Tag: summer Page 11 of 12
Salon in the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion with hand painted wallpaper
The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, also known as The House of Seven Gables, is located in Salem, Massachusetts. It was built in 1668 by Captain John Turner and is the oldest timber frame house on its original foundation in the United States. What is the significance of this old, New England home? It was the setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel, The House of Seven Gables.
Unlike The Wayside, Hawthorne never lived in this home, but he often visited his cousin, Susanna Ingersoll who regaled him with stories of the home. At the time that Hawthorne visited, four of the gables had been removed to match current architectural trends, but Ingersoll showed her cousin the beams and mortises in the attic illustrating where the additional gables used to be. If you’ve ever read the story, you know that the house is practically described as an additional living character.
A rare photo of me outside the Counting House at the House of Seven Gables.
In the early 1900s, the home was purchased by Caroline O. Emmerton who worked with an architect to make the house reflect the one in Hawthorne’s story. Restorations included adding back the missing gables, creating a secret passageway in a chimney and adding a cent shop like the one run by Hepzibah Pyncheon in The House of Seven Gables.
Other historic Salem buildings have been moved to the grounds at the House of Seven Gables and can be toured with museum admission. Most noteably of these is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace.
If you are in Salem, I definitely recommend a stop at The House of Seven Gables. Unfortunately, due to the oppressive heat (it was 90 degrees at 10 AM), we didn’t get to see much more in Salem. After we left the museum, we headed north towards Acadia. Check back next week for our first look at Acadia National Park!
Thanks for stopping by! For more information about the House of Seven Gables visit 7gables.org. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
The Michigan Challenge Balloonfest is one of my favorite summer festivals! It is definitely my favorite to photograph. So many festivals are just an excuse to sell stuff and host a carnival. Balloonfest is a three day long Hot Air Balloon competition in which balloon pilots fly to or from a specific destination and toss beanbags at targets to score points. It is fun to watch the teams unpack their balloons, see them inflate, and fly to their destinations. It seems like Hot Air Balloon Festivals are popping up all around, but the Howell one was the first in the area. That being said, if there is a hot air balloon festival in your area, I highly recommend checking it out!
The Balloon Glow (top) is one of my favorite parts of Balloonfest and it is when the balloons tie down and light up after dark. As you can see from the picture, this is definitely a popular event, with chairs lined up all the way around the main stage area. Balloonfest is very weather sensitive event. The FAA and the local airport is consulted on whether or not it is safe for the balloons to fly. I was excited to see the glowing skydivers as well, but unfortunately, that was cancelled due to high winds.
This year, a balloon accident at the festival made the news. Luckily no one was injured, but the video (above) is terrifying!
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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When we arrived at the Cedar Falls parking lot, I heard so much screaming I thought there was a roller coaster at the end of the trail. Instead, at the end of the half mile trail we found the largest waterfall by volume in the park. You can see from the below photo, this is another popular spot in the park. The screams that could be heard from the parking lot were from visitors stepping into the chilly water and under the falls. Luckily, the water flowing from the falls wasn’t at full force when I visited, because stepping under the falling water can be dangerous.
Unlike Ash Cave, the Cedar Falls trail is not ADA accessible. It starts with a set of stairs known as Democracy Steps. These steps were designed by artist, architect and mathematician, Akio Hizume, to be “pleasant and relaxing”. I have to say, of all the steps in the park, these were some of the easiest. Before looking at a map, I had forgotten stairs were involved in this hike. According to HockingHills.com “The lengths of individual steps are varied, so that walkers alternate the leading foot, establishing a comfortable pace and rhythm… It reflects mathematical principles of the Fibonacci sequence and the one-dimensional Penrose lattice.” Who knew math could make stairs more enjoyable?
Thank you for stopping by! Read more in my Hiking Hocking Hills Series: Camping & Hiking Hocking Hills, Ash Cave, Conkle’s Hollow, Rock House and Old Man’s Cave (coming soon). To plan your trip to Hocking Hills, visit HockingHills.com. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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I think it may finally be spring here in Michigan, although there is snow in the 10 day forecast, but I’m just going to pretend I don’t see that and hope it goes away. The longer days and warmer weather mean its time to start planning our summer trips! So far, I have a cruise on the calendar towards the end of summer. In July, I’ve booked a weekend camping trip at Straits State Park in St. Ignace. I am so excited to sit around the campfire under the lights of the Mackinac Bridge again!
We are also talking about heading down to the Hocking Hills in June. I have seen beautiful photos of the scenery there and I would really like to capture it! The park in southern Ohio is full of stunning waterfalls, unique rock formations, and miles of hiking trails.
The final trip of the summer that I am planning is a camping trip in the Porcupine Mountains in the western Upper Peninsula. I have heard so much about the area but the seven hour plus drive is a real deterrent. I am hoping this summer to finally overcome that obstacle and experience Lake of the Clouds and Bond Falls myself.
Where are you planning to visit this summer? Let me know in the comments! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
Its that time of year where I get sick of the cold and the white landscape and start dreaming about the warm weather to come. With the warm weather this week, it does seem like spring may have come a little early this year. Only time will tell if the warm weather will stay or if we will be blanketed in snow again here shortly.
Either way, I am ready for the cold to be behind us and it to be summertime. I am looking forward to watching the sun set over Lake Michigan and sleeping in a tent. I am beginning to think about our camping trips this summer. As much as I love Ludington State Park, I am thinking about checking out new campgrounds this summer like Fisherman’s Island and Petoskey. Maybe we will go back to Straits State Park and camp at the base of the Mackinac Bridge. Oh, I can’t wait for another glorious Michigan summer.
What are you looking forward to when the weather warms up? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
The hottest day of the trip, we got on the Ferry from Ocracoke and began heading south. Our first stop of the day was at the Bodie Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located south of Nags Head near Oregon Inlet. Because of the heat, we chose not the climb it, but we did walk out to the marsh overlook.
In 1837, a search began for a spot for another lighthouse along the dangerous Outer Banks. They settled on a location in Pea Island, on the other side of Oregon Inlet because Lieutenant Napoleon L. Coste, the leader of the expedition said “more vessels are lost there than on any other part of our coast.” Soon after construction began, there were major structural problems and within a few years, the tower began to lean and the lighthouse was abandoned. A second lighthouse was commissioned nearby, but only two years later, it was destroyed by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The current lighthouse became operational in its current location in 1872.
I really wanted to come back here and attempt to get a night sky shot of the lighthouse, like the Hatteras Lighthouse shot. But, unfortunately, it rained all night long so we missed our chance. I will have to come back and try again another time.
For this stop on our trip, we camped near the lighthouse at Oregon Inlet campground. I was nervous about this campground because there’s a warning on the website about the 24/7 construction that is happening on the Bonner Bridge (the bridge that spans Oregon Inlet) but I didn’t notice either the light or the noise. It is really hard for me to separate my feeling about this campground from the incessant heat that day. At this point in the trip, I learned that I was not made to tent camp on the beach in the summer and I was ready to head back north. The last time we were in the Outer Banks, this was one of my favorite campgrounds.
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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