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April 30, 2009

Oklahoma City National Memorial

The second full day of our storm chasing trip was fairly uneventful weather-wise as well, so that morning we all hopped in the chase van and headed into the city to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which was absolutely beautiful:

There are two gates facing each other, the 9:01 gate and the 9:03 gate. The bomb went off at 9:02am so the first represents an innocent city and the second represents a city forever changed:

Each of these chairs represents one person, and the small chairs are for the nineteen children who were killed that day:

A hawk at the memorial:

A Mourning Dove on one of the chairs:

We walked through the museum inside, which was really amazing. No pictures were allowed, but if you're in Oklahoma City anytime soon, I recommend visiting, it was definitely worth the money.

Back outside, spray-painted on one of the walls:

This tree survived the bombing and is now known as the Survivor Tree:

Again, the memorial was so beautiful and I hope everyone gets to see it some day.

More pictures of the rest of our day will be next!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:18 PM | Comments (4)

April 24, 2009

Wichita Mountains

Last Monday (the 13th) Brent and I left Connecticut to go on a trip to Tornado Alley to go storm chasing with Extreme Tornado Tours.

We got on a plane in NYC early that morning to fly to Oklahoma City, OK. Here's Brent napping on the plane:

When we arrived, we took a shuttle to our hotel just outside of the city where we had a few hours until our first meeting that evening at 6pm. Here's how Brent spent the time... relaxing:

That night, we met all the guys from Extreme Tornado Tours and TornadoVideos.net in the hotel lobby and discussed how the trip would go. They had been watching a storm system moving in on Thursday that they were all very excited about, but for the next couple of days there wouldn't be much to do weather-wise. We discussed, as a group, how we wanted to spend that time and decided that our first day would be spent in the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma.

We left the next morning and arrived in early afternoon at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. We started driving towards Mt. Scott, the highest peak in the Wichita Mountains, when Sherry, one of our fellow tour members, spotted a wild buffalo! Sherry (who is from Australia) actually spotted pretty much everything on our trip that we were looking for, whether it was food, wildlife, gas stations.... Anyway, we jumped out of the car to get a couple pictures of our first buffalo:

(remember, all my photos can be viewed in Large and Original size by clicking on the picture then "All Sizes" on top of it)

The land out there is so different from what we're used to at home, here in Connecticut, so we were really fascinated by all their colorful rocks:

Buzzards circling in the sky:

Brent caught off-guard in front of the buffalo:

Here's a buffalo "cow chip":

We kept driving along a road that circled up to the top of Mt. Scott. We were very close to the edge and there were no guard rails, which made me more than a little nervous, but we made it.

Motorcycle coming up to the top of Mt. Scott:

View from the top:

Matt (one of our guides from Oklahoma -- Texas, originally), Sherry, and Toni (from L.A.)

Brent checking out the view:

Wind turbines off in the distance:

A little above the direct center of this photo you can see a road. We watched a car drive along that entire road and it took forever. It was amazing seeing something so far away coming closer and closer.

Brent and Me on top of Mt. Scott:

Brent took this exact picture right before I did, so yes... I stole it from him:

See that little black speck down there? That's our buffalo from earlier!

Brent mid-leap:

Sherry, Brent, Matt, and Toni:

Brent sitting on top of Mt. Scott:

This was some sort of rock slide coming down the mountain. It had some special name, but I forgot it:

When we got back to the bottom of the mountain, we drove through the Wildlife Refuge for a while longer, spotting some Longhorn cattle:

This guy ran away when I accidentally swung the creaky van door open. Oops!

We ran into some more buffalo, a little closer this time:

We stopped by the visitor's center where we saw these:

I have been told they are Mud dauber wasp nests.

Brent smiling next to me in the van (we had so much fun on this trip):

Longhorn crossing the road:

Baby longhorns!

We drove around a little while longer until we found some prairie dogs, and they were so cute! They were all popping out of their little holes with little babies running all around:

I loved this one, he reminded me of our bunnies:

More babies:

One of their holes:

This next picture is of the shadows of Brent, Matt, and me. The angle and the lighting, however, could not have made my legs look any more enormous:

As we were driving around through the park, there were a number of places where we could see oil dripping out of the large rocks on the side of the road. Matt told Brent that certain rocks can be broken open and if you smell the inside, it smells like oil. Brent gave it a try:

Another little prairie dog on the road:

The Wichita Mountains are truly amazing and if you are ever in Oklahoma, you really should take a drive out to see them. We reluctantly left when it was getting late in the day, and drove to a place called Ann's Country Kitchen for dinner.

Those of us who were not raised in Oklahoma had never before heard of "chicken fried steak" and had no idea what to expect, so of course we ordered it. It took a long debate to determine that there is no chicken in chicken fried steak, making the entire concept very confusing. It's definitely something worth trying once.

That night we drove back to the hotel outside Oklahoma City where we all got to bed early, excited to start the next day.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 10:58 AM | Comments (15)

April 19, 2009

Update!

Apparently our footage was on The Today Show! It got sold to The Weather Channel, CNN, NBC, and a lot of other stations as well. Anytime you see the Kansas tornado from yesterday, April 18th, we were there!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 10:19 AM | Comments (3)

Tornadoes

Here's what we did today (video taken by our team and posted on TornadoVideos.net)

Summary - 4 tornadoes today, a few inches of hail on the ground making it look like we were driving through the snow, and an awesome end to a fantastic chasing trip.

Pictures coming soon....

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 01:11 AM | Comments (2)

April 17, 2009

Update

Saw a tornado near Lubbock, TX today and got pelted with golf ball sized hail. Tonight, we're staying in a hotel in Childress, TX and will start the chase again tomorrow morning!

Keep checking for updates on TornadoVideos.net and during chase hours, watch our Live Feed HERE (we should be in the Live Feed titled something along the lines of "Extreme Tornado Tours" but if you can't find it, we'll be following Reed Timmer's car).

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:33 AM | Comments (1)

April 16, 2009

Storm Chasing Thus Far....

So far we have not seen any storms, but that's because there's a huge setup building up for tomorrow! Keep an eye on the news around Amarillo, Tulia, and Lubbock, Texas tomorrow!!!

The trip hasn't been uneventful, though. So far we've seen wild buffalo, prairie dogs, longhorn cattle, the Wichita Mountains, the National Weather Center, and we got to watch a weather balloon going up into space!

It has been an awesome trip and I'm sorry I don't have time to post some pictures, but I have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow to get ready for a big chase day!

If you want to watch a LIVE feed of what we're seeing, check out this link HERE. If we're not currently taping, however, it will just show a weather map, so keep checking back.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 01:58 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2009

Tornado Chasing

Tomorrow, Brent and I will be leaving Connecticut at 5am to head out to Oklahoma City for a week of Storm Chasing across the Midwest! We're going with the guys from Storm Chasers on The Discovery Channel and are hoping to catch a tornado or two....

To see their website, go to www.TornadoVideos.net (or click on that link)

And to see pictures from my last storm chasing trip with my dad six years ago, click HERE.

Wish us luck!!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:22 PM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2009

Rocky's Day at the Beach

As you all know by now, Rocky looooves his walks at the beach. Unfortunately, dogs are only allowed at our beach until the end of March. We took him down there on the 31st for his last day there, along with every other dog in town, there for the same reason.

Rocky in the car:

This is one way to save on gas:

Late afternoon at the beach:

The remnants of a rock pile:

Rocky on his last beach walk of the year:

Sea Grass:

Shell Fishing:

Late afternoon sun:

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 10:15 PM | Comments (4)

April 08, 2009

Housewarming Party

A little while ago, Brent and I had a very belated housewarming party and all of our friends came over to our place for drinks and then out on Greenwich Ave. to go to the bars.

Our apartment has its own private entrance that's actually shaped like a little miniature house.

It's not much, but it's home:

For a while there while Brent was still getting ready, he had a really interesting hairstyle going on:

Eric and Suzanne were the first to arrive. They met us at Thataway Cafe for dinner and then came back to our apartment for the party:

Suzanne tried, to no avail, to hide from the camera:

Hayes, one of Brent's friends from home who made the hour and a half drive down for the party:

Eric and Brent:

Suzanne and Eric:

More people arrived and we had lots of snacks and drinks around the apartment:

Kristina, Vanessa, Jason, and Molly:

Brent and Jason (yes, there are two Jasons):

Cathy and Joe:

Hayley and Jenn:

Brendan, Nick, and Baram (high school friends of Brent's):

Hayes, Brent, Brendan, Nick, and Baram:

Molly and Cathy:

In the living room:

Classic shot of Brent and Eric:

In the kitchen:

Brent and me making a very "pastel" couple:

Matching Tag Heuer watches:

Party in the living room:

After a couple hours, we packed up and headed out to Sundown Saloon to all have a few drinks together at the bar:

At Sundown, we bumped into Cathy's brother Mike. Here's Molly and Mike:

Brent and Mike:

Mike's new tattoo (I imagine the brontosaurus and the giraffe would have a lot in common):

Mike and Cathy:

Vanessa and Sarah:

Baram and Nick:

Vanessa, Kristina, Sarah, and Molly:

The guys:

Why so serious?

I think this is such a cute picture of Vanessa:

Molly dancing:

Molly and Sarah:

Vanessa and Jenn:

Hayley:

Brent on his phone trying to find his friend Billy, who was on his way:

Brendan, Baram, and Nick:

Brent and I ran back to the apartment to go get Billy who had just arrived:

Grabbing one for the road:

Kristina and Jason had also come back because they were about to drive home, but Brent went and grabbed them to have one more drink:

Brent, Billy, and Jason:

This is always bad news at 2am:

Never ever pour vodka shots into Solo cups:

Back to the bar....

Brent and Billy:

When's the last time you saw one of these?

Last shot... everyone looking kinda crazy:

Anyway, it was a fantastic party and hopefully we'll be having another one in not too long!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 08:31 PM | Comments (7)

Impossible

Why is it snowing right now? No really, why?

Posted by lauren at 11:26 AM | Comments (1)

April 05, 2009

Taking the New Camera Out for a Spin

Here are some pictures I took down at the beach recently with my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I was there right when the sun was hitting the sea grass in such a way that it made it almost "glow" orange. Hope you enjoy these:

(to view large version - recommended - click HERE)

Each picture has a large version that you can access on my Flickr site just by clicking the photo itself. That will take you to Flickr where you can click "All Sizes" on top of the photo to see it bigger, which I recommend for some of my high-res shots.

A plane flying over the moon:

Sand in my shoes:

NYC Skyline:

Pictures from Brent's and my housewarming party coming soon!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:32 PM | Comments (6)

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Ok, so I'm still behind (obviously). I'm working on it though.

Here we go....

Pictures from the St. Patrick's Day parade down Greenwich Ave. (where Brent and I live):

Parades are really just firetrucks and police officers, right?

Does the fire department really need a boat?

Mini attack?

Nice pants:

Did the Girl Scouts really need to dress like Thin Mints?

Adopt-A-Dog was there:

And the finale to the parade, of course, was Brent cooking dinner! Brent makes up a lot of interesting recipes and this was definitely a good one:

And just to round out this entry, here are a couple tulip pictures I took that same day:

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:11 PM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2009

Greek Chicken-Lemon Soup

Since moving into our apartment, Brent and I have been doing a lot of cooking. Most of it has involved Easy Mac or an instant Bertolli bag, but every once in a while one (or both) of us gets up the energy to make something from scratch.

A little while ago, I decided to make Greek Chicken-Lemon Soup from my mom's Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast: Soup cookbook. It has definitely become one of my favorite soups since my mom made it a few months ago, so I thought it would be worth sharing here on The Blonde Excuse.

Here's what you'll need:
1 cup long-grain rice
3 cups chicken broth
About 1.5lb boneless, skinless chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 egg yolks
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

1. Start by preparing the rice according to directions and set aside. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked all the way through (7 minutes). Remove the pan from heat and set it aside.

Cooking the rice:

Cooking the chicken in the broth:

2. In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water until fully combined. In a small saucepan on low heat, whisk together the egg yolks and the lemon juice. When just warm, add the cornstarch mixture and 1 cup of the broth from the chicken and continue whisking. Raise the heat to medium and continue until a thick sauce has formed (5 minutes). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Lemon:

Three egg yolks:

Whisking the lemon-egg mixture:

Cooking:

3. Return the pan holding the broth and chicken to medium heat and bring it to a simmer. Add the lemon-egg mixture while whisking and the soup will thicken slightly. Stir in the rice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Here's the final product:

It may not look like much, but it's delicious:

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 08:12 PM | Comments (6)

April 01, 2009

Beach Walk 2

Yet another beach walk-- expect a lot of these with pictures from my new camera as well, they're just not ready yet.

Brent spotted this picture for me of the fog coming over the water:

Brent:

Rocky made a friend:

More rock piles:

This rock actually has a very special importance in my childhood:

Growing up, my friend Jim and I used to stand on top of it scouting for pirate ships and then we'd try and try and try to rip this metal cap off of it:

Why? Because we were huge dorks and thought that Yoda from Star Wars was trapped inside that rock. This was just Darth Vader's cover:

"Three Hundredth Anniversary" suuuure.

Here's a picture of a robin, a sure sign of spring:

I'm not sure why this dog has his own little cart:

A big meeting of all the same dog breed:

Beautiful clouds:

All right, that's all for Beach Walk #2. More to come soon! And pretty soon I'll be posting more pictures from my new camera!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 06:38 PM | Comments (4)