So I looked out this morning and the sun was gone, turned on some music to start my day, lost myself in a familiar song, closed my eyes and I slipped awaaaaa… no wait, that’s not right.

On second thought, that WAS how I started my first morning in Boston. Heh. After a hot shower and a quick breakfast at a restaurant next door, it was off to the Boston Commons to begin my walk on the Freedom Trail.

It's beginning to snow at the Boston Commons!

By this time it was already snowing, yet nothing so severe that it would ruin my morning (and the rest of my time here.) I took the T line again and got out at the foot of the famous park, taking a quick walk around to find a few hidden geocaches and then doubling back to start the Freedom Trail.

Seriously, they could have dressed up the beginning of the trail with a bit more fanfare than this.

After a few stops, I eventually found myself at King’s Chapel, and tried to get a shot off at an angle so I could capture the entire steeple of the huge church, when the camera slipped right out of my gloved hands and hit the pavement with a sickening crack.

Bostonians within a block of me all turned their heads in the direction of the girlie shriek they had just heard.

I quickly picked up the camera hoping it was shockproof enough to withstand the impact, but I could see the lens was already cracked. My beloved Canon had just taken what would be its last ever picture.

The last picture my Canon would ever take.

It had to happen RIGHT before getting to Granary Cemetery too, the site of many famous burials, including Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and so many others. My only option was to use my camphone in the meantime, until I could get back to the parking garage to get my older, backup Olympus camera. Thank goodness I thought to take it with me, even though it was old, bulky and slow. Now it was all I had left to use while I was here.

Grave of Samuel Adams

After the cemetery I stopped by the old South Street House and decided to spend a few minutes there out of the cold and the snow. I’m glad I did too. The building was quiet and homey, so I took some time to sit down in one of the pews and relax, amazed that I was in the very same building where Samuel Adams gave the signal that launched the start of the Boston Tea Party.

Taking a breather inside a famous U.S. landmark.

After getting warmed up again, I decided to leave and visit the old State House before getting back to the garage. The state house was also a museum, which included a gallery of old photos in the basement chronicling Boston’s history. By this time the snow had now turned to hard rain, forcing me to conclude the Freedom Trail for the day. I got to the garage and got out my old camera, testing it to make sure everything still worked fine.

And of course the flash was broken.

Walking through history, even in the rain!

Good grief, this was turning out to be one camera killing trip. I grabbed it anyway and headed out again, running as fast as I could back to the hotel as the rain pelted me mercilessly. I spent the rest of the afternoon vegging out in my room, watching the rain outside and and deciding to order in so I could give my feet a rest. Which I might add is a mistake in Boston. Between the delivery charges and the gratuities and the absurd prices for beverages, I was paying close to $40 for a small dinner. What, does Boston have something against introverts who hate dining out? Yeesh.

By now the full brunt of the storm had descended on Boston, but I had lucked out, either due to being awesomely awesome, or being so hot that I kept the entire city warm, because it had never snowed more than an inch. New York had gotten walloped with over 15 inches of snow, but Boston received but a light dusting. The roads and sidewalks would still be free and clear for me to conclude the Freedom Trail and visit a few other sites for the rest of the week.

But for now, it was time to rest and enjoy my $40 dinner. Oh, and do some research online for a new camera.

Tags: boston, Boston Commons, burials, camera, canon, cemetery, church, freedom trail, geocaches, Granary Cemetery, graves, history, King's Chapel, museum, Old State House, photo, Photos, Samuel Adams, South Street House
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Back in October I blogged about my trip through Vermont and New York, and some of the best pictures I took during that trip was a shot of Lake Champlain with the Crowns Point Bridge in the background. That same bridge closed literally a day after I had driven over it, and was finally demolished forever yesterday morning:

As it turns out, there were divers in the water around the same time I had driven over the bridge, and it was since discovered that in some parts the bridge was not even connected to the concrete piers beneath it.

Who knew the picture I took of the bridge would turn out to be the very last one I would ever make before it closed permanently? I found myself truly saddened by its demolition, as another piece of our history is now gone for no other reason than because of the gross incompetence and stupidity of our local politicians. Thanks Albany!

Here’s a photo from my last view of the Lake Champlain Bridge before I drove over. You can also read more about its history here.

Tags: champlain bridge, demolition, Lake Champlain, new york, photo, Photos, Vermont, video
Categories: News Fit To Blog
 
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I finally uploaded the photos from my trip to the Berkshires and Stockbridge last week. You can view the entire set here. Hope you enjoy them!

Tags: berkshires, Christmas, Photos, stockbridge
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So aside from the poison ivy rashes (which reared its ugly head once I came home), I had a nice time in Pennsylvania for a few days.

I stayed at the Fulton Steamboat Inn, probably THE place to stay at if you’re ever visiting this area (and I don’t merely say that because of the sweet hotel girl I met here.) As soon as you come near you can hear folksy music playing in the background, and the hotel is especially a treat to the eyes at night:

Look at all the purdy lights!

Awesome rooms too:

LOVE

After catching a bluegrass show the first night, it was off to go geocaching for the remainder of my trip there. One of the things that I should have realized about this pastime is that when you go outdoors, you expose yourself to unpleasant, outdoorsy things. Like say, poison ivy.

And course, only me, would catch a BAD case of poison ivy by looking around for a geocache at a Walmart parking lot. Yes, seriously. A week later the rashes have left me weeping in a corner for several days now, while wishing death and destruction on the idiot douche monkey cache owner for hiding this thing in a jungle of this VILE, EVIL WEED. Seriously, who expects to run into poison ivy at WALMART? Oy.

I did fare better on future cache hunts though, the most rewarding of which was hidden at a covered bridge here:

Wow... it really covers!

You would thinking finding a cache here would be easy right? Well, aside from almost getting mowed down by passing cars who liked to drive 300 miles an hour over the bridge, when I realized where I had to look…

Errmm...

Are you kidding me?

Oh boy. There was a tiny ledge underneath the bridge, but the only way to get to it was to swing under by holding one of the wooden beams. I’m telling you, I came THISCLOSE to falling into the water. I was sure the wood was going to give way and I would wind up spending the night at a hospital with splinters and pneumonia. Somehow though I pulled it off, grabbed the cache while holding on to one of the beams, and swung out. Behold:

Who does your Daddy work for now, punk?

Inside were several items known as swag (trade items geocachers leave behind) and a geocoin that came from British Columbia, which I took as my reward. Due to their nature though I can’t hold on to it, so I’ll need to drop the coin off at another cache soon, where it will continue its worldwide journey.

After that near brush with death and swimming with the fishes, I decided to avoid the more riskier caches and opt for those that took me to various areas around Lancaster, preferably those places that didn’t require bushwhacking my way through the forests where evil, dangerous things like groundhogs lurked. Filtering those out, I ended up finding one near a game farm:

What are YOU lookin' at?

And one near an Amish store, where I bought a homemade sausage pretzel from a pretty Amish babe. Mmmmmm, mmmmmm, MMMM! She can do Rumspringa with me anytime.

But anyhoo, *ahem*, I have to say, geocaching is definitely providing some helpful fodder for my blogging, primarily because it leads me to places I normally wouldn’t go on my own. Usually I’m just driving around aimlessly when I’m unsure of what to do, (which is pretty much the case for me 90 percent of the time,) so it’s nice to finally come across a hobby that can provide some much needed focus to my otherwise meandering and boring life.

I have more pictures from the trip by the way, so if you’d like to see them you can check them out at my gallery or on Flickr. Enjoy!

Tags: Amish, blogging, bluegrass, country, covered bridge, geocache, geocaching, hobby, hotel, Pennsylvania, photo, Photos, poison ivy, walmart
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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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:

” title=”A view of Mirror Lake.” width=”300″ height=”400″ class=”size-medium wp-image-2421″ />

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.)

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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So I’ve been back at work since yesterday, and well, this sucks.

What’s weird is that I would come in, and after a few hours I would just feel completely drained, like something in the air was sucking the life force out of me. I’m not imagining it either, almost didn’t go on vacation in fact because I always felt drained. But I actually felt better and healthier too the moment I started my vacation, even on a diet of ice cream and ‘boigas’, that is of course, until I came home and started working again.

Maybe there’s something in the air here, some allergen that plays life force suckage on me. I don’t know.

But for the past 2 days I’ve been ignoring my job and instead been working up a to-do list of sorts so I can get better prepared for my next trip. Which includes getting a new GPS device.

So here’s where I’m at, which I’m sure will interest absolutely no one but me: I have to decide between getting a more traditional GPS device (from Garmin likely) or I can go a more nonconventional route by getting a GPS addon for my iPod Touch, then getting a navigation app from the Apple store (such as Navigon). I’d prefer this route because it would save on having to get yet another gadget, and since I take my iPod everywhere with me, I won’t have to worry about a GPS in the car attracting would be thieves who carry big lead pipes and have far too much time time on their hands.

Only trouble is, there’s only one GPS module on the market that I know of that’s available now, and it requires that your iPod be jailbroken, along with lots of other finagling in order to finally get it working right. Eventually there’s supposed to be two possible solutions coming out soon: one being a TomTom car dock that will have GPS built in, and another possible GPS module to be released in November by Dual Electronics. There’s no indication at all as to how well either of these will work, if they will at all. Assuming they did work though, then the only downside I see is the lack of bluetooth features that GPS devices sometimes have, so I can use my cell phone hands free while driving.

So I have the option of waiting to see how these future GPS modules will work on an iPod Touch, or getting a Garmin now. For Garmin I have been looking specifically at their nuvi 265WT and nuvi 765T models. Although… assuming the iPod solution doesn’t work out, I may go for a nuvi 500, a multifunction GPS that would allow me to participate in a beautiful thing called geocaching (which I’ll write about at length in a future post.)

Other than that, I’m planning to completely dump the built-in gallery on my blog this weekend, and integrate Flickr into it instead via a plugin. While on vacation, it occurred to me that Flickr provides a great way to upload videos and pictures from my cell phone on the fly, something I was trying to do on my own with mixed results (photos uploaded ok, but my first video upload garnered an epic FAIL.) If I can integrate Flickr into my blog without killing myself in the process, it would allow me to save tremendously on bandwidth and keep my photos centralized for easier management and viewing online. Please light a candle for me this weekend, so I can pull this off without losing my sanity in the process.

And of course, I do this all for you, my beloved audience, so that you may all share in the joys and wonders that is my life.

Tags: blog, flickr, gallery, gps, home, ipod touch, job, mobile, Photos, plugin, vacation, Videos
Categories: Blog Fog, In The Coal Mine
 
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