Georges Island in Boston

    Hi everyone.  It's already Friday again.  Today I am linking up some photos from my Boston adventure a few weeks ago. FYI- This is a longer post with lots of photos. I'll be linking  up to Nicole's Friday Face Off and also to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

  You may remember that my trip into Boston was because it was free ferry day out to Georges Island which is run by both the National Park Service and Massachusetts State Parks. None of us knew this was happening until my daughter got an email at work telling her about it, and so we thought we'd take advantage of it. You may also remember when my daughter got the tickets she ended up with noontime tickets. Sadly the day clouded in by the afternoon, but still, the clouds and the rain that came are all just part of the story.

   But first, we had to get to the island on the ferry which took about 45 minutes. One spot the ferry passed was Logan International Airport. It was fun watching the planes taking off and landing.

  I imagine most of them were going someplace domestic, but it's fun to  wonder about.

 Here are a few other views in the harbor.

  And then we arrived at the dock and  were off to see the fort.

     Here's my  clearest face photo for Friday Face Off. It's my husband up in front of the fort. 

   Fort Warren was built starting in the 1830's and then finished in 1861.  It served a defensive role starting in the US Civil War (1861-1865)  right up until it was decommissioned after World War Two. During the Civil War, Boston was never in danger of getting attacked, so the fort served as a prison for Confederate (Southern) prisoners including the Vice President of the Confederacy.

    You can walk  central parade ground inside of the fort: you can walk on the outer perimeter of the fort, and you can walk along the "top" of the fort. Most of the inside rooms are closed off, however there was a nice little museum all about the fort at the entrance.

    I guess I had more back photos than faces this week. 😉

   Some of the best views were walking along the top  of the fort and looking out into Boston Harbor.

  I was also having fun with my camera that day, and I snapped a few other photos while walking around the fort.

   That wraps up my trip to Boston that day. By the time we got home it was raining, and we were tired. It was really fun to spend a day in the city though and a nice adventure to also visit the fort, as it was a new place for me.

   And if you're interested in reading more about Fort Warren, you can check out this National Park website: Fort Warren and if you are interested in reading about Georges Island, you can read about it here: Georges Island. Both stories are interesting.

   Wishing you a great rest of your Friday and start to your weekend. 

   

Some Random Assorted Face Photos

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Today I'm joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break and Nicole for her Friday Face Off.

   As you might already know, a couple of weeks ago my husband and I spent the day in Boston with my daughter and her husband. I had lots of fun that day, and I had a blast  with my camera and all the photo subjects I came across. You may have seen some of the photos from that day in earlier posts. Today I have other random photos from our day with several faces to share.

   OK, and I have some flowers too. There were flowers all over the city. This flower display in front of a restaurant were all living plants.  Aren't they beautiful?

The face is some man on his phone.

A nod to history on the sign facing me as I walked down the sidewalk

This display isn't quite as lovely (to me at least-I would have gotten rid of the pussy willow branches) but still, all made of  beautiful living flowers.

The face of this building also had lots of flowers. I don't believe the flowers above the awning were  alive.

These were not all alive, but still looked lovely on the fence.

Another nod to history.

The face of this gate is quite lovely.

Need I say anymore?  I just watched a series on Netflix about George Washington, and he would definitely approve of the T shirt with his face on it.

A metal bird face

My son-in-law, my husband, and even a smiley face

Those window faces have some cool coverings

Lots of faces in the crowd, and a fun sign post

The face on a building

Lots of pansy faces

And finally

my husband  having fun at a statue. 

Have a great Friday and start to your weekend. 

More of Congaree National Park

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Today I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off and Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.

   Thanks everyone for your wishes for success with the new batch of bees. And I love reading your bear comments too. 

     This past Sunday I shared some photos from my recent visit to Congaree National Park which is about a half an hour outside of Columbia, South Carolina or about 2 hours outside of Charleston. Here's the post if you're interested :   An Ode To Trees.   

    Today I'm back with the rest of the photos from the walk on the boardwalk that my husband and I took that day.  OK, these first couple of photos don't have any faces. It looks so peaceful and quiet, doesn't it?

   When we arrived at the park's visitor's center, we had a really hard time finding a space to park. One of the reasons it was so crowded that morning was that the park was celebrating. 2026 is the park's 50th anniversary. Since they are a National Park, run by the federal government, they were also celebrating the US's 250th anniversary. One thing they had going on was that at a few points along the boardwalk they had music students from the University of South Carolina playing music. 

   The music was great. Most of it was traditional American tunes.  The students were also very willing to answer questions and talk about the music. We even  later spoke with one woman who was a combined music and environmental science student. She was thrilled to be able to combine her 2 loves here at the park.

 These woodwind players had climbed down into a dry patch below the boardwalk.

I thought their music stands looked  lonely but also interesting in the woods.

 

    There was also a chorus singing in another spot just off the boardwalk, but I didn't get any photos of that. 😟

The further we walked, the sounds turned from human music to the songs and sounds of nature.
   

     You can really see the muddy forest floor in this next photo. This is the area where they were  constructing the new boardwalk.

    And there's more wet and muddy forest floor in this next view.

   We had a paper trail guide, and along the boardwalk there were marked spots.  One marked spot had an old still set up from Prohibition when bootleggers found this area to be a perfect hidden-away spot to produce their alcohol. FYI- Prohibition was mostly during the 1920's. You can tell in the photo that this still covering has been sitting in the forest for a long time.

   And here's South Carolina's state plant, the palmetto.

And of course these cypress trees with the cypress knees were quite interesting.

    And there was wildlife. I have never seen so many pileated woodpeckers in one day or in one area.  Can you see one in the next photo? They were hard to get a picture of because they hopped around the trees and flittered out of sight a lot.  I read they are the largest woodpecker in the US too. I didn't know that.

    There were also lots of grey squirrels too, including the one running along the boardwalk.

    The park is known for their Fox Squirrels, but other than this sign we only saw Gray Squirrels.

  But we did see quite a few reptiles, especially down at this pond.

   There were a whole lot of these snakes in the water. I think they are Brown Water Snakes, but I could never get a clear identification.

 And I'm not sure if this next creepy crawly is some kind of lizard or a salamander as it was below me (since I was up above it on the boardwalk). It was also near the snakes, and it's skin looks pretty smooth and not scaly. But of course, I wasn't close enough to see very well.  The blue on the tail makes me think it's a juvenile type of skink (Blue tailed skink-a type of lizard), as they have blue on their tails which disappears as they age. 

   And then we saw this turtle/ tortoise crawling around.

   I really don't know much about turtle/tortoise identification, and I couldn't find a picture online that helped me ID it.

  And ha ha how about this cute guy you could buy in the gift shop. I must say I thought about it because he looks like he could be fun to play with. 😉

   I'll leave you with that face. I hope everyone one has a wonderful rest of your Friday and start to the weekend ahead. 

    I'm adding that I'll also be linking a up to Mosaic Monday.