Travel | Virtually Gina

Falling Towards New York

April 7, 2017 by Gina Marie

“Gravity is an interaction. The Earth pulls on you, you pull on the Earth. You fall to the Earth, the Earth falls to you.” (Found at: http://srjcstaff.santarosa.edu/~lwillia2/p10/p10ch4.pdf) For 16 years, since my darling BFF Katy and I first visited New York together in August 2001 as a post-college-graduation-treat, I have fallen towards New York. According to the above logic, she must have been falling towards me, too. From time to time, while living in Boston in my early 20’s, I […]

Categories: America, Art, Earth, Friendship, Mural, New York, New York City, Photo Essay, Photo Journal, Photography, Travel, Urban • Tags: Architecture, Art, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Murals, New York, New York City, Travel

My Umpteenth New York Visit

February 7, 2017 by Gina Marie

Before we delve into the New York pics, let’s start with this: “Always maintain only a joyful mind.” This is one of the 59 Lojong slogans taught to students on a path of meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. These slogans are traditionally used to help meditation students tame the mind. Even in the face of distractions and suffering, the idea here is to maintain a sense of joy that you are on a path of awakening. That being said, […]

Categories: America, Meditation, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Nikon, NYC, Photo Essay, Photo Journal, Photography, Recovery, Spooky, Travel, Winter • Tags: Lojong Slogans, New York, New York City, Recovery, Travel, Urban

Hello, Brooklyn . . . Hello, B.I.G.

January 15, 2017 by Gina Marie

On a wintry afternoon, Ilona and I took New Jersey transit on a slow (under the snowy conditions) train trek into New York. It was so cold that I wore my pajamas underneath my clothes, plus several hoodies and my black puffer jacket with the goofy faux fur hood. The city was magical under a blanket of fallen snow. “Biggie Smalls is from here,” I observed as we trudged through the snowy sidewalks of Brooklyn. “I saw him in concert the year before […]

Categories: America, Biggie Smalls, New York, New York City, Notorious B.I.G., NYC, Photo Journal, Travel, Urban, Winter • Tags: Biggie Smalls, Brooklyn, iPhoneography, Manhattan, New York, New York City, Notorious B.I.G., Travel, Urban

A Stroll Through Downtown Portland, Maine

April 10, 2016 by Gina Marie

After several months of having lived in the extremely suburban Jersey Shore region, a visit to this hip urban New England city felt like a breath of fresh air for my soul. I loved the silhouette created by this couple against the backdrop of an urban scene in the bright afternoon sun. Passing a children’s boutique, I was poignantly reminded that my nephew Robbie would be turning six in a few weeks and I had no idea what to get him. I took delight in the surreal effects […]

Categories: America, Architecture, Flare, Food, Mannequins, Photo Essay, Photography, Portland, Shadow, Travel, Urban • Tags: America, Architecture, Photo Journal, Photography, Portland, Travel, Urban

The Bridge That Glows Golden

February 14, 2016 by Gina Marie

It was nearly midnight on my last night in Budapest, and I was perched by a bay window in our room at the Sofitel, where my new husband and I were staying on the final night of our honeymoon. The room had a magnificent view of the Lanchid, or “Chain Bridge”, aglow with golden lights that spanned the Danube river. As I gazed out the window, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. * * * My father and his family […]

Categories: Ancestry, Budapest, Europe, History, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Travel • Tags: Budapest, Family HIstory, Hungary, Memoir, Photography, Travel

The Princeton 15

July 10, 2015 by Gina Marie

Is it possible to fall in love with a university campus? If so, then Princeton has won my heart. I hope my sweetie Jeff doesn’t get too jealous. I drove 45 minutes west from my new hometown on the Shore, and lo and behold, found myself on the campus of one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher education. I brought my camera and preserved 99 images on my trusty Nikon, of which I’ve whittled down to the following 15 for your pure […]

Categories: Architecture, Bucolic, New Jersey, Photo Essay, Photo Journal, Photography, Princeton, Sculpture, Travel, Urban • Tags: Architecture, Bucolic, New Jersey, Photo Essay, Photo Journal, Photography, Princeton, Sculpture, Travel, Urban

My Kind Of Town . . . To Visit

March 15, 2015 by Gina Marie

That Toddling Town It was half a lifetime ago when I made my first visit to Chicago. I was 18 years old, a college freshman on a road trip to DC with a group of friends. We crashed for a night on the outskirts of America’s third largest city, and I marveled at the unfamiliar, slightly gritty, architecture and the way the buildings all seemed to crowd together. On our way out, we drove past a billboard on 1-90 which […]

Categories: America, Chicago, Memoir, Photography, Travel, Urban • Tags: America, Chicago, Memoir, Photography, Travel, Urban

A Day in Chicago

February 12, 2015 by Gina Marie

Although Chicago doesn’t generally top anyone’s list for travel destinations in February, I nevertheless found my spirit rejuvenated by this little trip to the (bitterly cold) Windy City. The mercury didn’t top twenty degrees Fahrenheit today, but I was too excited to care. Following are a few of my favorite shots from Day 1 of my travels. Urban Skyscape A Police Officer Dining, in Full Uniform, at XOCO Restaurant by Rick Bayless Fire Escape Cash Register at XOCO Restaurant by Rick Bayless in Near […]

Categories: America, Architecture, Chicago, Travel, Urban, Winter • Tags: America, Architecture, Chicago, Photo Journal, Photography, Travel, Urban, Winter

Nueva York: The Latest Visit

January 17, 2015 by Gina Marie

For the first time in several years, I paid a trip to the Big Apple (or, as one might call it in Spanish, la Gran Manzana) without my Nikon in tow. I couldn’t resist capturing a few snaps with my handy-dandy iPhone 5S. Following are a few of the images which I managed to preserve for posterity’s sake. A flower vendor and several fashionable young passers-by at Penn Station. Here is a fast food kiosk in Penn Station. The name […]

Categories: America, New York City, Photo Journal, Travel, Urban • Tags: iPhoneography, New York City, Photo Journal, Travel, Urban