Day 151 of 365

Constitutional morning

Heading home, I plotted two waypoints to check two more lighthouses off my list: Maine's Cape Neddick, also known as Nubble, and Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire. Portsmouth's is located at the harbor entrance, on land that's now part of the Coast Guard station and also an historic fort, Fort Constitution. This was the last photo I took at the fort and the last photo I took on vacation. With the clouds giving the sky some texture, I went with the black-and-white look.

Day 150 of 365

Eastside Cemetery

The weather cleared! We walked from our hotel near the Portland waterfront to Munjoy Hill and the Portland Observatory. On the way, we passed Portland's oldest cemetery, Eastside, and I took this shot through the iron bars of the fence. The clouds helped.

Day 149 of 365

Casey loves her boots

I wanted a picture of the big Bean boot and asked Casey to be in it for a sense of scale. She does love her duck boots.

Day 148 of 365

Rockland Breakwater Light

Another rainy day on our vacation, but we went with it -- it was another day on the road for us. We left Bar Harbor and went to Freeport, but made stops at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland and Round Top Ice Cream in Damariscotta. In nicer weather, we would've made our way out to the breakwater and gotten a closer look, but on a cool and rainy day, there was no point in finding our way out there.

Day 147 of 365

West Quoddy Head Light

I'd always dreamed of getting to Lubec, Maine, the easternmost point in the United States. (And don't give me that crap about some remote Alaskan island being a few minutes -- or degrees or whatever -- over the meridian and technically being in the Eastern Hemisphere.) But it's about a five-hour drive from my uncle's near Wiscasset, where we'd always stay, so a day trip was out of the question. But with an extra day in Bar Harbor compared to last year, I decided we'd make the two-and-a-half-hour one-way jaunt up Route 1.

It was well worth it. Not only was it a gray day for the drive up and a rainy one for the drive back (which would have washed out any hiking/Acadia plans we might have had in clearer weather), but it was a chilly, blustery afternoon at Lubec, the kind of day for which beacons like this were needed.

Day 146 of 365

Summiters!

Though I'd packed it for the trip, I stupidly forgot to bring my mini tripod for our day at Acadia National Park. When we reached the top of Gorham Mountain, there weren't any other hikers to take our picture. So I found a knee-high rock, set the facial-recognition timer and stood next to Casey. Voila!

Day 145 of 365

Late afternoon light, Bass Harbor

We visited Bass Harbor Head Light for the first time last May, but I didn't know about the short path from the parking lot through the woods to get the view of the lighthouse from the rocks that is seen in so many photos. This year, I wanted to make sure I got that view. We decided to head down to the point after checking into the hotel in Bar Harbor, but I couldn't recall how far to the east the point was, so I didn't know how the light would be until we got there. Obviously, it wasn't good. Morning is the time to be at Bass Harbor, but I did what I could shooting into the late-afternoon sun.

Next time, I'll get my ass out of bed for the sunrise.

Day 144 of 365

Penny watches the bocce action

Despite the nature of the game -- balls being tossed around the lawn -- Penny had little interest in our bocce game on the Cape. Kathy and Casey had a lot of interest in Penny -- and their cocktails. Summer's great.

Day 143 of 365

Best on the Cape

Our Memorial Day weekend trips to Cape Cod (a gathering of my mom's college friends and their kids -- now some of us with spouses) always includes a run to Four Seas down the road for six-to-eight quarts of ice cream for the weekend. It may be the best ice cream anywhere.

Day 142 of 365

Fenway sunset

Began the vacation with a Mets-Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston.

"Corvair headlight," Florida, January 2008

Corvair headlight

Shiny.

Day 141 of 365

South to north

Made a quick trip to Twin Lights to see if I could get a U.S. Lighthouse Society Passport before we head up to New England this weekend (they didn't have any) and I took a few pictures on a gorgeous day.

Midday is never a great time to shoot at Twin Lights, because the view is to the east and so to get the front of the building, you end up facing the sun. So if you can't get there in the morning, that's when you have to get a little creative.

Twin Lights is my "hometown" lighthouse, the one I must have been to more than any other. It's got the views of the Atlantic, Sandy Hook and New York and the unique dual towers. Sandy Hook's lighthouse is nearby and another favorite, but with erosion having added at least half a mile of land between the lighthouse and the shoreline, its view is more land than shining sea.

"The walk around Jordan Pond," Maine, May 2008

Wiggly wood

I've just been going through the motions with this blog the last few weeks. Been busy, what with the weather improving and the out-of-doors frequency increasing, and I merely would post a bunch of daily photos in a batch to get them up.

That's probably not going to change in the next 10 days. We begin a long-awaited and well-earned vacation on Friday, and though I'll have my laptop with me to upload photos each night, I'm not sure how much posting I'll do. Depends on the weather, the hotels' internet connection, my mood.

But I'm looking forward to getting back to Maine, back among the trees, the coastline, the lighthouses.

It'll be nice to get away.

Day 140 of 365

Beware of coyotes that will eat your cats

Don't mess with those suburban coyotes.

Day 139 of 365

Alternate route to the balcony?

A calm, quiet fire situation on Christopher St. on a Tuesday afternoon.

Day 138 of 365

Red Bank Temple of Fashion

Had never noticed this before.

Day 137 of 365

Neighborhood watch

On 16th St., Chelsea.

Day 136 of 365

Barrely, the construction mascot

Casey was driving and the traffic was slow enough to get this shot.

Day 135 of 365

At Nationals Park

A presidential gathering before the game.

Day 134 of 365

Unhappy

Unhappy yet fluffy.

Day 133 of 365

NYU commencement 2009

NYU's mascot made it to graduation at Yankee Stadium. But in what might be a sign that the school isn't a big athletic power, he doesn't even have a name.

Day 132 of 365

Home office

Not so much a home office as a laptop set up on the dining room table with the Mets game on the TV in the background.

Day 131 of 365

NYU's Silver School of Social Work graduation

The bagpipers lead the way during the recessional following NYU's Silver School of Social Work graduation at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. I chose not to use the flash, then got lucky with both the blurred motion and the light of the flash from someone behind me.

Day 130 of 365

Bleeding hearts

Got up in the morning to sweep the porch for our Mother's Day grilling and took a moment to shoot the flowers that have been blooming for more than a week. Alas, they'll soon be gone.

Day 129 of 365

Reyes steals third

Yeah, two Mets games in three days. We went to this one because Casey wanted to see her Pirates, even if they aren't that good. I splurged on some seats 15 rows behind the third-base dugout and put the 300mm lens to good use.

Day 128 of 365

Once was 22

Beneath this stained-glass house number on a building near the train station, the door has a different number, 18. (You can't see it in that photo, but it's above the triangle window.)

Day 127 of 365

I can be center field

Watched the Mets beat the Phillies from center field, standing on the concourse behind the seats. A great view -- so close to the Apple!

Day 126 of 365

Night light

I stopped, backtracked a few feet, and took a moment for this shot even though it was after 4 a.m. and all I wanted to do was get in my car and head home to bed.

Day 125 of 365

Tunnel traffic

Stopped in traffic, shooting blind shots.

Day 124 of 365

Wet day

Watching the sky rain.

Day 123 of 365

The Maritime

On Ninth Ave. in Chelsea.

Day 122 of 365

Closed

Closing time at Frank's.

Day 121 of 365

Who's the Bed King?

Bruce the Bed King is among the stores along upper Main St. in Hackensack. It sits across from the Sears building, where I took my car to have the tires rotated (and to grab lunch at White Manna).