A Saturday in New York

In mid-September Emily and I traveled to New York City to visit with friends and enjoy a beautiful weekend up there.  About a year earlier, our friend Jillian got engaged. This weekend, her mother and bridesmaids were throwing her a surprise wedding shower. After spending an evening with Carly (Emily’s best friend from high school) in Brooklyn, I decided to let the girls catch up on old times. While Emily spent the morning with Carly and then went to Long Island for the shower, I headed into the city to explore Chinatown and Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro.

Early in the morning I had most of the streets to myself, but of course that didn’t last too long!  In a matter of hours the streets were alive with people and shops.  Once the streets were too crowded, I headed out across the Brooklyn Bridge. I hadn’t been on the bridge since 2004, when my sister and I walked across it. On the Brooklyn side I encountered a wedding party, which definitely made me look forward to Jillian and Greg’s wedding in November.  After my explorations, I headed back across the Manhattan Bridge to meet up with my cousin Kevin.

Kevin and I had a great deal of fun walking around the city. He has lived there for over two years now, and he showed me some of his favorite places in the city.  Later Saturday night, Emily and I met up with Mike and Stacey at a comedy club. We hadn’t seen them in a while and really enjoyed meeting up with them.  After the club we headed down to Union Square for a house party and meeting some of Mike’s friends.  It was a great night to catch up with friends and family.

More photos available at Smugmug

Kitty Cats

My sister recently married and moved to Ottawa to join her husband in their new house.  Having both grown up with cats around, John and Heather quickly decided to get two kittens to help them settle in.  I wanted to visit Heather shortly after she arrived and the kittens only added an extra incentive for me to head up there.  At the end of September I did and was able to play with these curious balls of the fur.

The younger one is Sophie and she loves people.  When I arrived Heather handed her to me and she immediately laid on her back in my arms (a couple seconds later she began batting at the icon on my breast pocket thinking it was a bug).  Later, when I was going to bed Sophie joined me, but this kitten likes to sleep under the covers – it has no fear of people.

Roxi is the other kitty, but is a little shier.  She reminds me a little of my cat Yuki, but is definitely smaller.  She was also playful and would lie on her back in my arms.

Here are some photos of them playing while I was at the house, but as always there are more hiding over at my photos site.

Visiting the White House

Last Wednesday night I had the opportunity to visit — I’d say explore, but the Secret Service kept the exploring to a minimum — the White House.   Our guide was very nice to provide us with detailed descriptions of the rooms in the West Wing including the Oval Office. He was especially informative about the Roosevelt Room.  Once we were outside, we were able to take some photos. We also met the country’s most famous dog: Bo.   Cady made sure she was able to pet him.

After that we headed over to the Press Room and made sure not to say anything on the record. My evening at the White House is something that I won’t soon forget. Head over to SmugMug for all of the photos.

Exploring New Harbor and Pemaquid

On our last day in Maine, the guys took off on bikes to explore the peninsula.  We went around the roads, dirt paths, and back streets near New Harbor and Back Cove.  While exploring, we discovered some old lobster boats out of the water for repair.  After thoroughly exploring those and making a quick stop off at historic Riley’s for some candy bars, we pedaled back to the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  To our surprise, there were wedding guests waiting for a bride to arrive.  The weather and view couldn’t have been any better than they were that day (though I wouldn’t have changed anything about our wedding day).  After hanging out and watching the bride process down the aisle, we biked back to the house. A delicious dinner of homemade pasta and pesto sauce was awaiting us, as was a spectacular sunset where rays of different colored sunlight reached into the darkening sky.  It was a great way to end the trip, and you can see some of our favorite images here.

Kayaking around John’s Bay

On our second day in Pemaquid, we went kayaking.  About a year ago, mom and dad purchased a tandem kayak.  On this trip they wanted us to share their joy of the water and took us out for a half day paddle.

We put into the water near the old fort, Fort William Henry, before heading along the coast and up further into the bay.  Along the way we passed many lobster traps (not sure which one dinner came from the night before, but it was delicious) before encountering a bird sunbathing on a large buoy.  We turned around at this point and headed back towards the mouth of the bay ultimately making landfall on Witch’s Island.

The island is where we settled in for lunch and fairy apartment hunting.  After paddling for a couple hours it was refreshing to have some nourishment.  We ate our sandwiches, and then went to explore the small island. We happened upon some local real-estate erected by children who visit.  They have some vivid imaginations and constructed elaborate structures out of bark and shells for the fairies that inhabit the island.  In actuality, the island is inhabited by a summer caretaker and is named after an old woman who lived there almost a hundred years ago.  There are still relics of the original structure on the island.

After exploring, it was time to head back.  We headed across the open bay passing by some much larger pleasure boats before approaching the old fort. Emily and I had fun imagining what it would have been like 200 years ago when there only a few structures along the coast.  Before we knew it, we were back by where we started.  Before you travel to your next site here are some images and the rest of our trip to Maine.

Sunrise at Pemaquid Point

Emily and I have now visited her parents a couple of times since their move from Chicago to Maine.  Each time the lighthouse has interested me, and I have wanted to be near it for sunrise.  However, in the past either my pillow or the weather has kept me from exploring Pemaquid Point in the early hours of the day.  On this trip, I finally made it and was rewarded with a sunrise that burned the horizon while warming the sky and rocks before completely eliminating the darkness.  Here are some shots from that morning, and the rest of our trip to Maine can be found here.

Moonrise at Pemaquid Point

Over Labor Day weekend we traveled north to visit Emily’s parents in Maine.  It is always relaxing at their place.  While driving to Pemaquid from the Portland Jetport we couldn’t help but notice the golden moon slowly rising above us.  With this image burned into our minds we decided to visit the Pemaquid Point lighthouse the following evening to watch the moon rise from the Atlantic Ocean.

The next day, the sky was mostly clear and temperature was comfortable.  Slowly, as the sun settled in the west and turned the sky pinks and purples, the moon drifted upwards from the ocean.  It seemed like we could walk out to it across its reflection on the sea. Enjoy the images here or head on over to Smugmug for our entire trip to Maine.

Vermont

Vermont is the land of maple syrup, but we visited about 6 months on the wrong side of the calendar for its sweet deliciousness.  Fortunately, Tess and Don were gracious hosts who showed us all around Brattleboro and fed us just about every food except sap directly from the maple trees.  Here are a couple of images, but the weekend was mostly spent hanging out and talking about life in general.  Here are some of the images we snapped off, but the rest are here.

A Day at the Montgomery County Fair

In mid-August Maryland’s Montgomery County held its annual county fair in Gaithersburg.  Both of us enjoyed attending them growing up so the two of us invited Steph and Shawn for a weekend at the fair.  We took in some of the farm equipment at the beginning which included a tractor that shot fireballs out of its exhaust pipe.  Then we moved to the animals where we petted rabbits and the girls milked a cow.  Finally, we enjoyed some of the fair food while being amused by a sign that said “We offer … diabetic funnel cake.”  Check out the sign and other images below, but all of them can be found here.

Hiking along the Potomac in Great Falls Park

Washington DC is a wonderful city with all of its monuments, but it is easy to forget about all the places to explore nearby.  One of these just happens to be Great Falls Park — upstream on the Potomac River.  I went with my friend Greg who had been a couple times.  At first we were on the C&O Canal towpath before heading upriver on Bear Island.  The trail was a scenic meander through the woods that took us by a hidden pond and glimpsed the river here and there.  There were also some more strenuous parts that necesitated navigating rocks, but I’ll let the photos below and on SmugMug explain all of that…  After our hike we enjoyed some cold beer and nice burgers cooked over a flaming grill.