I have a thing for trees with no leaves. That doesn’t mean I like winter though; I hate cold weather. But I love the sights that trees with no leaves give me.
Central Park
This picture is from February 2009 – so long ago! It was during an overnight trip to New York.
I love the way the branches curve in and out and I can “see” the canopy that the branches with leaves would create during the summer.
We go to New York every December to shop for the holidays but we haven’t been to Central Park is a few years.
Lordy, what a day I had! Within one hour the dog threw up on the carpet, I got caught behind a funeral procession (thankfully small and just heading from St. Paul’s to In Memoriam), there was construction going on at the corner of Ives Road and Route 5, CVS pharmacy was busy, and the train gates came down just as I got out there. Oh well. Dog’s fine, someone’s laid to rest, and my husband has his prescription. All’s right with the world.
Biddeford Maine 2022
This photo was saved in my favorites. This was from a family vacation to Biddeford Maine. We rented a cottage maybe 1/4 mile from the beach. My niece, her husband, and two children live there and we got to spend a week with them. At the time they were almost 3 and almost 1. We all just loved being with them!
I took this on one of our morning walks. I can’t be near the ocean without taking 100s of pictures! Especially a sunrise or sunset!
Today’s Hump Day photo comes from the first week long motorcycle trip we took in 2013. We traveled with another couple and 2 single guys from Connecticut, down the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee North Carolina and back.
Brendan, Chris, and Mark Harley Davidson Factory York PA
This picture was taken in the parking lot of the Harley Davidson factory in York Pennsylvania. It was on the last day of our trip. Because of a rain delay the day before we were running behind. We stayed overnight in York, but I think there either was no Saturday tour or we couldn’t swing the time because we were still a good 6 hours away from home.
About the trip –
We took off in early June and it was cold and rainy. The views were amazing on the Skyline Drive but for much of the ride on the parkway it was cold and foggy! Lesson learned #1 – we need to travel in the summer!
There was one other rider, who is still a good friend. He led the way and the focus was getting in a lot of hours on the bike. Amy, the other female, and I wanted to see sights! Lesson Learned #2 – plan the trip!
We rode on the Tail of the Dragon in Deals Gap, NC and went nice and slow! We went to the top of Chimney Rock and could see Lake Lure where they filmed Dirty Dancing. We stayed in Floyd Virginia and absolutely fell in love with it! We got caught in a monstrous rain storm on the highway and stopped for the day and overnight in Natural Bridge Virginia at this little motel where we pulled the bikes under the overhang and walked to the nearby diner for our meals.
After this trip, we continued to go on day trips, weekend trips, and week long trips with Brendan and Amy and Chris. We all got along so well and enjoyed some really great trips.
This picture reflects the start of those wonderful friendships.
Is there anything worse on vacation than opening the Friday on a pill case? I can’t think of one!
Our last day at Lake Winnipesauke was spent on the boat with my sister and her husband who drove over from their home in Maine. We tried to dock in Wolfesboro for lunch again but everyone had the same idea so we headed over to Weirs Beach instead. We’ve been there many times by motorcycle for Laconia Bike Week in June so this was a whole different view! We saw buildings usually blocked by big white vendor tents and the arcades were in full swing. We had lunch at Dox and headed back out to drift on the lake.
It was a great week of boating, hiking, and shopping! The early part of the week was sunny but by Wednesday the smoke from the Canadian fires made its way to us and it was hazy sun. We knew rain was coming on Thursday so we headed to Conway for shopping – but we didn’t think to bring our umbrellas so ended up buying new ones!
Packing up on Saturday and saying goodbye to our little home was sad as I was finally sleeping past 6am but it was time to go. I’m hoping to rent for 10 days next year at the same location.
Our one bedroom cottage among 4 rentals on the property
Today it’s rainy in Connecticut which is perfect weather to get laundry done, open the mail, and get ready for our family’s Fantasy Football draft tonight!
I took a trip to Paris in May 2007 with my sister, her daughter, and their friend. We rented an apartment in the Marais District from a friend of mine from California.
Our apartment was about four blocks from the Seine and after we rested, we took off to look around. It was amazing to see all the beautiful buildings and that famous river we’ve heard so much about!
I like this picture because of the couple stealing some moments together on the banks of the river Seine. It is one of the first pictures I took on our trip.
Paris France
Before we left, I studied the Rick Steves’ book on Paris and came up with a list of places we might want to visit. Everyone was willing to follow my suggestions! We went to the Montmatre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Père LaChaise Cemetery, the Louvre, Musee d’ Orsay, and Versailles. We really packed in a lot of sights in 7 days!
Back then, I was taking pictures on one of those small Canon SD600 cameras. I don’t know what type of phone I had back then but it must not have been very good if I didn’t use it for pictures. I took 305 pictures, they are still in my iCloud photos and I still enjoy looking at them and remembering our trip which means another one from this trip might show up sometime!
Today I’m sharing a photo from February 2006. The same sister and her family that we went to Mexico with, we also took a few ski vacations together over the years!
We took a 2 or 3 February vacation trips to Mont Sutton located in Sutton Quebec. It was approximately 6 hours away from our home in Connecticut. We would meet up with my sister and 2 or 3 other families from Rhode Island at The Junction Restaurant in Troy Vermont for lunch. From there, we would cross over the border into Canada. We would stay every trip at an auberge right next to the slopes and rented the entire first floor wing of 8 or so rooms to make sure we had a game room for the kids and so we wouldn’t disturb any other guests! The hotel served us breakfast and dinner and we all brought coolers of food, a microwave, and whatever else we needed to come back to the rooms and have lunch if we wanted. All we had to do was ski.
The Sutton bird
This picture was from our 3rd trip to Canada. It was crazy to see this up in the tree but even funnier was what I thought I saw on the slope. My husband and I were on the chairlift, and I saw a small group of people on the side of the trail. I looked closely and then said to him “why is there a canoe on the trail?” He thought I was insane! What I was looking at was a snowboarder sitting on the ground with his board up on its side edge. From the direction I was looking, it looked like a person in a canoe!! 😂😂 I have a very vivid imagination!
Every time I see this picture in my favorites album I think about all those fun trips we took, and the canoe on the ski slope.
In August of 2006, my family and my sister and her family went to a Mayan Palace resort in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
For one of the dinners we went to Las Carmelitas which was approximately a half hour outside the side far up into the hills. It was a little nerve wracking being driven so far away from the resort in a taxi in a country we couldn’t speak the language! After passing through the city, we turned off the main road onto a road with a gate at the bottom. What did we get ourselves into! It was a dirt road, bumpy and winding. At one point, my sister’s taxi was having trouble making it up the hill, so she and my niece jumped out of the car and started walking!
Once we got to the top, there was a beautiful open air restaurant overlooking the water. There were chickens walking around and a toddler scooting around on his toy.
The food was so incredibly fresh, I remember the ceviche in particular, it was like it had just come out of the sea. The margaritas weren’t bad either!
We had a beautiful dinner as we watched the sun set over the water. After a few hours, the taxis returned to take us back to the resort. Whoever recommended Las Carmelitas knew what they were talking about. This picture is one of the many I took of the setting sun.
If you missed last week’s photo, you can find it here.
I take so many pictures on my IPhone. 29,386 photos and 1,079 videos to be exact! I have a Canon EOS with three different lenses but it just cannot compete with the instant gratification convenience (my Canon doesn’t have wi-fi).
What should I do with all those photos? First off, delete all the duplicates. But second, Share them! So starting today, on Wednesdays I will share a photo and give the when, where, and why.
This photo was taken during a vacation in August 2021 to visit friends who had a home in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. While there with 2 other couples and the hosts, we took a trip to Mackinac Island.
It was quite a drive to get to the ferry (although we’d gone to Petoskey on a previous trip) but it and the ferry ride were enjoyable!
Once we got to the island, we had lunch and shopped and then took a horse drawn tour which brought us all over the island. It was such an enjoyable trip and one of the stops was at Arch Rock which looks out onto Lake Huron to the east. Believe me when I say, I took many pictures of this view from every angle.
We also saw the beautiful Grand Hotel on our tour along with a cemetery, and our tour guide had a lot of great information about the island.
Once our tour was over, we walked back down to the town and took the ferry ride back to Mackinaw City and headed home.
I’m very grateful for having met these couples on a Danube River cruise and our visits with them afterward!
I had a cat for 14 years. We adopted a dog 2 months after the cat passed away; he has been part of our family for 12 years. I didn’t grow up with either so both were new to me!
Chuckie Finster Benson, our cat, came into our home from his barn birth when he was a few months old in 1998. He had the most beautiful coloring and since he was orange, and our son was a fan of RugRats, it made sense to name him after the orange-haired boy Chuckie.
Maybe because he had barn cat in his blood, he preferred to spend his summers outside. He spent his nights in the winter in the basement, otherwise, I would find him on my head trying to wake me up at 3 am.
We would find him in the strangest locations over the years, always someplace warm like behind the couch on the radiator cover, inside the dryer on some freshly dried clothes, and always in the basket of blankets in the living room.
He wasn’t a cuddly cat but became one as he got older. He loved to sit right right next to me in my chair. I guess it was just another place to be warm!
When he died in 2012, we were all very sad.
So I started looking at rescue dog advertisements and found Wally.
I mean really, how could you resist that face? He put on a good show at the Humane Society, letting us all crowd around and pet him. As soon as we got home, he latched onto my husband and that was it. Wally will fight you to the death to protect his man!
Wally was left at the shelter so he was likely 2 or 3 years old when we took him home. It’s been 12 years and he has slowed down. He still loves his lunchtime walks down to the corner and back and walking out to the edge of our yard to sniff all his favorite spots. He comes bounding back from his trip like he’s two years old again because he knows there is a treat at the end of his run!
Chuckie was easier because he could be left to roam. We could go away for the weekend and our neighbor would keep her eye on him and check that he had food in the house. Very easy.
Wally is a prickly pear so you want him to love you. So many people have been fooled by his wagging tail that they don’t notice the lip quiver that signals a snarl and snap coming!
I’m glad I’ve had one of each to experience having a pet but my answer would be Cats.
Fall in New England is the most glorious season of the year.
A Weekend in Vermont
I catch a hint of its arrival in mid-August. I can see it in the angle of the sunrise through the leaves in the morning. If I stop and let the air wash over me, I can feel the slight chill under the heat. It’s brief, but it’s a taste of what’s to come.
My neighborhood parkThe maple tree in my yard
Skip to mid September and I feel the cold within the heat and the heat within the cold. If I close my eyes I can imagine both a fall day and winter is coming or a spring day and summer is around the corner!
Vermont steel bridge
October. Now October is the Gem of the season! That’s when we have glorious colors and bright blue skies. Every tree I see, I want to take a picture of it! I’ve been on many motorcycle trips during “leaf peeping” season and my head is on a swivel looking at the beautiful scenery and enjoying the wonderful weather.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 