New York City mini-vacation

My wife and I went to NYC on Sunday to hang out and see some sights.

We took the NBC studio tour at 30 Rock (no pictures allowed), very cool. Conan O'Brien's set is incredibly tiny, maybe 50 feet wide. It's very interesting what they do with wide angle lenses and small furniture.

We took a carriage ride through Central Park. It's wicked expensive for the time you get, but we were being tourists. While we were sitting taking a rest, a couple park workers came over to lower the flag to half staff for a firefighter that died on Sunday.



We crashed at the hotel after that from all the walking we did (Times Square to 30 Rock, up 5th to Central Park, back to Times Square).

The next day, we went over to Macy's for some shopping. It wasn't open yet, so we went to the Empire State Building.



Luckily, we hit it just right and we were up at the top 5 minutes later. When I went up this time last year, I waited over an hour.



This was pretty cool. I was standing right next to the low wall this pigeon was standing on, and I wanted to get an up close picture of him. I reached into my bag to get the lens, and he was watching me thinking I had food. He hopped right onto my arm, then a second one right behind him. A nice fellow tourist took this picture for me. Really the highlight of the trip, for me.



After that, we went to Macy's for some shoes. The store is very large, a full city block. We were supposed to stay another day, but we left right after Macy's since we had pretty much seen what we wanted to for this trip.

Christian Science Mother Church

I went in to Boston on Friday to meet up with some fellow Boston area photographers from Flickr. It was bitterly cold and windy, and parking was impossible to come by. By the time I got a spot in a nearby garage, there were only two people left.

The reflecting pool was partly frozen, with random chunks of ice on top.

Abandoned Armstrong Factory

I visited an abandoned factory last week. This was my first time in the building and was a quick exploration. The building is big and sprawling, and is in pretty good shape for as long as it has been empty.

Tileston-Hollingsworth Dam

I went to the Tileston-Hollingsworth Dam on the Neponset River in Boston today.

A new bill has passed that allocates $11 Million for cleanup of PCBs in the river. This may include removal of the dam and the Baker Dam downstream. If the dams aren't removed, they have about 20 years left in their design life (approximately 70 years).

Honorable mention

The Friends of the Blue Hills runs an annual photo contest for pictures taken in the Blue Hills conservation area south of Boston.

I entered one of my pictures and received Honorable Mention for my submission.

http://www.friendsofthebluehills.org/FBHPhotoContest2008HonMen/target2.html

Check out the winners and other honorable mentions here:

http://www.friendsofthebluehills.org/FBHPhotoContest2008Winners/

Old Burying Point, Salem Ma

I went up to Salem, MA on Halloween with some out of town friends.

This is the Old Burying Point, the second oldest known cemetery in the country, and the oldest in Salem.



In 1692, 14 women and 6 men were accused of being witches, were tried, convicted, and executed. Executions took place on June 10, July 19, August 19, September 19 and September 22, 1692. To this day, the events of 1692 are used as a yardstick to measure the depth of civility and due process in our society.

The Witch Trials Memorial was dedicated by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel in August 1992 as part of the Salem Witch Trials TerCentenary. The design was selected in a international competition that received 246 entries. The winning design by Maggie Smith and James Cutler was inspired by the Vietnam Memorial.

The Memorial consists of 20 granite benches cantilevered from a low stone wall surrounding an area adjoining the Old Burying Point. The benches are inscribed with the name of the accused and the means and date of execution.

www.salemweb.com/memorial/memorial.shtml