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Our final stop on our trip was to Milford, CT. Our newly transplanted friends, Ben and Hannah, are from Milford, so they told us what to check out while we were in town. First we had dinner at Rainbow Gardens and then we headed over to the duck pond to check out the birds.
See the rest of the pictures here.
We traveled to East Haddam, CT to visit the home of Sherlock Holmes actor and director, William Gilette. I've visited the castle a few times before and knew that Jon would love it. He did and now would like to take a castle tour of Ireland, naturally.
William Gilette was an eccentric man and filled his home with lots of beautiful carvings, glass, and tricks for his guests.
Upstairs hallway
Gilette's bedroom
View of the Connecticut River
The sumptious library!
A guest bedroom
The conservatory and wishing well
The great hall
View the rest of the castle pictures here.
I grew up in Middletwon, CT, so I took Jon on a little tour of my old town. Our first stop was at the waterfall just down the street from my old house.
My dad used to take lot of pictures of us in front of here when we were growing up. I remember waiting in agony for him to get the settings right so we could just be done taking pictures already. Little did I know that I would inherit his annoying photographer gene years later!
The highlight of my visit to the city was seeing my old public library. My mom used to take us here all the time and I loved exploring the place! It was fun to see where the first seeds of my career as a librarian were planted.
The adult reading room.
The youth room. The picture book shelves are such a great way for kids to browse books. I wish my library could afford to install shelves like these.
My sister, Ruth, and I hung out on this rainbow sculpture all the time!
We had a lovely lunch at this fantastic vegetarian restaurant, It's Only Natural, before heading to our next destination.
View the rest of the photos here.
After Vermont, we drove through New Hampshire to Portland, ME. We had a fun time exploring the cute shops in the city, eating at delicious restaurants (Yosaku and The Green Elephant), and soaking up the bay.
We drove around looking for a good spot to watch the sunset and found ourselves on a tour of luxury oceanfront property before we ended up at this public beach. After shooting this photo, we were promptly eaten alive by tons of little black gnats and got the heck out of there!
The Portland Head Light has to be the most beautiful lighhouse I've ever seen in my life!
I loved these Portland banners.
We took a schooner ride in the Casco Bay. It was my first time on a sailboat and it was amazing. We were clipping along at a great speed and there was no pesky engine noise to spoil the atmosphere. We were able to bring along our own food and drinks and enjoy a picnic on the boat.
Jon loved it so much that he's looking into starting sailing lessons soon!
We headed up to Freeport, ME to the headquarters of LL Bean, which is open 24 hours a day. This is what happens when we shop while we're tired...Jon lays down to test out travel pillows and gets up minutes later.
View the rest of the Portland photos here.
We headed to Woodstock, VT after we finished hiking the trail and made a quick stop to buy maple syrup and check out the town. It was the quintessential New England town...so incredibly adorable!
Vermont is slowing making its way toward the top of our "let's move here someday" list. Perhaps it's just the nostalgia of the time spent on our honeymoon (we look so young in those pictures!).
View the rest of the Woodstock photos here.
We spent last week on a New England road trip - 10 states in 10 days!
Our first stop was in Killington, Vermont where we stayed at the Inn at Long Trail before and after hiking the Appalachian Trail. Thoughts of being able to eat their delicious French toast helped us get through our last day on the trail! (see more photos of the Inn here)
Ever the overachievers, we picked the "strenuous" hike and overdid ourselves a bit. In the span of three days, it took us 18 hours to hike 22 miles and climb and descend seven different 2500+ foot peaks. We were exhausted!
The trail was gorgeous and all of our pain and agony brought us many wonderful views and nature-y smells (mmm...pine needles!).
The trail was really steep at this point. Steep enough to warrant an extension ladder...such a funny moment to encounter this!
We saw lots of moss covered quartz - so pretty!
No foot bridges here...
I don't think I've ever been more excited to see a mileage sign...4.2 miles to go until the end of our hike!
On top of the last hill.
This is what 3 days of sweat and rain does to us!
Check out the rest of the trail pictures here.
If you're interested in backpacking the trail, here are the three resources we'd recommend:
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson's narrative of the 6 months he spent backpacking the AT (get the audiobook if you can!)
Exploring the Appalachian Trail: Hikes in South New England - Lists a handful of segment hikes that can be done on the trail and outlines parking, lodging, and water options along the way
Appalachian Trail Official Maps - lightweitght, waterproof map with elevations
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Ohio visiting our friends, Scott and Melissa, and their brood of cute pets. It's always nice to find friends who enjoy (read: are a little too into) their pets as much as we enjoy our little kitties!
On Saturday we gathered up our bikes and rode along the Towpath trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Here's where I would like to apologize to the great State of Ohio for thinking of it only as one of two highways to drive through to get to a more interesting state! Ohio is really cool! The scenery is beautiful, the houses are cute and there is tons of stuff to see and do. I will never take it for granted again!
We spotted this bullfrog after hearing loud sounds coming from this old lock system situated along the trail.
After our bike ride, we drove over to Brandywine Falls to check out the gorgeous waterfall.
Jon bought a new dSLR that shoots video a few months ago (as part of his unofficial yearly video camera trade in). It's been fun seeing all of the pictures he takes and seeing his perspective on things, but now we've both been taking inordinate amounts of pictures of each other taking pictures.
one of many on each of our respective cameras
We shot this picture just before we headed back to Michigan on Monday. Thanks, Scott and Melissa, for a fabulous weekend!
We spent last weekend in Toronto celebrating our anniversary. Here's some random snippets from the trip
My first taste of beet (and ginger, carrot and other things) juice at urban herbivore. It was so tasty! Then again, I have been on a beet kick all year.
Me: It tastes so earthy
Jon: (trying a sip) Yep, just like eating a handful of dirt
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It was so windy on Saturday night when we arrived. Windy as in the turning your umbrella inside out kind of windy. We broke one umbrella within 2 minutes of walking.
It was funny to see all of the broken umbrellas littering the street. (this mosaic would have been funnier if I had taken more pictures of the umbrellas I saw)
•••
This cell phone ad was everywhere.
1. I want a dog
2. I want to knit a hat just like this (reminds me of the wurm pattern)
•••
The Distillery District was so cute. We had fun walking into the different little boutiques and getting chocolate croissants at a cute bakery.
This garden store has me totally itching to start setting up our garden for the summer time. I can't wait!
•••
On Monday afternoon we made the requisite journey up to the top of the CN Tower. We are both mildly afraid of heights, but that doesn't stop us from seeing cities from above...we just have to brace ourselves and firmly plant our feet before looking over the edge. :)
I didn't realize that the circular figure in the bottom row of the mosaic is actually a train turn table. I didn't know those things still existed (kind of like my sister didn't know that R.E.M. is a band)
•••
We spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city, shopping and eating. Thanks for all of your great recommendations!
Here's our favorites:
One of a Kind Pasta - lots of great pasta dishes - the veggie fettucine was delicious
Salad King - excellent Thai food. And excellent eavesdropping opportunities as they sit you next to other patrons at long tables. We sat next to two girls having a major 20 minute fight over whether or not Girl #1 was being defensive or not.
Girl #1: Why would you say I'm defensive. What in the world would make you think that? I don't know what you're talking about! I'm not being defensive!
It was classic!
Big Fat Burrito - yummy burritos with lots of great toppings
Manpuku - lots of great japanese noodle dishes
Good Egg - cute cookbook/gadget store with some craft books thrown in. The store basically had every cookbook on my amazon.com wish list (and more) for me to see in person.
Blue Banana Market - lots of fun stuff to browse
Lettuce Knit - adorable luxury yarn shop with lots of fun yarn from indie dyers
Romni Wools - Insanely huge yarn store. So much yarn it was overwhelming! Jon picked out an Icelandic sweater pattern and Lopi yarn for me to knit a sweater. If we can't make it to Iceland, at least he can wear a sweater and dream of being in Iceland, right?
Things Japanese - cute Japanese boutique close to the University of Toronto
Ten Ren Tea - Jon stocked up on lots of loose tea here
Mountain Equipment Co-op - the Canadian version of REI. Made me want to buy some cross country skis and snow shoes for next winter
•••
We were accosted by the customs officer on our way back into the USA. "Why didn't you go to Chicago for your anniversary?"
Why would we go to Chicago when we could go to Canada and take pictures like these?
I think that answers the question. :)
My ravelympics project was the Helleborus Yoke Cardigan from Knitscene and knit with Universal Yarns Classic Chunky Tweed yarn. I put all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak, for the Ravelympics and things did not turn out so good. I let lots of things slip to the side as I crammed in knitting time and things ended poorly on Sunday night (poorly, as in me throwing an "I'm never going to knit anything again, ever!" tantrum at midnight). Needless to say, I did not finish the sweater in time and it needs a few more modifications before it's wearable.
After sleeping on it, I've realized that things aren't so bad and everything is easily fixable. The body of the sweater went great and I found the perfect buttons yesterday. But, I made the bottom edging a little bit too tight, so the sweater looks like an eighties sweatshirt, instead of a relaxed cardigan. The collar turned out awful too. I read about a lot of complaints about having to reknit the collar multiple times on ravelry, so I should have known that I would have to also. I'm going to add some additional short rows to the collar so that it lays flat and does not gape out so much. Hopefully I'll be able to spend some time reknitting the sweater this weekend to make it wearable.
• • •
To make things better, I did some playing around with a fun photography website that has been around for quite a while now, Tilt Shift Maker. Why I didn't try this out when I first learned about it, I don't know. But, I'm glad to have had a chance to play with it today. You upload your picture and tweak the settings and it makes your photo look like a miniature scene.
Brussels
Bikes in Berlin
Paris rooftops
Our little garden
Foliage in Ometepe, Nicaragua
Granada, Nicaragua with Mombacho Volcano in the background
My favorite garden and restaurant in Kyoto, Japan
Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto
Shibuya intersection in Tokyo
adorable and quaint Bamberg, Germany
