...whales, whales, everywhere...

I decided to finally take the Boston Harbor Whale Watching Tour today.

Welcome to Long Wharf at the Boston Waterboat Marina

 I finally found the parking garage I'd checked out online and parked.  It was perfect because it was right next to Long Wharf, where the tours take out of.  I looked around when I got on the boat and noticed, I was one of only a handful of people that first off, wore pants, and second, brought a jacket.  Boy were some people going to be freezing their butts off.  It may have been 85 degrees today, but when you go out 35 miles away from shore on a boat, and in Massachusetts no less, it gets very very chilly.  I was thankful for remembering to bring my jacket! 

We finally got out to where we "saw" a whale, but it was on the other side of the boat, and I just couldn't see what everyone was fussing about.  Neither did anyone else on my side of the boat.  Then I saw a quick glimpse at the back of one of the first of many humpback whales that I would see.  At first, we only saw their humpback part as they skimmed the surface.  And for quite some time, our boat never seemed to be where the action was.  There were quite a few people out fishing or just hanging out and there would be two, three, even upwards of eight whales all together in the middle of the boats. 

You could count them by the blowholes.  At one point I did finally see one start to emerge out of the water, head first.  Attached are a few of the good pictures out there.  I had a lot of fun and

can't wait to go again!!

There are 8 whales here!!

The Whale checks out the boats surrounding him

Baby Whale Sleeping...Shhh!

Flipper Flapping - (Using their forward fins to splash the water)

And last but not least, what I saw the most - their tail fins as they went to dive into the water after coming up to take a breath.

 

 

...life is a highway...

and sometimes it's  up in New Hampshire that you'll find a really pretty byway, or highway.  I didn't start out as early as I wanted, but it was  still beautiful.  The way up to New Hampshire was around the high 50's, and that was at 10am!  It was quite breezy and actually got pretty chilly.  The views were amazing and the trees are just starting to change colors.  Hopefully in a few weeks they'll be much more prominent.  Although pretty much none of my pictures turned out, I did take a couple of decent ones.

Kancamagus Highway

...colorado...

What's a girl's trip to Colorado without some beautiful deep blue skies and chipmunks?  Yep, Alvin, Simon and Theodore all came out to enjoy my sunflower seeds in Colorado.  We had a blast, Mom, Aunt Judy, Angela and myself and I'm FINALLY getting around to posting a few pictures.  Attached are just a couple of photos, the first, completly untouched by Photoshop. 

 Yes! This is how blue the sky was in July!

The second one, on the very top of the mountain, when the sun was bright

and when I requested we stop, not realizing what we would encounter, we saw this beautiful mother (her two babies had taken off long before I walked  up to her) 

Oh, by the way, I was only about five feet away f rom these three. They were just awesome and huge.  It really was worth the drive!

This little guy was really, really greedy, but just too darn cute not to turn down.  Could you say no to that face?

Well off to bed for the night...

...a....

...wedding craft...

Well I promised Cole I'd start writing more, so I thought, why not show off my rendition of the traditional Wedding Favor Box.  I did quite a bit of work before the wedding, buying and cutting ribbons in my hotel room here in Boston, working on the little cut circles and even doing a little embossing.  I didn't realize how much more work had to be done until  my sister, brother in law and myself were up until 4am with my sister working on the flowers and Mark and I both working on the boxes, and did I mention I also made a cupcake grooms cake??  In the end, my cousin, the new bride, was appreciative of all of our hard work and many hours spent towards planning, decorating and putting together the entire wedding.   

Here's a glimpse at one of the 50 boxes Mark (mainly Mark) and I made Friday night before the wedding...

And, on top of the white pillow mints that Lisa bought, Angela and I purchased both plain and dark chocolate Hershey Kisses to add to the "Lapis and Silver" themed wedding...

...boston

So I've been working in Boston for 4 months now, and hopefully it will end soon.  Don't get me wrong, the first few weeks, I explored, and enjoyed myself while trying to make it from point A to point B without missing trains, planes and taxis!  I soon learned the schedules and even downloaded a few apps that really helped me with knowing where I was going. 

At this point though, I'm getting tired.  I haven't had a full weekend in 4 months and soon, that will change (my boss just doesn't know it yet).  I'm going to start scheduling my flights on Thursday nights so that I have Friday's and Saturday's to enjoy before going back on Sunday's. 

After much prayer, I finally have a friend in Boston.  She dislikes traveling for such an extended length of time as much as I do, and wants to be at home as well.  But because we're both stuck up there for a while, we've decided to stay in Boston in a couple of weeks, and explore around as well as possibly hit some of the other New England states.  I'm really excited and can't wait to photograph up there.  The weather is starting to get cooler and I hear soon the leaves will start changing.  Hopefully in a few weeks, you can see pictures. 

Until then, I'll leave you with this picture I took on a Boston Harbor Tour a few weeks back ...