Photos and photography
I’m finally catching up on posting photos that have been sitting on my desktop forever. I just posted 3 albums that were taken at 3 jersey shore towns. The three albums contain photos from Wildwood, Sea Isle City Fall Festival and Ocean City.
Two years ago while in Lewes, DE visiting a family friend, we took a ride to Cape Henlopen State Park because there was an event going on at Fort Miles. I knew that my grandfather was stationed somewhere in the Lewes area during World War 2, but didn’t know much more than he was stationed on some sort of signal tower. During a tour of Battery 519, the guide was talking about how there had been a Navy unit stationed at the base and as he explained their function, monitoring and challenging ships coming into into the bay, it became apparent this was what my grandfather did. I commented on this fact when I posted the photos I took that day to my website. (You can view them here.)
Over a year later, I got an e-mail from someone from the Fort Miles Historical Society asking if I had any photos taken during my grandfather’s time there. As it turns out, my grandfather has an album that documents his entire time in the Navy. Some of the photos of the base in my grandfather’s album included some never before seen views. After sharing the photos and talking to several others including a historian, I helped my grandfather record some narrations and answer some questions. Before we knew it we were heading to Fort Miles so he could be interviewed.
A few weeks ago we went down there with my grandfather to meet the guys from Fort Miles, tour the base and discuss his memories of his time there. It was incredibly rewarding to be able to help preserve the history of the base, a history that my grandfather was a part of. It was just as rewarding to be able to walk around with him at a place that he hadn’t been back to for nearly 70 years and likely thought he’d never return to. I’m sure that the 22 year old Navy Signalman 2nd Class (SN2) who stood watch on that tower would never believe he’d someday return with his daughter and grandson, both adults, to be interviewed about his everyday activities of 70 years prior.
You can view the photos here.
For all two or three of you out there who are interested or will notice, I’ve finally completed the upgrade of all of the photos in the photos section of the site. All of the photos now have larger thumbnails and larger full size versions. I’ve also retouched any of the photos that were not previously retouched.
This slow 3 year long project is a precursor to cross-posting most of my photos to Flickr. Check out the upgraded photos right here!
One advantage of being stuck at home all last week was that I caught up on a lot of reading and got caught up on posting photos. I posted 2 new albums from the same trip.
The first is from the WinterFest in Jim Thorpe, PA. It features ice carving, chainsaw carving, concerts, Mug Walk, shopping and all of the fun that goes along with a small town winter festival. Check it out here.
On the way home from Jim Thorpe we stopped at the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville. it was a very cool tour. Check out the photos from America’s Oldest Brewery right here.
We also stopped at a restaurant in Hershey that has inspired me to started writing some reviews for Yelp, UrbanSpoon, etc. More about that to come soon.
It’s taken way too long, but I finally got around to getting the photos from my summer vacation posted. This is one of the problems with having an iPad and iPhone. So many people have already seen these photos that there aren’t enough people pestering me to see them. However, I know that there are many people out there who don’t see me in person and haven’t gotten to see these photos.
For those of you who don’t know, our trip took us to Mackinac Island, Frankenmuth, The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Holland, Petoskey and a tiny little airport called Pellston Regional. I’ve also included a few short videos from the trip. It can all be found right here.
And here’s another album of photos that has been languishing on my desktop for way too long. They were taken on on a trip from new Hope To Landsdale, Pennsylvania. The New Hope and Ivyland Railroad is a vintage tourist railroad. For Lansdale’s Founders Day they took the antique steam locomotive and passenger cars out onto SEPTA’s tracks. After a stop at SEPTA’s Warminster station we arrived in Lansdale to enjoy the festivities before heading back to New Hope aboard the train. You can check out the photos here.
I’m finally cleaning out the backlog of photos that I’ve been meaning to post on my website. I just posted some photos from the Easton, PA garlic Festival. They can be found right here.
I have FINALLY taken the time to get my California photos posted on the site. It’s disgraceful that it’s taken me so long to get this done, but anyone who has seen me in person since February has probably already seen them on my iPad or at least that’s how I’m making myself feel better about taking so long!
The pictures are from my visit to with Marianne in Los Angeles County. We went to a bunch of Back to the Future filming locations plus Griffith Observatory, Warner Brothers Studios, Universal CityWalk, Long Beach, La Brea Tar Pits, the Queen Mary, Hollywood and more. Check them out here.
More photos will hopefully be coming soon. I have a LARGE selection from my trip to Michigan and some photos from the New Hope Ivyland Railroad excursion to Lansdale.
My photos from Canada are finally online. We spent 5 days waking around Montreal and exploring the sites. All of the kilometers that we walked were offset by eating tons of amazing French food at a variety of sidewalk cafes. After 5 days of enjoying Québécois hospitality we rented a car and drove to Ottawa where we got to experience the British ceremonial and political side of Canada. I honestly did not how much there was that I didn’t know about Canada. It was a really educational trip. The last day of our trip was spent in Perth, Ontario, where we wentto the Perth Garlic Festival which was a ton of fun and a delicious experience!
The photos can be found in the photos section of the site.
I just uploaded two new albums to the Photos section. They may not be as glamorous or stunning as photos of Alaska or Las Vegas, but some of the photos hold a special interest due to a tie to my family. While visiting a friend in Lewes, DE, we took some time to explore downtown Lewes including the waterfront and a historic churchyard cemetery. Those photos can be found in the Lewes album.
We also visited Fort Miles, a historic Army base at in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park. The fort consists of 15 observation towers (11 in Delaware, 4 in New Jersey), 10 gun batteries and other support structures such as barracks, etc. It was built during World War II to defend the mouth of the Delaware Bay from German ships and u-boats that might want to do harm to the vital ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.
This facility holds a special interest for me because the people who assesed incoming vessels and decided whether the Army should blow them out of the water were US Navy sailors. One of those sailors on watch in Fire Control Tower #9 was my grandfather. While visiting Cape Henlopen we were lucky enough to be there on a day when the facilities were open for tours. We climbed tower #7 and toured gun battery 519. We also watched as renactors acted out a battle with the Germans that thankfully never really took place at Fort Miles. These photos can be found in the Fort Miles album.