Bad blogger

currently, i am not very good at blogging. i often skip a day.... im not so much in the mood... :(

above an old picture, still from utrecht, the netherlands. i miss good fries, sometimes! but im a little confused by whats next to it. it is ketchup? that is weird; the dutch normally eat their fries with mayonnaise... (i also miss mayonnaise, sometimes). or could it be peanut sauce? some people eat their fries with that. i do not miss that at all, i think thats gross.

Child storage

we went to 2 malls on sunday, and it was depressing. i miss shopping streets, like in utrecht, or amsterdam. here you get into your car, drive, and somewhere along the highway, next to fastfood restaurants and whatnot, there will be some mall, or another. on sunday we got kind of lost in the mall, and barely bought anything (so that was good). then we went to a more shabby mall, with cheaper stores, for cheaper stuff.. :) and there they had this child hanging device for only 7 dollars!

here you cant see it, but they were jumping up and down, on this elastic ropes they are attached to. the boy operating it all was somewhere in another world, totally bored and yawning all the time; seeing that i dont think i would ever let a child go into that, how would you be sure he secured them safely? but it looked fun.... i didnt dare to ask whether it was also for adults, like me... :)

Scenic america

hmmm, or not really scenic.... this huge billboard stands alongside the zakim bridge that leads you into boston, or rather, underneath boston.

i realize that there are a lot of advertisements for alcohol, either beer or hard liquor alongside roads in this country. while you are not allowed to drink while driving, you cannot have an opened bottle of alcohol in your car, are not allowed to drink alcohol in public places (like while having a picnic in the park), you cannot drink when under 21 (but drive from 16 years onwards), and you might not be served alcohol when you cannot prove you are above 21, even though you look like 50.....  those were just my thoughts while we had plenty of time watching this ugly billboard, as we ended up in a huge traffic jam on saturday afternoon.....

General entrance

last week we saw that the state house in boston has a general hooker entrance... at least they arent hiding it!!

or is it the entrance for the long dead joseph hooker?  a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War... as wikipedia just told me.. but wikipedia tells me more: "Hooker's reputation as a hard-drinking ladies' man was established through rumors in the pre-Civil War Army and has been cited by a number of popular histories. There is a popular legend that "hooker" as a slang term for a prostitute is derived from his last name because of parties and a lack of military discipline at his headquarters. Some versions of the legend claim that the band of prostitutes that followed his division were derisively referred to as "General Hooker's Army" or "Hooker's Brigade." However, the term "hooker" was used in print as early as 1845, years before Hooker was a public figure, and is likely derived from the concentration of prostitutes around the shipyards and ferry terminal of the Corlear's Hook area of Manhattan in the early to middle 19th century, who came to be referred to as "hookers". The prevalence of the Hooker legend may have been at least partly responsible for the popularity of the term." well, thats interesting!

ah, and, here i found that the actual entrance has a huge sign, and that sign cost almost 15,000 dollars!

Old news

accompanied with an old photo (taken while i was in san diego). a few weeks back i read on the news that someone from jersey shore was asked not to wear abercrombie clothes. of course, that kind of news brings many questions. what is abercrombie? jersey shore... ? well... abercrombie and fitch is a brand of clothes. every mall has a shop that sells this kind of clothes, but we never go inside; those stores smell horrible! from quite a distance you can smell this store, and googling a bit around, im not the only one noticing this. apparently, there are even protest groups asking to stop spraying around... (here; it seems to be also toxic?!). once we were just too curious, and we did go into this store, but it was once and never again; as someone else put it "you go from a bright, bubbly, fluorescent mall to a loud reeking cave. The only light in the place shines on the clothes. The ceilings, walls, and shelves are all painted black, and there’s no escape route in sight" (that person analyzed the entire store).

now... whats jersey shore? thats some sort of american reality series, and one of the stars,  Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino has been asked by the smelly store not to wear its clothes. (this guy is also named "the stiuation"; something just too weird to question). abercrombie stated this person wearing their clothes may be distressing to many of their fans.... hmmmpfff, just weird. i think they should rather just stop spraying their toxic smell and have normal shops...they did offer to pay this person not to wear their clothes anymore! well, i would like to get paid not to wear a certain brand... no problem! :)

Deadly force

on sunday we were at a cemetery behind our apartment complex. we had never been there before, and it was quite pretty! we also saw a hawk and spent quite some time observing it. or rather, waiting for it to do something interesting so that we could take a picture of it. but... he wasnt afraid at all, it seemed, he was just intently staring... sometimes at us, it seemed. i came a bit closer, and then i saw what he was looking at all the time; underneath the tree, there was a limp squirrel (perhaps because of the hawk?), who was depesrately trying to get away... eventually he managed. then the hawk got bored (and probably angry with us), and flew away...

i learned that deadly force is something else as well. i saw on the news that it is now law in new hampshire that people can use a gun with deadly force in public if they feel their life is in danger. before, this was only allowed on your own property. many people are against this, as it could lead to much more violence. i was a bit shocked by such a law, but i read now that not only the shire has it, but also for example florida, where the number of civilians killed through justified homicides tripled (i stole all this knowledge from here). those crazy americans....

Warm weather

its been so warm the past few days! really nice... i hope they will keep the pool open as long as possible, here at the apartment complex...

above is at a fountain in boston. this one also has steam, as you can see.

Symbolic end

last week monday it was labor day, which marks the end of summer, symbolically... it often also means, for children, back to school. so this liquor store had a fitting (?) slogan. i photographed their witty slogans once before, on thanksgiving (here). when we still lived in somerville, we sometimes waited there for the bus. and while i always check their slogans, we never went inside that liquor store. we did this saturday, and it was a little sad (the other people too), just fitting with their sayings... they all sound a little alcoholic.... :)

anyways, wikipedia also tells me that in "high society", labor day is (or was) considered the last day of the year when it is fashionable for women to wear white. good to know.... ;)

(meanwhile its still hot here, while we had a lot, lot of rain last week, the past few days have been very sunny and warm, between 25-30 degrees celsius!)

Fallen firefighters

this sculpture is at the state house, in boston, and i actually had never seen it before. we saw it on sunday, while walking by. i had to take the picture through the gates, you could not get to the statue. perhaps on other days you can, i dont know! i also never visited the state house... and i would like to see both. once.. :) the sculpture was designed by a local artist, robert shure.

this sculpture is there sine september 11, 2007, and is a tribute "to the spirit, courage and dedication of past, present and future firefighters. each year an annual ceremony is held on september 11 to honor the fire community and unveil the names that have been added that year. currently 701 names are included within the Ring of Honor." too late we realized we maybe should have gone to a memorial, on sunday. but we were both somehow extremely lazy and tired yesterday... so, we should do that next year.

i also discovered there is a 9/11 memorial at the boston logan airport. the planes flying into the twin towers departed from boston. of which i was unaware as well. perhaps i go see that memorial one day or another..

Boston bridge

flags are half-staff because of 9/11, now 10 years ago. above one on the bridge leading you into boston. i actually had never seen a flag there before.

Dunkin' Donuts

im just wondering what kind of donuts they sell at this store? perhaps a "zeeuwse bolus" (some dutch treat). the slogan on dunkin' donuts; america runs on dunkin. i can make some bad jokes about that too, but i leave it up to you... :)

this was on our way from maine back to boston. perhaps in maine they dont really like dunkin' donuts? it was founded in boston, quincy actually, in 1950. and indeed, in/around boston you see these shops on every street corner. on some crossings at each of the 4 corners, i have once been told, but perhaps that was just "telling lies to innocent foreigners" (i did see 2 of the 4 corners occupied). and... to be honest, i really do not know WHY. their coffee is really terrible, and their donuts... well.. not that good either.

i remember the very first morning after we arrived in the us. we woke up in our temporary apartment in somerville, with an entirely empty fridge and hungry stomachs. we had no clue where to go, and just wandered around in the neighborhood, in searh of something to eat (and internet). then we finally found a dunkin donuts (by that time we were already a bit depressed), found out they had no internet, ordered something that was supposed to be breakfast... and got even more depressed...  ah well, quickly thereafter we found our way around and never had to go back there! :)

Thunder hole

i wanted to see "thunder hole" at acadia. it is "a small inlet, naturally carved out of the rocks, where the waves roll into. At the end of this inlet, down low, is a small cavern where, when the rush of the wave arrives, air and water is forced out like a clap of distant thunder. Water may spout as high as 40 feet with a thunderous roar". but only when the waves are high, and the waves were not that high when we were there. the amount of people visiting it, however, was very, very high. "going back to nature", not seeing many people... not when you goto acadia! as you can see here..

thunder hole is to the left on this pic, you just cannot see it. funny thing is, i heard that thunderous noise a little further up, where we were having lunch on some rocks above the sea; i guess there must have been some hole underneath as well, and at first i really thought it was thunder...

the people above were sitting on some rocks that quickly got surrounded by water. they were sitting, and sitting, and tim thought they were going to sit there until they wouldnt be able to get off anymore. or at least not without getting wet feet. but... shortly after this pic they got off, when a wave splashed them in the face... :)

Excuse me

im just not in the mood to write anything or to choose a pic. this vanity plate i saw on our way to acadia. i pictured a few during those days... some are really funny. i think you see a lot less of these kind of plates around here, as compared to maine or california.

Bubble rock

on sunday we went to see the bubble rock. it was the funny name that made me have a closer look, and it turned out this trail would show us a "giant glacial erratic that was left on top of bubble mountain during the last ice age". here you see it, with some cute kids that were instructed to pose as if they are pushing it off the mountain. it took quite a while for the mom to have their kids do what she told them.. :) (their dad above taking pictures, too afraid himself to go down as we heard his wife say).

me and tim have some discussion about this picture, but i am certain i am the one who took it... the trail towards it was not very long, and designated as "moderate". luckily tim had forbidden me to take my not very useful bag (thats why we had to share the camera), because the path suddenly became very steep, and difficult. at some point i had to get myself in between a cleft in the mountain and hoist myself up. but i did not fit, or... i thought.. if i would fit, i would get stuck. slight panic attack, but i managed (with tims help). the girls that came after us were scared too, so i wasnt the only one! it was, however, very beautiful, although scary to be so close to edge of a cliff, nothingness beneath you... here you can see me "climbing".

and this rock that looks like it can fall off anytime was impressive too. ofcourse we took some photos similar as above, here you can see them, but all the time i was a little afraid that upon my touch it would drop down (with me in its wake).

Cadillac mountain

the highest mountain on acadia is mount cadillac, with its elevation of 1528 feet (470 m). having climbed mount washington (1912 m), we denominated ourselves mountain climbing professionals ;) being able to do any other mountain in the area. we choose a trail, but as parking was very limited, we were forced to start on another trail, a difficult one. steep it was. and tiring. and difficult at times, but... now we were professionals, so no complaining! at the end it became rock climbing again, but the trail was better marked than at mount washington, and less difficult. except at one point, where i really couldnt get myself up; tim had to help me. luckily 2 ladies watching me, said it was because i do not have real hiking boots, whereas tim does... :) by then, tim yet again was carrying my bag. stupid as i am, i again walked up a mountain with a real lady-shoulder-bag; absolutely useless when you try to climb some rocks (yes, i promise, i will use a backpack next time!). it was hot, it was tiring, i was sweaty, and i could only think of this; there are no showers at the campground (repeat 100 times), yegh.... but it was very pretty, although it became a little foggy, just at the moment we reached the summit. this time we did walk down; in total it took us about 4 hours (whereas mt washington was 5,5 hrs just one way!)

so, this mountain used to be called green mountain (green it was), but in 1918 it was renamed cadillac mountain, after mister cadillac (the cars were also named after him), a french explorer and weirdo, if you read wikipedia. apparently, this mountain sees the sun first of the entire usa. but only during fall and winter, so i dont quite understand why seeing "the nation's first sunrise" is a popular activity among visitors of acadia. 

here on flickr a few more pics.

Two amateurs

we took advantage of labor day weekend (an extra day off on monday), to go to acadia national park, in maine. after having seen photos of it from several friends, i was determined to go there as well. it is an island, approximately 6 hours away from boston by car. as this might well be one of the last warm weekends of the year, and just for the fun of it, we decided to go camping! we bought a cheap tent (60% discount) and off we went....

above is on the island, just before the campground. we had to stop to take in the beauty (as many other people did as well) and.... the mosquitoes. the person above is not waving to me, but trying to get rid of the enormous amount of mosquitoes. just before nightfall we were at the campground and managed to get the tent up before it was entirely dark. very dark. the campground was in a forest, and there was no light, but from the restrooms. luckily we had brought some flashlights! (although i had almost forgotten them). looking at the other campers, we were clearly amateurs, lacking fancy headlights, special outfits, airbeds and wood to build a fire. yup, an airbed might have been a better idea than our guestmattress; the ground was full of stones.... buuuhhh. and.... there were no showers. obsessed as i am with washing my hair, that was quite.... unpleasant. :) but we managed, and did not even go to the coin-op showers that were a 5-minute drive away.

but! it was great!! it was beautiful there, and the weather was perfect too. not too hot, not too cold, no rain, just thousands of mosquitos... and camping was fun too. we can, perhaps, do it again. only for a few days at a time though! however, we will always remain amateurs (even though i practiced quite a bit as a kid, with my parents; i realize now that it is quite different as an adult.. ) more photos later!

And.... back!

we were away a few days... it involved quite a drive, this weird sign (we just passed it!), not showering for some days (yegh... im so glad i just had a shower again!), absolutely no internet, my phone did not even work, and some mountain climbing again... :)

more tomorrow, now im tired!

Times square

this was in may, when we went to new york with my sister. it was crazy crowded at times square, and amidst it all was this man. then i thought; ooh, he is so old, and on times square! but then i thought; ooh, why is it weird he is there, and not that i am? i, for one, do not really like times square. too crowded, too loud, too many tourists, too much of everything. and what is old? i remember when the year 2000 was extremely far away, and i was calculating how extremely OLD i would be when we would finally get to the year 2000. and now its already 2011, and i do not feel particularly old.... :)

theme day at the dailyphotoblog was perspective this month, i hope i finally manage to participate this time! :)

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Real Americans

today i saw 3414 (if i remember correctly) people become real american citizens. one of them i know from work; thats why i was there! i thought it was so cool that i could see that.... and he was sooo proud! :) he is in the middle of above picture (more or less).

but the ceremony was a little different than i thought. in fact, it was an endless process. i did not know he was one amongst 3413 others. how could i know it was such a mass-event! but it became clear as soon as i stepped out of the subway; endless rows of very nicely dressed people, waiting to get into the TD garden (the TD garden has 19,580 seats).we got in there around 9.30. i was never in the TD garden, so that was interesting. sooo huge! but after an hour i had seen it. however, it took until 12.30 before everyone was finally seated..... ooh, and everyone looked so beautiful, especially little girls with beautiful dresses... then the ceremony began. there was some singing. some speeches, and then the oath (thats the picture above). thats when you have to swear that when required by law you will bear arms on behalf of the United States, will perform noncombatant service in the us armed forces, and will perform work of national importance under civilian direction....

ah well... it was cool that i could be present there; it was a... very american happening... ;) congratulations once again!

here a few more photos (it was hard to take pictures, we were so high up in the stadium and it was quite dark. buuuhhh)

With fish

in front of the entrance of the aquarium in boston. there was also a giant turtle.

here its so sunny now... but the nights are getting colder. soon they will close the pool.... and then one day its winter again.. brrr. but not yet...