My Visit - Walden Pond (MA)

Walden Pond State Reservation

Panorama view of the pond

The pond is located at Concord. It is considered as the landmark of the conservation movement. The history behind it is related to Henry Thoreau, who lived there in mid 19th century and became an activist of natural preservation.

This is small pond surrounded by woods and trails. The area is pretty family friendly. Some said that  you could do picnic here. However, I neither saw any one was doing so, nor the barbecue setup, even not necessary. We came here in a cloudy autumn weekend. I was sure that it would look even more beautiful if it had been sunny.

The temperature was still cool around 9:00am and there were already a bunch of swimmers enjoying themselves. A couple of boats in the water. A young couple pushed a stroller not far from the beach. The quietness was broken by what looked like a group of students from nearby schools. Yeah.. everyone wanted to see the foliage in a Fall.

The trail was narrow but very well established and maintained. I think it could take about an hour or so to circle the pond. Let's see...

Next to the trail, behind the hill, it is MBTA's Fitchburg line of Commuter Rail:

MBTA Fitchburg Line

With the time of taking pictures and all that. It took more than an hour. But it was worth it. It is a good exercise after all.

Panorama view of the pond

My Visit - Nickerson State Park (MA)

Nickerson State Park and Crosby Landing Beach

Nickerson State Park

Located at Brewster at Cap, Nickerson State Park is a very well maintained camp ground. It attracted people from the east coast and even Canada. Last time we were there, We could see cars from New Jersy and Quebeq. Comparing to other camp ground I went before, while the camp sites are quite flat and reasonably sized, this is the cleanest and more friendlier one, with the showing facility nearby and water faucets every a few lots.

There is a small but very quite beach, or a pond more accurately, surrounded by the hills. Simply taking the trail or some paths formed by many people's walking. It is couldn't be better for kids to build sand castles and swimming. Although we are not that crazy about camping, we do enjoy every bit of outdoor activities and it offers all at Nickerson. A small jogging in the woods or riding bicycles on the nice meandering road outside the park.

Snapping Turtle

The park is very close to the town center, around 2 miles. There is a plaza there. Food, water, medicine, etc. you could easily get things that you forgot to bring. Need to remember there was a store right outside the park, while we ran out fire wood and tree branches, that was the place to go, $5 a bundled pack! Can't beat that.

Didn't really take many pictures and I misplaced most of them as well.

Crosby Landing Beach

It was supposed to be a walking distance from the Nickerson Part, but we drove anyway. Ten minutes tops including find a parking spot. It is quiet beach, clear water, and family friendly. We got there late afternoon, not many people around so we just took some pictures and wait for the sunset...

Wave is a great sculptor and left a great pattern for us to admire...

The bank also looked like an painting, quiet and soothing...

Finally came the sunset...

My Visit - Stage Fort Park (MA)

Stage Fort Park

I discovered Stage Fort Park when I took my daughter to her soccer game in Gloucester. There is no point to come home during the game and I am not interested in watching their game either this time. Exploring the local area seemed to be a plausible option, so I drove on...

It is a fun small beach full of rocks and sea weeds. It is quiet and calm. While most of the folks enjoy baseball and picnic around, sitting on the rocks breathing in cool air with a salty hint is a soothing experience.

Ocean view

Quite beach

Private bay for divers

Clear water

Artsy rocks

Seaweed

Seaweed

Before I left to pick up my daughter, I got was my Gloucester history lesson. Looked like that the very first bunch of settlers of Gloucester came on shore at what today we call it as Stage Fort Park. There is a big plaque on this huge rock says in detail:

My Reading List - Linwood Barclay

I would love to explore more author's work. I noticed Linwood Barclay's books in a local Target store. Looked pretty good to me. I noted down the name and went to the local library. 'A tap on the window' is where I get myself started. In general, I like reading Linwood's stories. However, I need to be very patient because his stories usually have very long run ways before all pieces come together. The more you read the better you get.

Trust Your Eyes (2012) - Schizophrenic Thomas Kilbride is a map lovers and discovered a possible murder when walking along a New York street with whirl360. Multiple threads and all inter-related. The author used first half of the book to set things up.

A Tap on the Window (2013) - A story about the PI Cal Weaver's involvement of finding where the teen Claire Sanders was, as well as locating the true reason behind his son's death from Ecstasy. Good writing overall, but sometimes too much detail.

My Reading List - J.D. Robb

J.D. Robb is used by Nora Roberts in her 'In Death' Series.

1. Missing in Death - Two people were vanished from a New York harbor cruise from a no-exit public restroom. Eve Dallas chased the case and discovered country's top intelligence and what how to make people lost memory. It is a very short book. B.

My Reading List - Linda Howard

I discovered Linda Howard's book when I was looking for a smaller MP3 audio book that could be easily carried when I traveled. The detective genre selection is small in the local libraries, MP3 audio book is even limited. I took what I saw with the word detective in it without knowing that Linda's novel was part of the romantic genre. The outcome wasn't bad. She mixed romance and suspense pretty well. Light mystery and entertaining. Since detective work is not the main focus but used to support the romance, some twists were not natural comparing to other authors.

1. Dream Man (1995) - Orlando detective Dane Hollister loved Marlie Keen at first seen and used her psychic power to find the serial killer.some suspense but predicable. A little too much romantic scene. A-

2. Veil of Night (2010) - Atlanta Wedding planner Jaclyn Wilde's super picky client Carrie Edward was murdered. The police officer Eric Wilder, Jaclyn's one night stand parner needed to clean Jaclyn as the prime suspect and find out the killer. Light suspense and predicable, no mistery, of course, the author gave the pair a good ending. A-

My Visit - Hawaii (I)

游记? 还是算了吧. 文笔不行. 所以, 把去过的地方以流水帐的形式记下来似乎可行...先从夏威夷开始. 然而, 我又不想再写个旅游点介绍的流水帐...

夏威夷, 1959年正是成为美国第五十个州.

Hawaii

Flag of Hawaii

State Flower - Hibiscus (黄槿)

第一天 - 时空之旅 

时差与落差

太远了. 无论如何, 都要转机. 对半分吧. 东岸到旧金山, 再由旧金山到檀香山, 共12 个小时.到达时已经东岸半夜时分了(6小时时差, 夏威夷是美国屈指可数的几个没有夏时制的地方).

时值当地完间傍晚6:30. 机场看起来出乎意料的简陋, 与美国其他国际机场的巨大豪华宽敞明亮没有任何可比性.出门见到水泥墙外随风摇曳的椰子树,与落杉矶似乎也区别不大. 传说中的天堂不可能仅此而已吧?

辗转找到出租车站 却见不到想象中的黄出租或红出租。路边停着一辆车, 除了頂着“TAXI”之外, 与私家车无二。旁边站着一个白人男子, 看起来是个刚下飞机的旅客。另一个亚洲人模样的男子正往车的后备厢里搬行李. 他, 看其起来是司机无疑了。一位腰上挂着对讲机, 手上拿个本子的中年妇女一边不时地指着站在一旁的白人男子, 一边跟那个貌似司机的亚洲人说着什么。这真是出租车? 正在疑惑之际, 拿本子的妇女挥了一下她的本子, 一辆已减速的面包车便停在我们旁边。司机, 一个亚洲妇女, 从后面绕过她的车朝我们走来, 随手开了车的后厢门。同时, 拿本子的妇女也朝我们走来: "你们去哪个旅馆?" 我想都没想, 报了名字。司机一边说着OK, 一边开始往她车里搬我们的行李。拿本子的业已走到我跟前, 从中抽出一页花花綠綠的纸并在上写着什么: "如果你有东西往忘车上了, 打这个电话, 这是她的注册号码”。她一边把那张纸递给我, 一面挥着手走向刚刚停在面包车后面的一辆小车。

“来, 上车吧.". 我坐进副驾驶。首先看到的是dashboard上从左到右盖着类似地毯(rug)的一块东西。记价器压在下面, 红色的数字不停地闪着。旁边, 别在rug上是贴着司机2寸彩照的营业执照, 标准及各种条款, 细致而明朗, 不正规中透着严谨。

司机是华人无疑。车子转了几个弯, 上了夏威夷的州際(没错, 是 interstate) H1。司机得知我们来自波士顿, 便自我介绍说她来自离我们不远的加拿大Montreal, 每年至少回去一次, 不然的话, 在岛上会憋出病的(island fever). 对于旅游者来说, 檀香山很方便, 到处都是ABC店 (一个连锁的便利店, 类似此间的 CVS, Walgreen, 但大得多), TheBus (没错, 名字就叫TheBus) 很频繁, 不用租车. 接着她又介绍到, 夏威夷有很多亚洲人, 日本人最多, 其次是越南人和韩国人. 华人也有一些, 但相对少. 一个假说在我脑海中形成: 看样子岛国人就是岛国人, 越南人, 还有韩国人, 他们的基因驻定了他们是半岛国. 香港人, 在亚洲, 住惯了背靠大陆的香港, 到了北美, 不是也很喜欢 "香哥华" (Hong-couver)么?......  已是掌灯时分, 街景变得朦胧, 车子早已下了高速, 在巷中穿梭. 我们就在这恍惚中到了我们在夏威夷的第一个栖身之所......

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