A new partner and exciting travel blog!

As the new partner and second shooter for Field Day, I'd like to start off with a hearty hello! and a few words by way of introduction. My name is Cara Bianca Patik, and I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming summer re-launch of the now two-strong Field Day. I'm lucky enough to be sister-in-law to Megan, founder and principal photographer of Field Day Photography. Megan and I have been taking photos and learning the ropes of Photoshop together for 15 years. I've always admired Megan's ability to create beauty around her. There's no easier way to say it other than she has an "eye." She's one of those people who can come to your home and, with the speed of a whirling dervish, move a few chairs and vases around for an immediate and stunning "renovation." It's a skill that comes in handy at photoshoots, and which I used on a few occasions while working for a magazine in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Megan's also the kind of girl who hand paints Christmas cards, pulls together a great outfit, has an enviable sense of spatial awareness and a weird knack for plumbing. She can also, not incidentally, capture photos of people that take your breath away.

For my part, I've been a devout chronicler as soon as I could write and figure my way around a point-and-shoot on family vacations as a child. I have spent my adult life variably as a writer, book editor, magazine editor, biographer, photojournalist and sales manager. I have made Mexico my home for the last eight years and am blessed to be nearly-neighbours with Megan here in Playa del Carmen for the last three. I live here with my future husband, Craig, and our two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Caia, who, just like her father, loves the camera and is a real ham. She is mostly (I swear) a willing subject.

I have a feeling I am writing WAY too much for a photography blog, so on to photos, shall we? As we are still in the pre-launch stage of the new Field Day, I thought I would include the most recent personal event that I photographed--our first "real" vacation as a family since Caia was conceived, which is WAY too long to go without a vacation. I thought it might be fun to include a sort-of travel journal blog of our cruise through New England and Eastern Canada, a kind of "what-you-might-conclude-about-the-places-you've-seen-after-a-planned-excursion-through-your-cruise-line-with-a-two-year-old-in-one-arm-and-a-camera-in-the-other" type of thing. So below you'll find Part 1 of this journal. But before that, I thought I might introduce you to Caia, since you'll be seeing her a lot. These were taken a day or so before we left:

Wait, let me turn her around for you so you know what she looks like:

She's a pretty happy dumpling most of the time. The only time she is not happy is when she hasn't had a nap. She didn't have a nap during our whole vacation.
This is how she looks in colour:

And in this photo, so you know I am still on topic, she thinks she sees an "avion," which is Spanish for "plane."Avions rank up there with Toy Story, giant violins (more on that later), and anything that is "como princesa" (like a princess).

Here is the beginning of the official travel blog:
DAY 1: Flight on Jet Blue (very much recommended, by the way) from Cancun to Boston, direct.

I don't think Caia could actually quite piece together that we were on one of those things that she sees in the sky all the time. I couldn't quite piece together paying full seat fare for a two-year-old who didn't seem to spend any actual time in it.

We didn't luck out on the weather, at any point on our trip. We were woefully underpacked. Thank God Caia has one jacket to her name, which was given to her last year on her birthday by a friend of mine and has has been hanging in her closet next to the anti-humidity-hanger thing here in Mexico ever since.
What can I say about Boston? I have to admit, I've never longed to go there. The only reason we were spending any time in the city is because our cruise was leaving out of the Black Falcon port to places we actually did want to see. It was one of those nice surprises...despite the rain and the cold (in June!), it's one of the friendliest, good-vibe and prettiest cities I've ever been to.
Here are a couple pictures of the rainy night outside our hotel near Milk Street:

Caia slept deeply and soundly for about 14 hours; during that time Craig and I may have taken the opportunity to sneak downstairs and enjoy karaoke at the Elephant and Castle and meet a really cool guy called Mike who actually sang karaoke for a living. I didn't know that career existed.

The next day, we were supposed to board our cruise late, at 6:30pm, because of the gale-force winds and whale migration. What a great opportunity to walk around and get a feel for the city! However, for some reason, we didn't bring a stroller. This was very unfortunate for Craig who was forced to carry Caia the entire way around Boston. Thankfully, it's a surprisingly small city, though I'm not sure it feels that way with a toddler riding on your shoulders the entire time.

Here are some photos of the city during the daytime:

As a Canadian, I find the American flag pretty exotic, so I took lots of photos of those. Also, there's something about skyscrapers, just not too many of them...Boston seems to have the perfect amount.

I've always liked interesting walls.

I love this remembrance of the bones of a city: the trees in the foreground that have stood for centuries, the old buildings, the imminent building of new things, and the ubiquitous American flag in the distance.

This is the State House, a photo of which I assume proves you've been to Boston. I really liked its gold roof, but I have no idea what actually happens in a State House. Anyway, if you ever go there, it's situated right above Boston Common, which is this glorious park where people make your kid balloon animals and hats, and there are squirrels, and a pond, and a carousel and a play park. There are probably things for adults there too, but we didn't get to see those. We did, however, get to see this guy. Something tells me he's a regular fixture in Boston. Way to go! I love people who aren't afraid to be who they are:

Awesome window dressings are also totally my thing.

Anyway, after a lengthy day trekking it all over Boston, we returned to the hotel to pick up our luggage in preparation for boarding our cruise only to find out it had been delayed another two hours. Another two hours would officially be past Caia's bedtime. So we hung out in the common room of the hotel to wait, a little grumpy, foot-sore and weary, dreaming of getting on the cruise, having a glass of wine and putting up our feet. When we greeted Craig's parents who had driven all the way from Toronto to meet us for the much-anticipated family cruise vacation BACK to Canada where they'd come from, it was with the bad news that it was now officially four hours delayed, to 10:30.
To make a long story short, we paid $20 to cab it to the terminal, which was about 10 feet away, only to be turned away because of overcrowding and shuttled to the nearby Westin "ballroom" with another 1500 passengers to wait until boarding could proceed. We were told an hour. Then after two hours without food, we took these, for proof. I don't upload them for any artistic merit, and in fact I didn't take them, but show them to you to document an event that, apparently, has never happened in the history of Carnival Cruises:

I kid you not, we were given numbers to tape to our chests to organize the order in which we would be boarding the ship, when it was ready. Our family's numbers were something like 1123. Below, you may see a blur in Grandpa's arms...that is indeed a toddler who is so far past her bedtime she appears to be moving in a different space-time continuum (I am probably understanding that wrong.) That is me against the wall. I look calm, but I am very, very not.
We got on the cruise at 1:30 am.

The trip does get better, I promise. So stay tuned for Part 2, where you find out everything you didn't want to know about St. John New Brunswick!