Well, actually the real activity was a “College Fair.” The theory was, I think, that you invite a couple of hundred colleges to come for a two hour information exchange session and some students might also come. At the mall. Naively I thought that I could go and sit on a bench and take pictures. Wow. Was I ever wrong. We showed up at 7:30 pm just when the Fair was to open. We could not find a parking place in the mall lot, we had to park across the street. That should have been a warning. Remember–the stores were closed. We walked into Mall and literally stopped. The crowd was one solid and I mean solid mass of people. The marble and concrete  floor (we were on second) was creaking from the weight of the THOUSANDS of people that were packed into the place. We moved at the pace the crowd was moving, almost like an amoebic ooze–our progress was less than 50 feet in 15 minutes…and we weren’t even close to the exhibit tables yet. The crowds reminded me of scenes from European soccer meets. If there had been a police officer or fireman, they would have had to evacuate the place because it must have been a fire hazard…it was scary, very scary. We oozed our way back outside and decided to take a break for an hour or so and then go back…or at least try, I was not going back into that kind of crowd. I really wonder about the integrity of the floor we were walking on. Kelsey and three of her friends agreed to let me buy them ice cream. We went to Fairfax Corner which is sort of a City Center kind of place with shops, restaurants, fountains, parks, etc. I had a f/2.0 lens boosted to ISO 8000. I love the light and watching the girls race through the fountain (not all, only one brave one ran all the way through!). We went back to the Mall at 8:45 and the girls had a chance to browse through and talk with many of the college reps. The reps all looked like they’d been through hell.

Well, actually the real activity was a “College Fair.” The theory was, I think, that you invite a couple of hundred colleges to come for a two hour information exchange session and some students might also come. At the mall. Naively I thought that I could go and sit on a bench and take pictures. Wow. Was I ever wrong. We showed up at 7:30 pm just when the Fair was to open. We could not find a parking place in the mall lot, we had to park across the street. That should have been a warning. Remember–the stores were closed. We walked into Mall and literally stopped. The crowd was one solid and I mean solid mass of people. The marble and concrete  floor (we were on second) was creaking from the weight of the THOUSANDS of people that were packed into the place. We moved at the pace the crowd was moving, almost like an amoebic ooze–our progress was less than 50 feet in 15 minutes…and we weren’t even close to the exhibit tables yet. The crowds reminded me of scenes from European soccer meets. If there had been a police officer or fireman, they would have had to evacuate the place because it must have been a fire hazard…it was scary, very scary. We oozed our way back outside and decided to take a break for an hour or so and then go back…or at least try, I was not going back into that kind of crowd. I really wonder about the integrity of the floor we were walking on. Kelsey and three of her friends agreed to let me buy them ice cream. We went to Fairfax Corner which is sort of a City Center kind of place with shops, restaurants, fountains, parks, etc. I had a f/2.0 lens boosted to ISO 8000. I love the light and watching the girls race through the fountain (not all, only one brave one ran all the way through!). We went back to the Mall at 8:45 and the girls had a chance to browse through and talk with many of the college reps. The reps all looked like they’d been through hell.

Well, actually the real activity was a “College Fair.” The theory was, I think, that you invite a couple of hundred colleges to come for a two hour information exchange session and some students might also come. At the mall. Naively I thought that I could go and sit on a bench and take pictures. Wow. Was I ever wrong. We showed up at 7:30 pm just when the Fair was to open. We could not find a parking place in the mall lot, we had to park across the street. That should have been a warning. Remember–the stores were closed. We walked into Mall and literally stopped. The crowd was one solid and I mean solid mass of people. The marble and concrete  floor (we were on second) was creaking from the weight of the THOUSANDS of people that were packed into the place. We moved at the pace the crowd was moving, almost like an amoebic ooze–our progress was less than 50 feet in 15 minutes…and we weren’t even close to the exhibit tables yet. The crowds reminded me of scenes from European soccer meets. If there had been a police officer or fireman, they would have had to evacuate the place because it must have been a fire hazard…it was scary, very scary. We oozed our way back outside and decided to take a break for an hour or so and then go back…or at least try, I was not going back into that kind of crowd. I really wonder about the integrity of the floor we were walking on. Kelsey and three of her friends agreed to let me buy them ice cream. We went to Fairfax Corner which is sort of a City Center kind of place with shops, restaurants, fountains, parks, etc. I had a f/2.0 lens boosted to ISO 8000. I love the light and watching the girls race through the fountain (not all, only one brave one ran all the way through!). We went back to the Mall at 8:45 and the girls had a chance to browse through and talk with many of the college reps. The reps all looked like they’d been through hell.