My birthday weekend!

Thursday was my birthday, and on Friday my Dad visited and we tooled around Southern NH.  Friday we went to Portsmouth and saw the USS Albacore, a retired experimental submarine.

It was really cool! The tour was self-guided, and we got to see where people lived on the sub.  My dad got some awesome pictures of me in the tight bunks and sitting in the mess.  The best part, to me, was how they seemed to fit everything to support themselves on such a small ship.  That was some legit organization!  Can you imagine working in this office?

Then we went to Hampton Beach and had lobster rolls on the beach and admired the sand sculptures. Have you ever had a lobster roll? I wasn't impressed.  I thought the amount of lobster they gave me would be enough for three sandwiches!

Between the lobster roll, the oyster that I tried (BLECH), and the drinks we had I felt pretty sick on Friday, but I was fine after sleeping it off and going into Boston yesterday!

We took the train in from Lowell and got to see the USS Constitution.  We didn't want to wait in line for a tour - it was hot! But we got to see the ship and the ship's museum before going to Bunker Hill. 

Then we walked down the greenway to the aquarium, where we DID wait in line for an hour to get it - but it was so worth it!

I love the Boston Aquarium. I didn't get as many photos as the last time I went, but I got some good ones!

After that we headed back to Concord for some Mexican Food.

My dad left this morning, so I'm going to use the day to catch up on chores and just relax.  After three days I'm ready to head back to work and be productive!

My First Mountain

Yesterday I climbed my very first mountain, Mt. Monadnock in Jaffery, NH.  It was AWESOME! Okay, some parts I thought I was going to trip on a rock and break my leg, fall backwards off a cliff face, or pass out from sheer exhaustion. But I would do it again in a heartbeat.

But the views were great.  We took a longer path up, and were under the trees for the hotter part of the day.  Just as we were starting to get tired, the views started getting better.

Up at the top is was so beautiful. We had to crawl up over rocks to get there, but it was worth it! Dan ate a sandwich, which he called "the best sandwich of my life." I was so tired and I didn't want to eat anything.  I drank gatorade and had red peppers.

The way down we took the White Cross Trail, and I'm REALLY happy that we didn't take that up.  I think that the path we chose was the best choice.

Did you have a good weekend?

Minneapolis Institute of Art

All I have to say is, Wow.  The twin cities has an awesome museum that has some great works, and it's free! I made a $20 donation, but I could have just walked right in.  You can see Monet, Picasso, pretty much any famous modern artist FOR FREE.  They even had some Hudson River School paintings (which I was not expecting, being in the Midwest and all.)

There were pieces of furniture that I would totally have in my home.  Like this rocking chair, from the 1920's, and this hutch.

The only minus that I had was that a lot of the art was framed with glass.  I don't like that - I get that you don't want people to touch the painting or whatever, but there really is no reason to do it.  It's like seeing a landscape through a window.  Especially when the glass is dirty with dust! Ugh.

The cafe in the museum was great, pretty reasonable for museum food... $9 for a salad and cup of soup! Compared to some museums I've been in that's giving the food away.

I think I ended up taking as many photos in the gift shop as in the actual museum.  They had a lot of cute things, pretty (but expensive) dresses and a square teapot and decor that I was tempted to make myself when I got home.  There was an entire wall of stationary, which I had to practice a ridiculous amount of willpower to avoid buying from.  They also had an ocean-themed table, which I did buy from.

Overall, the place was definitely worth the trip! Especially on a rainy, dreary day like yesterday.

Obligatory Post of Photos from my Trip

So, my first week of training has been AWESOME.  I've had a few moments that I would describe as "adventurous," where I almost had panic attacks, but that's par for the course when I travel far, end up in a completely new place, and meet a ton of people.

The biggest of those moments was a week ago, when Dan's car broke down on the way to the airport.  I'm happy that I took the time to immortalize the event with my camera, because now it just seems really funny. Did I mention that my flight left during a blizzard? They got about six inches of snow between 6AM and noon.

You can click through to see my other photos (I figured I would break up the post so that people with feedreaders didn't have to suffer through a long string of photos that they didn't want to see.)

A Blue Post

Not because I'm sad, but because I looked at all the pictures for this post and noticed they were so blue! It's a theme!

Thursday morning there was a gigantic snowstorm, and I had my first "Wicked New England Commute."  It normally takes me an hour to get to work, but that morning... 2 hours, 20 minutes.  Everyone asked me how it went.  I told them "On average, less than 30 miles per hour."

But when I got home... holy crap.  The snow was beautiful! Of course, it was dark and raining, so I couldn't really appreciate it on the icy way home, but after the steps were shoveled it just looked awesome.  My ride into work the next morning was good too - dark and snowy, with the trees covered.  I almost wish that I could've taken photos of that but... not gunna risk it.

And today, I'm about halfway done with Dan's hat! It looks darker than in the photo, but I wanted to get an action shot! The conversation was like this:

Me: I'm gunna put this on your head while you play video games and take a picture.
Him: (Not looking up) Okay.

Me: Thanks Dan!
Him: (Not looking up) No problem.

My boyfriend is cute.

Mainecation Photos

So, last night I finally got around to sorting through my favorite pictures from last week.  I thought I'd share them with you guys!

I really like this self portrait for some reason, though, I have a small place in my heart for photos of me taking photos.

The best sunrise:

The best sunset:

Fourth of July Fireworks:

Adorable puppy named Elliot:

Oh, and halfway through the vacation I found out that my camera actually has a setting that imitates tilt shift, so I kind of went crazy with that!

Really, the number of tilt-shifty photos is enough to make someone suspicious that I only SAID I went to Maine, when really I spent a week in my basement making scale models of Portland landscapes. The area is just beautiful, and I would have a lot more photos but most of them were old houses. Definitely on my list of "places I want to live" (which isn't very long, really.)

Checking in from New England

Wow, Maine is absolutely amazing! I'm staying on a small island off Portland with my boyfriend's grandmother.  I seriously want to live in Portland some day, and the view from the island is beautiful.

And, the house I'm staying at is also beautiful.  The bathroom that I use at night should be on Pinterest.

I've done some knitting, mostly on the ride up - which was hot and muggy (the car had no AC) and I'm almost done with the leg of my dragonfly socks... but I hit another snag.

The yarn turned my sweaty fingers slightly green!

Okay, looking at the picture, it's really hard to see.  Maybe the heat and sun caused me to hallucinate.

Anyway, the internet in the hotel we're staying at now is really crummy, I'll post a big picdump later this week!

Lilac Festival!

This year's Lilac festival was kind of a drag, since we didn't have our traditional triple date (Only one of our three musketeers isn't single) and the mild winter and crazy Rochester weather have pretty much killed all the lilacs.  But there were still a few flowers!

This stuff...

And paw paw... (which I think is a flower.  I like it, anyway)

And, of course, the lilacs in the conservatory were in full bloom. The statue that I took a picture of two years ago year is pretty much hidden, too, poor thing.

Anyway, despite the lack of flowers, I still had a good time! I'm thinking of going again today (I wanted to go every day this week, but I don't have a car anymore...) so if I do I'll post up more pictures tomorrow.

Viva La Canada!

This past weekend I had the joy of going to the Ottawa International Animation Festival with W. Ottawa is the most beautiful city I've ever visited. Aside from seeing a lot of really gorgeous buildings, foods, and (of course) animations, I got a good portion of my blackbird shawlette done.

We DID visit a yarn shop, but it was a little small and not so impressive - I told myself we'd have to stop at some of the others I saw on knitmap, but by the end of the weekend we had run out of money.  I DID buy this:

It's a little owl whose head spins back and forth. 

And there was hot cocoa in a bowl and beautiful pastries at the Byward Market.

There were so many beautiful things, I can't decide what to put up, so here's a mishmash:

Anyway, I'm off to catch up on the 100+ blog posts that piled up in my google reader over the weekend... oy!