back at it....

Starting off where I finished that last post on Jeanne's & my last trip to Boston, day 2 is winding down. We spent the afternoon in East Boston, taking the Blue line out to the Maverick Station. We walked along the water (on a road, no beach here), and stopped in Piers Park for our lunch of strawberries and some photos of course.

Clockwise from upper left: Entrance to Piers Park, 2 shots of some reliefs on the pillars of one of the small pavillions in the park, covered benches along the water, giant metal fish sculture on top of a nearby marina.

As it got later, we headed back to Cambridge to wander around the Hatch, and the Charles River Esplanade. Clockwise from upper left: MIT in the background and the Longfellow Bridge in the fore (AKA the Salt & Pepper Bridge due to the pillars looking like giant S&P shakers), love the sunset setting on my camera..getting darker!, lots of people out enjoying the weather and watching the sailboats on the Charles, odd building on MIT grounds near the Kendall/MIT station, Duck boat making its way past with the Hancock tower behind.

Once it got much darker we saw what we had always wanted to and happily snapped away for about a half hour before making our way back to Dunkin Donuts and a long subway ride back to our car, and the drive back to Northampton...

Boston photos, Day 2

After packing up our things, we checked out of our room, loaded our bags into the car, and drove the 1/4 mile down the hill to the Riverside T station.
So begins day 2 in Boston. Clockwise starting from upper left: Sunrise in our hotel room, view of Riverside T station from the parking garage of the hotel, on the subway heading in to the city, at Starbucks on Tremont St for our morning sustenance, Custom House tower & the Holocaust memorial, Jeanne feeding some crumbs to the birds. Greedy lil things! :)
The weather was beautiful once again!!

After enjoying our coffee and muffin we headed towards the Haymarket. So many sights, smells and sounds, all at once. Vendors calling out for more produce, prices to prospective buyers, and telling people not to touch the "merchandise". The deals were not to be missed. If our car wasn't so far away, we would have bought lots of stuff. :)
Clockwise from upper left: Lettuce: what a deal!, artist at work, seafood vendor: fresh shrimp for $2/cup (it was delish!), A small piece of street art called Asaroton (meaning unswept floor), Seafood vendor shucking oysters. In the center we have 2 statues of Mayor James Michael Curley. We ended up buying a quart of strawberries for 99 cents. That was our lunch.

 After the Haymarket we headed to the North end.  Had to have a cannoli at Mike's Pastry! We took a short walk along the waterfront, then got on the T and headed over to East Boston, a place neither of us had been to.
Clockwise from upper left: the Bunker Hill monument visible from east Boston, The glass wall and tables at Mike's Pastry, tray of cannolis..YUM!, pretty tulip, Aquarium stop on the Blue Line, Custom house tower from East Boston.

Still more to come from East Boston and beyond. Including some pics from the skyline at dusk from Cambridge!

More Boston Photos!

Here are just a few more Boston collages to share. As I said we had beautiful weather, and we also really enjoy being there on weekdays so that we get to see the "normal" hustle & bustle of the city. Trying to get on the subway during rush hour is probably the hardest thing. Crowded, and not the least bit comfortable, unless you happen to score a seat. :)

(from upper right and clockwise): One of the Muses in front of the Boston Public Library, The Prudential tower peeking out from behind The Lenox Hotel, the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on the Boston Common, here I am enjoying a slice of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, The First Church of Christ, Scientist (aka The Mother Church), and in the center: Jeanne & I always get this shot of ourselves reflected in the Hancock Tower. The glass seemed especially clean this year!

These blossoms stand out against the bright blue sky, the view from our hotel room, the restaurant we ate at in Chinatown before the TSO concert, the gate to Chinatown , and last but not least, The State House. This was the first time we really had a chance to wander around Chinatown, and we loved it. So different and interesting! The restaurant we chose was on a whim, and it turned out to be excellent. After dinner we wandered back to Tremont St towards the Wang Theater. And that brings me to my last collage for Day 1 in Boston. TSO!

Upper left: Jeff Scott Soto, awesome voice! Upper right: Chris Caffery, Lower right: Taking a bow, lower left: Intermission/introductions. The first part of the concert was "Beethoven's Last Night" in it's entirety, along with narration in between songs. The 2nd half of the show featured a few songs from their newest album called "Nightcastle". Being in a smaller theater, they couldn't use pyro like they  do in the Christmas concert, but the special effects and lasers were out in full force. After the show we made our way to the merchandise table then to the autograph table.

Definitely a night to remember....We made it back to the hotel very late, and by the time we wound down enough to crash, it was almost 2am! Before we knew it, it was up and back out into the city for day 2!

Week 15 of Project 365, and some Boston Love..

Week 15, (4/9-4/15) clockwise from upper left we have: a free sample I ordered of NV nut clusters, Red Robin bacon & guac burger I had while on vacation in W. mass, a new little Boston travel book to read while at the airport, my balcony railing (in FL) with the laundry building behind it, railroad crossing warning, my poor scrappy desk waiting for me to do some creating, and Slaid Cleaves (Texas folk musician at the European St Cafe in Jax) - Awesome show! Slaid is on the right, watching his guitarist do some Ham bone...

Now for a few of my favorite Boston shots: Jeanne & I got to stay there for 2 days and both were absolutely beautiful weather-wise. We totally lucked out! It had been ages since we'd done an overnight visit, and wanted to get some good evening/night shots. Especially of that familiar skyline. Here are just a few photos from day 1 to start. We each took over 900 shots or so in those 2 days! I was able to get mine down to about 700, and could probably delete a few more even, but that can wait for another day..

Starting at bottom left: We meet at the Northampton Dunkin Donuts and set off nourished with coffee, muffins and the GPS. You don't want to see the traffic on the Pike, it's never pretty. (upper left): here we are at Fenway Park already. Amazing! Flurry of activity there as it was only a few days til Opening Day, and the beer deliveries had to be made. (upper right): the Boston University store/Barnes & Noble, 3 floors of books, college apparel, and Starbucks. (bottom right): The infamous Citgo sign, seen in every Red Sox game on TV. Look for more views of it soon!

After walking around the Fenway Park area we found the Fenway Victory Gardens. Some people have probably had the same garden plot for 30 years, if not longer. It was so neat seeing gates, and entrances individual to the person who owned it. many plots had little patio areas to relax, and some looked like they hadn't been used in years. Someday I hope to see this area when it's in full bloom! There were a few early blooming plants, and a lot of geese.
The bright yellow forsythia caught my eye against the weathered wood of the fence, as did the beautiful Peregrine Falcon. Or is it a hawk? (correct me if I'm wrong, please!)

More to come soon!!

Vacation, Day 5 - Boston!

So, day 5....Boston. Met up in Northampton at 7am to get coffee for the long ride out. Stopped to fill the tank, and program the GPS, and off we went. We don't get there as often as we'd like, so I always freak out thinking we'll miss our exit to the T station in Riverside. Traffic was fine til about 20 miles from Newton, then it just slowly crawled along. It took longer to do those last 20 miles than it did for the first 75 miles...

We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was sunny and beautiful all day long.

These are just a few of the bricks that are embedded on Winthrop Lane, There are just over 100 of them total, and I didn't get pictures of all of them. We had lunch in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library (a delicious quiche and fresh greens with vinaigrette), and supper at Dick's last Resort ('gator nuggets).

So, that's just a small portion of the day...I will add more pictures soon. Thankfully, the last few days of my visit were more leisurely and not so picture heavy. We each took just about 400 pics in Boston.

Tomorrow. I'll be flying back home, and I go right into physical inventory at work on Monday. Joy.

Really, I have been Scrapping!!

It's been awhile since I posted any scrap pages, but I have done a few these last few weeks. First one is yet another Boston LO..I can never have enough of those! This one mainly has some of my favorite statues, monuments and buildings. Not to mention those gorgeous views from the River Charles.

Next is one I did as a Month-At-A-Glance type layouts..not quite finished as I still need to add in the date numbers, but all the pics I want to add are on there..want to use it for self-portraits as well. Seems I had plenty of pics for the weekends, but had a hard time finding things for early in the week. Hmmm..