Old Salt and a Young Woman

Yesterday, MeAsWe and Me headed up to Hampton Beach for a friends 60th birthday. The birthday was at Old Salt Eating and Drinking Place in Lamies Inn.  The core of the inn was built in 1740 and acquired by the Lane family, which kept it in the family until 1911. The Inn has been a regular stop for presidential candidates in New Hampshire, including Dwight Eisenhower that stayed here for a couple of days in the 60's.

I walked around outside snapping off some shots, even one with MeAsWe struggling with the snow and ice laden sidewalks. I walked in the street, forcing the cars more to the center. The one problem with my path was the lack of a shoveled entrance from the street to the sidewalk. As I walked up the street I watched this one lady in a Cadillac texting someone not realizing the light had turned green and continue her furious pecking away at the keyboard as everyone patiently waited to complete the task at hand. I did grab a picture, but after she realized she was holding up traffic. Nice sneer she gave me.





I found an entrance into Old Salt and was blown away by the number of people waiting to get in. There was a line to get into line, which doesn't include the line to get food. You would think it was an Easter Sunday or some other holiday. Nope just Sunday Brunch at Old Salt.

The line to get into line which does not include the food line

Crappy picture that kind of works in black and white, eh ?

Old Salt has this Sunday Brunch that without a doubt is the best buffet breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner I have ever had. Not cheap, but worth the experience. Walking to where the partiers would be seated you are greeted by the food folks.

Some are friendly and all smiles.

still getting use to back button focus....my excuse for this one being soft.

Some look at you like they want to carve you up, in a friendly manner thou. Note the thumps up.

This room has the folks that want some libations to go with their meals.



At buffets I tend to try to sample everything in a wanton manner, piling stuff on the plate, disregarding calories, absolute no compassion for my heart and if I die at the end of the consumption phase, well at least I didn't die hungry. Another advantage of this method, if you don't like something, just push it off to the side and go back and get something else. You have to get a clean plate anyways.

So what did I fill my plate with. Let's see; bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash, some kind of potatoes that were smashed, Chicken Florentine, a beef stew. There wasn't  one thing that wasn't great. Went back for seconds, and did some more Florentine, a blueberry crepe, sausage (there was just something special about this), some more of the beef stew stuff. I probably consumed at least  50% of my calories for the week in this one sitting.



This really was about Pat's Birthday, here she is coming into the room and Andy (her husband) actually pulled this off as a surprise.



I am generally uncomfortable and out of my element photographing people. I simply don't know what to do, how to balance the photo, post process them, what to add, what to subtract,the subject moves creating blurry photos, etc etc. We got to sit with this little girl that simply made it easy to pull off a shot. Meet Joyce.



Joyce's brother and cousins also make great subjects.



There was alot of conversation, laughing, some crying, kids running around (Old Salt had a wonderful dessert table chock full of sugar), stories about growing up, and even a presentation of Pat's life. It was a great party and really good to get out of the house and go someplace other than Hannaford's. Thank you Andy for inviting us. This started out as simply a story about a Frozen River, but I decided to separate the two stories. Stay tuned for the next part.

f Stop Blues

Yesterday my new D7100 camera arrived. I unpacked the box, inspected the camera body, and pulled the battery and charger out. My objective was to simply get the battery charged up. I placed the body back in the box, with all the manuals and other stuff that came with it. I said to MeAsWe, that I needed to think of a good first shot to inaugurate a new era of photography for me.

This morning I got up at 5, took a shower, put the coffee on and grabbed the battery that had been charging all night. It was time to put the camera all together. I had 2 32g cards still in the packaging and would be perfect for the camera, it takes 2 cards if you want. Grabbed my D5100 taking the 35mm prime lens off, put the kit lens on that came with the d5100. Grabbed the D7100, spun the body cap off, snapped the 35 mm prime in place, inserted the charged up battery and inserted the cards.

Turned the camera on and all I see is Japanese characters on the screen. Oh I have to set the language and other stuff. Set the date, time, time zone. Camera is ready.

Played around the knobs and then realized, even though I had read the manual a little bit, all of the controls are  very different from the D5100 and I pretty much forgot what I had read. Tried to put into Aperture Priority mode and the wheel wouldn't spin. Tried again and nothing. Oh you have to press the lock on top of the wheel to get it spin. Very nice !!. I don't how many times while out on the bike putting the D5100 in my tank bag that the camera wheel turned setting the camera to Shutter Priority from Aperture Priority, snapping off a bunch of pics, to found out I had to take them all over because the wheel turned.

Changed a couple of other settings like Auto Focus Mode, Image Quality, how to configure the 2 SD slots, and how to name the JPG and NEF files. This all went pretty smoothly since I was familiar with the look and feel on the Nikon Menu System.

I have still not figured out what the first picture is going to be. I put the camera up to my eye, with the intent of only testing the focus by pushing the shutter release button 1/2 down to see how it works. I hear the beep and a clunk.

DAMN I just took a picture. SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHH. So much for that special first shot.




Great pic eh. The feel of the shutter release was totally different than my D5100. I immediately set the camera up for Back Button Focusing, which moves the focus function from the shutter release to another button on the camera and makes the shutter release only for grabbing the picture.

Eat Mor Chikin

On Saturdays I head over to Giffs Garage to hang out. When he closes we generally head out for lunch to talk bikes, politics, books and other such guy stuff. We have our regular spots to hit, such as the Valley Café, Mendon Diner or Miss Worcester. Lately we have been branching out and trying different places so we don't get to set in our ways, a factor at our age. We have tried The Willowbrook, China Pacific, which have become part of our repertoire of go to places.

Today we were heading to Sammy's in Northbridge. This place has gone thru multiple owner changes in the last several years. Traffic was a bear in Whitinsville (part of Northbridge), We turned left, taking the long way to the restaurant to avoid traffic. When we got to the intersection of Hill St and Sutton, Giff said, hey I know another place we could try. Of course, this is just to add confusion to the quest and complicate the matter with too many choices. Instead of making a right onto Sutton, we go straight and head for Rick's Hilltop Restaurant and Lounge. On the way we passed a diary farm that caught my eye. I said I really should take a picture of that, having my camera with me. Figured I could grab some snow shots. Like all of the streets in this neck of the woods, they have become narrow from multiple plowings and there is really no where to park other than in the middle of the road. I have been known to do this, but only when I am by myself or MeAsWe is with me.

We get to Rick's and the place looks closed. I don't even think the OPEN sign was on and there was only one truck parked in the lot and not really parked like they were in the place having lunch. So we headed to Larry's the original choice. Heading back we had to pass the diary farm again, so I looked for a pull off. Well the driveway entrance to the diary farm looked as good as any and it would be just a short walk to the spot for a good picture.




What this reminds me is a bunch of people standing at Dunkin Donuts having coffee and a donut before going to work. Maybe this is where the cows get their signs put on for Chick Fil A. have something to drink and eat, head out for a day of work.

A wider view

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow - GIVE ME A BREAK !

I think most of us who live in New England would like to draw and quarter Sammy Cahn. He came up with the lyrics. This past weekend we got some more. Where's Judy Garland when you need her. The Beatles come to mind too, even Donovan and the Cream.

Nevertheless it was time to break out the camera.

A picture looking down our street. I hear there is more on the way.

Some Rock N' Roll

A couple of weeks ago MeAsWe and I (or is that Me) headed for Ohio. Now we could have taken I-90 all the way there, but what fun would that have been, so we headed thru Connecticut into New York and finally picked up RT 6 somewhere around Scranton PA. To make a little time we did use I-84 to get out of New England.


Having left around 8am with just coffee we stopped in Sandy Hook, Newtowne, CT for a pitstop and found the Sandy Hook Diner.




Right inside the door was this guy having coffee.

The menu featured Homemade Hash. You can see the edge of MeAsWe's French Toast.



Breakfast and lunch done with we hit our first stop, The African - American Cemetery in Montgomery, NY. This cemetery has about 100 internments believed to be made up of African slaves brought here by the earliest settlers of the region.







In Middletown NY we picked up some more historic sites. Church was established in 1785. This church was the third on this location, built in 1872.



Also on the Register is the Paramount Theater, Art Deco in style, built in 1930.



Last stop in Middletown was the Webb Horton Mansion. Webb made his fortune in the tanning business and oil. At the age of 76 he began construction on this house. It was completed in 1906 at a cost of a million dollars. Webb died before he could spend a single night in the house. It is now the administrative offices for SUNY Orange.

In Lords Valley we stopped briefty to pick up this house on the register.



We finally had crossed RT 6 our main road to traverse PA. Had a couple stops along the way. In Hawley it took a while to figure out how to get to this place, but we did. The Connor J.S. American Rich Cut Glassware Factory was built in 1890 converted to a silk throwing mill in 1926 and then a hotel in 1988.





Stopped briefly in Carbondale to pick up the city hall





At this point I realized we were not going to cross PA along RT 6 in the sunlight. There was one spot that I wanted to see again, having stopped here in 2006. The Tnkhannock Viaduct was completed in 1915 and was the largest concrete structure in the world.






With the sun going to disappear in the next 30 minutes or so, eliminating any nice visuals I opted to head north back into New York for Rt 17/I-86. When planning this trip there did not seem to be an abundance of the motels on the web. Binghamton was too close, so we headed for Jamestown NY. We hit snow along the way and some points it was near white out situations. Not alot of accumulation, but enough to slow down to the 50's. The next morning we awoke to the first snow of the season, yuck.



What I didn't know when we decided on Jamestown, Lucy (Lucille Ball) was born here and there was a museum.

Since we headed off route yesterday, there was one place I wanted to visit before we got to Ohio. The Drake Oil Well, located in Titusville PA, was the birthplace of the oil driling industry in the US. It is a National Historic Landmark, Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, and a National Historic Chemical Landmark.



Last stop before heading into Geneva, OH for the night was Joshua Reed Gibbings law office. A National Historic Landmark, Gibbings was a die hard abolishinist and a member of the US House of Representatives. He was so opposed to slavery, that he advocated violence against slave owners. He became one of the founding members to the Republican Party. Thats the history. When we came into Jefferson OH I had the law office right where a McDonalds was. We drove around a bit looking for the place and finally decided to grab a bit to eat. I headed for the mens room before ordering. The wall paper just outside the rest room had the National Historic Landmark plaque in the paper. WOW. This must have been custom wall paper, more of a large photo. Apparently the law office was moved so that McDonalds could be built here. One of the local folks gave us directions and we must have passed the building 2 or 3 times before we spotted it.



Grabbed a couple of pictures and headed for Geneva. This was the end of day 2.

Up bright and early to head into Cleveland to enjoy the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was the purpose of the trip. Harold, my best friend in college, best man at one of my weddings and all around great guy was going with us. More snow last night was no problem, however the Browns were playing at home so parking became was filling up fast, but we still managed a spot right next to the museum.



While not a long walk, with my ankle the way it is, a short walk feels like a long one. We paid the admission, I took my first picture and the battery started flashing red. I had committed the one of the 8 deadly sins of photography. The spare battery was in the car. Really ???

Janis Joplin Porche



Pink Floyd The Wall



We spent about 5 hours at the museum and I really enjoyed looking at all the guitars, reading some of the information, scanning the old contracts for concerts and stuff like that. The did have a special section for the electric guitar featuring the Les Paul. Harold had me take pictures of one in particular especially close ups of the height of the strings off the pickups. He restores guitars and was looking for some guidance on how high the strings were set off from the first pickup. He guessed this particular model was worth around $250,000 being a 1959 Les Paul and that pricing doesn't include the Who owned it markup. This paricular one is owned by Garry Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd and on display in Cleveland.

We left the museum around 3pm, well ahead of the Browns fans. One last pic of a National Historic Landmark and our trip was complete, except getting back home.

Where there is Hope, there is Worcester

Hit Worcester again today, just to get some exercise and knock off some more of the historic places in Worcester. Concentrated on places other than the 3 deckers, which there is plenty of those to get.


First stop was Hope Cemetery, that was fashioned after the pastoral trend in the mid 1800's. The granddaddy of all in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown. This was America's first garden cemetery. Hope Cemetery followed this same philosophy, however no where near as interesting. It was first established in 1854 and has over 14,000 guests that stay here.









Not too far away is the Webster St Firehouse. At first glance I thought this was an entirely new station, however I realized the façade and middle part of the building was still the original structure. It was built in 1893.



I drove past the next place twice before I realized where it was. I even knew it was a bank. Stearns Tavern was built in 1812, although there is some history dating back to 1776. It was originally on Main St and moved to this spot on Park Ave.



The Downing Street School was built in 1891 and is now part of Clark University. It's Romanesque Revival style is unique for Worcester Public Schools.



Over to Woodland St for the Woodland Street Firehouse. Built in 1886 is very similar to the Cambridge St Firehouse pictured a little further on. The arched doors for the fire apparatus is kind of neat. All of these firehouses had the tower in the back. I can only guess these were observation towers.

Heading for the next historical spot this mural grabbed my eye. I actually circled around the block to get a picture of this. Reminds me of the OSJ treasure hunt where murals was a subject. Got talking to a guy on the street about it and it is a picture of San Juan, Puerto Rico.



The Worcester Corset Factory building was built in several stages starting in 1895 with the final stage in 1909. It started out as a place that made the hoops for the hoops dresses which were fashionable at the time. When they fell out of favor, David Fanning began making corsets. At its peak the place employed more than 2000 folks. Today it is residential property.



Cambridge St had 2 locations to grab. The Cambridge School built in 1869 and the Cambridge St Firehouse (1886). This area was known as South Worcester and was relatively a new neighborhood in the mid 1850's. It came about from the Whittail Mills that employed a huge amount of people.





Last stop of the day is the South Worcester Library built in 1913 from donations from Andrew Carnegie.

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