THANKFUL FOR "HOME SWEET HOME"

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord!

Psalm 92:1

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia in 18 days! What an adventure! But there's no place like home! So as this Thanksgiving week comes to a close, I just had to pause to give thanks for home and family. As the sun came up the morning after our late night return, I looked out the window and was so overcome with gratitude for the gorgeous view right here in my own yard. The unpacking and laundry could wait because I had to take some more pictures! New England eat your heart out, because I still think Oregon is the most beautiful place on earth!
Mose's burning bush? Actually he (the cat) loves the Blue Spruce. He hides under the bottom boughs just watching (hopefully) the birds visiting the bird feeders.
Every time I called home, I'd ask if my red mum was still blooming and would they please take a picture of it for me. Well, it waited for me, and so did my would be photographers!

SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR

Fall is definitely my favorite time of the year. There is so much vibrant color everywhere that rivals spring and summer's flowers.

The cornstalks like sentinels were still standing guard over the garden.

It may not be New England but we still have plenty of color, so I looked through the view finder with a tourists eyes and found so much that I think we sometimes take for granted in our own yard.And, yes, there were even some vignettes of summer left!
Even Moses was happy to have us home. I really did miss my cats! I am so thankful for the 3 wonderful children that stayed home and took such good care of everything so we could have a good time. Thanks guys! I love you and am so glad to be back to "home sweet home"!

Yes, yes, I will continue with the trip pictures as I have time. Longwood Gardens is coming up. What a beautiful place that was. We want to go back!

THE BRIDGE OF FLOWERS

The Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts was originally built in 1908 to carry trolley tracks across the Deerfield River between Shelburne and Buckland. In 1929 the 400 foot long bridge was converted into a pathway of flowers covered with vines, shrubs and over 500 varieties of plants and flowers. A view of the Deerfield River from the bridge.

...and Grammy and Grandad having a memorable time.

The Bridge of Flowers was definitely one of the highlights of our "Trip of a Lifetime"!

MORE MOHAWK TRAIL

After seeing The Bridge of Flowers, we walked around and saw the rest of the quaint little town of Shelburne Falls.Then it was time for a rest stop and another photo op.

Everywhere you look is another vista of gorgeous color!

The camera just cannot capture the extent of the color and panoramic views that the eye can behold.

NATURAL BRIDGE STATE PARK

This was a beautiful spot, totally worth the hiking and climbing we had to do to enjoy all of it. Grammy even made all the way to the top! That is actually marble streaked in the cliff!

And here clear at the top is the Natural Bridge. You can almost miss it because of the other beauty all around. But I turned around and there it was.

Andrew took these two pictures . It really was an interesting and beautiful place. What an awesome Creator God we have. He truly is Lord of all!!

NORTH ADAMS

If we could sum up North Adams in one word, it would be steeples!

They are everywhere you look.
Jessi captured this shot through a beautiful crab apple. Those are little red apples all over that tree!

Are those birds in the belfry?
There was even a steeple reflected in the church window.

BENNINGTON, VERMONT

What comes to mind when you think of Vermont? Gorgeous fall colors maybe, or how about maple syrup? We actually got some Vermont maple syrup in a cute, spendy, little bottle, but forgot it was in our carry on and lost it in Dullus security!
However, when Dennis thinks of Vermont, he thinks of Hemmings Motor News. As a classic car enthusiast, he's been a loyal subscriber for years to their "Special Interest Autos" magazine now called "Classic Cars". You ask him and he'd tell you this was one of the highlights of his trip. He even got a shirt!
Now Jessi on the other hand just had to find a Vermont covered bridge. She found two for us with "Lady Garmin's" help.
Andrew sought out and found the perfect perspective of the bridge. That's him across the river. The picture below was taken from his spot.
Bennington was the perfect ending to yet another perfect day.

LONGFELLOW'S HOUSE

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow We couldn't leave Boston behind without seeing Longfellow's house and garden. After all he wrote my favorite poem! The problem was that they are closed on Mondays so we couldn't get a tour of the house. The upside was we had the gardens all to ourselves!
Just got this picture on a disc in the mail from Jessi today. I was so excited because now I'll be able to post the pictures of all 6 of us together. She took all of the timed shots, mainly, I think, because she can move into position faster after setting the camera up!

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD

"The shot heard 'round the world". Ralph Waldo Emerson
That quote describes the significance of the brief battle that took place at the North Bridge where we took this photo of the Concord River. To think this is what the minute men would have seen should they have taken their eyes off the battle. It gives you shivers.
In a time warp we managed to get the likeness of one of those minute men! We then crossed the bridge and sat here facing the river while listening to a park ranger tell us all about the battle and history leading up to it. Now that really gives you shivers! It definitely felt like hallowed ground.
For Monday's lunch we found the quaintest little cafe in Concord.
Main Streets Market and Cafe ended up being a very good choice. The whole town was picturesque and overflowing with history.

THE MOHAWK TRAIL

Down the road a ways on our journey across the Mohawk Trail, we came upon the French King Bridge. From it we had a gorgeous view of the Connecticut River and all the spectacular fall foliage.

The end of the day brought us to Poetry Ridge, the bed and breakfast that Jessi arranged for us. It was the 13th of October and the anniversary of when Grammy and Grandad first met, so we just had to stay some place special. The view out the back was spectacular complete with wild geese flying over!

It was a good thing I took the picture of the view from the B&B the night before because the next morning it was fogged in. The people who own the B&B were wonderful and served us a fantastic breakfast of waffles with every imaginable kind of topping. But we couldn't linger, we had much to see and miles to go. So we loaded up our Chrysler 300 and off we went...again.

SUNDAY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Another gorgeous day in New England. Since we'd managed to see pretty much all of Boston in one day, we decided to take one of our days there to see two more states. So we headed up to New Hampshire and Maine. It's hard for us Oregonians to fathom the smallness of these states and that you can actually see several in a day!
Portsmouth, New Hampshire became one of our favorite spots on the trip. We so badly wanted to take a Harbor Cruise, but found out that we'd have to come back at noon just to put our names on a waiting list! So we did and then prayed. At 3:00 when the cruise set sail, all 6 of us were the last to be able to get on it! What a God thing. We were thinking maybe there would be a couple of cancellations, but 6? In the mean time we toured the city. We took a walk which included a lot of historical houses and buildings and Liberty Gardens, above, which was across from Strawberry Banke, a famous historical block in Portsmouth.On the other side of Liberty Gardens is Prescott Park where we ladies waited for the guys to put our names on the cruise waiting list. Above is a view from the dock there looking out across the Piscataqua River. When they got back we found the quaintest little cafe' called Popovers. We probably have the fondest memories there of all the places we ate. You'll have to ask us about Grammy and the line for the bathroom! I can't remember when I've laughed so hard!Maybe I'm getting a little better at summarizing, like my niece, Alysun, who can condense a whole 10 day trip to Canada into only a few pictures. Anyway, I weeded over a hundred beautiful pictures from the harbor cruise down to 2! Of course you're missing the 2 lighthouses we saw and Portsmouth prison, not to mention all the beautiful homes. If you really want to see them, I guess you'll have to come look at my scrapbook when and if I ever get to it!

A trick I learned just recently, the computer challenged person that I am, is to left click on the picture for a larger view! Who'd have thought? It definitely helps with the above picture.