HOP & JAUNT TEAR UP the BIG APPLE!

Everything has been a blur since we’ve returned to sweet home Alabama after our trip to New York City this summer. Alyson and I have been steadily busy doing work for our clients at HOP & JAUNT Creative Design. Here are couple you may have seen within the travel community recently.

This was a custom blog designed for Spencer Spellman of The Traveling Philosopher fame. We met Spence in New York at TBEX10 and decided to meet up again down in Mobile, Alabama. He wanted a great looking site to accompany his great writing. I really love the custom Twitter, RSS and Stumble Upon badges we did. Check out Spencer’s site when you get a chance. He has some entertaining articles, and each includes a bit of southern charm and wit.

HOP & JAUNT did this custom logo and header for Matt Long of Landlopers.com . The circular mark of the Landlopers logo represents a path leading into the distance between two mountain peaks. Its sleek, simple and iconic (which makes my graphic design senses tingle). Check out Matt’s site too, cause he has a lot of great advice for getting around the globe without breaking the bank.

So, what else is new from the desks of the traveling designers. We’ve done blogs, websites, ebooks and now…perhaps theater.

When Alyson and I were in NYC we saw a Broadway play. The set and costume designs inspired me to use our trip photos to create a mock-broadway production of our trip. Check out some of the images from the soon-to-be Off-Off-Off Broadway play, “HOP & JAUNT TEAR UP the BIG APPLE”.

We arrive in New York City!

We rented an apartment for the week.

We took a trip to the top of the Rockefeller Building and watched the sunset and the city’s lights come on.

We advanced down Wall Street.

On Independence Day we visited Liberty Isle and Ellis Island.

For the long ride home, we caught the Crescent Line back to Birmingham.

TBEX 10: Bloggers Take Manhattan

After our first night out in the Big Apple, Alyson and I just managed to slip into our cozy hostel bunks before the “tranquility” of dawn descended on the city of New York. The symphony of the morning began pianissimo before a quick crescendo of trumpeting cab horns and thundering garbage trucks. Burying my head beneath my pillow, I began to understand the meaning behind “the city that never sleeps“.

Stairs in our hostel.

The view from the roof of the Jazz on the Town Hostel.

We somehow managed to resurrect ourselves, grab a cup of coffee, and make it to the conference just in time to be a half hour late. The fact that we arrived late puzzled us a bit, but we were too tired to dwell on it. Only later did we discover that our mobile phone had not automatically updated to the new time zone. We spent the rest of the weekend arriving fashionably late to all of the TBEX functions.

After our morning boost of caffeine had begun to take effect, we made our way into the crowded auditorium. It was a packed house. Travel bloggers from URL’s all across the globe were in attendance. Surely, some world record for largest group of people simultaneously twittering had been broken. We had all taken our pilgrimage here to study, discuss and learn the revered ways of Travel Blogging. Very important issues were discussed such as, “What makes good stories?“, “How do you do Podcasts and Videos“, and “How the Hell Do You Make Money at Blogging?” Time will soon show whether Alyson and I were listening closely enough.

In the thick of it at TBEX TEN.

Yours Truly.

Aside from the panel discussions, the remaining two days of TBEX were filled with glorious gifts, platters of free food, and cups that overflowed. Alyson and I were seriously impressed (and impressing Alyson is no easy task). I have to say that both NYC and TBEX far exceeded my expectations. Understandably, the glittering lights and tall buildings of the Big Apple would ‘WOW’ anyone just off the plane from a sleepy, small Alabama town, but I still found it amazing that a group of backpackers and travelers could pull off such a well done convention.

Those glittering lights and tall buildings you just read about.

Obviously, a church.

Alyson twittering as usual.

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TBEX ’10 and New York: The First Day

New York! What can I say, it stole our hearts and most of our cash.

Two weeks ago John and I traveled across the country to attend TBEX ’10 (Travel Blogger Exchange’s conference). I’ve seen online that some 800+ posts have been written about all aspects of this conference. But for those who weren’t there or who have no idea what a TBEX is, or just wants to re-hash the good ol’ time had there, let me go over the fun filled weekend highlights!

To get to New York John and I drove 3 hrs north to Birmingham, Alabama. Sure there are smaller regional airlines nearer but we had a plan. We were determined to take the train back! More on that on the following posts. As we stayed at a friend’s house we naturally stayed up too late chatting and catching up over a bottle of wine. Waking up at 4am is never fun, but with only a handful of hours of sleep it gets darn right tough. Little did we know that we were just getting started on this late-night early morning cycle…

Sleeping at the airport

We flew to Chicago and then to Newark Airport. All the while I was trying every position possible to curl up and sleep, but the airline seat engineer seemed to have done everything possible to dissuade such activities. Finally we arrived in Newark, and flying in we were treated to a spectacular vista of the cityscape. From Newark we hopped on the train to Penn Station ( I was a little disappointed as I had confused Penn Station to images from Grand Central Station). From Penn Station we took several wrong metro lines before getting acquainted with the subway system and finally found our selves safely checked into the hostel with a few hours to spare before the pre-party was to start!

Newark Train Station

After a short neighborhood exploration we took a quick nap in our hostel bunk beds. While asleep I sadly managed to kick a hole into my favorite white Panamanian made in Ecuador but bought in Colombia hat while sleeping….the first causality from NY. This was actually our first time sharing a room with strangers in a hostel as well. The hostels we stayed in Colombia offered private rooms. We thought it would not only help shave a few bucks off the trip but thought it would be fun to try it out. Turns out we didn’t have any time to socialize with those in the hostel as TBEX kept us out and about all day and night except for when we crawled straight into bed.

Overall the Jazz Hostel was a friendly, clean, and situated very conveniently to everything. They had a roof top (though only one chair now) and a common room with wi-fi. I would recommend it to any budget oriented traveler, or those who would rather spend their money other than on a bed. That being said I wasn’t a huge fan of the beds…reminded me of a half-deflated air mattress filled with potato/rice sacks. But John didn’t notice this so could just be me.

It’s such a small world, our room-mates were two English guys who had a passion for all types of American sports. When we told them we had just arrived from Alabama they responded by saying “oh yeah? Last time we were here we were at an Auburn game down there!” It’s amazing how small the world can get!

Our Jazz Hostel Room

The TBEX pre-party was to be held in the Omni-Berkshire Hotel. A swanky place a little ways uptown from where we were staying. (more…)