Let's Talk Catawba.

I miss you, Asheville...

I spent my summer in Asheville, North Carolina amongst the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. It was a wonderful summer. I actually made friends this time around and I got out of the house and made a person of myself. The mountains make for a lot of hiking, obviously, and there are way too many trails for a person to do in the course of three months. However, I happened to discover a beautiful trail by the name of Catawba Falls and it really is one of the most spectacular land formations I've seen in a long time. It's not on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but just a little farther east in the Pisgah National Forest. I swear, no one would ever know that Catawba exists because it's hidden along a tiny, winding road that's right off the exit. This tiny, winding road extends very far back and a traveler can tell it's a rugged place when a surge of kudzu envelops the trees, wires, and sides of houses. No one keeps it cut down this deep into the mountains.
When I finally arrived at the place, I couldn't even tell that it was the trail head but the gathering of cars was definitely a giveaway. My uncle, aunt and her nephew accompanied me on this hike. It starts off looking like an average trail - trees everywhere, level, rocks and roots littering the path - and I assume this will probably lead to an average looking waterfall. The trail begins to incline, creeks split the trail at various intervals, and at one point, we are bouldering up some rocks just to continue the hike. Bouldering wasn't too big of a deal; it is climbing large rock formations that are so easy no ropes are needed.
Like all waterfall trails, as you get closer the sound of the rushing water gets louder and louder. At one point, hearing some rushing water, I believed we had arrived. I found out quickly that the waterfall I was looking at wasn't even the main course. This pre-waterfall was a sight either way. It was surrounded by a large stone dam that was evidently man-made and very old. There was moss growing on it and the stone was incredibly worn down. The waterfall appeared to have weathered through a corner of the dam that allowed it to run freely off the side of the mountain and down into a pool.
Now let's move on to the waterfall of the hour. The trail snaked up and up, more boulders, more creeks, and at one point we almost lost our way because the trail isn't very clear cut, but we found the markers and continued on our way. Finally, just as I thought I couldn't take anymore of this trail, we rounded a corner and there it was. Catawba Falls - much more than that average waterfall I assumed to find.
Catawba was beautiful. It is a multi-layered, moss veiled, rhododendron littered, mist surrounded piece of land that looks like something out of the Road to El Dorado. The trees created a bouquet of shade and the water was ice cold (just like good mountain water should be). I figured, why not climb up the layers? I can be somewhat of a thrill seeker and when I looked at the falls, yeah, they were about 20 feet high but the individual layers simulated a giant staircase that was easily bouldered. The water rushed all around my ankles at its shallowest but could get to as deep as my waist around some of the pools that nestled in the layers of the falls. I lost my footing on one layer and plummeted into a pool that rose to my midsection. The immediate chill of the water caused me to gasp for air and I attempted to get out of that water as quickly as my frozen arms could hoist me out. One thing I love about mountain water is that even though it is cold as all hell, once you're out of the water and stand in a patch of sunlight or let that hot summer air hit, you're warmer than you were before and ready for another round.
The good thing about Catawba is that this hike is not over yet. If you climb the main waterfall like I did, and find a path that exits from the water to the mountain side, there is yet another path. This path leads us to the grand post-waterfall. The entire trail is a steep, steep incline and at one point, the rangers fastened a rope into the rocks so hikers could have the additional help in getting to the top of this incline. Most of the time for balance, I'd grasp at rhododendron branches that stuck out everywhere. There are many side trails and faux-trails that have been created by animals and hikers alike so it's easy to misplace your steps if you have not hiked here before. I am glad I had my uncle to keep us on the right track. The post-waterfall is that "average" waterfall, one usually thinks of. A straight down, wide, and rushing waterfall that drains into a huge pool and wildly rushes away, pouring into the layered waterfall 100 feet below. This is a waterfall, that as much as I tried to figure out a way, I just could not climb. So I swam in the pool beneath it with frequent intervals of getting out to warm myself and jumping back into the icy freeze.
I tried to look up some history of the Catawba Falls but I did not find much. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. I'm not even sure how my uncle heard of the place. He just knew how to get there. Whatever the history, Catawba is one of my favorite sites in all North Carolina.  The location is an adventure and the sights are beautiful... Absolutely breathtaking. I was not expecting to run into something so outrageous when I started down the Catawba trail that day but I more than approved of what I did see.

Here's a couple pictures: 

My weekend..

 Man, I'm not really in the mood for this right now. I just want to curl up in my bed and sleep all day. I miss sleeping all day. Ugh.

Anyway, this entry is going to be short because I don't have the time to spend writing something extensive and involving.

I went to Hyde Park this weekend to eat at the Cock & Bull restaurant and it was very, very good. Pretty cool decor and a super nice staff. I loved it. (Wish I could get a job somewhere like that but I don't think I dress fancy enough for it). My roommate Aaron was with me and he got their famous fish and chips while I got a taco salad. Both were amazing, especially the Cajun mayo for the fries.
After our meal, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and look at the houses. This seems to be one of Aaron's favorite past times, although I wasn't that amused by the venture. However, the houses in this place displayed some of the most amazing architecture I had ever seen around Cincinnati.
We started at the bottom of the road and worked our way up. The houses started at pretty normal looking incomes. Regular siding, regular roofing, regular porch furniture. But every house became more impressive than the next as we walked farther and farther up the road. The laws became more and more well kept, bushes more in line and flowers a bit brighter. Every door became more intricate, porches wider and chimneys taller. What I didn't notice were the cars. As these things became better, the cars became more scarce. Made me wonder if maybe they have troubles with them.
A couple of the houses had strong European influences. The house from Germany was humongous and had the typical white stucco with the crossing wooden X's. The landscaping looked that that of a Low German style. My favorite had to be the house from Italy. This had to be something straight from a Shakespeare novel. Iron fences, three car garage, wide front space surrounded by a low 4 foot wall - it was beautiful. However, the royal house from England, by far was the most amazing thing I'd seen yet. It had a humongous stairway winding up to the also humongous front porch, where two of the luckiest little kids stood. It was completely made of brick and stone and from the street you could see the giant spiral staircase in the center of the living room with a magnificent chandelier in the center.
Yes, they were all gorgeous, but it almost made me sad. One reason because my roommate was gawking at the houses and constantly saying how much he wants to live in the neighborhood, and two.. Well, when you think about it, the residents of this house are probably the people who have been stepping on others toes just to get where they are today and then they complain when the government wants to raise their taxes just to help pay off the debt. The selfishness emanating from my walk with Aaron very much alarmed me.
I have no resentment toward the houses, they didn't do anything but be built. I just have a possible problem with the possible background behind those who live in the houses. I wouldn't know what to do with all the money those living in the English house have. I would probably still live in a modest house in the same neighborhood and have the same things I do now. Different views I suppose? Not sure but that was Hyde Park.

Advanced Topics Reporting: Travel.

So I completely forgot I had a blog which is the reason I haven't posted in a long, long time. I simply just stopped giving a fuck about putting pictures up here when there are no followers and I doubt there's anyone who actually cares that much. However, I'm in a journalism class this quarter and I'm going to be using this blog to post some of the writing because we're required to keep a blog. I'll try to use visuals whenever possible... But this blog will be for my class for the next 10 weeks. So get used to it.

I'm not exactly sure what I should be writing right now but she told us we needed a blog post.. Maybe I'll email her.

I want to definitely write about my summer in Asheville and how fantastic that was. I'd like to do a comparison of Cincinnati versus Asheville, write about my favorite hikes along the Blue Ridge Mountains, about the friends I met and the things we did, and I think I have one little piece that's in a local place (but I'm going to try to keep it a secret). Hopefully I can make this work out right.

I'm sort of a rambler so if this blog gets annoying, sorry about that. Usually I clean up if I do editing or if I'm actually writing a serious paper but this entry is just junk. I know it's junk. I checked out the syllabus and Blackboard and neither were very helpful.... So, I suppose emailing it is.

Damn, anyway, I had a fantastic time at Streetscapes this weekend and got probably around 2,500 to 3,000 pictures but maybe I'm over estimating. It was located on Telford street at its intersection with Ludlow, so I walked over there to shoot some pictures for The News Record. Random people wanted me to get pictures for them so I got a lot of emails to send out. Oh, and I met a couple street bands who were awesome.
Streetscapes was sort of a street fair-ish type thing, where these local artists were sponsored by various organizations (like Skyline, Greaters, etc) and they took one piece of famous art and used chalk to draw it on the ground. The works were beautiful and the artists did a phenomenal job! I was there from start to finish so I got to see a lot of how they started working, all the way to a finished product.
First they blew up a picture, traced it on to large sheets of brown paper and traced over the main parts of the painting. Then they would punch holes with a toothpick into the lines to make a stencil. After that was done (heard it takes around 2 hours depending on how intricate the work is), the artists used baby powder to spread over the stencil so lines would appear on the road, and after that, they took blackboard chalk and traced more solid lines from the powder. Once they were done with that, the fun (a.k.a. coloring) could begin.
The organizers of Streetscapes held a workshop prior to the event to teach the artists how to make their own chalk that would last longer and look better. These chalks were the most brilliant colors of red, green, yellow, blue, orange, and purple that I had ever seen and there were so many hues of each I wasn't sure how anyone could pick one over the other. But the artists definitely knew what they were doing! Some would have an array of chalks in just about every hue of a color and, as a spectator, I could immediately tell they knew what they were doing and how to use each. That in itself is amazing.
I'm not sure how they each chose the particular pieces they did but the art was not just one genre, it was from everywhere. There were 9 works total and the selection stretched from "The Milk Maid" to a tribute to a local artist's work who had recently passed away.
The energy of the place was fantastic. The participants helping each other, sharing chalks, sharing ideas, critiquing, it was all very communal, but everyone knew they only had a certain amount of time to get the work done. Two days, Saturday and Sunday, from 10am - 6pm was their allotted time, but they made the best use of their time that I've ever seen. Absolute diligence and inspiring care went in to every detail and I would see artists occasionally get up to stretch, glance at their work, realize something was wrong and immediately start correcting it.
Finally, at 5pm on the second day, I came back to Streetscapes to get more shots of the work and I was in for a surprise. It was all done. All beautifully uncovered and the gallery was complete. Spectators were milling around, examining the work, talking to the artists, reading up on the history of the works that had been set up - it looked fantastic. I was even able to get up on a ladder and get some pictures of the entire thing and I couldn't have been happier that I was there. Sure my editor was mad because it was getting late in the production day but if I hadn't stayed, he wouldn't have a picture of the 16ft overview. It was a great experience, I had a wonderful time, and (without a doubt), the artists did an amazing job.
Go here for pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rissahearts/sets/72157627762871304/

OMGZ!! Pictures!

Finally have my computer up and running again and can upload pictures. Yay! 

prettiest puppy eyes.

Anyone here a photographer psychologist? Because I really don't get what I like so much about this picture. I just really, really like it.

this is probably my most favorite of the pictures I've shot in a while

Going to start going to some events, open mics, in the mountains and get plenty more shots. Can't wait!
-Marisa Whitaker

Milo and Henry.

The black lab is "Milo" and the Yorkshire Terrier is "Henry."

Yay, doggies. :] Also, I've got my computer back and things are working alright, bigger hard drive, baby! 

-Marisa

The only picture..

.. that I can upload right now. Sorry, I've been dead, posting on blogger wasn't that fun anymore, and I've filled my computer's capacity with pictures so I haven't been able to shoot.

Been a while..

I've twisting to the sun I needed to replace
The fountain in the front yard is rusted out
All my love was down 
In a frozen ground

Students bitching at the god demonstrator who regularly comes to campus to "damn" us all.

-Marisa