Pictures from my New England trip

[layla]

Broken into two parts so it won't be too terribly huge (there are about 10 or so pictures under each cut).

I don't really feel up to doing a full travelogue at the moment, so you mainly just get the pictures with a bit of context. And, trishalynn, I'm sorry that I didn't get myself together in time to meet up with you while I was in that part of the country! Next time, yes?


First off ... a couple pictures taken from the plane over Alaska...


Mt. McKinley peeking up through the clouds. That's how big it looks from 30,000 feet! I was once a passenger flying around it in a small plane at about 12,000 feet, and there are really no words to describe the feeling of being that high and then looking UP and seeing as much mountain above you as there is below you.


There was a really gorgeous sunset, and we flew through layers of clouds with the sunset lighting up the lower layers, so it looked like the clouds were glowing in shades of pink and gold. This is one of those (many) things where photos just can't do it justice; it was breathtaking.


Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca, NY.

The water was really low at Taughannock Falls and at one point, we turned the corner to find that the mostly dry streambed was absolutely covered with rocks stacked into inuksuit (at least that's what Alaskans and Canadians call them -- cairns of flat stones in the vague shape of human beings).




Pictures can't really do it justice at all; it was an incredible feeling standing there -- like being surrounded by sacred ruins, even though I'm sure it was really just college students on a lark.


Lights in Boston coming out over the waterfront...


... and downtown. I love cities at night; obviously, living where I do, this is not something I see very often.

I didn't really take too many pictures of Boston ... I was, by and large, too busy looking at stuff and chattering with Jo and Meg to take pictures of anything. The photography really started kicking in on the New England road trip with my sister.


Moseying down a gravel road in a state park in Vermont. Since it was pouring rain while we were in Vermont and New Hampshire, most of our pictures of that area follow the general theme of "taken from the car" (or within about 5 feet of the car, where we could flee to safety when another downpour came along).


Case in point.


We visited Robert Frost's house (well, one of the houses in which he lived) and I did a ridiculous amount of geeking about getting to see the original manuscript page for "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" -- I love that poem and there was just something immensely awesome to me about seeing all his crossed-out words and getting a little peek into the thought processes that went into writing it.


Continued in part 2.

Comments

[planetxthecomic.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, clouds do the most amazing things-- I love how the second one looks like some evil force is trying to undermine it.

Well, at least the college kids didn't leave the beer cans sitting around the rocks and did something interesting with them if that was the case. ^_^

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Clouds are wonderful. Especially sunset clouds -- one of my favorite things to look at. And take pictures of.

[berlinghoff79.livejournal.com]

That's just beautiful. All of it.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

It was a most lovely trip.

[acoustic-rob.livejournal.com]

Wow, that water at Taughannock is *really* low. Were they having drought problems up there, or is that normal for that time of year? (I've only visited in the spring.) Cool Inuksuit, though. Wish I had the kind of time to do something like that when I was up there. :-/

And sunset-lit clouds *never* photograph well. I don't know why it is--probably because you don't capture the glow properly in an image where everything's illuminated the same way.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Apparently the water is unusually low. On the one hand, it was kind of cool because we got to walk on the streambed; on the other hand, the waterfall was ... let's just say, less than spectacular? *grin*

[naye]

Oh! The pictures from the plane are just astoundingly beautiful, and the rest of them too - there's so much atmosphere to them! Absolutely lovely - thanks for sharing them.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Glad you liked them. ^_^

[spark-force.livejournal.com]

You take such good pictures! :O I especially like the first two, and the 'lights over the Boston waterfront' one...

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[flightsilver.livejournal.com]

I *love* seeing pics of new places so thanks for these! I also love taking photos of nature when I have the chance, esp spectacular sunset/sunrise with interesting cloud formation (eg: my sunset pic icon). I can well imagine how impressive those cloud formations that you took would be in real life - definitely nothing compared to a photo! Sounds like you had a great trip and did I say that the pics were awesome?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I do love that icon! Thanks so much -- do you have your pictures online anywhere?

[flightsilver.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) No, my pics are all stored in a dvd and CD album at home.

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! I'm such an armchair tourist!! I loved the mountain, the clouds, the cairns or inuksuit... and that must've been really strange to see them all done up like that... student prank or not...

The city shots were lovely too... they usually look much better in pix I think although you lose the ambiance of the place... the Boston waterfront was very cool too...

And the rain... and the oldness of the area... off for part 2 now!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! My camera is terrible at night photography -- I took a lot of pictures of Boston all lit up, but not many of them turned out well.