Catching up III - Boston 3 - The Mad Sharman goes to The Tea Party

And so to some history. Back down into Massachusettes and Concord which they pronounce conquered, the place where the first bullet of the war was fired (oh no it wasn't say the soldiers at Lexington).
But first here lived Louisa May Alcott (she wrote my life...Little Women)

and there is also a picture of Nathaniel Hawthorne's gaff too but because I can't lay claim to knowing anything abut him and it was too expensive to buy I haven't included it.
This one was an accident in terms of the framing, it is a shame the car is there and also that the image of P isn't better.

Walden Pond was also planned but we only got as far as the car park because Plymouth and other heady destinations seemed feasible.
You know you have to hand it to the Americans (and that is not meant in a patronising way) they are fantastic at talking up anything and sometimes it is absolutely fantastic but others it is absolute cr..bull...boloni. Here is an example of big boloni sausage....Plymouth Rock. Plymouth itself is pretty though not convinced they have done that well in preserving the houses.

The reproduction Mayflower II is not bad

and then we come to the Pilgrim Father's Wizard of Oz...Plymouth Rock or should I say Plymouth Boulder. Why did I think it would be like say the Needles or Durdle Door off the Dorset coast i.e. it was the first thing the Pilgrim Fathers saw off the coastline. More like they tripped over it and shouted "Who put that there!" when the set foot on land.
And to understand its life you need to conjure up the backing music of either Benny Hill or a cop chase in a slient movie. In order to maximise its tourist and veneration potential it has been up and down the hill twice, only the second time they did it, they dropped it and it split in half. Clearly the master craftsman commissioned by the local dignitaries (either that or it was the first case of the Mafia infiltrating the buidling industry) did not understand its significance. So you know what it's like he'd had a long day burying bodies in party walls and just thought he would slip this little job in at the end. And here is the subtle makeover job that resulted. Crack?????? What crack????

Trust me we've nearly done on this. Our penultimate stop. Can you guess where it is yet?


And that is Boston in the background


Confused?

A day in Boston walking the freedom trail and only once did P say if it hadn't been for the bloody French


The oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy with the oldest sailor in town stood by (he will not be impressed)

A closer Boston skyline taking in its new bridge.

Here endeth the Boston expotition....900 miles round trip covering Massachusettes, New Hampshire and Maine We didn't make Vermont.

Catching up II - Boston 2 - Would you Adam and Eve It

And back on the road again for another dull colourless journey to our next destination - Mount Washington and Franconia Notch National Park

We stopped overnight in the middle of nowhere literally since Mt Washington was back through most of New Hapmshire heading for the Vermont border.
Here we bought freshly picked apples putting our money in an honesty box. You knew they were freshly picked because really quicky aftre you start them the creamy white flesh turns brown.


One of my favourite films is The Bridges of Madison County so we had to follw the signs for a covered bridge.

US road signs leave much to be desired but this takes you to the next extreme, for those of you who came after "old money" this may not seem amusing....

And here is our first view of Mt Washington

We couldn't go all the way the 8,000 feet because the roads were blocked by ice and snow. As you would expect Mount Washington has the worst weather in the world (the US does not own the Arctic or Antarctic), three storm systems mdo converge at the top though.


Marlene Dietrich (I want to be alone) meets Jimmie Crankie

The descent was gloomy and boring:

There has been no photoshop interference or airbrushing of any kind on this one..Ansel Adams eat your heart out (not).

And it goes on


Now here is the tall story from the short person but there is photographic evidence to prove it is true. You know when you see someone or you think it's them and you spend 10 minutes deciding whether you should make a pratt of yourself because this is the most unlikely place to meet someone from your circle of acquaintances ..a girl from the Arts Institute Bournemouth, sitting in the cafe at the bottom of MT Washington. She took photographic evidence as proof, put in a request to the SITS forum if you do not believe me.
So where do we go from here (I don't know Mr David Essex???)...well Diana's Boudoir (or something like that can't quite remember. Just tucked away near Franconia's Notch (ooh missus). Ignore the smut and let me try to redeem myself with a couple more artistic shots:

Peter Pan and Wendy

History Lesson next.

Catching up 1 - Boston 1 - The fall was not so colourful this year...

I don't have much to say on this (wow I hear the collective gasp). The pictures I think say it for themselves but a brief itinerary and the rest will be concise labels (well as I set out to write it that is the intention....).
So we start off with a flight to Boston Massachusettes, drive out of Boston for first night in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where there is a Naval shipyard but we took photographs of Mary Mary Quite Contrary

And here is something else they copied

This is very rich territory with trendy cafes and boats coming out of your ears but all in a very clipped and restrained sort of way. The motto for New Hampshire is Live Free or Die.

The scenery in the crisp fall sun is energising after the dust and heat of Texas

For the record it was here that I tasted Grey Goose Vodka for the first time mixed with cranberry juice..I was always torn between bringing that or rum back from Jamaic..suffice to say the rum wwas the better choice since I would not want anyone of my friends to drink it and then have a moose on the bar wall talk to them as it did to me.
Day 2 is driving up through New Hampshire continuing our trend for property acquisition, I could have gotten (hahaha) this one but discovered there was a risk of Bushism from just up the road in Kennybunk where apparently there is a seasonal infestation of the extended family.

Then on up through the Maine Coastline.

A good 6 hours later we were getting an eerie sunset

near our destination for the day..Bar Harbor which lives in Arcadia National Park (as visited I believe as Alcatraz). It was dark when we arrived but this was the view we woke up with:

For the rest of the pictures, there is nothing to say really except the odd one or two comments.


Bloody tourists....

The colours are crap aren't they


We waved across the Atlantic from this view but you weren't looking...


I had an artistic moment:

And so to Day 3 and Mount Washington
PS Just kidding about the moose talking to me ...
It talked to everyone.