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New England--05/08: << Part 1 << Part 2 << Part 3  Part 4   

The Old Scultin Gallery yard.

The often photographed yard of the Old Sculpin' Gallery indicates the whaling history of the town.  Across the street you can catch a ferry to Chappaquiddick, a separate island that is part of Edgartown.  The ferries are called On Time and On Time II.The two ferries take cars and passengers back and forth to Chappaquidick.

Unusual house out on a spit of land.

We spent some time in Edgartown, which is perhaps a little more sophisticated than the other towns with its numerous old whaling captains' houses.

The Edgartown lighthouse is out on a beautiful spit of land, 

The Edgartown lighthouse is on a beautiful spit of land.  Across the way you can see Chappaquiddick's Beach club with its cabanas.  We decided not to cross over; there was plenty to see on this side. 

Heading out in Edgartown Harbor.
The Harborview Inn

This is the new Harborview Inn at the base of Main Street next to the Yacht Club--it's been totally rebuilt.

Buckeye tree blooms in Edgartown.

 Edgartown House

One of Edgartown's churches.

An Edgartown Inn.Edgartown's Main Street is full of shops and restaurants, but we liked this sign.  

 

 

Many grand houses with widows' walks and fabulous views of the Harbor populate Edgartown. >>

South Beach

We also visited Chacama Vineyard, but it has been sold to another island family and will reopen in the fall.   It looked like the grapes were doing fine, though.

Chacama Vineyards.

We rode our bikes to Felix Neck Wildlife Preserve and enjoyed the abundance of tree swallows.  Two are sitting on the nesting box>>

On the Vineyard we noticed a profusion of weather vanes, so we've grouped some of them below.

Soth BeachFrom Edgartown we headed down to Katama and South Beach.  This is generally thought of as the premier beach on the island because there's sand!
Two Tree Swallows sit on top of their nesting box.
ON a fire station in Cape May, NJ On a Vineyard house. On the Texaco Station in Menemsha
On a house in Edgartown A teradactyl on a store in vineyard Haven On a house in Edgartown
On a house near South Beach On a house near South Beach On a horse farm near South Beach.

On our last day on the Vineyard, we had breakfast at the Black Dog before we boarded the ferry.  As we left, we each took shots from the ferry back toward Vineyard Haven.  It had been a great four days.  (The next week The NY Times posted this article on The Vineyard.  It was fun to see how many of the same places they visited.)

A view from the west side of the ferry.

View from the ferry on the east side.

We headed from Woods Hole across Connecticut to West Point.  We stayed Thursday night in their campground, which is a few miles from campus.  There were no spaces available over the weekend—it was graduation.  There were so many women blowing their hair dry on Friday morning in the ladies room, that they blew a circuit.

Round Pond .

This cottage is the office for the campground.

Two geese families--one with two goslings, the other with seven.

We hiked around the trails for a few miles in the late afternoon.  We enjoyed the setting and the overlooks.  The next morning we went to the academy.

The campus is maybe 3 or 4 times larger than the Naval Academy and the location is stunning with the rock buildings perched on the palisades above the Hudson River, but the town outside the gate is seedy and tired compared to Annapolis.

The Hudson River


Wespoint Buildings.

West Point Buildings

The officers' quarters are impressive.

  Pond next to the stadium..

Eagle on the corner of the building.

Officers' quarters

Getting ready to celebrate

Friday morning is the dress parade and changing of the guard from the seniors to the juniors.  We parked the van and walked through the cemetery on the way to the parade grounds.

A surprising Victorian amongst all the stone and brick.

A general's grave

Many famous people are buried here and the style and size of the graves varies dramatically. 

Carved olive branch in the rough rock is strickingly different.

The parade grounds are next to a point of land that is THE "West Point."  It's also called Trophy Point where cannons and other stuff from various wars is displayed.  While the cannons were interesting, the settings is spectacular.

The view of the Hudson from The West Point. Cannons, the spoils of war.


We had a perch in the top of the bleachers for the parade.  The parade started with the cadets marching from all the arches in the buildings onto the parade grounds.
The cadets come from all the doorways in these buildings.

In formation.The seniors, with the tall, feathered hats, are presented to the audience in the bleachers.  There were quite a few women in command of the companies.

The seniors are presented to their families in the stands.

 

 

 

 

 

Cadets mingle with the guests.

From West Point we headed west toward Ithaca to visit my botany professors, Rose Broome and Jim Reveal.  Jim is now a professor emeritus at Cornell.

Rose and Ginny at the farmers market.

The band marched in formation off the field and for at least a half a mile to the parking lot. 

And the band marched on.

 

We went to Ithaca's farmers' market.

Ithaca's farmers market

Between forays, we made good use of the breakfast bar--Jim is on the left.  

I worked with Rose in her garden

We toured Cornell's formal herb garden

Peonies

We made good use of the breakfast bar. Jim is on the left.

Chives

The old sun dial says it's 9am--adjusted for day light savings time, it correct.

After touring the formal gardens, we headed to the wildflower areas.  There's a section surrounded by a deer fence and there's a study under way to see how the two areas differ.  

A deer fence for the wilflower garden.

The old hydrology lab next to the water falls on campus.

The Bailey Horotorium

After a great visit with Jim and Rose, we headed south through Pennsylvania to Maryland.  We spent a day with the kids and went to an awards ceremony for 8th graders with grades averaging 3.5 or better.  Weber, who's as tall as I am, took home a certificate and letter from President Bush.  Next year he'll be in high school!  Olivia got all As and will be in 7th grade next year.  

 

Cornell has an extensive campus and is expanding.

On campus the old hydrology lab next to the falls was washed away, but what a location!  We also went to the Cornell's bird center, but somehow didn't take any photos.  Jim took us on a tour of of the Hortorium with one of the greatest archives of the history of horticulture.  (A herbarium is a collection of dried plants.)

Ginny and Rose

 

We'd been on the road for more than two weeks, so we headed back to Florida.  It felt good to put our shorts back on.

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