Many women in bridal gowns or the like were there on Saturday. I suspect a photo shoot for a magazine, but there wasn’t a lot of camera technology there.. just handheld cameras, none of those wacky reflector-umbrellas, makeup folks or people with light meters that I saw at the last shoot I witnessed in Fort Lauderdale. Maybe they didn’t need it with all of the natural light as nice as it was? Maybe the production values were just lower. In any event, they added a nice ambiance to the visit.

More Pictures

This is my favorite shot. She ran-snuck up after the guy in jeans on the right, and laid a big ol’ smoochie on both of his cheeks. Hooray for sweet displays of affection!

Another Bride, under the “green dome”. a better shot of that place and *creepy* statues will be in a later entry. This girl looked nice, but really young. I wouldn’t have put her at any older than say, 18.. and I suspect she looked that old due to makeup. Note the sargasso in the water.. the tide changed, and that stuff, along with any floating trash (like the clamshell sandwich box on the lower right) came into the bay by the stone boat. (another entry for “the Prisoner”, come to think of it) As the sum beat down on it, the reeds and weeds cooked… and outgasses a smell like really gross boiled cabbage. I’m sure it’d put some manatee in hog-heaven, but the reek drove me from that side of the dock. I really feel for the girl being photographed right over the stuff.

This young lady was in a pinkish outfit.. as I’ve said before, I can’t abide water in a yellow container. I suspect the Tiara to be a bit much. Is she a bridesmaid, or is her gown a little off-color because she made nooky with the groom pre-nuptuals? I really like the archway there… it’s quite shady, and a breeze blows through from the ocean beyond… remarkably free of the cabbage-stank I mentioned earlier.

There she is again, a top level, near the Janus- fountains. This top level is where a couple of other tourists had me take pictures of them. It was flattering to me that they trusted me to not be a punk and run off with their camera… I suspect that they trusted me because I was busy taking pictures of all sorts of other stuff, myself. I photographed a teenage pair of Chinese girls who spoke very little English, a husband and wife visiting from St. Louis, and an older couple that lives locally, but had never visited before.

First of all… to the teens, and the younger couple. Why did you vacation in Florida in July? Wouldn’t you prefer someplace cooler… like the surface of the sun, or something?

Yet another bride, by the ivy-arches. that path behind her leads to the sphinxes shown elsewhere. (yesterday’s entry, I think) The arm inside the ivy-arch causes me to suspect yet another Bride is lurking just outside of frame. This area has a lot of coral next to the marble… sort of an odd Nautical/Italy vibe. The palm trees seem rather out of place.

On the pedestrian Path again.. a Greco-roman style statue. I really like how they’re just out in the middle of all this plant life. I half expect a sleestak to leap out, hissing, and shoot me with a tranquilizer dart from his crossbow.

Something about statues on pedestals put me in a little kid mindset. I’m not used to having to look up to see someone’s midsection that sends me back to a time when I was much smaller than I am today. Is that another broken torch? A bouquet of flowers?

---

Estonians Wife-Carrying Champions for Seventh Year

SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) – Two Estonian students clinched the country’s seventh straight wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, winning the “wife’s” weight in beer and a sauna.

Using the “Estonian Carry,” where the woman clamps her thighs to the sides of the man’s face while hanging upside down on his back, Madis Uusorg carried Inga Klauso 830 feet through a pool and over hurdles in just over a minute.

Uusorg, 20, claimed there was no secret to their victory. “I just tried to run and not think about anything,” he said.

“Madis is very good at carrying women. I didn’t have to do anything,” his friend Klauso, 19, said. Contestants to not have to be married.

The race has its roots in local legend, according to which it was common in the late 19th century to steal women from the neighboring villages.

It is also based on the story of Ronkainen the Robber, who made aspiring gang members prove their worth by carrying sacks of rye along a challenging track.

The competition in the remote central Finnish village of Sonkajarvi, which lies deep in forest and a few hours’ drive from the Arctic Circle, drew 18 couples from as far away as Canada, England and Ireland, and around 7,000 spectators.

“The only training we’ve done is run around the hotel room this morning, but at least we’ll be the best in Britain,” said Ian Walker, a doctor of psychology from Bath.

“(England) lost the football, lost the tennis, so this is all we have now!”

---

I wonder what Kenny the Klown has been up to?

I imagine he was in his Uncle Sam suit, stilt walking and doing balloon animals… It was fun the last time I saw him in that outfit, Danny and I had just finished having dinner, when Kenny called out my name and came striding up at about 12-feet tall and dressed in red, white and blue. I think that event was just a bit too surreal for Dan. I remember him looking at me on the ride home and asking “you know everybody on the planet, don’t you?”

It’s true that I do seem to suffer from small-world syndrome. It’s impressed/befuddled a number of folks that I wander with that I can’t seem to go anywhere without someone recognizing me and saying hello. I’ll chalk that up to being pretty recognizable and that I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of friendly people.

I haven’t seen many of the hippies lately, save for Dave and his brood. Many have moved on, or “grown up”.. married and had kids, or are traveling. With no more Phish to pursue, I imagine some will clamp onto another band, and do the Dead-thing for as long as the lifestyle permits. Nugg’s probably still in Hawaii, and Squirrel could be anywhere at this point. Ah well, life with nomads as friends. People in the computer industry and Hippies…both relocate frequently, and both are notoriously bad at keeping communications in my experience.