World Tour of America #6: The Photo Post
Here it is, the long awaited photo post! I know, I know, it's been far too long in coming and I do apologise for that. I really wanted to have it done before this but there were so many pictures to go through! I can't believe it but I took nearly 400 photos. It took me a long time to rotate and whitebalance them all, not to mention going through the lot to try and narrow it down to a more reasonable amount to post!
As usual, click on any picture for a bigger version!
Baking
ftmichael and I needed brownies so we decided to make some. We had limited ingredients but found a recipe for mint frosted brownies that had the right amounts and sounded very yummy. This is the end result. After we've tested them to check they were okay anyway. There was supposed to be a chocolate glaze on top of the mint frosting but we couldn't wait that long ran out of chocolate.
Walden Pond
The little beach area. It was very quiet and peaceful and so nice just to sit there for a while. People were actually swimming in the lake despite it being early October. Rather them than me.
There was a path that lead all the way round the lake/pond so we walked round that and took lots of pictures of the scenery. I was hoping to get lots of pictures of autumn leaves but very few of them had changed and most were still green.
Lots of the trees had these little white slips on them for some reason. The majority were blank, but someone had written on this one. And got a response too.
Michael looking casual.
Ducks! They're not in Greenland after all. Michael was trying to get a picture of the ducks flapping their wings but failing. And then I had a try. *ahem*
Apart from the little bit of pine tree that's sneaked into the shot, this could easily be somewhere like Bermuda or Barbados or somewhere similarly exotic.
As if it wasn't bad enough that the path had wire fencing along both sides, there were also these very friendly and welcoming signs every few feet as well.
Walden Pond is famous for being the place where Henry David Thoreau went to hide from the world in 1845. When his friend Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott) took a visitor there in 1872, he placed a stone at what he remembered to be the location of the house. Since then it's become customary to add a stone to what is now a pretty substantial cairn. As you can see. Michael is there for scale :) The posts that are just visible in the top right of the picture mark the actual location. He wasn't far off!
Some of the stones had messages on; we rather liked this one.
Other stones had been cleverly balanced on top of each other. It was difficult to get a clear shot of them though.
Pretty leaves reflected in the water.
Thoreau wrote a very detailed description of the house he'd built and that's been used to make this reconstruction. It's about the size of a shed really.
However, it's much bigger on the inside. And I said as much in the guest book ;)
The statue of Thoreau outside the house. That's my phone he's holding, by the way. Shame we didn't have an iPod or something, that would have been much funnier.
TranScriptions
TranScriptions is an open mic night with a queer theme. It's taken over from the now sadly defunct GenderCrash. I've read at GenderCrash before so I decided to read at TranScriptions too and got Michael to take photos for prosterity prosperity proof. Unfortunately as there was no mic stand, I had a tendency to move about a bit so Michael couldn't get a decent shot. This is the best one.
Uno's
Random photo of Michael taken at Uno's. It was taking ages for our pudding to arrive and I was bored so I took some photos of Michael. And why not.
Chalking
Before Michael went out to work one day, he gave me a box of chalk and told me to go and draw on the drive outside. So I did! (And yes, this is what I'd been up to on the day I got locked out for those of you who remember that.)
Warning sign on the top of the steps up to the house.
Geek humour ahoy!
This was at the very bottom of the drive where it meets the pavement.
I claim this land in the name of the Queen *flag* I was a little afraid that I was going to get lynched after doing this. The second picture was further up the drive as if you were walking through Immigration or something.
hee, punny.
I tried to make the arrows point in vaguely the right directions.
It's more like Chalkhenge really. Whatever a henge actually is. I'm pretty sure it's not a blob of concrete surrounded by chalk rectangles.
Apple picking
Michael picking Fuji apples.
The view from the top part of the orchard with the apple trees in the foreground and some autumn colours in the background. And a tiny person for scale!
I don't remember taking this picture but I must have done! It's a very good one anyway. I like the clouds, they look like they're all zigzagged across the sky.
The Fuji apples all lined up on the kitchen windowsill. The yellow bag that you can just see contains all the others. (Note the continuing apple theme in the curtains.)
Cake!
When we met up with assiduous1 in Boston, we went to a Chinese bakery for cake. After much deliberation, I decided on this cheesecake as it's about my most favourite kind of cake. It was quite nice, and certainly cheap, but I'm not sure it was one of their best cakes.
Michael got chocolate cake and seems to be quite enjoying it. I think this is his 'yes, you're cute but I'm eating chocolate cake and you're interrupting me' face.
Baking Part Two
This is the sour cream apple coffee cake that we made with the apples we'd picked. If you look carefully, you can see the cinnamon sugar that went absolutely everywhere.
This is the beer ginger ale bread that we made from the packet mix that we got at Trader Joe's. It looks a lot nicer than it tasted though.
Boston Public Library
Photos I took while I was waiting for slammerkinbabe to arrive.
Taken from the little alcove I was sitting in.
Artwork at the very top of the main staircase.
Artwork on either side at the top of the staircase.
The main staircase with guard lions.
Taken through a window that looked out onto the back half of the building. It looks like a continental hotel or something, I think.
The pond in the courtyard also taken through the window, hence why it shows the back of the statue.
Trip to Vermont
All of these next few photos were taken through the window of Michael's car while he was driving very fast up the motorway to Vermont. I wanted to get lots of photos of pretty autumn trees but I had to take a picture of this sign.
The road is long... I think this picture came out amazingly well.
We saw lots of these signs and it took me several attempts to take a photo of one. There were also signs for deer crossing and - more worryingly - bear crossing. I didn't manage to take a photo of the latter despite sitting with my camera at the ready for the longest time.
Somewhere in New Hampshire.
Somewhere in Vermont.
Burlington, VT
Before we drove back down to Boston, we had a wander round Burlington and took lots more photos. Mostly of the lake, it was so beautiful there. I struggled choosing which photos to post as I have so many great ones!
Lake Champlain looking towards upstate New York. I think the hills in the second shot are around Plattsburgh kind of area.
Michael is a god. I love this photo, especially as I had to take it very quickly before Michael noticed. It's come out brilliantly, I didn't even realise at the time how lucky I'd been with it.
This little yacht took off from closeby and we both took several photos as it sailed past us. This is the best of mine.
A gathering of ducks. There's about 8 in this picture and I'm amused how the boy ducks and girl ducks are pretty much staying away from each other.
Burlington City Hall. It's very grand.
This row of trees was on my left as I took the previous picture and I thought it would make a nice arty picture, especially with the colours.
Church Street, Burlington. This is the main pedestrian street where most of the shops are. We spent quite a lot of time walking all the way up one side and then all the way down the other.
Michael entertaining himself making shadow puppets while I was taking photos.
Drive back to Boston
Camel's Back Mountain in Vermont.
I liked how there's all the lines and angles in this picture.
The sun was setting before we got back to Boston so I took lots of photos of that. This is about the best one. I love the colours and the lines from the clouds.
Pretty tree!
This maple tree is in the garden behind Michael's house and as it's directly opposite his bedroom window, I spent a lot of time admiring it. About two days after I took this picture, there were very strong winds and it lost all its leaves.
Framingham
This was taken in our favourite sandwich shop after our only successful attempt to find an arcade that was open. I think it's a really nice picture of Michael. And in case you're wondering, that's the back of the seat in the booth behind him. He wasn't sitting in space or something.
I was pleased to find that I'd won enough tickets to get one of the little stuffy puppydogs. I've never won a soft toy before! I called him Framingham as that's where the arcade was!
Hallowe'en
Pumpkin carving time! That's my pumpkin in the front and Michael's behind.
Despite only being the second time I'd done this, I went for a rather intricate design. Still, it wasn't as bad as the one I did when it was my very first time. This is the stencil on the pumpkin after I've pricked through to mark all the bits to cut out.
And this is what it looked like when I'd taken the stencil off. See that mass of pinpricks? Yeah, there's a design in there somewhere.
Michael had picked a much simpler picture so he finished way before me. So he took photos of me instead. Here I am sat on the kitchen floor, diligently carving away. Can you tell what it is yet?
The finished pumpkin. Even though I knew what it was, I had a hard time working out what a lot of the detail was supposed to be. It's much easier to see when it's lit up though. I was rather chuffed with how it turned out even if I wasn't able to do the lettering for the TARDIS. If you look closely, you can see where I wrote it on with a Sharpie.
The front door and front steps. We got the skull picture from Target and it looked really nifty. It might have been better if we'd put it lower down though, a lot of the kids kept looking underneath it to see if there was anyone around!
Michael's pumpkin outside. I like how the edge of the pumpkin gives the picture a kind of 3D effect.
The full effect of my pumpkin outside. It got a lot of comments but I think it was more due to the complexity of it, I don't think anyone got the reference.
Christopher Eccleston Michael as the Ninth Doctor. The resemblance is truly uncanny.
Me as the Tenth Doctor. Naturally.
This house, however, always goes rather mad when it comes to decorating. These photos really can't do justice to the amount of lights and god knows what else they had in their front garden. Can you say OTT?
Harry Potter Exhibition
We had to leave pretty early to get to the Harry Potter Exhibition for our designated tour time so we stopped off at Dunkies for breakfast on the way. I asked for a black coffee as usual and decided to get some coconut flavouring in it for a treat. The person serving me wrote my order on the cup but I think she may have got a bit flustered. Or something. Click here to see what she actually wrote. Oops.
In the entrance of the Museum of Science was this chess piece. It's actually the one from PoS that Ron rides. I was amazed at how big it was, although the seat is actually pretty small.
Michael and me in front of the knight. Michael is unaware that it's tapping him on the head and I forgot that I'd put my Slytherin hat in my hoody pocket so it looks all weird.
The actual Ford Anglia from filming. It looks surprisingly clean! I'm guessing the Americans might have found it more impressive, seeing as they're probably not that much of a common sight in the US.
The sun was setting as we left and I got some lovely pictures. These were taken from the T stop! That's Banknawth Gahdin to the right of the first picture. It's some big deal for sporty types, I believe. :-P
The park
Me on the swings.
It's not the best picture of a duck I've ever taken, seeing as it's got its head up its wingpit, but I really like the ripples in the water around it, as well as how close I managed to get.
Fun with refracted sunlight! An arty photo of this stone... thing. I have no idea what it is or why it's there. It's very random. If it was in the UK, the National Trust would have put a sign next to it along with a barrier and probably charged you a fortune to look at it too. But at least you'd know what it was!
Michael looking casual. I think he might have been building a fort.
These are tree branches all twisted round each other. The first one looks like rope but it's definitely branches. It's really bizarre.
More fun with refracted sunlight! And a handsome model to boot. I was lucky to get such good pictures of Michael, even if the second one didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to. (I was hoping to get the sunlight round his head like a halo :( )
This was the inscription on a pair of memorial stones which dedicated the area to a local naturist. Shame engraving doesn't come with spellcheck. And it was on both stones too.
At the airport
Michael putting a brave face on it just before I went through security.
Taken from the plane window while I was waiting to take off. The sun was starting to set and that along with the clouds gave this really interesting look to the sky. I also like the little procession of trucks along the runway too.
Fort Dawes in Boston Harbour taken just after the plane took off.
Boston from the air! The runways of Logan Airport are in the left bottom corner and then all of Boston spread out behind it.
So, there you go! I hope they were worth waiting for. Michael will be doing his photo post soon, you should go and look as he has the really good ones of us at Hallowe'en.
As usual, click on any picture for a bigger version!
Baking
ftmichael and I needed brownies so we decided to make some. We had limited ingredients but found a recipe for mint frosted brownies that had the right amounts and sounded very yummy. This is the end result. After we've tested them to check they were okay anyway. There was supposed to be a chocolate glaze on top of the mint frosting but we couldn't wait that long ran out of chocolate.
Walden Pond
The little beach area. It was very quiet and peaceful and so nice just to sit there for a while. People were actually swimming in the lake despite it being early October. Rather them than me.
There was a path that lead all the way round the lake/pond so we walked round that and took lots of pictures of the scenery. I was hoping to get lots of pictures of autumn leaves but very few of them had changed and most were still green.
Lots of the trees had these little white slips on them for some reason. The majority were blank, but someone had written on this one. And got a response too.
Michael looking casual.
Ducks! They're not in Greenland after all. Michael was trying to get a picture of the ducks flapping their wings but failing. And then I had a try. *ahem*
Apart from the little bit of pine tree that's sneaked into the shot, this could easily be somewhere like Bermuda or Barbados or somewhere similarly exotic.
As if it wasn't bad enough that the path had wire fencing along both sides, there were also these very friendly and welcoming signs every few feet as well.
Walden Pond is famous for being the place where Henry David Thoreau went to hide from the world in 1845. When his friend Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott) took a visitor there in 1872, he placed a stone at what he remembered to be the location of the house. Since then it's become customary to add a stone to what is now a pretty substantial cairn. As you can see. Michael is there for scale :) The posts that are just visible in the top right of the picture mark the actual location. He wasn't far off!
Some of the stones had messages on; we rather liked this one.
Other stones had been cleverly balanced on top of each other. It was difficult to get a clear shot of them though.
Pretty leaves reflected in the water.
Thoreau wrote a very detailed description of the house he'd built and that's been used to make this reconstruction. It's about the size of a shed really.
However, it's much bigger on the inside. And I said as much in the guest book ;)
The statue of Thoreau outside the house. That's my phone he's holding, by the way. Shame we didn't have an iPod or something, that would have been much funnier.
TranScriptions
TranScriptions is an open mic night with a queer theme. It's taken over from the now sadly defunct GenderCrash. I've read at GenderCrash before so I decided to read at TranScriptions too and got Michael to take photos for prosterity prosperity proof. Unfortunately as there was no mic stand, I had a tendency to move about a bit so Michael couldn't get a decent shot. This is the best one.
Uno's
Random photo of Michael taken at Uno's. It was taking ages for our pudding to arrive and I was bored so I took some photos of Michael. And why not.
Chalking
Before Michael went out to work one day, he gave me a box of chalk and told me to go and draw on the drive outside. So I did! (And yes, this is what I'd been up to on the day I got locked out for those of you who remember that.)
Warning sign on the top of the steps up to the house.
Geek humour ahoy!
This was at the very bottom of the drive where it meets the pavement.
I claim this land in the name of the Queen *flag* I was a little afraid that I was going to get lynched after doing this. The second picture was further up the drive as if you were walking through Immigration or something.
hee, punny.
I tried to make the arrows point in vaguely the right directions.
It's more like Chalkhenge really. Whatever a henge actually is. I'm pretty sure it's not a blob of concrete surrounded by chalk rectangles.
Apple picking
Michael picking Fuji apples.
The view from the top part of the orchard with the apple trees in the foreground and some autumn colours in the background. And a tiny person for scale!
I don't remember taking this picture but I must have done! It's a very good one anyway. I like the clouds, they look like they're all zigzagged across the sky.
The Fuji apples all lined up on the kitchen windowsill. The yellow bag that you can just see contains all the others. (Note the continuing apple theme in the curtains.)
Cake!
When we met up with assiduous1 in Boston, we went to a Chinese bakery for cake. After much deliberation, I decided on this cheesecake as it's about my most favourite kind of cake. It was quite nice, and certainly cheap, but I'm not sure it was one of their best cakes.
Michael got chocolate cake and seems to be quite enjoying it. I think this is his 'yes, you're cute but I'm eating chocolate cake and you're interrupting me' face.
Baking Part Two
This is the sour cream apple coffee cake that we made with the apples we'd picked. If you look carefully, you can see the cinnamon sugar that went absolutely everywhere.
This is the beer ginger ale bread that we made from the packet mix that we got at Trader Joe's. It looks a lot nicer than it tasted though.
Boston Public Library
Photos I took while I was waiting for slammerkinbabe to arrive.
Taken from the little alcove I was sitting in.
Artwork at the very top of the main staircase.
Artwork on either side at the top of the staircase.
The main staircase with guard lions.
Taken through a window that looked out onto the back half of the building. It looks like a continental hotel or something, I think.
The pond in the courtyard also taken through the window, hence why it shows the back of the statue.
Trip to Vermont
All of these next few photos were taken through the window of Michael's car while he was driving very fast up the motorway to Vermont. I wanted to get lots of photos of pretty autumn trees but I had to take a picture of this sign.
The road is long... I think this picture came out amazingly well.
We saw lots of these signs and it took me several attempts to take a photo of one. There were also signs for deer crossing and - more worryingly - bear crossing. I didn't manage to take a photo of the latter despite sitting with my camera at the ready for the longest time.
Somewhere in New Hampshire.
Somewhere in Vermont.
Burlington, VT
Before we drove back down to Boston, we had a wander round Burlington and took lots more photos. Mostly of the lake, it was so beautiful there. I struggled choosing which photos to post as I have so many great ones!
Lake Champlain looking towards upstate New York. I think the hills in the second shot are around Plattsburgh kind of area.
Michael is a god. I love this photo, especially as I had to take it very quickly before Michael noticed. It's come out brilliantly, I didn't even realise at the time how lucky I'd been with it.
This little yacht took off from closeby and we both took several photos as it sailed past us. This is the best of mine.
A gathering of ducks. There's about 8 in this picture and I'm amused how the boy ducks and girl ducks are pretty much staying away from each other.
Burlington City Hall. It's very grand.
This row of trees was on my left as I took the previous picture and I thought it would make a nice arty picture, especially with the colours.
Church Street, Burlington. This is the main pedestrian street where most of the shops are. We spent quite a lot of time walking all the way up one side and then all the way down the other.
Michael entertaining himself making shadow puppets while I was taking photos.
Drive back to Boston
Camel's Back Mountain in Vermont.
I liked how there's all the lines and angles in this picture.
The sun was setting before we got back to Boston so I took lots of photos of that. This is about the best one. I love the colours and the lines from the clouds.
Pretty tree!
This maple tree is in the garden behind Michael's house and as it's directly opposite his bedroom window, I spent a lot of time admiring it. About two days after I took this picture, there were very strong winds and it lost all its leaves.
Framingham
This was taken in our favourite sandwich shop after our only successful attempt to find an arcade that was open. I think it's a really nice picture of Michael. And in case you're wondering, that's the back of the seat in the booth behind him. He wasn't sitting in space or something.
I was pleased to find that I'd won enough tickets to get one of the little stuffy puppydogs. I've never won a soft toy before! I called him Framingham as that's where the arcade was!
Hallowe'en
Pumpkin carving time! That's my pumpkin in the front and Michael's behind.
Despite only being the second time I'd done this, I went for a rather intricate design. Still, it wasn't as bad as the one I did when it was my very first time. This is the stencil on the pumpkin after I've pricked through to mark all the bits to cut out.
And this is what it looked like when I'd taken the stencil off. See that mass of pinpricks? Yeah, there's a design in there somewhere.
Michael had picked a much simpler picture so he finished way before me. So he took photos of me instead. Here I am sat on the kitchen floor, diligently carving away. Can you tell what it is yet?
The finished pumpkin. Even though I knew what it was, I had a hard time working out what a lot of the detail was supposed to be. It's much easier to see when it's lit up though. I was rather chuffed with how it turned out even if I wasn't able to do the lettering for the TARDIS. If you look closely, you can see where I wrote it on with a Sharpie.
The front door and front steps. We got the skull picture from Target and it looked really nifty. It might have been better if we'd put it lower down though, a lot of the kids kept looking underneath it to see if there was anyone around!
Michael's pumpkin outside. I like how the edge of the pumpkin gives the picture a kind of 3D effect.
The full effect of my pumpkin outside. It got a lot of comments but I think it was more due to the complexity of it, I don't think anyone got the reference.
Christopher Eccleston Michael as the Ninth Doctor. The resemblance is truly uncanny.
Me as the Tenth Doctor. Naturally.
This house, however, always goes rather mad when it comes to decorating. These photos really can't do justice to the amount of lights and god knows what else they had in their front garden. Can you say OTT?
Harry Potter Exhibition
We had to leave pretty early to get to the Harry Potter Exhibition for our designated tour time so we stopped off at Dunkies for breakfast on the way. I asked for a black coffee as usual and decided to get some coconut flavouring in it for a treat. The person serving me wrote my order on the cup but I think she may have got a bit flustered. Or something. Click here to see what she actually wrote. Oops.
In the entrance of the Museum of Science was this chess piece. It's actually the one from PoS that Ron rides. I was amazed at how big it was, although the seat is actually pretty small.
Michael and me in front of the knight. Michael is unaware that it's tapping him on the head and I forgot that I'd put my Slytherin hat in my hoody pocket so it looks all weird.
The actual Ford Anglia from filming. It looks surprisingly clean! I'm guessing the Americans might have found it more impressive, seeing as they're probably not that much of a common sight in the US.
The sun was setting as we left and I got some lovely pictures. These were taken from the T stop! That's Banknawth Gahdin to the right of the first picture. It's some big deal for sporty types, I believe. :-P
The park
Me on the swings.
It's not the best picture of a duck I've ever taken, seeing as it's got its head up its wingpit, but I really like the ripples in the water around it, as well as how close I managed to get.
Fun with refracted sunlight! An arty photo of this stone... thing. I have no idea what it is or why it's there. It's very random. If it was in the UK, the National Trust would have put a sign next to it along with a barrier and probably charged you a fortune to look at it too. But at least you'd know what it was!
Michael looking casual. I think he might have been building a fort.
These are tree branches all twisted round each other. The first one looks like rope but it's definitely branches. It's really bizarre.
More fun with refracted sunlight! And a handsome model to boot. I was lucky to get such good pictures of Michael, even if the second one didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to. (I was hoping to get the sunlight round his head like a halo :( )
This was the inscription on a pair of memorial stones which dedicated the area to a local naturist. Shame engraving doesn't come with spellcheck. And it was on both stones too.
At the airport
Michael putting a brave face on it just before I went through security.
Taken from the plane window while I was waiting to take off. The sun was starting to set and that along with the clouds gave this really interesting look to the sky. I also like the little procession of trucks along the runway too.
Fort Dawes in Boston Harbour taken just after the plane took off.
Boston from the air! The runways of Logan Airport are in the left bottom corner and then all of Boston spread out behind it.
So, there you go! I hope they were worth waiting for. Michael will be doing his photo post soon, you should go and look as he has the really good ones of us at Hallowe'en.