New
England 2004
Our main holiday for 2004 was in New England - we visited Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. There are a lot of photos on this page so for those of you who would prefer to look at only one section at a time, I've created an index so you can jump around more easily.
One
or two images that stick in our minds are the chrysanthemums and the pumpkins
- they were everywhere!
Another
couple of things for me from this holiday are a typical Jonathon pose
and the car we hired (Nugget because of his gold colour)
And so to the main pictures...
Harvard
Bar
Harbor/Acadia National Park
New Hampshire
Vermont
Boston
Our
first night was in Cambridge, Boston and we wandered up to Harvard (just
up the road from the hotel). Whilst we were there we reminded ourselves
just how big the food portions are in America!
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It
was getting a bit dark by the time we'd finished so we had fun taking
pictures with the lights.
From
there, we travelled up to Maine where we stayed for 4 days. The principal
reason for staying there was for whale watching. On the way up, we called
in at Kennebunkport and Belfast.
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This
was our first encounter with pumpkins outside doors, fall foliage
and white churches - we were to see a lot more of each of these
before the end of the trip. |
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Moving
away from the city and into a National Park with very little light pollution
gives rise to some wonderful sunrises
As
I mentioned, our primary purpose in coming to Bar Harbor was to go whale
watching which we did for the 3 mornings we were there. The middle
morning was very cold (land temp. 2C) but we were very lucky with the
weather and even more lucky with the whales.
The
first 2 days we saw finback whales, one of them has a bad back (they think)
so shows his tail (or fluke) when he dives - this is unusual for finbacks
but he was showing his fluke both days so photos were duly taken!
The
third day we saw mum and calf humpback whales. The mum is called Siphon
- her calf isn't old enough to have a name yet. They put on a really good
performance and are very relaxed around the boat.
They
also showed their flukes when they dived (normal for humpbacks) but they
were much closer to the boat so we got a much better view.
The
second reason for choosing Bar Harbor was the fact that it is in a National
Park area - on an island (connected to the main land) and therefore we
expected it to be pretty. We were not disappointed! The scenery was fantastic
and the people really friendly. A good place to eat is the Cafe
This Way - recommended to us by Rich Johnson, a local man we met who
kindly invited us back for coffee/tea (Jonathon just couldn't resist talking
computers and cameras to him!)
There's
a loop road that covers a small part of the island/park - we followed
this the first afternoon then ventured further afield on the other days.
Places we particularly liked were ...
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Sand Beach
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Seal Harbor
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Eagle Lake (left) and Cadillac Mountain (right)
Both
the above places were good for capturing the sunsets
Just
driving around also allowed for plenty of photo opportunities...
From
Maine, we travelled south to North Conway in New Hampshire (it was 25C
the day we arrived so a bit of a change from Bar Harbor - it was a lot
cooler the other couple of days!). Rather than stay in a chain hotel,
we elected to stay at the Old
Red Inn and Cottages (we had a cottage) where Dick and Terry Potochniak
looked after us very well.
It's
difficult to know where to start with this beautiful state - there was
so much to do and the foliage was incredble.
One
of the touristy things we did was go up Mount Washington on the Cog
Railway. The gradient got as steep as 37 degrees so one end of the
train was several feet above the other in parts!
It
was both cold and misty at the top of the mountain (6,288 ft) and the
only trip we could get onto was the last one of the day. If we'd said
"no" (because it was dark when we came down) we would have missed
the sunset.
The
other touristy thing was to go up Wildcat
Mountain on a gondola ... then Jonathon had this bright idea that
we could walk down from the summit (3,980 ft) - I don't think either of
us would want to do that walk again in a hurry - extremely pretty with
loads of photos but our legs ached like mad the next day.
Walking
down did give us plenty of opportunity to take pictures we would otherwise
have missed, particularly the close ups of berries, wild flowers and butterflies.
As
you can see, fairly similar to the wild flowers we have in the UK.
As
we were a little bit early arriving for our gondola ride we followed the
Thompson Fall Trail so we did quite a bit of walking that day.
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I
found some of the roots fascinating - the way they grow above ground! |
The
second day we were in New Hampshire we followed the tourist route
around the White Mountains. As it was Columbus Day weekend, an awful
lot of other people had the same idea! First stop was the Silver
Cascades. |
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From
there we tootled round to Franconia Notch State Park (see below for an
even more interesting root!)
The
Old Man of the Mountain's face dropped off in a landslide - interesting
to see but no longer looks like a man! The walk to see him took in Profile
Lake which was lovely.
Then
onto The Basin and Kinsman Falls
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We
also called in at a couple of overlooks (Cleveland and Sugar Hill)
later in the day. |
We
were hoping to go to Flume Gorge and drive the Kancamagus Highway that
day but the FG car park was packed and there were too many cars around
to appreciate the KH so we took ourselves out of the main tourist area
and went down to Holderness for lunch - what a treat to find Squam Lake
and enjoy the view whilst eating.
Having
missed Flume Gorge on our second day, we delayed our departure for Vermont
for a few hours and went to have a look - glad we didn't miss it - it
was a lovely walk.
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There
are lots of covered bridges in New England. They come in all kinds
of designs, some with pedestrian walkways and some without, some
with more colour than others - this one is one of the two we saw
in Flume Gorge. |
We
also called into a couple of overlooks (Hancock and Pemigewasset) we missed
the day before (it got dark before we got there!).
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That's it for New Hampshire
Jonathon
has been to Vermont several times but I'm sure has not been on some of
the pretty little roads I found for us to drive on (4 wheel drive would
have been better for Lincoln Gap, I admit, but the map gave no indication
just how steep up then down it would be!). We stayed in Rutland and spent
the first day exploring the nothern part of the Green Mountains and the
second the southern half.
Just
driving around, we came across some beautiful scenery and, although the
overall fall was not as spectacular as in New Hampshire, we got some of
our more dramatic pictures of the colour here.
One
of the places we visited was the Texas Falls Trail. For me, this is where
Jonathon took the picture of the holiday showing the dramatic effect of
the red maple leaves against the silver bark.
We
did take some other pictures during the course of our walk ...
Whilst
we were walking around on the forest trails, I was amazed to find so many
different kinds of fungus - I don't think I've ever really thought about
it before but it's a vital ingredient for forest ecology so this time
I took a bit more notice.
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From
there we drove to Middlebury - Jonathon will remember our visit here as
this is where he left the airline tickets! Thankfully he remembered before
we left and rescued them from one of the shops we'd been in to.
One
small disappointment was the fact we didn't see a single moose, bear or
deer even though there were loads of road signs warning us that they were
around. We did see a few squirrels (the greys were particularly prevelant
in the park in Boston) and the dragon fly below landed on me to let me
know he was there then posed nicely on a rock!
Having
done a lot of walking in forests and near waterfalls, we thought we'd
try and find some lakes for our last day in the countryside. It was a
lovely calm, sunny day, ideal for reflections etc.
The
first lake we visited was Beaver Pond (no beavers but a few ducks!)
From
there, we moved on to Grout Pond which is much prettier than the name
suggests and gave us lots of opportunity to capture leaf colours.
Finally, we had to leave the mountains and go back to the big city.
Boston
is a lovely place to visit and we could have done with more time to explore
(and better weather - this was the one place where it was damp and cloudy).
Some of the photos reflect the weather conditions but at least they'll
give you an idea of what's there to see.
We
did what I expect a lot of tourists do in Boston and went on the Freedom
Trail. This is easy to follow as there's a red line on the pavements/roads
that marks the way and you can get a guide at the information centre at
the start in Boston Common.
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From
there, you simply wander along, taking photos of the places they
tell you are significant! First stop Massachusetts State House
- the dome is 23-carat gold leaf - then Park Street Church (far
right). Opposite the State House is the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
(right). |
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Next
stop is the Granary Burying Ground - the picture on the right
is allegedly Mother Goose's grave but I was far more intrigued
by the one with the skull and crossbones. |
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The
King's Chapel had too many people to get a decent picture during
the day so we revisited at night. |
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Next
was a statue of Benjamin Frankin outside the Old City Hall and
close to the City Carpet - a mosaic in the pavement commemorating
the first public school in Boston. |
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Not
far from this statue there was a Democratic Donkey and some Republican
Elephant feet - appropriate with the elections so close. |
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We
then wandered to the Old Corner Book Store - as this is opposite
a huge Borders I lost Jonathon for a while! Just in front of Borders
is the Irish Famine Memorial. |
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The
Old South Meeting House was followed by the Old State House Museum |
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Just
opposite here is a circle of cobbles commemorating the Boston
Massacre then off we went to Faneuil Hall. |
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Apparently,
they used to test traitors/spies by asking them what was on the
weather vane here - it's a grasshopper - all locals know this
so if you didn't know you were obviously a baddie! |
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The
area around here was really buzzy with lots of shops and the best
food court I've come across close by. |
Our
next stop was not on the Freedom Trail but was the most moving
place in Boston for me - it's the New England Holocaust Memorial.
It comprises 6 glass towers (one for each of the major death camps)
with the numbers 1 - 6,000,000 etched into the glass (one per
victim) together with sayings from people relevant to the time. |
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You walk through the towers to read the words. The towers had steam coming up from the bottom - I guess to symbolise the gas but it didn't say. The verse at the end is below. |
Back
on the trail and on to Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church.
The next place was another burying ground but it was shut so no
more gravestone pictures! |
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The last two places on the trail were across the Inner Harbor in Charlestown. First we have Bunker Hill Monument then USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warhip still afloat. As it was getting dark we decided to stay and photograph the Boston lights - the photo below is of the new Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. |
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The
plan for Day 2 was to go to the top of the Prudential Tower and
take some photos from there. The picture on the right shows that
we couldn't even see the top because of the cloud so we wandered
around instead. |
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We
spent quite a while in the Public Garden where there was a lovely
lake and plenty of flower beds. The grey squirrel higher up the
page was taken here - there were a lot of them, all tame and digging
up the flower beds - glad we don't have that many in our garden! |
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Other
than the wildlife (water fowl, birds and squirrels mainly), there
was a statue of Washington and some really interesting topiary. |
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Wandering
around, there were some very ornate buildings (or decoration to
buildings). It seemed there was a fair bit of copper - the building
on the right was a fairly common style - the bits that "stick
out" were (I think) made of copper originally. |
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Finally,
in addition to lots of references to the Boston Red Sox, there were a
huge number of American flags wherever we went.
