Travel

Delaware Memorial Bridge

I made a round trip to Boston today, taking Dorothy to school. She’s keeping the car with her but understandably didn’t want to do that long drive by herself. So I went with her and then flew home late in the evening. The drive itself was relatively uneventful. We were on the road by 6:30 and crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge before 8:30. Traffic was slow getting onto the George Washington Bridge as I suspect it is except for in the middle of the night (and possibly even then). Traffic remained heavy across the upper part of Manhattan Island and then off and on through the Bronx and most of the way across southern Connecticut, especially around New Haven and New London. We stopped for a long lunch in Mystic, just before getting to Rhode Island. Arriving in Boston after 4:00 PM on Friday, it was no surprise that we got into very slow traffic in the parking lots that pass for tunnels but we needed to get to Logan Airport and there are only so many ways to get there. My flight wasn’t until just before 9:00 PM, so we were not really in any rush.

Dorothy continued on to school from there and I got home without incident. That is, unless you count the mouse that was running around the departure lounge. I didn’t know about it until a lady screamed and jumped up onto the chairs.

Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina

Cathy, Dorothy, Jonathan, and I drove to the east end of the island today, stopping first at Ferry Landing Park on the north (inland) side of the island. This is the site of the original ferry crossing to Ocean Isle Beach which operated from 1950 until 1959 when a swing bridge was built. At the park there is a small pier where a few people were fishing and some girls were setting up lines to do some crabbing. We went from there to the spit at the far east end of the island to Shallotte Inlet. It was quite warm and I’m afraid I got a little sunburn on my face and the back of my neck. This is looking north from the beach onto the island with a Carolina blue sky and scattered clouds.

Delaware Memorial Bridge

I covered a few miles today but ended up where I started. Cathy and I left the house at about 5:30 and drove to the airport. From there I flew to Boston, where I was picked up by Dorothy. Then we drove home. It’s about 460 miles by the route we took and the round-trip took me 12.5 hours including two hours waiting for my 56 minute (and $40!) flight. We crossed a couple large bridges, the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan to New Jersey and then the Delaware Memorial from New Jersey into Delaware. Dorothy was driving for most of the New Jersey portion of the trip and I was able to take a few pictures of the Delaware Memorial Bridge as we crossed it.

Cathy and Dorothy on Singing Beach

After our morning outing to Essex, we returned to Gordon and picked up Dorothy after her last class. It had been wet all morning but not it was raining lightly and the fog was a bit more dense (or the clouds were closer to the ground, which I guess comes to the same thing). From the school we went to Singing Beach. If you think a beach is only beautiful on a sunny day, then either you’ve never been there on a day like this or we’ll have to agree to disagree. I had to keep my camera in the lee of my body to keep it reasonably dry but I took quite a few pictures, including this one of Cathy and Dorothy walking away into the mist.

Lobster Cove

From Singing Beach we went to Lobster Cove, a quiet little place with no provision for parking but again, beautiful in the mist. This panorama was made from six shots taken with my 100mm lens, vertically oriented. Lobster Cove is a quiet little place and there are houses on both sides but especially on a day like this, it’s a peaceful retreat from the world. Every now and then larger waves would hit the opening at just the right angle to roll in to the beach and there were sea birds about but otherwise, it was just the noise of the wind and the distant sound of waves on rocks further out.

Apple Orchard

I’ve already posted two pictures from our brief trip to Pennsylvania today, although both of them were taken in Maryland on the way home. I showed this picture to Dorothy and she agreed that it was worth posting, so here’s the third picture from today. This one was taken before the two church pictures so I’m posting them in the wrong order, but that’s life (“that’s what all the people say”).

We cut our Christmas trees at a place called Shower’s Tree Farm (http://www.showerstreefarm.com/). In addition to a fairly large field of Christmas trees, they have apples, which isn’t surprising in this part of the state (the home of Musselman’s (now part of Knouse Foods) and the National Apple Museum. The trees were all bare but some of them had quite a few apples on the ground around them and that, obviously, is what this picture features.

Dilapidated Church

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Pennsylvania to cut Christmas trees today. After a brief (but less brief and more eventful than expected) visit to the farm, we went to a local tree farm to cut a few trees. For quite a few years we’ve gone to a farm in Cashtown, west of Gettysburg. It’s nice to go to the same place year after year but we received word from them that they were not going to be open this season. We don’t know if that’s a permanent closing or if it’s for this year only. In any case, they recommended another farm that’s actually closer, so we went there.

We had lunch at the Ott House in Emmitsburg, as we’ve done for about four years (prior to that we’d go somewhere different every year). Mom had seen a piece in the newspaper about a church that was in bad enough shape that it couldn’t really be repaired but that is old and historic enough that it shouldn’t be torn down. Of course, if it isn’t repaired, it will come down eventually under its own weight. Anyway, we decided to try to find it and (as you’ve probably guessed by now) we did. The sun was behind the church, which made lighting difficult, and again, there were power lines to contend with, but I’m pretty happy with this shot.

Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church

We drove up to Pennsylvania today with some other family members to get Christmas trees. For a while dad was planting trees at the farm every few years and we’d often cut trees from among those but new trees haven’t been planted for at least ten and probably closer to 20 years so all of those are much too big to be of any use. Still, we go there as a sort of tradition, knowing we’ll only stay a short while. Some years we have had snow and a few years there was enough that we had to part at the entrance and then walk in. The last few years have been clear and mild. Today it was cold but there was no snow. There was a thin layer of ice on the pond and it was making the most amazing pinging noise as the sun heated it slightly. At first we were sure it was a bird making that noise but it was the ice.

We cut our trees at a local tree farm and then drove down to Emmitsburg for lunch. I took a little time to take some pictures of Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church on North Avenue, a block from Main Street, where we parked. The trick here was to get a picture without telephone and power lines crossing in front of the church.

Live Oak Allee, Brookgreen Gardens

Cathy, mom, and I went to Brookgreen Gardens today, driving the 75 minutes from Ocean Isle Beach and getting there at about 10:00. I’ve got three past posts with pictures from Brookgreen on the blog, two in 2013 and one in 2012 (Brookgreen Gardens, Thursday, August 02, 2012, Brookgreen Gardens, Thursday, August 01, 2013, and Brookgreen Critters, Thursday, August 01, 2013). Between the gardens, a lunch in the restaurant, and a visit to the small zoo, we spent about five hours there. Not long enough to see everything but it was a great visit. It was hot and very humid but not as swelteringly hot as it’s been some years. I took nearly 400 photographs today and I’ve got three to show you. This year I decided not to include any of the wonderful art work, there are simply too many nice sculptures from which to choose.

Carolina Anole (Anolis carolinensis)

The first picture is of the Live Oak Allee, which forms the center of the garden leading up to the former location of the house. These trees are said to be over 300 years old and I have no reason to doubt that, as they are quite large. The branches are covered with resurrection ferns and there is the ubiquitous Spanish moss all over. Under them are beds filled with Caladiums. This image is an HDR image made from three different exposures and I liked the muted colors in this nearly monochrome image. I have mixed feelings about HDR images but I have to admit, they produce some extraordinary results. My camera has an autobracketing feature that lets me take three images in quick succession with three different exposures (and I can control the amount of difference between them). Sometimes I would prefer five images, but maybe that wouldn’t really help much. I usually take them without the benefit of a tripod and I’m sure they would turn out better if I didn’t have to hand hold them.

Wet Wings

The second image is a Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) posing on bright red Coleus leaves. I found the contrast between the green of the lizard and the red of the leaves to be wonderful. We saw quite a few of these little lizards as well as huge eastern lubber grasshoppers (Romalea microptera). In the zoo we saw black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax, including one which caught an anole), white ibis (Eudocimus albus), American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), and in both areas, lots of dragonflies. That brings us to the final picture, a dragonfly with water droplets on its wings. I think the tiny droplets have a jewel-like quality, although this isn’t one of the jewelwings (genus Calopteryx).

Ocean Isle Beach

We arrived at Ocean Isle Beach at about 11:15 last night. We stopped for our family reunion and were there for a much-too-short three and a half hours. After that we had an uneventful drive the rest of the way down. We unpacked, made a quick trip to the supermarket for some groceries, and then went to bed, tired but happy to be here. This is what greeted us when we woke up this morning. Sea oats (Uniola paniculata) growing on the dunes with the waves crashing beyond. Naturally there were more people on the beach a little later in the day, but each morning I enjoy looking out at the mostly deserted beach with waves coming in, never stopping, as they have done for centuries.

Battleground National Cemetery

Because our church meets at 4:00 p.m. we don’t have anything planned in the morning. This morning we went to church at Grace Meridian Hill at the corner of Monroe and 13th Streets N.W. in the District. On the way home we stopped at Battleground National Cemetery on Georgia Avenue (which is also US 29) between Van Buren Street and Whittier Place. It was established shortly after the Battle of Fort Stevens, in the summer of 1864 and is one of the United State’s smallest national cemeteries with the graves of 41 Union soldiers who died in the the Battle of Fort Stevens (there were a total of over 900 killed or wounded in the battle from both sides).

Delaware Water Gap

As I’ll illustrate tomorrow and the next day, Cathy and I went on a little ‘family history safari’ (Cathy’s words). She has ancestors and various relations who lived in the Stroudsburg and Scranton areas of northeastern Pennsylvania. She had some places she wanted to visit, including a few cemeteries, and so we took a couple days off work and this morning we headed up to Stroudsburg. We decided to do a little sightseeing, as well, so today we drove to the Delaware Water Gap, just a few minutes outside Stroudsburg. This is where the Delaware River cuts through the Appalachian Mountains and it’s a pretty spot on the river, if you ignore the roar of traffic from Interstate 80, that also takes this path (and I can’t say that I blame the highway folks from doing that, it makes a lot of sense). This picture was taken from the New Jersey side of the river, looking downstream with Pennsylvania on the far bank.

Reagan National Airport

We don’t have any particularly big or exciting travel plans for the summer but we do have a few things going on. The first of them is a visit from Cathy’s brother and two of her nieces (her sister’s daughters). David and Maggie left yesterday and are driving here, arriving late this evening. Laura was flying and was coming into Reagan National Airport (DCA) at about ten minutes till eleven. Cathy and I drove to National to pick her up.

When traffic is bad (which is not all that uncommon) then National is a real pain to get into. When traffic is normal or light (which, truth be told, is most of the time) it’s actually quite a nice airport to deal with. While Terminal A, which is the original terminal, is somewhat small and cramped, Terminals B and C are quite large and airy. This is the central terminal of this refurbished airport, and has a high, vaulted ceiling, shown here behind a large American flag, from the far south end of the terminal, where we met Laura. We’ve been looking forward to this visit and it’s finally here.

Madison Avenue Bridge, Merritt Parkway, Connecticut

As mentioned yesterday, we drove up to get Dorothy from school. Today we brought here home. Actually, for the first 225 miles, she brought us home (i.e., she was driving). That freed me up to take a few pictures. We like the Merritt Parkway pretty well although there usually seems to be at least one stretch each way where traffic slows for repairs or an accident. The 69 original bridges on the 37 mile parkway (42 bridges cross over and the parkway crosses on another 39) were designed by George L. Dunkelberger and built between 1934 and 1940. Each bridge is different. Currently many of them are in serious need of repair and a few are encased in wood to protect motorists from falling debris.

The bridge pictured here is one of my two favorites and carries Madison Avenue in Trumbull, Connecticut. It is located between exits 47 and 48 near milepost 30, at 41° 13′ 54.5″ N, 73° 13′ 55.4″ W.

Reagan National Airport’s Vaulted Ceiling

I’ve posted a similar picture before but this is all I really have for today.

Cathy and Dorothy spent much of the day in the country while I was at work. Then in the evening we drove to Reagan National Airport (DCA) to see her off. She’s returning to school after a four-day weekend for Easter. In a little over six weeks her first year in college will be over and we’ll have her home again for a few weeks before she’s off again for the summer. It was really nice having her here these last few days, even if they were too short.

As to the airport itself, we are blessed by having three very nice airports in our area (BWI, IAD, and DCA), all about the same distance from home. It means we’re much more likely to be able to find a direct flight to wherever we’re going. They all have their pluses and minuses but I’d say BWI is probably my favorite. Still, National and Dulles are pretty nice, too, and this spacious terminal is much better than the National Airport as it was when I was growing up.

Patapsco River

It was a rainy morning and early afternoon today. I had planned to have a photo shoot with Iris and Seth but because of the weather we postponed that until tomorrow. I had also arranged to visit our friend, Julia later in the afternoon. Since that wasn’t necessarily an outdoor activity, we met and planned to have a late lunch. We took a wrong turn, however, and ended up taking a walk along Grist Mill Trail in Patapsco Valley State Park (and having an early dinner, instead). The fall color isn’t completely gone but it is certainly past peak.

Portland Head Light

Earlier in the week, the forecast had been for Hurricane Joaquin to have made landfall and be dumping huge amounts of rain all up the eastern seaboard. As it turned out, the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) forecast model had the best track and the storm moved north well out to sea. We had a beautiful, if somewhat breeze and mostly cloudy day. We drove up to Portland, Maine with Dorothy and two of her friends. After wandering around in downtown Portland and stopping for donuts (at The Holy Donut) and lunch (Andy’s Old Port Pub), we went to Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light.

Wingaersheek Beach

Dorothy only has one class on Thursdays and it isn’t until the middle of the afternoon. So, we had an outing together this morning. We picked her up from school and drove up to Wingaersheek Beach on the west side of the Annisquam River inlet. It was very windy today, more so even than yesterday, and cool, probably somewhere in the mid 50s. But beautiful for all of that.

We walked out on the sand and around the rocks on the north end of the beach. The tide was pretty far out but had turned and was coming in. From there we drove to Essex and had lunch at Woodman’s, a “quintessential New England clam shack is where, in 1916, ‘Chubby’ Woodman invented the fried clam.”

Cathy, Fort Sewall, Marblehead, Massachusetts

Dorothy had classes today until after 3:00 p.m. so we were on our own most of the day. We drove south through Salem to Fort Sewall on Marblehead peninsula. It was sprinkling a little when we got there but it stopped and the sky had blue patches and it was quite lovely most of the time. The wind was up and it was great to hear the waves crashing on the rocks below. We also drove around to Chandler Hovey Park and Lighthouse Point on the other side of the harbor and were there when the rain really came in strongly and we had to rush back to our car.

Gloucester, Massachusetts from Stage Fort Park

Today was our first full day in Massachusetts. We drove up yesterday, arriving in the early afternoon, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled. In the evening we went to the Catacombs service that Dorothy participates in and enjoyed it very much. Because it is a week day, Dorothy had classes today. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are her busy days with three classes ending at about 3:00 p.m. Cathy and I drove to Gloucester this morning and wandered around the downtown area. We might have visited the Cape Ann Museum but it’s closed on Mondays.

Motif No. 1, Rockport, Massachusetts

We went south west of town to Stage Fort Park. The park is the historic site of Gloucester’s first settlers in 1623. We we climbed onto the huge rock that is the most obvious feature of the park, after reading the plaque embedded in it’s front. The first picture posted here is from the top of that, looking down over Half Moon Beach and the old fortifications.

We picked up Dorothy after her afternoon class and then drove back out through Gloucester to Rockport, northeast of Gloucester. We first went to the harbor and took in ‘Motif No. 1’ on Bradley Wharf. It is a “replica of a former fishing shack well known to students of art and art history as ‘the most often-painted building in America.’” I guess I see why it’s so often painted, but these things tend not to live up to their names. It was first called Motif No. 1 by the American painter Lester Hornby (1882–1956).

Hermit Crab

From the harbor we drove to the old burying ground on Beach Street. According to the nearby historical marker, the plot was given by the first settler, Richard Tarr, who was buried here in 1732. Cathy is a big fan of old cemeteries. We also walked out onto Front Beach. As the tide was out, we could walk a good way out, looking for shells and things among the rocks on the west end of the beach. Dorothy found this hermit crab, which I was able to photograph on a seaweed covered rock.

Terminal B, Reagan National Airport

Dorothy flew home this evening for the service tomorrow and we picked her up at Reagan National Airport. It’s been redone since the old days when it was a dark and cramped space. Terminal B is large, airy, and quite pretty. During the day, it’s quite bright, but of course, less so at night. Dorothy’s flight was delayed so we had a bit of time to kill I took some pictures showing the high, vaulted ceiling and the tall, glass wall facing the runway.

Rockland Bakery, Nanuet, NY

We drove home from Gordon College today, a drive of about 465 miles. Just under half way (in terms of miles, if not hours) is Nanuet, New York, home of Rockland Bakery. It’s just west of the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. We figured fresh bagels and cream cheese would make a nice lunch and it’s hard to get them much fresher than when they are coming out of the oven onto a conveyor belt as you watch. In this picture are large rolls, also still hot from the oven, with a crunchy crust and soft crumb. It was mesmerizing to watch (and I took a short video, as well!). Behind me as I took this photo was rack upon rack of breads, muffins, and pastries of every description. If you happen to be in the area, you could make worse decisions than stopping here for a bag of bread. (http://www.RocklandBakery.com/)

Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial

Today was officially move-in day for incoming freshmen at Gordon College but because she returned from La Vida (the school sponsored camping trip) last night, she was able to move in then. That gave us some free time while the other freshmen were moving in. We went to Manchester-by-the-Sea and had a late breakfast at the Beach Street Cafe. Then we drove out to Gloucester and saw the Fisherman’s Memorial. It started to rain while we were there. We drove around a little more but mostly stayed in the car.

After that, we met some friends for lunch. We spent a little time in Dorothy’s dorm room while she unpacked and got settled in a little bit. In the evening, there were orientation events, some for Dorothy, some for us, and some together.

Ocean Isle Beach

It was ten days ago as I’m writing this, but we spent a fairly short week at Ocean Isle Beach starting today. The drive down was about as bad as it has ever been, with horrible traffic past Fredericksburg and then again approaching the Richmond bypass. Just before the bridge over the James on the bypass, the Virginia Department of Transportation had decided to close all but one lane. They were not actually doing anything, but they made a significant impact on traffic. There was another backup south of Wilmington, but we went around that.

Anyway, we made it to the beach and things are a bit more relaxed already. Cathy and I took a walk toward the pier early this evening and I took this picture, among others. I love watching the waves wash up onto the sand and then disappear again, leaving colors behind them, which then fade as the sand absorbs the last of the water.

View From Sandia Crest

Cathy and I had some free time this afternoon, along with a rental car. It was quite warm in downtown Albuquerque so I thought a quick drive up to Sandia Peak would be nice. It was considerably cooler at 10,678 ft (3,255 m) but we sure felt the altitude. It was quite hazy, particularly to the west, looking out over the city, but to the south a little less so and I got this photograph, which I think is pretty nice. You can just see the edge of Albuquerque to the right of center. We also enjoyed the wildflowers on the mountain: Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum), Star Solomon Seal (Maianthemum stellatum), Scarlet Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), Rocky Mountain iris (Iris missouriensis), and more. There was even a wild (or feral, perhaps) clematis.

Planes, BWI Airport

We took a fairly sudden trip to Albuquerque today, having bought the tickets yesterday. Travel days are often difficult in terms of getting photographs, because so much of the time is spent either driving or tucked away in a metal can hurtling through the air. I did manage to get a few pictures in the airport, including this one of some planes at BWI airport. As I write this, we are home again, but the next few photographs in my daily blog will be from New Mexico. By the way, in case anyone cares, I think US Airways / American Airlines is pretty pathetic in terms of customer service. If you can fly with anyone else, I recommend it. The individuals are nice. It’s not that. It’s the policies that they have to follow. Stupid.

Lower Manhattan

The wedding we were here for wasn’t until 4:00 p.m. so we had the morning and early afternoon to wander a bit more. We started off with bagels at a little place on Elizabeth Street and then walked over to Broadway and down a ways on that before heading back into Chinatown, where we bought a late morning snack of dumplings and pancake at Prosperity Dumpling. It’s hard to beat four pork dumplings for a dollar.

We walked out onto the Manhattan Bridge and I took this picture of the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan from there. It was a beautiful day, clear and pleasant, probably in the upper 70s (although I didn’t check).

Little Italy and the Empire State Building

I’ve already posted the second of these pictures on Facebook but wanted to get them here on the blog as well, and send them to Instagram. We drove up to Manhattan Friday morning for a wedding tomorrow (stay tuned for a picture of the bride and groom for tomorrow’s picture). We got here at about 1:30 and after getting settled into our hotel room we walked around a bit. Then, after another break, we headed out to find a place for dinner. We decided on Italian and since we were on the edge of Little Italy, we thought that would be a good choice. As it happens, a bunch of the streets in Little Italy are closed to all but pedestrian traffic on weekends throughout the summer, starting today. This is the view north on Mulberry Street with the Empire State Building in the distance. As you can see, the place was hopping. We got a table at the early end of dinner time, which was nice because we hadn’t had lunch. Not the cheapest place in the world but pretty good food.

Williamsburg Bridge at Sunset

After dinner we walked north a little bit and then east, heading out onto the Williamsburg Bridge. Traffic into town was pretty backed up but of course we were on foot, so that didn’t make any difference. There was a fair amount of bicycle traffic heading towards Brooklyn. The sun was setting in the west and it’s a bit tricky to get a picture of the bridge because of the fence and girders to keep people from climbing up onto the bridge. Past the bridge tower I was able to look up and see the tower.

This picture turned out quite well, I think. Both pictures for this post were actually three exposures taken in rapid succession and three different shutter speeds (one under exposed, one as metered, and the last over exposed). Then, I have software that combines the three into a single image, allowing a much greater amount of dynamic range, which is why the process is called High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.

To get really good pictures of a place you normally need to be there for an extended period, but I think I managed to get two pretty reasonable pictures today, which makes me pretty happy.

Mosaic, American Visionary Art Museum

We happened to be up in Baltimore today. Thankfully we were there either before the riots started or were in a different part of the city. We had been downtown before 9:00 a.m. and then headed over to Federal Hill. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the art around the American Visionary Art Museum. This is a portion of the glass mosaic on the south side of the building.

From there we went out to Fort McHenry. It was a little cool and windy today but nice and we enjoyed being outdoors. From Fort McHenry we went to Elkridge and had tacos from the R&R Taqueria—a little place in a gas station that makes righteous tacos. Certainly a better day that if we had been caught up in the mayhem that went down in the city.

Main Reading Room, Library of Congress

Here’s a second photo from the day Dorothy, Karlee, and I spent in D.C. After the National Archives and the National Gallery of Art we walked around the south end of the U.S. Capitol building to the Library of Congress. So many of the governmental buildings in Washington are built in earlier neoclassical style, the Library of Congress stands out as something a bit different. The main (Thomas Jefferson) building was constructed in the Beaux Arts style, a later form of neoclassicism, from July 8, 1888, to May 15, 1894.

The Library of Congress was another place Dorothy had never been and I think she was glad we went today. The main reading room is under the dome at the center of the building and it is quite impressive. Access to the interior of the room is restricted to those doing research, with the exception of a viewing area up a flight of steps on the west side of the room. That is where this photograph was taken and it does a pretty good job of showing you the extent of the room. Somewhat surprisingly, after seeing a copy of Magna Carta from 1297 in the National Archives, we saw a second, one of the four originals from 1215, in the Library of Congress. It is here in celebration of its 800^th anniversary in 2015.

Philadelphia

I alluded to this in yesterday’s post, with the pictures of cookies that Cathy made. Today, I drove a van to Philadelphia. Along with another adult leader (Hannah), I had eight members of our high school youth team from church (Anna, Barry, Dorothy, Nate, Sara, Shelly, and Suzy). We were there for a week, working with an organization called Center for Student Missions. On the first night, after dinner at an Indian restaurant, we toured the city, not so much looking at the historic landmarks, but focusing on the needs of Philadelphia. We ended on a hill overlooking the city and I took this picture (handheld ISO 6400, 1/50 sec. f/3.5).

Richmond Dairy Co.

We spent a little while this morning in downtown Richmond. Yesterday, as we were driving through town on the way to the James River, Cathy noticed a building down a side street that looked like it had a milk bottle on the corner. Not an actual glass bottle, of course, but the building was built to look like there was a giant milk bottle at each corner. Last night I did a little searching on Google maps and found it, so I’d know where to go today. This morning we went back and found it.

It turns out to have been the Richmond Dairy Company at one time and there are milk bottles on all four corners. This bottle, on the south corner, is the only one that it labeled and it’s the largest of the three (I’m not sure if there ever was one on the fourth corner, but I assume so). The building has been converted to apartments and added on to, which explains the missing fourth bottle. I’m glad they had the sense to keep the other three milk bottles, though.

Steamer Co. No. 5 (Now Gallery 5)

Jefferson Saloon, Jos. Carnicelli, Prop

We walked around a few blocks and I took a few more pictures. On the left is Gallery 5, formerly Steamer Co. No. 5. On the right is a ghost sign for the Jefferson Saloon, purveyors of whiskey, wine, liquor, and cigars.

Our Old House in Cambridge

I labeled this post Cambridge but really it was a driving day rather than a sightseeing day. We stopped for lunch with friends on the way down the A1, which was a great treat. I should mention that today was our 29th anniversary and we considered that visit with friends and a nice meal a good way to celebrate. Thanks, Teresa and David, and God bless you.

Then we stopped briefly in Cambridge so Dorothy could see the house I lived in during our year there, during the school year of 1971-72. The house has changed a bit. The portion with the eaves part way up is a new addition and the first window to the right of that is where the door used to be. Otherwise, the street looks very much as it did. The butcher shop is still there and they seem to have added fruit and vegetables to their wares.

We tried to drive through Cambridge but if you’ve done that recently, you know it’s not a winning proposition. You really need to park and walk but we didn’t have the time for that. The four of us in our car got a glimpse of King’s College Chapel but only because we know were and when to look. We headed back onto the highway and down to London, checking into the hotel at the airport and returning our cars.

St. Michael and All Angels, Torpenhow

Moss Force seen from Newlands Hause

Afternoon Tea in Keswick

The View from Watendlath

Each day of our trip to England had a character all its own and today was no exception. Mostly the character was determined by what we saw and that was true on day 12 but the weather played a bigger part today than it had on any other. It had rained a few times but it never really affected our plans, until today. It was raining when we got up and it continued to rain throughout the day.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, some days you see things that you want to see and other days you see things someone else wants to see. Today, our first stop was totally for me and I’m grateful that the others were willing to see it with me. My great, great, great grandfather, William Hartley, (born 1778) lived in the little town of Torpenhow for at least part of his life. We visited the church of Torpenhow, called St. Michael and All Angels. It’s a pretty little church with portions (notably the semi-circular arch on the right in this picture) dating to the early 12th century.

Our original plan had been to go for a bit of a tramp in the Lake District. The rain continued to come down, however, and that wasn’t going to happen. From Torpenhow we drove to Buttermere, a pretty, little lake in a pretty, little valley. We made our way to the car park where we would have started our hike, stopping a couple times to enjoy the view. We could barely see across the lake and couldn’t see the top of the hill we had talked about climbing. We turned back and headed through Newlands Hause, north of the town of Buttermere stopping briefly at the pass. Only the nutty Hartleys got out to get “a better view.” You can just make out the waves of rain, lashing from right to left across this photo of Moss Force.

We went to Keswick, which was a bit crowded with people who, like us, were brought in out of the rain. Still, we found parking spaces and took this opportunity to enjoy a proper afternoon tea. It’s something you want to do when you visit England but the timing hadn’t worked out up until now. It was also a nice thing to do on a rainy, windy day. Bryson’s Tea Room turned out to be the ideal place, as well. We ordered “tea for two” times four (since there were eight of us) and were happy to have warm tea, savory sandwiches, rich, creamy sweets, and (as much as anything) a comfortable place out of the rain.

After our yummy meal, we wandered around the shops in Keswick for a while. It was still raining but we decided to visit one more Lake District beauty spot before heading back to our hotel. We drove up the narrow road on the east side of Derwent Water to the hidden vale of Watendlath, with its beautiful little tarn and rushing beck (which was seriously rushing today) passing under a stone packhorse bridge. It was still coming down pretty steadily but I think everyone was happy to have visited and seen what view could be seen, which made up for in beauty what was lost in distance.

All in all, it was very little like what had been planned but everyone agreed that it had been a good day.

The Essence of Scotland

This post is titled “England: Day 11, Edinburgh” but we were actually in Scotland. We drove from our hotel in Gretna down to Carlisle, where we caught the train to Edinburgh for the day. Opinions of the day were mixed. Personally, besides the necessary driving days, this was my least favorite day of the entire trip. From my perspective, going to Edinburgh during the festival is a good idea only if you aren’t interested in seeing Edinburgh. First, the streets, the castle, and the entire place is jammed with people. I’m talking “make London seem quite” full of people. Second, you cannot see the castle from the Royal Mile and you cannot see the Royal Mile from the castle. They put up a temporary (but still very substantial) stadium around the esplanade below the castle and that’s all you really see. There are good people watching opportunities, evidenced by this photograph of your typical Scottish accordionist (playing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, by the Beatles), but you don’t need to go all the way to Scotland to see interesting people. So, this is one day I would have rather been doing something else. Still, when you travel with others, you see a mix of things. One day you see something you want to see, other days you see something someone else wants to see. And I wouldn’t have been with a different group of people anywhere else for anything.

Hadrian’s Wall and Crag Lough

Milecastle 39 on Hadrian’s Wall

Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall

I’ve tried to confine myself to one picture per day or at most, one picture per major sight. Not only have I already posted a photo from the morning of day 10 (Caerlaverock Castle), I’m posting three from this location (Hadrian’s Wall). I cannot speak for anyone by myself but this was one of the high points of our trip, as far as I’m concerned. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, windy and cool. The greens were greener than they had been and we were away from the sounds of the city or even town life that had pretty much dominated our trip to this point.

Hadrian’s Wall, as you may know, was built starting in AD 122, during the rule of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It is 73 miles in length, running across northern England as a defense against the northern tribes (the Gaels and Picts).

It many places there isn’t much to see along the wall. I selected this section because I thought it would be pretty even if there had been no wall there to follow. I think that turned out to be true, although the wall did add to the ambiance. The first picture shown here is the scarp on which the wall runs. It runs from the Steel Rigg car park to Crag Lough, visible on the left. The wall runs just above the cliff and most not have needed to be very high for most of this stretch. If I were planning an attack, I think I’d have come at it somewhere else.

The second picture is of the wall as it descends from the heights to the ruins of Milecastle 39 in a gap in the scarp. The wall has forts spaced roughly a mile apart. The Roman mile (mille passuum, “a thousand paces”) is estimated to be 4,851 feet, about 0.91 statute miles.

The next gap along the way is called Sycamore Gap because of the lone Sycamore Maple tree (Acer pseudoplatanus) growing there. It’s a pretty spot and the sound of the wind blowing through the tree was a bit magical.

The changing light as the clouds raced across the sky, the dramatic cliffs to our north, the sheep peacefully grazing on the rich, green grass, all contributed to a wonderful afternoon.

Our walk took longer than expected (actually, pretty much everything we did the entire two weeks took longer than expected). That meant we missed having an afternoon tea where we had hoped to have it. We did have a nice lunch earlier at the Milecastle Inn, though. Between the castle in the morning and Hadrian’s Wall and a country hike in the afternoon, this was my favorite day of the trip.

Caerlaverock Castle

As boys living in England, we loved castles. We loved exploring them and would pretend we were living in the middle ages. We designed castles of our own, as well. This is one of the castles we visited so many years ago. It’s actually changed a little, with some repairs having been made allowing access to more of the living area of the castle. It’s hard to tell from this photograph but the castle is triangular in shape.

Our first morning in Scotland started out raining. We decided we should go to the castle anyway, since we only have three days in the north. As it turned out, the rain stopped while we were on the way to the castle and it cleared up quite a bit later in the day. The rain contributed to the castle not having many visitors in the morning, which was an added bonus.

We walked around the Tower of London and we’ll see another castle tomorrow but this was our only “proper” ruined castle for the trip and I think everyone was glad we paid it a visit. I’ll put up another post with our other sightseeing visit for the day.

The Gretna Inn

Day nine of our England vacation was a travel day and in consequence we didn’t really see much worth photographing. Although 300 miles (or a little less) isn’t a terribly long day of driving, we had pretty heavy traffic about three quarters of the way. We made pretty good time, stopping only once.

After five nights in our hotel in South Marston, we spent the next four in a Days Inn at a service area on the highway. Again, it isn’t a destination so much as a base from which we’ll take day trips.

We had dinner at The Gretna Inn, a relatively new building made to look old. Usually you can tell by the hight and regularity of the ceilings, which are much lower and never very level in the older buildings. The doors are smaller, as well.

Roman Baths and Bath Abbey

Today we only had one destination but like Blenheim, there was a lot to see there. We took the train from Swindon to Bath since parking was going to be an issue. When we arrived we decided to take the bus tour which is actually two separate but related bus tours. There is one that goes through town and another that goes out of town. Both were useful in terms of giving us some of the history of the city but neither were particularly good in terms of actually seeing things. I think I’d give them a miss if I came again. If the bus that goes out of town stopped in a few places with good views of the city, then I’d recommend it but you only get a few momentary glimpses, which don’t really justify the time it takes.

There are three main sights we wanted to see in Bath and we started with the oldest — the Roman baths. The water isn’t particularly warm, as hot springs go, I guess that if it’s the only hot spring in England, you have to make do with what you have. If you visit, be prepared to spend a good while there, especially if you listen to the audio guides included in the price of admission (which most of our group did).

After our visit to the baths we figured we should get something to eat. We decided that since there wasn’t a long wait, we’d give the Sally Lunn Bun a try in what is claimed to be the oldest house in Bath, Sally Lunn’s House, c. 1482. The food was quite good, although I cannot say I’ve never had better. Topped with butter, cinnamon and clotted cream, it wasn’t the bun that made the difference, in any case. I think it would have tasted good on a hard crust. Still,

The picture shown here includes the baths as well as our second destination, Bath Abbey. It isn’t the biggest church but it felt more like a church than the others we’ve visited. It was, unfortunately, too late for us to climb the tower, which would have been great, so another reason to return.

Our final, dual destination was the Circus and the Royal Crescent, Georgian town houses on a circle and an arc, respectively. They are somewhat hard to photograph, but I did my best. When we had seen those, we walked back to the train station and caught the train back to Swindon. Actually, our train was canceled and they sent us to Bristol, in the opposite direction, where we caught what turned out to be the next train through Bath, so if we had stayed there, we would have been fine, but this gave us something to do.

Uffington White Horse

Salisbury Cathedral

Stonehenge

Avebury Stone Circle

After visiting only one place yesterday, we had a somewhat busier day today. We had four sites to visit today, somewhat spread around the countryside over a round-trip course of a little over a hundred miles.

It was a absolutely lovely day, cool and bright. We started by taking a short drive of about 10 miles to the Uffington White Horse. It is a prehistoric, highly stylized figure of a horse, formed from trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The problem is that as you get closer to it, you don’t see it from the proper angle and it looks less and less like a horse. This is the best picture I could get and you can just make out the horse. I think it needs to be seen from the air to really see it properly. It’s possible that it can be seen well from Dragon Hill, a natural chalk hill with an artificial flat top set below the horse. The hind legs are to the left, forelegs to the right, and the head is not quite visible above them on the far right. There are pictures of it from the air on Wikimedia Commons.

From there we drove south to Salisbury, about 45 miles. We found parking and walked to the cathedral, which is quite lovely (and pretty big). There is a wonderful painting of the cathedral by John Constable from about 1825 and I would have liked to have walked in the Bishop’s Grounds to the south of the cathedral, which is where he painted it from, but we had more to see today and you cannot do everything. The light was a bit tricky today, as it’s been most days, with very bright skies and sometimes shady subjects because of the clouds. This photo is what is known as an high dynamic range (HDR) photograph, made by combining three different exposures of the same image.

Before leaving Salisbury we had a nice lunch in a place called The Boston Tea Party. It is housed in the Old George Inn which apparently dates back to 1314 and in the courtyard of which William Shakespeare is said to have performed one of his plays. In England’s version of “George Washington Slept Here,” Oliver Cromwell slept here on his way to join the army, Samuel Pepys wrote about the Inn in his diary after a stay and both H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens made mentioned of it in their writings.

We drove north to Stonehenge. It hasn’t changed much in the 42 years since I was here last, although the arrangement for seeing it are a bit different. There is a small car park but that is totally inadequate for the number of visitors and a large section of the neighboring field has been turned into an extended parking area. You are not permitted to walk amid the monument itself but are restricted to a circular walk around it. In fact, you get reasonably close on one side and if it were not for the restrictions there is no way you could possibly take a picture like this, with no people showing. This was nine photographs, stitched together to make a single image. They were timed so that I had no people in the background (with a couple exceptions, which were edited out). I think it’s turned out rather well.

Our final historical stop of the day was Avebury Stone Circle, in the small village of Avebury. It was evening by the time we got there and we were not able to spend as much time as I would have liked but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The evening light was lovely. The stones in this photograph are not the largest but they form part of the northwest quadrant of a large circle of stones. We walked around this quadrant and into the northeast. It covers quite a bit more ground than Stonehenge and you can walk right up to the stones.

Rather than eat in the pub at Avebury, which had the wrong vibe for us, we headed towards “home” and stopped at The Barbury Inn in a town called Broad Hinton. We had a very friendly reception there and the food was as good as we had anywhere in the two weeks we were here.

Blenheim Palace

After our country jaunt yesterday, we decided we were up for crowds again. We spent the entire day at Blenheim Palace. This largish house, built between 1705 and 1722 as the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, is the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. I don’t really see how you could call it anything else.

If you’ve seen Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 production of Hamlet (and if you haven’t, you should), then you may recognize it as Hamlet’s castle. I won’t go on about all we did today because we basically saw the house and the gardens. It’s a big place with a park landscaped by “Capability” Brown starting in 1764. The lake was created by damming the River Glyme and certainly looks natural, although it is not.

Tintern Abbey, Wales

Arlington Row, Bibury, in the Cotswolds

We had spent three nights in London and then moved to our second hotel. The hotel was very nice and it turned out to be ideal for the day trips we would take from it, but whenever we mentioned where we were staying, the person we were talking to would apologize for the town. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with Swindon but it I get that it isn’t exactly a prime tourist destination. Still, it’s conveniently located.

Our first day trip from there started with a visit to the ruins of Tintern Abbey, just across the Wye River into Wales. The abbey was founded in 1131. Most of the existing structure was built in the late 13th century and the abbey was abandoned in 1536 upon the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the orders of King Henry VIII (not our favorite Henry). It’s in a lovely site and well worth the visit, especially if you’ve been in cities for four days beforehand. It was a wonderfully beautiful, cool, English day with bright sunshine competing with cloudy shade off and on. The color of the light in the ruins was ever-changing and lovely.

From Tintern we drove north through the Forest of Dean, over to Gloucester, down to Cirencester, and then east to the little village of Bibury, in the Cotswold hills. The Cotswolds are known for the honey-coloured stone buildings and Bibury is a particularly popular example of a Cotswold village. I was a bit worried about finding parking spaces for our two cars but we were blessed to find two, next to each other, right in the center of town.

We enjoyed walking in the late afternoon along Arlington Row and up Awkward Hill (I’d really love to live somewhere named Awkward Hill). We walked a short way on a public footpath to the edge of town and then back by a different route. We all enjoyed being outdoors and in the country instead of in London or even Oxford. We all agreed that we’d go back and spend more time in the Cotswolds, if we had the chance.

The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University

After our third night in London we picked up two rental cars and headed out of town. If you’ve never driven in England, it’s a bit hair raising at first (and possibly at second, as well). First and most obvious is that they drive on the left. Second, shifting with your left hand takes some getting used to. Third, many roads are quite narrow. That’s true both in London, where the narrowness is often because of parked cars, and in the countryside, where the roads are between two banks or walls. Anyway, it takes some getting used to. Fortunately, we found English drivers to be much more courteous than American drivers, at least American drivers where we live.

We headed out of London toward Oxford, parked in a Park and Ride lot and took the bus into town. Parking in Oxford might have been possible but this removed the hassle. By the time we got there (including a bit more walking that we expected, because I had us get off the bus too soon) it was time for lunch. The Turf Tavern had been recommended to us and we found it to be a very friendly and comfortable place. We enjoyed a quiet meal out on the terrace. The burgers were cooked “well done” but were otherwise good.

We walked around town, stopping at a largish bookstore, going into the courtyard of the Bodleian Library, etc. We walked north to St. John’s College, where my great Uncle Ralph earned a B.A. degree in 1912 and a B.Sc. degree in 1913. My grandfather (Uncle Ralph’s older brother) was there from 1907 until 1910 and I had assumed he went to the same school but it turns out he went to Exeter. Since I didn’t find that out until we were home, we didn’t make a special visit, but I did get a picture of the Exeter Chapel from the tower of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

Some of our group went to visit New College, while the rest of us went up the church tower. It gave a good view and was well worth the small fee and tight stairs. Dorothy was a bit put out by the close quarters both getting up and at the top but she was glad she went up.

We took the bus back to where we had parked our cars and then drove the 30 miles or so to our hotel. The hotel was quite nice but I would recommend eating elsewhere if you have the chance.

The Tower of London

On our third and final day in London we got out a bit earlier. We had breakfast at a bakery around the corner from our hotel and then caught a bus to near Harrods department store. We spent about an hour wandering around the store.

From there we took a bus to Victoria Station and then walked past Westminster Cathedral to Westminster Abbey. The line to get in the Abbey was fairly long (did I mention that August isn’t the best time to visit London?) but there was nothing for it but to join the queue and wait.

It was pretty crowded inside, as well. No photography is allowed in the abbey, which is probably just as well, when you consider how slowly people were moving without taking pictures. Most of our group listened to the audio guides but Dorothy and I satisfied ourselves with reading the monuments themselves. While I’m certainly glad we went, I’m not as thrilled with Westminster Abbey as I am with some other churches I’ve visited. It’s more a shrine to fallen men than a place to worship the God whom they ostensibly served.

After lunch in the new Cellarium cafe, which opened last year, we walked across Westminster Bridge and caught a bus to near Tower Bridge. We enjoyed the view of the bridge and the Tower of London across the river from Potter’s Fields Park. We walked across the bridge and then around the Tower, which was closed by this time.

We took a bus back to the west, passing St. Paul’s Cathedral, which we didn’t have time to see on this trip. I’ve been in but I’d love to go there again. I’m a fan of big domes. We had dinner near Covent Garden and the returned to our hotel, again via Trafalgar Square. Buying Oyster cards before leaving home turned out to be a good idea. We certainly got our money’s worth out of them.

Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

We got off to a late start this morning because everyone was so tired. We left the hotel at about 11:30, had breakfast and then caught a bus to near the British Museum. That was high on everyone’s “I really want to go there” list. It was absolutely jammed with people and it would be nice to visit again sometime other than August, but we were all still glad we went. We were there for about four hours (except I left to have a cup of coffee with a friend who was nice enough to meet me for an hour or so).

From the British Museum we took the bus to Westminster. We decided we were hungry enough that we’d like to have dinner. We ate at The Red Lion, opposite Downing Street and enjoyed a relatively quiet meal away from the crowds (somewhat surprisingly, but I guess it was a bit early for dinner for most people). After dinner we walked to Westminster Abbey but by this point is was closed. Considering how long it takes to go through, it was just as well. We had tickets for the London Eye so we walked across Westminster Bridge and got on without spending more than 15 minutes in line. It’s a nice ride providing a great view of the city and I highly recommend it.

We crossed the river again on the Hungerford Bridge, which is actually a pair of walking bridges on either side of the rail bridge that leads into Charing Cross Rail Station. We made our way to Trafalgar Square and took the requisite pictures of the girls climbing on the lions around Nelson’s Column. We took the bus back to our hotel but went to Gelato Mio a few blocks away for a nice dessert before heading to bed.

On-board Miss Sunshine, our Airbus 330-300

As many of you know, we went to England for two weeks this summer. Since I’m posting these after we got back, I can say with some confidence that we had a wonderful time, saw some amazing sights, and are very glad we went. We traveled with another family, Stuart and Donna and their three beautiful daughters, Hannah, Ellen, and Katie.

If it had been possible to go any time other than the month of August that would have been nice but it simply wasn’t going to happen any other time. Still, we had fabulous weather for most of the trip (and the rainy day was pretty awesome, as well). Many places we went were crowded but we managed to squeeze a wide variety of things into a relatively short time and had a good time doing it.

This trip was a long time coming. The idea for it actually came up more than a year ago and we even talked about going last summer but with the Olympics, that didn’t seem like a good idea. Last fall, though, we started talking in earnest and early this year we began making firm plans, buying tickets, booking rooms in hotels, and renting two cars for most of the time (but not London).

The date of departure finally arrived. This is one of only a few pictures I took as we left on Miss Sunshine, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus. Don’t worry, I took a few more pictures once we got there.