vacation | At Home with Tech

July 10, 2022

How to Spot Natural Charm while Snapping Vacation Photos in Maine

This watchful guard appeared on the stairs while we were on line to buy dinner at Langsford Road Lobster and Fish House in Cape Porpoise. I was pleased to capture this little moment, and here are some others I spotted during our week in Maine.

Beyond the lobster rolls, rocky shoreline and beautiful sunrises, vacationing on the coast of Maine can have a wonderfully calming experience. It’s not so much about what you do, it’s more about how your day unfolds and experiencing what’s right in front of you. That’s the charm.

We recently spent a summer week in and around Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise. (On one day, we traveled up to Portland.)

Of course, I practiced my photography on this environment and brought a camera everywhere I went. Some shots I intentionally looked for. Others presented themselves quite unexpectedly. It’s in these natural moments where the best opportunity to capture ‘the charm’ lies.

Last week, I shared my week-long exercise capturing sunrise timelapses. Now, here are my photos from our trip!

Maine’s Wonderful Character

An elevated house by the water

Repairing a boat outside Langsford Road Lobster and Fish House

Afternoon fishing from a dock

The Mudflats at Cape Porpoise

A grounded boat at low tide on the edge of the flats

Walking on the flats in the afternoon

Pile mooring at low tide

Goat Island Lighthouse

The distant lighthouse at dawn

Its high-tech Marine LED Beacon

The view from the lighthouse

The Beaches

People enjoying Maine beach time

Three silhouettes in the ocean water

A seagull flies by.

Floral colors

I spotted batches of daisies in so many fields.

An industrious caterpillar photo-bombed my flower shot.

This yellow flower seemed to greet the sunrise.

Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth

This is the iconic lighthouse shot.

During our walk in the park, I accidentally came upon this photo shoot for a clothing brand.

Sunrise on the Mudflats

The clouds glowed purple in the magic minutes before the sun took over.

This is ten minutes later.

I’m taking it all in. (Thanks to my friend Rick for capturing my moment.)

June 19, 2022

Pro Packing Tips for your Vacation Tech

Joining this Colgate University reunion torchlight ceremony with hundreds of other alumni after a two-year delay was especially meaningful. Packing my tech for this weekend trip took a bit longer than I expected. If it’s been a while since your last vacation, you might also need a refresher on packing your gear. Here are my top tips…

Going on vacation again with my family after more than two years into this pandemic has been amazing. Our recent New Orleans trip and drive to our college reunion weekend both felt like the good old days.

But my packing powers were a bit rusty. Sure, I brought the right clothes (mostly), but when it came to certain peripheral supports for my tech, I didn’t score 100%.

If you feel you could also benefit from a few reminders, here are my pro packing tips for your tech.

Remember to Take a Small Power Strip
It’s rare to find enough plugs in your room to charge your tech when you’re on vacation. I find it especially helpful to set up a charging station using a small power strip with a short extension cord. (Plus, it’s so easy to pack.)

The mini power strip also keeps all of your charging cables in one place and reduces the chance that you’ll leave anything behind.

Carry a Peak Design Backpack as a Personal Item on your Flight
If you’re planning on flying with your camera and travel tripod, and you want to pack it into a bag that will fit under the plane seat in front of you (as a personal item), you’d better pull out a tape measure and start measuring dimensions. No matter what, it’s going to be tight!

For our New Orleans vacation, I bought a Peak Design V2 30L Everyday Backpack. It just barely squeezed in on board both flights, but it did! (phew)

And then this knapsack was the perfect travel companion on my back as we walked about New Orleans.

Pack a Thermos with Tomorrow Morning’s Coffee
I’m an early riser and always like to have my first cup of coffee as soon as I get up. If you’ve driven somewhere where breakfast doesn’t start for another hour or two, you might be out of luck finding an immediate cup of Joe. But not if you already have your coffee with you!

I brewed a pot of Peet’s Major Dickenson’s coffee right before we drove to our Colgate reunion, poured it into my hi-tech Yeti thermos and then packed it in the car. Early, the next morning, I unscrewed the top of the thermos, lifted it to my face and was delighted to still sense faint warmth. No, my coffee wasn’t at all hot anymore, but it was absolutely fine for this need.

Use your Apple Watch as a Silent Wake-Up Alarm
If you’re thinking of ditching your Apple Watch on your next family trip, don’t!

Whenever my family is sleeping in the same room on vacation, I don’t want to wake everyone up with my early alarm on my iPhone. That’s when I continue to wear my Apple Watch during the overnight hours. Its silent, vibration-only morning alarm is perfect for this purpose. A little haptic action on my wrist is all I need to start my day.

One thing… I normally charge up my Apple Watch at night. So if that doesn’t happen, I have to remember to immediately do it before breakfast.

Bring your Apple TV
If you want your hotel room TV to mirror the streaming options on your home TV, packing your little Apple TV puck just might do the trick. Just connect your Apple TV to the hotel’s Wi-Fi and the TV’s HDMI cable.

I’ve found this kind of MacGyver maneuver works best with less advanced hotel Wi-Fi systems that don’t require signing in with anything more than a password. If you’ve got to first navigate through a hotel web portal to sign in, the Apple TV will get stuck.

Write Down your Streaming Apps’ Passwords
If you don’t end up taking your streaming puck on vacation, you might be surprised to find one already connected to your hotel room TV. (That’s what we found in our New Orleans B&B.) If that’s the case, all you have to do is sign into your streaming accounts. Of course, you’ll need your passwords for that!

And when you’re packing up to leave, don’t forget to sign out of your streaming apps!

Travel Back to the Future
Going on vacation again can be a big step towards returning to the normal patterns of life. And if playing with your tech is part of your vacation fun, then I say bring it and enjoy!

August 15, 2021

Use Apple Watch’s Haptic Feedback to Nourish your Creative Self

If you want to use early mornings during vacation days to nurture the buds of your creativity, you have to be awake. Here’s one way to ensure that happens by using your Apple Watch.

I’ve been asked where I find the time to write this weekly blog. My secret is I work on it during my ‘magic hour.’ That’s the sixty minutes or so in the mornings before the rest of my family wakes up. Not only is it exclusively my own, interrupted time, but my brain is fresh and clear. Most importantly, my creative self is fully active, and my writing just flows.

My magic hour begins at 5:30am with my cup of Joe, and I have a date with myself every morning that I never break. It’s my most productive time of the entire day, and I use it for any number of computer-based projects, including my writing.

Vacation Planning
When my family and I go on vacation, yes, I still take my intentions for my morning creative time with me. But our schedule does shift a bit, and everyone sleeps a little later, myself included. I could easily sleep away that ‘me time,’ but as long as I recalibrate when I wake up in relationship to everyone else, I don’t lose my magic hour.

The challenge is ensuring I get up, and that can be difficult when I want to wake up later than when my internal clock tells me to. That’s because when I sleep in, there’s no way to know exactly when I’ll complete my next sleep cycle.

Setting a wake-up alarm on my iPhone is, of course, the obvious solution. But when my family is sleeping in the same hotel room, an alarm is going to wake everyone up. Even the light buzzing sounds of a vibrating alarm on my iPhone could wake up my son. (He can be a light sleeper right before the sun rises.)

So how do I get just myself up to greet my magic hour while on vacation?

I use the silent alarm with haptic feedback on my Apple Watch.

Happy with Haptic Feedback
For those who don’t yet happily live in the world of haptic technology, it’s simply my Apple Watch vibrating on my wrist to silently communicate with me. Sometimes it taps a couple of times to indicate I’ve received a text. A more insistent vibration sequence happens when I get a call. And yes, there’s an alarm vibration which will wake me up.

It’s brilliant.

So, that’s the way I start my mornings on vacation exactly when I want without disturbing the rest of my family.

Don’t Forget to Recharge
The only issue with my silent alarm plan is I need to wear my Apple Watch throughout the night. And that’s the time I would normally be charging it up. So I can’t forget to time shift that important refueling.

The good news is it doesn’t take too long. I can usually get back to 100% during breakfast, before we all leave for our day of fun.

Always Feed your Creative Self on Vacation
I know vacations are supposed to offer a break from your daily routine. But for me, I like to bring my magic hour with me wherever I go. And a scheduled tactile reminder, courtesy of my Apple Watch, is all it takes to ensure I begin my vacation mornings exactly the way I want.

Tag: vacation

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