Boston Harbor Islands

Drove into Boston today to go to the Boston Harbor Islands National Park trip.  A ferry takes you out to the islands and one of the islands, Georges Island, has an old fort on it from 1833.

As luck would have it, we had a half hour to kill before our ferry took off so we walked a couple of blocks to hubby's brother's office.  They just moved offices so it was first time for his wife to see office too!  

Look what I found!  My calendar on his desk!  :)  I know, I'm so vain!

Here's a view of the historic State House in central Boston from his office.  Look in center of photo above the greenery.  The building is almost swallowed up by new skyscrapers.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water.  Boats everywhere!

Even planes landing at Logan Airport went over our ferry.

Fort Warren was a fort built in 1833 after the War of 1812 and was used through WW II with heavy usage during the Civil War.  It is built in the star shape.

The walls of the fortress were massive.

I found this lone clump of tiger lilies made this scene almost oxymoron.

Here's hubby's brother imitating some military exercise.

A view of Boston from the fort grounds.

A view of a classic boat on the way back to Boston

Boston's Long Wharf.  

I am soooo glad that other people spent $$$$ to create this view for me to see free of charge and take this photo!  Another beautiful day for traveling and visiting family.

Fruit of our Labors

We are staying west of Boston for a few days and today we did some errands.  Got my 90 days supply of medications refilled and then found a T-Mobile phone store.  My phone has not worked for at least a week.  The battery drained down and the message came up "Connect to Charger."  Every time I put on a charger...mine, hubby's, or the mobile...nothing would happen.  We stopped in Michigan and it was suggested we get a new battery, so we did.  The phone showed activity, but down the road when we plugged in the mobile charger, again nothing happened.  Opted to just wait to find a store when we had more time, like today. 

At first, the T-Mobile rep plugged in their charger and my phone started charging.  Took the phone back to our car and again nothing charged.  They must have a super-duper charge system!  Anyway, decided to get a new phone, LG 4G model for $228.  However, when they rang it up it only came up with a price of $99.  Both sales reps reviewed the process and for some reason my $228 phone was only $99 today!  :)  Happy dance in my pocketbook.  Got ourselves squared away after an hour plus in the store.

Every Friday in the summer, Massachusetts has a Free Friday at certain museums in the state.  Today, just happened to be Fruitlands Museum where hubby's sister-in-law is director of marketing.  We drove out there and she had told us it was on a hill overlooking a long distance.  Wow!  What a view!

As you can see, another beautiful weather day!

The museum  is located in several buildings, one of which was the home of the Alcott family (Louisa May's three sisters and parents).

Her father was a teacher in Concord and was friends with Walden & Thoreau.  He moved his family to Fruitlands to start a community that was non-aggressive and ate off the land...not even eating animals.  They lived here from June, 1843 to January, 1844 and then found it was not working.  Louisa and her sisters slept in the attic of this house and if it was a hot day in July, 1843, as it was today, I feel sorry for them.  

This house was at the bottom of a long hill, wish I would have gotten a photo of this hill.  It exhausted both hubby and I!  Other buildings on the grounds housed a Shaker exhibit and a Native American exhibit.  

Here's some mementos and scenes from the Alcott house.

Here's a doll that the Alcott girls played with.

In the Shaker exhibit learned a couple more things about the Shakers

The Native American exhibit had some of the best displays I have seen in a long time.  Here's a bandolier worn by a Midwest / Upper Great Lakes Indian.

I will finish with a scene from our drive back to my in-laws!  

It's Friday!

Barns & Buildings

Today we did something that was not on our original itinerary.  Since we did not go to the "Amish" communities in Indiana or Ohio, we decided to go the Hancock Shaker Village near Pittsfield, MA.  What an awesome round barn and other old buildings.  We spent almost 3 hours there touring the grounds and learning about the Shakers.  

Then we drove through one awesome New England town after another to reach hubby's brother's place where we will spend a few days.  I am always amazed at how much the people in this area care for and preserves its old buildings and how immaculate they keep their yards and homes.  It made our drive today so enjoyable.  We did see several signs like this, but no sightings of a moose. 

Here are some photos from the Shaker Village.  Enjoy!

Meeting house for the Shakers

Wooden silos

I guess there really IS a black sheep in every family!  :)

See ya later, chickies!

All American Day!

We had an All-American day today!  Here is a retro McDonald restaurant right next to our hotel.

We left Utica and we found lots of old barns!  Barns...they are Americana, aren't they?

Here are some we saw this morning.

This is the first round barn I have sighted.

Cooperstown is a beautiful town by a beautiful lake.  It also hosts the National Baseball Hall of Fame....a place my baseball-loving hubby has wanted to see for a long time.

Too bad that we are not going to be there in two weeks as three of our favorite Atlanta Braves players and coach will be inducted then...Bobby Cox, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddox.

This museum was huge and had so much on display that you could spend hours there.  They have expanded several times since their 1939 opening....75 years ago!

The sport of baseball has evolved many times and so have the baseball gloves/mitts.  **Hubby was impressed that I knew the difference between a mitt (for the catcher) and gloves for the other players.  **

Here's hubby by a display of his favorite team

I was surprised to read that Hank Aaron's first team was in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  

There were so many displays on baseball.... black leagues, integration of teams, female teams & individual players.  It was a great museum!  For my blog followers that are Minnesota Twins fans, here the Hall of Fame plaque for Bert Blyleven.

Cooperstown is by Otwego Lake, another beautiful sight,

To continue my "Americana day," I had a hot dog and apple pie for lunch.  

Then we drove east towards Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Found some more barns.  To find a stone barn and round barn in same day...wow!

Stockbridge was the last home of illustrator, Norman Rockwell. I remember his idyllic drawings on the cover of Saturday Evening Post, McCall magazine and calendars. Many of his drawings depicted an all-American way of life....meals, trips, family and friends.  In this town, Stockbridge, is a museum dedicated to his work and with lots of drawings on display.  

One drawing I have remembered for years and I took a photo today.  Of course this drawing caused a lot of controversy when it was published.

Here is his famous self portrait.

The above painting is of his hometown (of 25 years), Stockbridge.  We drove through after the tour and it was the perfect spot to walk the streets with an ice cream cone.  

Tonight we are spending the night in Pittsfield, MA, in the Berkshire Hills.  More exploring of Massachusetts tomorrow, can't wait!

From the Falls to the Canal

Things looked promising when we got to the Peace Bridge today to travel back to the USA.  No line-up like there was on Sunday and only seven vehicles in front of us....a piece of cake (i.e. peaceful crossing) right?

Wrong! I could see the car at the checkpoint and it sat there forever, then they opened the trunk.  Several minutes later, they escorted the car to the secondary inspection unit.  I could see that the "they" were two  female agents.  The next car had another five plus minutes of interrogation and was sent on its way.  The next car was at the checkpoint for five plus minutes, another trunk opening and by this time a male agent came to the booth and was observing them.  Several minutes later, the car was sent off to secondary inspection.  By this time I had surmised that one agent was training another agent.  

As we all know, when we are training an employee on the job, we are very thorough and meticulous...no shortcuts allowed.  With four cars in line, the male agent took over and you could see the two females in discussion outside the booth.  I know how it is training someone and I also suspect that these female agents have to be top-notch and very thorough interrogators in order to keep their job.  No shortcuts allowed.

By this time 30 minutes of waiting, we managed to change lanes and got through at the same time (quickly) in the new lane as we would have if we had stayed in initial lane with the male agent.  Oh well, got to have some drawbacks to our travel time.

Stopped to get a view of one the oldest lighthouses on the Great Lakes in Buffalo.  

We found a good local franchise restaurant yesterday for lunch...Tim Horton's and there was one at the first tollway service area we hit today.  So it was donuts and coffee for brunch.  Very tasty!


The Eastman house is in Rochester, NY and we visited this lovely place.  I did not take any photos here, just wanted to take in the photographic experience.  The gallery had a display of photos from a photographer named Hines.  He was born in Oshkosh, WI and then moved to New York.  He took a lot of photos of "unpleasant" situations....immigration, child labor, poverty, war warriors, etc.  Some of them were such haunting images.  Made me feel that my landscape images are unimportant.  

The house has a lot history of Eastman and his creating KODAK and the camera that was simple enough for a child to use.  He changed the world of photography from a professional status to every-man-is-entitled-to-have-photos status.    The house was very beautiful too!  I bought a book in gift shop that I know will challenge me in my own photography status.

Next stop was Syracuse, NY for the Erie Canal Museum.  We all learned about the Erie Canal in school and it's one of the many facts we lose track of in our years.  Apparently the Interstate/Tollway road 90 that we traveled on from Buffalo to Utica (tonight) follows the route of the Erie Canal.

The museum is housed in the weighlock building that was used to weigh the boats to charge them a toll for usage of a canal.  Some of the canal is still evident today and others spots are covered.  The scene from inside the museum looks out on the original canal.

Below is a map of New York and the canals that run/ran through the state.  

This canal opened up New York and the Midwest to travel, commercial development, and immigration.  

The town we are staying in tonight was on the canal.  In fact the grassy median in front of the restaurant tonight was once the Erie Canal.  

We are never to old to learn something new!

Now it's time to get off computer....a nasty thunderstorm is hitting Utica!