I went on a Caribbean cruise a couple weeks ago. It was a great vacation but also hard work. I was working all week as a photographer. I won’t blog many of the shots that I took for work because they would probably be boring. They will be in Vegetarian Times Magazine in a few months though.

We (Me, Mom, Justin, Lindsey, and Kristen) loaded up the rental minivan and hit the road. I accidentally stole this key chain from a gas station.

We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Georgia where a Christian Bike rally was going on.

Artsy makeout shot… so sue me.

We finally made it to the Holiday Inn Express. This guy was on TV talking about Anna Nichole Smith… What lump?

Next morning we got on the ship. Justin was geeking out. I think they put something in his fruity pebbles.

This was the dining room that we spent MUCH of our time in. There is nothing better than free meals.

You can get as many of each coarse as you want. It’s pretttty cool.

I only eat butter that is sculpted in the shape of an eagle.

These are my parents. They are famous in the health food community and they are the ones who put on the cruise every year.

I know I said I wouldn’t bore you with my work pictures, but here’s a couple of the food shots that I did for Veg Times.

First port was San Juan Puerto Rico. It was awesome, but we got there at 6pm, and only got to stay till midnight, so it was very short lived.

This lady claimed to be the only macrobiotic in San Juan.

Puerto Ricans are tough as nails.

We walked around the port area for a while in search for a good eats.

I love taking pictures of coble stone. And San Juan had lots of it.

I got a little bit stuck on this one alleyway.

A local recommended this place, but we weren’t really feelin it so we continued our search.

I think this is the first time my dad has ever gotten off at a port in the 4 years doing this. It was a relief.

The architecture was rad.

Most of the people that we came in contact with didn’t speak any English which was really cool, because it actually felt like we were in another country and not just some theme park version of the country or something.

Our portraiting held up the search for food, but the sun was going down and there was much arting to be done.

I wish there were this many cool walls and alleys in Asheville.

We finally found a good place to eat.

After dinner I introduced everyone to the shake face and made all of them do it.

Clay wins the “Most normal looking shake face ever” award hands down.

After dinner we took more silly artsy photos and wondered around the city till midnight. And I saw Robert Lopez, but I didn’t take any pictures… Sorry skate rats.

Next stop Dominican Republic

Kristen and I were the only ones to get off the ship here, because everyone said that there was nothing to do.

They were very wrong. This ended up being the best day of the trip.

there was this huge park area with a amphitheater and lots of cool architecture.

Despite it’s Ancient appearance, this place was built in the 70s by some American guy to serve as a coop for local artists.

Lot of flowers.

Lots of photo ops.

Amphitheater upcoming attractions. Dominican Republic gets doooown.

This guy told me in broken English that he liked this picture very much.

Then he and his crew serenaded Kristen with some local tunes.

My friend Jon Svendson went through a period where he took a whole bunch pictures of pigeons and made a video about them. I thought it was cool and decided to give it a try.

They are quite photogenic.

We though about smuggling home another tropical cat, but decided that one jungle cat is enough for a household.

I like taking pictures of people taking pictures

There are very few pictures of Kristen and I together because I have issues with handing my camera over. fortunately it went smoothly this time.

Again, rad architecture.

We have no idea what kind of fruit these were. They looked like mango, but were the size of watermelons.

I couldn’t understand a word Donkey man was saying, but I liked him.

And his donkey

Farewell donkey man, you will be missed.

That night was the talent show. Last year I walked out during Blaire the “Freestyle poet” but this year I had to sit through it because I was taking pictures. His poem entitled “If George Bush was Macro” made me throw up in my mouth a little.

The last stop was Grand Turk. We went snorkeling, but other than that there was not much to do or see there.

The last day there was a toga party. I swear the Toga wearing instructions were stupid, not me.

Lindsey’s claim to fame is that she is the great, great, great…etc grand daughter of the famous first ever Siamese twins, Eng and Chang Bunker. She is a decedent of Eng (Left).

The last day was full of photography work, but we found a little bit of time to relax.

This is Mark the head chef.

Some of the classes and lectures were very awkward to shoot, but this one was great. Ohashi (right) had the whole class pose for the photo.

This was by far the most awkward thing to shoot. 7am meditation class led by three Buddhist monks. I tiptoed in, took one shot, and crept out.

Later we actually hung out with the monks in their room. They were the coolest people and really funny. This was one was from Vietnam.

This is Bhante G he is from Uganda. He’s been a monk since he was 12 years old. They are not allowed to eat after 12pm or handle money. This hat was given to him by a Canadian Mountie. It was white, but he died it orange to go with his robe. It has a secret compartment and the straps are tied with some complicated knot that he didn’t know how to tie. This was one of the major highlights of the trip.

Another highlight was my Mom dancing to Skynard at the farewell party.