or Mantle... but I picked Roberto Clemente. He was a solid ball player... but a better man off the field.

On the final game of the 1972 season, he hit his 3,000th hit. And during the off season, he was killed while on a plane to deliver supplies to an area hit with an earthquake.

He was a Pittsburgh Pirate and there was a statue of him outside PNC Park. So it was pretty cool to be in the city where he used to play. (The Ball Park he played in has been torn down). We even had to walk across the "Roberto Clemente Bridge" to get to the stadium.

So here's me in my #21 jersey by the statue.


On Monday, Nabil and I took a little drive to the Zoo. Yep, two 26-year-olds chilln' at the Zoo. (he got free passes so why not?)

Their newest (and best) exhibit is a tunnel where their Polar Bear swims over your head as you walk through. We saw the bear, but it wasn't in the tunnel area. So we pretty much just walked through this giant blue tube. But, not all was lost because they have another tunnel where the sea otters swim all around you.


And that pretty much wraps up the major highlights of the trip. Or at least the high lights that I felt like working up photos for.

Other points of interest during the trip include.

-Stupid Airlines. My Ticket says US Airways. So I go to their counter and they can't find my information. Turns out, they're partners with United and that's who I'm flying on. But it doesn't say that anywhere. So on the Return flight I go to United and they don't have my information b/c I'm supposed to be on US Airways. Frustrating.

-Lunch at the place Jerome Bettis owns.... right next to Heinz field.

-A tour of PNC Park. We got to sit in the home dugout. (which is on the third base line btw)

-Fireworks show against the Skyline after game one.

-Waiting in line with Nabil at Barnes and Noble to buy the Harry Potter book... only to walk to Wal-Mart and get it there. I did pull a funny joke there though... there was a group of teenage kids behind us in line, so when Nabil got the book, I opened it up to the last page and said "alright, I'm going to read the last page out loud... ready?" And they all started to scream for me to stop. I thought that was funny.

- Trying to catch home run balls during batting practice of game two.

-An interesting conversation with Nabil's neighbor on Saturday night.

-Ordering food from the kids concession stand at PNC park. Smaller portion sizes, but... a pretzel, nachos and a Mt. Dew for 4 bucks... that's less than a beer.

-Lunch at this local downtown Pittsburgh place that serves it's hamburgers with the french fries between the bread. Yep, it's heart stopping (clogging). It goes like this Bread, meat, cheese, fries, cole slaw, bread. There's also a tomato in there, but not for me.

I'm sure I'm missing something... so Nabil, feel free to add anything I might have left out.

It was a great trip and it got topped off with a surprise birthday cake from Misty on my day off. I came home from getting my oil changed to find Misty in my kitchen with a cake.

Up next, the Grand Isle International Tarpon Fishing Rodeo. Yep, be jealous that I'll be there. It's the summer version of Mardi Gras with out the parades.

Weird feeling that I Leica lot

I had a weird feeling today. I got off work around 7:00 p.m. and had nothing to do. Sure, there were things I could do. But it felt weird to be done with work and be at home with daylight left and no plans.

So I took a jog.

I zig-zagged through my neighborhood for almost 2 miles. (1.9 according to my post-run drive to see exactly how far I ran) My goal is to get into the routine of running enough to warrant buying that Nike/iPod combo where the iPod plays songs according to how you're running. It'll keep track of how far and long you've run. Then you just come back to the computer, sync it up and you can keep a tab of your workouts. Right now, I'm one of those runners who just goes out and jogs every now an then. But if I can get into a routine of running 3-4 days a week, I think it might be worth it to drop some cash on new shoes and an iPod.

So maybe getting my running thoughts out in the open will force me to run more. We'll see.

Now moving back to photography... I got a new camera the other day. I got a Leica point and shoot. It's small and black and perfect for just carrying around with me when I don't want to lug my work camera with me.

I think it's kind of funny how people always comment to me about how much they'd love to have my camera when they see me on assignments. It's opposite for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my work camera. But there are just sometimes I don't want to look like a photographer. I like to blend in a little bit.

That's why I got this little guy. It can fit in my pockets and the quality is darn close to the quality of my work camera.

So that's fun.

Here's a shot of me from the new Hobby Lobby sore in Houma. And a shot of a wine tasting Misty and I went to a couple weeks ago. I like my wine to have a deep woodsy taste... whatever that means.

Friday the 13th

Alright.. it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm not finished with work yet.

So yea, I'm tired. Here's a time line of my Friday the 13th.

6:30 a.m. - Wake up call from work

7:00 - 8:00 a.m. - At work searching for archived photo for that days paper.

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Outside in the sauna of South Louisiana taking pictures of the Manning Passing Academy. Peyton, Eli and the other Manning guys are in town hosting a camp for high school football players. Pretty cool... but very hot.

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - At home for lunch. But I came home to find that the leftover Hamburger Helper from the night before had been thrown away. I know it wasn't eaten because nobody was at home near the hours you'd might eat Hamburger Helper. Unless they had it for breakfast.

1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - At the office working on my photos from the Manning Passing Academy.

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - Standing under the Twin Spans (bridges in downtown Houma) while local law enforcement drag the bottom of the bayou looking for a man who drowned while trying to swim. It was still hot.

5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Back at the office making sure the sports guys had their photos, the news guys had their photos, the A.P. had their photos, our photo galleries had their photos and Keith had his photos from everything I'd shot so far. (had 8oz RedBull at 6:00 p.m.)

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - In Chauvin attending a surprise party for a guy who's lived 20 years after having a liver transplant. Friday marked exactly 20 years since his surgery.

8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Back at the office finishing up everything before heading to my last assignment.

9: 15 p.m - Had 12oz RedBull

9:30 p.m. - 1:30 a.m. - Rode along with the Terrebonne Parish Narcotics Task Force while they catch bad guys with drugs. We caught one dude with a little bit of crack.

1:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. - After getting dropped off at my car to come home and sleep, I get a call about a shooting on Main Street. There were two people shot outside a downtown Houma night club. One of them killed.

Now - I'm back at the office putting a photo of the shooting online and typing this blog.

And Tomorrow during my day off I'll be back at the Manning Passing Academy (in just a few hours)... then back in the office editing video from the Passing Camp.

And after all that, I'm only showing you one photo... because it's really the only photo I like. It's of the Crackhead getting arrested.

:)

YELLOW HELMET... EXIT PORT SIDE!

I had quite the wild ride last week.

Rob (A Courier reporter) and I went to Morgan City to do a business assignment. We went to a Community College that has a bunch of different marine training classes.

We met with a couple of teachers who were training some students how to escape a helicopter in the case of a crash landing in the water. They had a mock helicopter cabin above a swimming pool. The unit splashes into the water, flips over and the students must correctly exit the helicopter.

It was pretty cool to see... and photograph. I had my camera in a fish tank taking some shots of the folks as they were exiting underwater. After they did it a couple times, they asked me if I wanted to give it a try.

I looked at Rob and he said "You have too Matt. You'd hate yourself later if you didn't do this."

So they hooked me up with goggles and a yellow helmet. (Non-Swimmers get the yellow helmets.)

And then my adventure began.

They hooked me up with a helmet, a jump suit and some goggles... and I hoped in the water.


And I made my way over to the simulator.


I got some instructions from Melissa... the Instructor who had done this over 5,000 times. What I had to do was hold the bottom of the seat with one hand, and hold the outside of the window with the other hand.


Melissa helped me with the seat belt that had to be strapped snug across my waste. I did a couple practice swipes to get the feeling of how to un-hood the belt. I didn't want to be under water upside down and not know how to undo the seat belt. (it was the kind you use in airplanes.)


Rob yelled at me to give him a thumbs up. That was the last thing on my mind, but I did it anyway. I told Melissa that I don't think I've ever been so nervous. And she kept telling me "We'll get you out, don't worry about that. We'll get you out if you have problems."

Melissa shouts some commands to the operator of the Chopper. She announced that I was a "yellow helmet" which means that I'm a rookie. She also yelled "Exit Port Side Window!" Which is the left side window when you're sitting normal. But it seems like you're right side when you're upside down. The Cab drops into the water and starts to roll over at the same time.


And away we go! This thing is supposed to simulate exactly what you'll feel in a helicopter crash. They've had people practice in this thing, then actually be in a crash and came back to say that it felt exactly the same.


Deep Breath


And under the water we go. It happened fast... the rush of the water and the flipping upside down took me out of reality for a while. I had no idea which way I was facing. After a few seconds, I made eye contact with Melissa and was able to figure out which way was up and out. She tapped me on the knee letting me know that the rolling had stopped and that I needed to start my escape.


After the tap on the knee, I un-hooked my seat belt, scooted off my seat a little bit, ducked down and popped out the port side window. There was a diver at the bottom of the pool to guide me to the "shore"


AIR! It only lasted a few seconds, but felt like forever. It was such a rush. When I got to the side of the pool, I just wanted to yell and give high fives to everybody. But I held back because I figured everybody in the room had done it many times before.


After I came down from my Chopper Crash High, Melissa said that my roll was "a little more violent than normal" So I guess that's cool. They usually have a full cabin but when it's just one student, the chopper tents to have a mind of it's own.

So there you go, They've invited me back later this summer to take part in all the activities they teach students. Firefighting, Boat Capt. Training and a bunch of other cool stuff I can't think of right now.

I felt like I was on Fear Factor. If anybody gets a chance, I'd suggest doing this. It'll give you a natural high for at least two days.