I was scheduled to be in Newport for a week on business but the trip wound up being unexpectedly extended into a second week. I used the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing on the weekend. Besides walking about 10 miles, I took tours of two mansions (The Breakers & Marble House), toured the Breaker’s stables & carriage house, walked part of the Cliff Walk and did some shopping. If you have to unexpectedly get stuck somewhere, Newport is a good choice!
Photography
Photos and photography
Western Maryland & West Virginia photos
I just added 3 new photo albums. They are all from my trip to Western Maryland and West Virginia. We visited the Spruce Forest Artisan Village & Penn Alps restaurant. The bulk of our trip was spent in Frostburg & Cumberland, where we took a ride on the Western maryland Scenic Railroad. On the way home we spent 2 days in Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry. It was a fun couple of days. It was nice to send time in some very old, very small towns for a change and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is one of the most interesting NPS sites I’ve been to.
Photography Category
Since more and more my blog posts seem to be about adding new photos to my site, I’ve now added a new Photography category to the blog.
Photos Getting Noticed
I post hundreds of photos on the site and usually don’t know if they are getting noticed by anyone or not. However, lately, besides all of the dozens of contacts I get regarding my genealogy work, I’ve been seeing more comments on my photos. It makes me glad that I take the time to post them. A pro photographer in Virginia commented on my Hampton Roads photos, a model builder used one of my photos as reference for a model and last week I granted license for use of one of my photos by a company in a case study. You can check that out at Lencore.com.
If you are interested in acquiring or licensing any of my photos, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Jacksonville Photos
I finally posted my photos from my week in Jacksonville, Florida. As i say on the photo album page, I spent most of the week indoors at a conference, but did get outside to take a few quick photos.
Christmas at Longwood Photos
Longwood Gardens is a fun place to visit all year long but at Christmas time it’s a totally different place. The amount of lights and flowers is astounding. They’ve really exapanded the displays since the last time I was there two years ago.
Because we were there after dark this year, there aren’t as many great photos, but there was plenty of cold weather and Christmas lights which is all it takes to make me happy apparently! Check out the photos here.
Koziar’s Christmas Village
After going to the Bethlehem Chriskindlmarkt, we stopped at Koziar’s Christmas Village. It was the first time I’ve been there since I was a little kid. It’s only grown more impressive over the years. My photos don’t do it justice.
Two Chriskindlmarkts
When I think of Christmas it conjures images of small towns with rows of little stores selling gifts in Germany. OK, so maybe not the Germany part. However, a really cool Christmas tradition does come from Germany. It’s the Chriskindlmarkt. Bethlehem, PA (a.k.a. Christmas City) puts on a huge one every year. I finally got a chance to go to it this year. It was a fun day of shopping and some sightseeing.
Then i heard Philadelphia was putting on one of their own at City Hall. It was called the Philadelphia Christmas Village. While not as big it will hopefully be an annual event because it has real potential.
Check out my photos from Bethlehem and then take a look at my photos of Philadelphia.
Berks County Covered Bridges
I finally found time to go on another covered bridge tour. If you haven’t seen my previous photos from the Lehigh Valley, you can check them out here. Then go check out my newest photos from the covered bridges of Berks County. I’m sure they aren’t the last ones you’ll see posted.
The photos also include some pictures of the Reading area including the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower and Pagoda.
New Haven Photos
I just posted some photos taken on a weekend in New Haven Connecticut. We stayed in New Haven and made side trips to Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods and Olde Mistick Village. Our room at the Omni had a spectacular view of the Yale University campus.
On the Fourth of July, we stopped at Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria for lunch. They originated New Haven style pizza. That was fun. We also tried to go to Louis Lunch, but they were closed for the holiday, so we didn’t get to taste a burger from the place that allegedly invented the hamburger.