My Surroundings

What's nice about where I live is that it's across the street from a pretty awesome conservation walk. These use to be woods, which we did like better, but of course Novi grew and homes needed to be built.

The only good that came out of them building across the street is that fact that they had built this beautiful walk. It's usually where my mom and I walk when we just want to get a mile or so in - it's also the only thing Mickey can really handle anymore (come on, he's ten years old!).

I took a few pictures on our walk today. I wanted to practice shooting wide open at 18 mm f/3.5 ... I am more then happy.

Michigan Sky

Sometimes I will wake up in the morning and wish that I didn't have to go to work - the reason?

Well, other than the obvious, when I wake up in the morning I see so many photo opportunities. The other morning the clouds were sitting SO low and they looked like marshmallows but still had the sun peeking through - I wanted to capture that moment. Unfortunately, I was on my way to work when this happened.

When I was driving home from work today I was excited to see the clouds/sky were back again.

Gotta love those Michigan Skies :)

An Ode to Northville

I am going to try and take/upload photos every weekend. If I want to continue my photography I'm going to have to just get out there and take pictures.

This week I decided to go to my favorite town and take some pictures around the subs and cider mill - next time I'll try and take some downtown.

A great intersection in Northville - some beautiful homes around this area.

Including this house! It's for rent! Maybe I'll offer a hundred dollars a month. :)

SO many cool areas to take pictures. Love the old looking railway.

Just a small, quiet, beautiful spot in the sub to take a breather and enjoy the view.

The Rouge River goes all over Northville.

Cider Mill time! So many great areas!

Northville is clearly a STATE city.

The Cider Mill clearly hoards a lot of ducks!

Couldn't forget Turbo! He's a big part of Northville too!!

An Afternoon with Mickey

Everyday when I come home from work I am greeted by man's (and woman's) best friend. In my case, it's my lovable dog Mickey. Whenever I get home from anywhere whether it be days, hours or minutes, Mickey is always there with a grin on his face. Mickey always has a smile on his face (when he's not scared) and can make any mood better.

Therefore, in honor of his tenth birthday, I took a mini photo shoot of this glorious dog. At first he was apprehensive but quickly became accustomed to the camera, especially when I was throwing his ball.

Mickey - Happy Go Lucky

He still has that puppy dog look! I LOVE this picture!

Looking over his kingdom.

Not only does he still look like a puppy, he acts like one too!

I think I tuckered him out! At least he's still smiling for the camera!!

As I'm taking Mickey's pictures, I glanced over at Precious - my cat. I think she was bored with the whole situation.

A Little Photo Fun

Just having a little fun ...

The Main Event - Part Two

Although we were sad to have not spent as much time as we would have liked in Cape Cod, Gloucester made up for it and then some.

On the way to Gloucester we drove 'under' Boston, and I literally mean under. We thought that was pretty cool and although the traffic was a little heavier in Boston then other areas we had been in, we were glad we saw it.

Another odd thing about MA roads that Adam and I noticed is the Yield signs on the freeway. When merging on you have a very short ramp and a yield sign at the end. I know your suppose to yield no matter what, but geez, give us some room! I guess this is better than the stop lights in CA!

When we got into Gloucester and made it to our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised. The other two hotels we had been in were nothing much and we weren't expecting much from Cape Ann Marina - our expectations were low. But boy oh boy were we surprised! The whole area was beautiful and unique in its own right. Our room was awesome and the view was even better. We wouldn't have wanted to stay anywhere else!

While getting situated in our room, we found that the staff had left us a binder filled with areas beaches, restaurants, etc. for us to look through. This was a HUGE help! From this we decided to go to Stage Fort Park on our first late afternoon/evening.

Stage Fort Park was a huge park that included two different beaches. One was half moon beach and the other one was a beach that was literally covered with rocks (very hard to walk on). Around these beaches were HUGE rocks that we saw people fishing on - which we would do later in the week. The whole area was gorgeous and we knew this was going to be a spot were we would come again.

After walking around the beaches we realized how hungry we were! We always forgot to eat and it really caught up with us so, we went looking for a lobsta deal! We found a nice place called Gloucester House right on the water so we went in and found that they had a $15.99 Lobster deal - we were in.

Adam got the full lobster - I clearly didn't because I am not a seafood kind of girl - but it was fun to see him clean and work on it. From our seats we were able to see the fishing boats and whale watching cruises come in and after we were done eating we went down to the Fishermen's Statue and walked on the pier/dock/or whatever you want to call it. In that moment, when we were walking hand in hand, I realized that I was truly happy and didn't want any of this to end. I always knew I was in love with Adam, but moments like that make you realize just how much someone really means to you. It was an amazing day.

The next morning we headed to Halibut Point State Park in Rockport. It was an amazing drive and we really were sad we didn't end up spending more time in that city. BUT, the park was amazing! When you first walk up to the quarry you don't even think it could be real - it's that beautiful. When you look further, you can also see the Atlantic Ocean - A-MA-ZING.

Unfortunately for us, it was 90 degree weather and we were ill prepared. We should have packed water but we didn't SO although we would have liked to spend some more time there, we were just so incredibly thirsty. We were happy with our choice to go there though and would defiantly go again.

As we were driving back, we were thinking of places where we would be able to fish. Luckily we had a bunch of Gloucester maps and went around looking for a good place. We ended up finding a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road and saw a trail leading somewhere - we, of course, explored and what we found was rocks upon rocks that lined the coastline and there were fishermen scattered throughout. We found our fishing spot. Although this particular trip was pretty unsuccessful, we still found it to be fun and really, quite beautiful.

After that we ended up going to a pizza place for dinner and then walked the town and down by the pier again - with some ice cream thrown in there of course!

The next morning we got up and it was time for a beach day!! We drove over to Good Harbor beach and we were very happy with our choice! Beautiful sand, gorgeous bright blue water, a lagoon of sorts and LOTS of people watching! I did realize that Adam isn't much of a lay down in the sun type of guy BUT he was doing this for me - which was sweet. I didn't want to push my luck with laying out too long so we decided to walk the whole beach - which was pretty hard in the sand! I was sad to leave this place but it was so nice to have gotten to do that!

After the beach we did some touristy things - like Hammond Castle and the Aquarium. We loved Hammond Castle, although it was most likely 100 degrees in there (clearly no AC in the 1800s). We went into every room of the castle and then we ventured outside where Hammond was actually buried. The whole experience was pretty cool and we were able to get some really good views of the Atlantic - this is definitely a place to go see. After the museum, we went to the "Aquarium" - I put these in quotes because it was nothing like what we thought it was going to be. It's just like Adam's station up north but without the Sea Lamprey. It was a learning station pretty much - so it was ok to go too, but not really worth spending money on.

It was now time for fishing! We went back to Stage Fort Park and found some comfortable rocks and fished for hours. This time it was more successful! Adam ended up catching four fish, and although they weren't huge, they were still Ocean fish! We realized it was getting really late so we decided to eat at the Gull restaurant which was located on our hotel premises. It was really nice and although it was super dark, we still were able to get some good views of the water.

The next morning we had to say goodbye to our hotel and move on out. We were heading to NYC this day but we had a few hours to say goodbye. We ended up going back to Stage Fort and fishing for a few hours. We then went back into town and got a few things and headed out. Adam was a god send for driving into the city because I don't think I would have liked it at all.

Of course, Tim, was late - like always and Adam and I were driving aimlessly around Harlem. I could have killed him! We ended up picking Tim up from work and letting him drive back into Harlem. I have to say, I hated his area - scared me to death! His apartment was huge and super nice - but awful area.

That night there wasn't much time to do anything so we ate pizza and watched a movie - the next day was going to be a killer!

After everyone took their showers and got ready for the day, we went into the city. The whole day was filled with site seeing and LOTS of walking - in 90 degree heat! We went to some fabulous restaurants and saw a lot of the city in one day - Tim really did do a good job.

We spent a lot of time in Central Park and I'm super glad we did because I never have in all the times I've been there. It really was beautiful and such a contrast from the city!


After eating lunch we were on a mission to get musical tickets. I think we walked into almost every single musical box office to get tickets but, of course, they were all sold out. I really wanted to see Little Mermaid because Tim's good friend is Ariel in it and I wanted to see her perform but all she would have been able to get us is standing room and I was not going to stand for two and a half hours.

In the end we got tickets to see Shrek the Musical and it was entertaining and I'm glad that we were able to do that because if you're in NYC, you have to see a show.

We got back to Tim's apartment after midnight and Adam and I knew we had to head home the next day. We got up - packed our things - and left.

The ten and a half hours back was sad but since I was with Adam it was great. We had a wonderful trip and can't wait to start planning something new and exciting for next year!