Saturday, December 16, 2006

Portland, Maine

Decided to go for a walk around Portland, ME with a friend. We started when the sun was about to set. We went to Commercial Street from the West End, then made our way to Route 1. It was dark by the time we got to Route 1, so most of these are night shots.


Monday, October 16, 2006

Maine Foliage - Various

Saturday I decided to try to find some more foliage before the end of the season. I heard that it was along the coast, so I decided I'd head up 1 and see where it brought me. I drove all the way up to Camden and then decided to give up. There wasn't much foliage along 1 and I wasn't very interested in dealing with traffic, so I decided to head back and take a few side streets that seemed promising. Somewhere between Camden and Rockport I believe, I decided to take a side road. (This is where google maps satellite comes in handy!) I ended up driving by Goose River Golf Club, and heading into a pretty elite neighborhood. Though in a way I found it rude, I took pictures leading down a few driveways anyway. They had wonderful views to the ocean.



Then I headed back to 1 and eventually made it to 1A. I stopped in the Newcastle area and took a few more pictures.



After stopping, I decided to head down a back road all the way to Boothbay Harbor. It was a long drive, and I actually spotted some nice foliage. I noticed a Preserve but kept going to Boothbay hoping the foliage would get better. Also along the way, I stopped by a cemetery along the River Rd to take a picture.



After driving all the way to Boothbay Harbor, I realized the foliage was actually better in the area I'd just been. I decided to head back to the Preserve I'd passed on the River Rd. I believe it was called "Dodge Point Public Reserved Land".


Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Grafton Notch State Park & Evans Notch

On Sunday the 8th, I decided to head up a little north where the foliage was good. I was thinking about going to Rangeley, but decided to stop when I noticed the colors were fading, and I didn't want to continue up too much further. I decided to stop by Grafton Notch though, since I'd never been. I went to Moose Cave, but wasn't too impressed. Then I stopped by a waterfall called "Mother Walker Falls". Most people pass this by because there isn't much of a view to see it. In order to get a good view, you have to cross a stream by stepping over some rocks. Not something that many people dare to do, or know to do for that matter. I was looking around trying to figure out where the trail was, and couldn't find it. Then I noticed some people on the other side of the stream, and they came over on rocks, so I thought, why not? I'm glad I did, it was very peaceful over there, and not many tourists!



On my way out, I stopped by "Screw Auger Falls". I took a few pictures of the foliage because some of the trees were pretty bright. Then I went in to take a look at the Falls. I couldn't get a good angle, so I decided to do some rock climbing. In the second picture you'll see where I ended up. The waterfall was very well protected, and unless I wanted to get wet (not with all those tourists around to watch haha), I decided I'd better not bother. I took a picture looking in toward the waterfall though. The 3rd picture is a more top down view of the falls. The picture didn't come out well at all, but I thought I'd share what the actual falls looked like since I'm writing about it. The next picture is a view heading to the falls from the top, and the very last picture is leaving Grafton Notch State Park.



Next I decided to head down to Evans Notch since it wasn't too much out of my way, and I could use it to loop around back to Portland anyway. It was gorgeous at Evans Notch, most likely peak foliage.


Friday, September 29, 2006

Northampton, MA, the "Big E" and Gilsland Farm

This picture was taken September 27th after a Thomas Dolby show in Northampton, MA. I was told I couldn't bring a camera inside, so I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the show. I did get to meet Dolby though, which was wonderful.



This picture was taken September 28th at the "Big E" fair in West Springfield, MA. I'm not that much into fairs anymore, so I didn't find it very exciting, and didn't see anything I really wanted to take pictures of. There weren't any events going on while we visited either. Perhaps going on the weekend would've been better.



After driving back to Portland later that day, I decided to bring my mother to Gilsland Farm in Falmouth, ME. We arrived while there was still some sunlight.


Sunday, September 10, 2006

Vacation to California - Bay Area

I haven't had time to update since my vacation over Labor Day weekend. These pictures were taken over a series of days on my vacation to San Jose, and the Bay Area in California.

These pictures were taken on the first day of my trip, which was August 31st. I decided to check out the neighborhood where I once lived in San Jose and I took a few pictures of my old apartment and other neighborhood memories. These are just a few shots of the area that I really liked.



These pictures were taken September 1st at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery.



These were taken September 3rd in multiple places. We drove down to Santa Cruz, and finding it was way too busy, we decided to just continue our drive up highway 1 toward Half Moon Bay. We stopped at a really nice beach along the way. I was hoping it was one I had once visited that had a nice view to the ocean through a sort of cave. It wasn't that beach, but this beach had another smaller cave which you could see the beach through. The first four pictures are along Highway 1 just north of Santa Cruz. The other two were later that night in Colma at the Woodlawn Cemetery (the final resting place of Emperor Norton).



This last picture was taken on the last full day in California during my vacation. We went into downtown San Jose for food, and found that Tapestry in Talent was going on. We checked out the booths and got some food there, nothing else was open since it was Labor Day. This was taken of a fountain in town that I thought looked nice.