Yep, I finally got around to it, pictures from my 4 state vacation tour, beginning with a little place called Kent Falls in Connecticut:

Oh look! A tree! *click*

It also stands to reason that a state park called Kent Falls would have, well, falls in it right?

The sign said not to climb the rocks. So I climbed the rocks anyway to get this pic.

It had been pouring rain all morning, but the weather was finally clearing up some, providing me with lovely cloudy weather type pictures:

I like clouds.

After Connecticut, it was on to Massachusetts, where I made a hard right and a beeline towards:

OH YEAH.

The first thing that immediately seizes your attention when you enter this ridiculously MASSIVE store would be not candles, but this:

Oh my holy sweetness...

I’m totally loving the Christmas atmosphere too, starting with a long line of gift boxes that were moving along like a gondola around the store:

Why can't my apartment look like this?

Then things started getting a little nutty:

What up, cracka?

Eventually I came upon the Christmas village section, which literally went on and on endlessly, I honestly had never seen so many miniature villages in my life:

So purdy...

And then of course, the candles…

Oh Big Daddy YES!

And that was just the orchards/fruity section, after that I finally came upon the main area of the store:

Holy flaming wicks of external wax!!! O_O

And then, behold, the mother of all candles:

I WANTIE!

Ok, ok, that’s it for the candles. Yes I know I need help. Yes I know I’m a girlie whirly boy-boy for digging candles so much, but I gotta be me. Anyhoo, after that, it was off towards the Mohawk Trail (Route 2 in Massachusetts):

Screeched to a halt so I could get this shot off.

This is when I started to lose a signal. I was getting up there in the mountains and even Verizon was having trouble. I was pretty sure I was still on the right track though, until I saw this sign:

I KNEW I made a wrong turn somewhere...

Heh. After finally arriving in Williamstown, I spent the night and the next morning continued into Vermont on Route 7:

I could live here... well no, it's still Vermont.

Honestly, no camera in the world could truly capture how majestic the scenery was. Truly one of the best scenic drives I’ve ever taken. I finally got off Route 7 and headed east on Route 4 to Killington. After a while I finally pulled over when I saw this resort:

Autumn becomes Winter... Magnificent.

Man, I can only imagine what it must cost to spend a night there. But WOW, what a view.

After some thought, I finally decided I would spend the rest of my vacation time back in New York at Lake Placid, and turned around to head back to NY. I took Route 125, eventually leading me to the Crowns Point Bridge. This drive alone may have well been the highlight of my trip. I passed by a barn and the scene was so pretty that I immediately U-turned, parked the car and got out my camera and tripod so I could take a few pics.

No sooner than I got out of the car and started walking when I saw two dogs coming out of a backyard near me, the size of HORSES I tell you, and of course they immediately galloped in my direction.

OH BLEEEP!

I ran like a crazy man back towards my car, the tripod banging against my legs while I furiously got my keys out to open the door, banged my head on the roof, then leapt in and slammed the door. I was in a daze, and after a moment I collected myself and looked out the car.

The stupid dogs had already gotten bored and were actually YAWNING at me. Who keeps their dogs unchained in an unfenced yard anyway? Gads.

Rather than chance stepping out again, I simply took the pictures from my driver’s seat. The windows up of course. These dogs were HUGE after all.

If this photo had sound, you'd hear the barking of the dogs that chased after me.

I took a bunch of shots with different exposures and merged them all together to make the next image. Didn’t come out great, but oh well.

An enhanced view of the barn. Meh.

After that little escapade, I continued down and saw such a wondrous view of Lake Champlain that I had to stop one more time, and I’m glad I did:

It's hard to tell, but this was literally just a narrow street beset by water on all sides.

I had come at just the right moment, with the sun setting beyond the mountains and hitting the lake at the perfect angle:

Pretty beyond words.

Here’s another shot:

I saw this and never wanted to go home again.

I did the same thing here that I did with the barn, taking shots at different exposures and merging them together again:

An enhanced view of Lake Champlain.

Finally, here’s the Crowns Point Bridge itself, connecting Vermont to New York:

You can just make out the bridge, which literally closed the day after I went over it. I had nothing to do with that by the way.

I stayed the night at Ticonderoga at a GORGEOUS Best Western, then moved on at long last to Lake Placid:

Onward to Lake Placid!

Checked in at a hotel that offered a pretty lakeview room:

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I did some exploring around town for a couple of days, including checking out Saranac Lake too, which was right next door:

Saranac Lake, small but pretty!

After two nights I moved on to another hotel, this one offering a lakeview AND a fireplace. Oh yeaaaah…

A view from my balcony at the last hotel I stayed at before going home. Wah.

Yes, I think I’ll live here… forever?

This is what makes it all worthwhile baby.

And the bear that attacked earlier? Well we decided to bury the hatchet:

Vicious, attacking bear and I reached an understanding.

After my last night there, I rose up in the morning, and took one looooong, last look at my beloved lake, before steeling myself for the agonizing journey home:

One last view before I go home... *sob*

I have more pictures by the way, but I uploaded the rest of them to my gallery. You can check them out there to ooooh and aaaaah my work if you’d like. (Or laugh at it instead. Either way, I dig the attention.)

Related Posts:

• Lessons learned from taking an impromptu vacation (7)
• The most unplanned vacation, EVAH! (8)
• Reclaiming the Christmas Spirit (3)
• The Vacation Day From Hell (15)
• The Quest to Recapture My Christmas Spirit Begins! (4)

Tags: autumn, camera, Christmas, Connecticut, fire, fireplace, journey, lake placid, laptop, Massachusetts, new york, Photos, teddy bear, ticonderoga, vacation, verizon, Vermont
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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