Merry Christmas - a bit late

I was sick for Christmas and even though only a few come over these days, I didn't want them to get sick so I postponed it. We'll get together tomorrow. I know it seems strange, but it was all I could do.

I am hoping to post in a more timely manner in 2012, but I seem to have a hard time getting my pictures on the blog. It takes forever!
In a few weeks, Bonnie Hunter, will be here and I am hoping to see how she does it. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or the hard way or something. My fingers are crossed that I can figure out an easier way to get them on the blog.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that 2012 will be a wonderful year for you!
Sherry

Continuing on with our Spring trip - Connecticut to Massachusetts

This is a continuing recap of the trip we took in the spring. This part was at the end of May.

After leaving New York we headed north to Connecticut. There we had lunch at Uncle Wille's BBQ - another DDD - yum! And made it to Mystic as the fog was coming in for the evening.

I love the reflection in the water.

Check it out - remember the movie?

The next morning we had breakfast at a place called Kitchen Little.

This is the view we had sitting outside for breakfast.

Beautiful!

Moving on to Massachusettes we found a motel in a central location and settled in for a few days. First stop - Plymouth Rock

OK, so it's not much.

They lovingly call it the 'rock in the cage', but hey it's history.

Plymouth Bay

Next stop - Boston. We were told to take the Bean Town Trolley, but first we parked by Boston Commons. It's a large park in the main part of town.

Civil War Monument

It was Memorial weekend and this was in the park area.

Park with the city in the back.

USS Constitution "Old Ironsides"

The oldest floating commissioned naval vessel; launched in 1797.

Next to Old Ironsides was this ship.

Touring this ship was special to me because Cassin Young was the Captian of my dad's ship, the USS Vestal, a repair ship that was moored to the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Cassin Young received the metal of honor for his actions and for saving the Vestal. He saved many lives and the next year he died in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

 Another stop was the Paul Revere Mall.

Here was a memorial garden with dog tags representing those lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We passed the Massachusetts State House on our way to lunch.

Guess where? 



That's all for now. I'm having a hard time getting this post going so I need to stop for now.

More later.



Quick Update

It's been a while I know but I want to say that I will be back in a couple of days to update what we've been up to.

New York City

Still recounting our trip to New York and New England early in the summer.

We spent the night in Yonkers and headed to New York City in the morning. It took us over 2 hours to go 20 miles. We thought we knew traffic, but in L.A. County we have nothing like that without a major accident.

By the time we made it to Battery Park the line for the ferry to see the statue was so long that we decided not to go. We didn't want to spend that much of our time waiting in line (remember we just sat in traffic for two hours). 

So we set out on foot to see sights around the city.

Ground Zero. This was the end of May.

It's surprising that they finished it by September 11.

New York City Dock

I wouldn't want to live here.

Amish? We already stopped at a place that was

supposed to be Amish, but were dissapointed

Cool display in a clothing store.

Times Square

So many buildings here that there's lots of shade.

Empire State Building

Views from the top.

You can see Central Park.

We never made it there; something for next time.

Sailors we met at the top.

A memorial at a church.

Interesting buildings.

The Subway.

 We walked enough and it's time to rest a bit.

Heading to Long Island under the water thru

the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

We spent the night on Long Island with the plan to check out Fire Island the next day,

but there was so much fog that we decided to move on to Connecticut.

Next Connecticut to Boston.

Upstate New York - History and the Sapsucker Woods

After leaving Niagara Falls we traveled across the state heading toward Seneca Falls. On the way we stopped in Waterloo. Waterloo, New York is small town America, but the patriotism here is huge.

The first stop was the Civil War Memorial. We spent quite a bit of time here because a man working there, who was very involved with this project, gave us a guided tour and told us all about the different monuments and all the stories behind them.

Here's the man talking to Ray.

Everything there has a reason and a story,

But I don't remember them all.

They even honored the women.

Our next stop was the Memorial Day Museum. Waterloo is know as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Henry Welles thought it was a good thing to honor those who fought in the war when they came home, but he felt that those who didn't come home should be honored too. Read more here: Memorial Day History


At the museum I noticed a display about the Women's Relief Corps. The framed document is from the Sanitary Commission. As a quilter I have heard quite a bit about the Sanitary Commission and it's value in the civil war. It was the forerunner of the Red Cross and was created to relieve the pain and suffering of soldiers. One of the things they did was donate quilts for the wounded soldiers. Today we do the same thing and there is a local group that makes quilts using a pattern that was used by the Sanitary Commission. Check out the new group here: Home of the Brave Quilts

We made it to Seneca Falls and the National Women's Hall of Fame. I recommend it if you're in the neighborhood. They honor women from every walk of life for their contributions. They will be moving to a larger building when they get enough donations to fund the move. But it is very impressive even in the small building.

We headed south along Cayauga Lake; one of the finger lakes. There are so many trees in this state that the lakes are hard to see, but we found this opening and a chance for a photo.

A bonus here was Taughannock Falls.

Then at the bottom of the lake near Ithaca is the Cornell University's Ornithology Lab. Because my brother Mike has been interested in birds his whole life, I have heard about ornithology my whole life. Here they have the Sapsucker Woods. We took the hike through the woods and it was beautiful!

Too bad there isn't sound because there were lots of birds here.

We heard lots more than we saw - Mike would have seen them all.

Make way for ducklings.

Beautiful!

Look who's hiding.

A nest.

Another nest.

Close-up view.

Another family.

Rain is coming.

We went across the state line to spend the night in Pennsylvania just cuz we could. Plus it added another state to our list. In the future we plan to returning to Pennsylvania, but for now it was just an overnight thing.

The next morning back to New York and the Catskill Mountains.



We stopped in Woodstock for lunch and to walk the town and do a bit of shopping. Then headed toward New York City. That's coming next!