On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I walked, road a trolley, and took a harbor cruise tour of Boston.  It was all part of a combo ticket that I bought (thanks for the tip Matthew and Meghan).  I loved it!

So here are some of the highlights – certainly not everything.

Throughout Boston you might see a painted red line or red brick, like this:

This is the “Freedom Trail.” A path that will lead you past 16 historical sites. I didn’t walk the whole thing, but part of it. It is 2.5 miles long.

If you walk it, you will walk past:

The Old State House building where they originally read the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Today, they read the Declaration of Independence from that balcony every 4th of July.

Do they do that in Utah? I don’t know, but that is a cool tradition.

You will also pass many old, old, old graveyards. Famous people are buried there. But I won’t bore you with all their tombstones.

This is the King’s Chapel.

You had to rent/buy your pew if you wanted to go to church there. Paul Revere did and I got to see his pew. It was right next to the King’s representative’s pew. Pretty nice. This is what they look like.

Imagine putting your whole family in there. Paul Revere had 16 children. I doubt they all went to church. How could they all fit in there?

Here is a view of downtown Boston from the Harbor.

I also got to see The Independence – also known as “Old Ironside.” You know the legend when in the war of 1812 she had cannonballs bouncing off it’s sides. This is the oldest “floating” ship in the world. The keel is still the original. And by 2012 they are going to sail her again. So they are working on doing restorations. She still has active duty naval officers and crew assigned to her. We got to see them march around in their new blue and tan naval uniforms.

We got to go down to the gun deck. There we saw the cannons (obviously) and the captain’s quarters.

24 lb. cannonballs.

Although I didn’t get to see everything – I saw a lot of stuff. And I have become an expert on the train and bus system here in Boston. Okay, okay. Not an expert, but with my phone I am pretty well able to handle myself.

You might be wondering why there are no pictures of me in any of these shots. Well, you see, Ruth had to work and so I was on my own during the day. Not that I mind, but that explains why there were no pictures. Several places I went, they would do “souvenir pictures” for you. And they make everyone do it. So when it would come to me and I would say “It’s just me.” They seemed a little shocked. Doesn’t anyone travel alone? I can’t be the only single traveler out there. I’m sure people like the solitude of it and being on your own schedule. Restaurants were the worst. They didn’t know how to accommodate a single person when they were used to these massive touristy families. I ended up sitting at a the bar of a restaurant because the only open tables they had at the time would seat 6 or 8.

As the week progressed, it got hotter and hotter and more and more humid. By the time I went to the Red Sox game (post will be coming soon) it was like lving in a wet steam sauna. Whew! I’m trying to imagine what life was like for these Revolutionary men and women living in Boston during the summer of 1776, but I just can’t do it. I don’t know how they survived it. They didn’t have public transportation with really good air conditioning.

How in the world did Louisa May Alcott walk this in a hoop skirt? Or how did Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau walk these woods in cravats in the summer? Seriously – the humidity people, I can’t even describe it. (But I did just get back from Phoenix.) And this is really mild for summer in Massachusetts. Today it was only 76 degrees. It was a beautiful, wonderful day! (Even though sweat was dripping off my back in rivulets. But the dude I sat next to on the plane tells me that I need to sweat more if I want to lose weight.)

But, first things first. When I got in, Ruth picked me up at the airport – which was chaotic. We drove under the harbor through this tunnel. I loved it!

Then, Ruth took me to the Boston Temple, just to get a few pictures. The sky was lovely and the temple was lovely. It was all just so lovely!

Today, we got up and went to Concord. You know I love the Transcendentalists! I definitely wanted to make sure I made it to Concord. Ruth and I decided that we would take a self-guided walking tour of Concord. It didn’t seem like too much, but I’m about ready to amputate my legs right about now. So, we started in the center of Concord and walked up the hill to the Old Manse – the home of William Emerson (RW’s father).

From there, just a few hundred yards away, is the North Bridge.

This is where one of the first “battle” that started the Revolution happened. In the photo above, the Colonial militia sat on this ridge and watched the British soldiers cross. Then they attacked 95 soldiers left behind and two British and two Colonial soldiers died. They have monuments and whatnot set up, but I won’t bore you with those. However, look at the view! But in 1875 there weren’t any trees here. They had all be cultivated and this was all farmland.

But, I will bore you with the houses of all my favorite authors.

The Wayside. The home of Louisa May Alcott when she was younger. Probably the home that she based Little Women in. Also, Nathanial Hawthorne lived in this home and was the only home he owned. It is pretty run down right now and it made me really sad to see it is such bad shape.

Then you can walk through this path, like Hawthorne did, called Lurch Path to the Alcott’s other home, Orchard House.

The Alcott’s lived here when Louisa May was older.

Then just down the street a bit is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home. And Henry David Thoreau lived with him for quite a bit of time.

Next stop was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. I won’t bore you with the tombstone of the above authors.

It was creepy fantastic. They do a nighttime “ghost” tour of Concord. How wonderful even though I am too much of a scardy cat to do something like that.

By this time we were hot, tired, sweaty, and most importantly – hungry. We ran back to Ruth’s house, which is only about 15 minutes away, and made dinner. We had wanted to go to Walden Pond and go swimming, but that will have to be another day.

I haven’t really been into downtown Boston yet. But the countryside is so beautiful. Because of the humidity, it reminds me of the Northwest – you can smell the water in the air.

That is all for now! I think I’m going to go put my feet up now and lay underneath the air conditioning!

For the holiday weekend, my parents and I went to see a sheep herding competition.  Weird.  But cool.

Anyways, while we were driving out into the middle of nowhere in Oregon, we passed this old, red covered bridge.  I fell in love.  And I remembered the movie The Bridges of Madison County and I remembered that I always wanted to go there – wherever that Madison County is.  But, I digress.

I made my dad pull over so that I could take some pictures.  And then I cursed myself for not bringing my fancy camera and so these were taken with my iPhone.  And I edited them in Aperture and Photoshop.  Lately I have been adjusting exposure, level, saturation and stuff like that in Aperture and then I go over to Photoshop to apply an action.  It is a little time consuming, but I love it!  I might do a step by step one day on these photo’s, but I might not, we’ll see.

Now, onto the main event of this post.  The red covered bridge of my heart and my dreams!

I used a different action on each shot.  Which is your favorite?

Did you know that Casper, Wyoming is the breaking off point for all the pioneer trails?  Honestly, I didn’t either until I went there last week.  Christi and I went to the Pioneer Trails Interpretive Center in Casper and then on the way home we stopped at Independence Rock and Martin’s Cove.  I loved it!

Here are some storyboards I made in photoshop.  I’m actually kinda impressed with myself.  I might do a post later about how to do this.

PS – I didn’t get the teaching job in Casper.  I’m okay with it (see previous post).  But the principal told me of another job in the district and also said that they may have another opening at my school and wanted to know if I wanted to be considered for it.  He also said several times that they were impressed with me.  That is always nice to hear.

When I went to Malta, Idaho a few weeks ago I asked my cousins to take me to the City of Rocks, which is only 30 minutes from there.

Here is the city of rocks from google maps – an aerial view.

My cousin, Danielle, worked there last summer and showed me the ins and outs of all the cool places to see. Below are just a few photo’s.

We went about 2 hours before sunset. I thought the shadows would look really cool on the rock formations.

This is window rock. It isn’t off the main road and is actually behind a campsite. If you don’t know the camp site number then good luck finding it. I should have remembered what the number was, but I didn’t. Sorry.

City of Rocks in b&w ala Ansel Adams inspiration.

I loved these people, sitting on a rock, playing the guitar and looking out over the city of rocks.

Tomorrow – I’ll show some edited pictures I took of the empty fields and such around Malta.

Below are some of my more artsy photos that I took from Florida.  I have edited them a bit.  In a few days, I’m going to post about my new favorite editing technique in Aperture.  Let me know which are your favorites.

So, I just loved snorkeling! I am an addict! We went snorkeling three different times and it just got better and better every time!

Teresa and me.

Me – under water!

Coral!

A Shipwreck and lots of striped fish!

That is a sea turtle at the top! Way cool!

Yes, Yes, that is me holding a Stingray! I swam with them too! Other people fed them, but I was way too excited to see them to think about feeding them. Then when I finally got a grip on myself, they didn’t have anymore food. Oh well, I guess that is why they say “Seize the day!” or the stingray food in my case.

So, my friend Teresa took most of the pictures, but here are a few. When I get her pictures I will post some more.

So I we did a “Canopy Challenge” in Dominica. We did zip lines, rope bridges, and tight ropes through the tops of the rain forest. Well, I came back with battle scars. You can’t really tell, but my arms are bruised really bad. I was gripping onto the ropes so tightly that when I stepped forward my upper arms rubbed on the ropes and bruised. I hated the whole thing. I almost cried and hyperventilated five times. But, “you gotta live life” and so I am glad I did it. I just don’t think I will ever do it again.

The sunset off the boat in Antigua.

Long story short. . . Apparently I am considered incredibly attractive to the men in the islands. I was flirted with constantly, asked out on several dates, and kissed about 7 times. This conk shell is a result of this flirting. Raphael liked me so much that when we went snorkeling in St. Kitts he came and found me, held my hand, and dived down about 30 feet to get this conk shell for me to take home. Beautiful! And totally worth all that attention and affection. But, he wasn’t the best kisser of them all. I’m afraid I broke his heart though when I told him I wouldn’t go out with him after snorkeling. I’ll always have this shell to remember him by.

One of the oddest things I saw while I was in Europe was the Cappucine Monks. The bones in the six-room crypt represent over 4,000 individual monks. It is said monks fled the French Revolution (1793-94) and took refuge at the Church in Roma. There are many theories about the arrangement of the bones, but most stories end with the notion that the anonymous artist reaped his heavenly reward. One tale says that a French Capuchins did the work, no doubt mimicing the catacombs of Paris. The Marquis de Sade visited the crypt in 1775 and described it as “An example of funerary art worthy of an English mind”, created “by a German priest who lived in this house.” Whatever the reason, the tomb of the monks was next to / underneath a church. Can you imagine sitting in church knowing that this was beneath you? For a moment I forgot they were bones, even bones of real people who lived and died and here I am staring up at their bones. I wonder what these rooms will look like in the resurrection. One room was all leg bones, one all hip bones, one all back bones, etc. Bones will be flying around all over the place trying to get back together with the right body. Surprisingly it didn’t smell at all in there and out one of the windows was a little cafe. Strange.