Becky's photoblog

We have been out to Worcester several times in the last year or so, and yet we haven’t been to the Worcester Art Museum in a long time (since we first got together). What else is there to do but go to a museum on a rainy three-day weekend when football isn’t on til later in the afternoon?

I’ve eaten about a million tuna melts, but never a crab melt … until a few days ago. Turns out, it’s delicious. Three days in Maine, three crab melts. This one was the best: crab meat slaw, melted havarti and avocado at Robert’s Maine Grill right by the Kittery Outlets.

I had set my alarm so that I could get up nice and early to see the sunrise again — this time even earlier so I could walk to a spot along the Marginal Way that I had picked out the day before for optimal sunrise viewing — but my alarm didn’t go off! Instead Brian somehow woke me up just in time, and after bundling up (it was 20 degrees), I headed up to my spot … completely worth it. Absolutely, incredibly, fabulously gorgeous sunrise.

I woke up early to see the sunrise, and I was rewarded with some absolutely gorgeous colors. After breakfast, we took a nice long walk to on end of the Marginal Way, right near where we stayed in 2007. It was a clear day, and the ocean was a gorgeous shade of blue, so we took a lot of pictures of waves and rocks.

 

We absolutely loved our stay at the Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, Maine. It’s a handful of buildings right along the coast with lots of porches and balconies for looking out at the ocean, a cozy little room for breakfast, a patio with a fire pit, and a kick-ass Christmas tree made out of lobster traps.

Since we had such an incredible view of the ocean, I wanted to see the sunrise. I set my alarm, woke up, saw that the sky and the ocean were the exact same shade of completely gray, and went back to bed. We headed down to Kittery, Maine for the outlet stores (seriously killer post-Christmas deals), had a late lunch, then headed back to the Beachmere Inn for an afternoon walk along the Marginal Way. We saw pretty much the same thing we saw yesterday … waves crashing on rocks … but since the light was a bit different, and it was still spectacularly beautiful, we took a bunch of pictures.

I needed to spend a few days curled up with a book somewhere extremely beautiful, so we booked three nights at the Beachmere Inn. The Beachmere is one of the few places in Ogunquit, Maine that is actually open in December. Oqunquit is a tourist town, filled with shops, galleries, restaurants, a gazillion inns, and an extraordinarily beautiful stretch of coastline.

In October 2007, right around the time I started dating this handsome fella who is now my husband, I spent a weekend in Ogunquit with my family. My first ever photoblog post was from that weekend. I have been wanting to show Brian this beautiful place, so even though December is not the most ideal time to go to Maine, we spent three days taking pictures of waves crashing on rocks, and it was perfect.

We arrived around 3pm, dumped our bags and headed straight to the Marginal Way, the walk-way along the coast, just a few steps from our room. It was supposed to be overcast the next few days, and I was hoping for a colorful sunset. Here are our photos from that evening.

We stopped for a delicious lunch in Portsmouth, NH on our way up to Maine.

For a few minutes, the sun is at just the right angle that it comes in through the front window and straight down the hall. A wonderful sight to wake up to on my second day of vacation

The house is just about ready for our first time hosting Christmas Eve dinner

The Old South Ringers is Old South Church’s handbell choir, and the put on an amazing Christmas concert. It’s incredibly beautiful (the music and the setting), and this has become one of my favorite holiday traditions.

I’m going to be doing a painting of a bride on her wedding day, and her big day finally arrived! I had a wonderful afternoon walking through the North End to Battery Wharf, which happens to be one of my favorite places in Boston (and not just because it has a wonderful view across the harbor to the Hyatt where we were married). The bridal suite at the Fairmont Battery Wharf is literally right at the end of the wharf, and it has some really incredible views. I had the honor of hanging out with the wedding party during some of the formal photos, as well as with my friend, the mother of the bride. We took some really wonderful photos for the painting, and I can’t wait to get started!

After we were done with the photos, I walked back through the North End to head home for a quick change before heading back out again to see Fitz and the Tantrums at the House of Blues! Great show.

The tree outside of my office.

While we were near Dulles for a lovely family occasion, we spent the afternoon at the Udvar-Hazy Center, a companion facility to the National Air & Space Museum. I’ve never been to the actual Air & Space Museum in DC, but this place is absolutely enormous, with a gajillion vehicles that have actually traveled in air and in space and it was absolutely spectacular.

Three highlights: seeing the actual Enola Gay, seeing the actual Discovery Shuttle, and seeing the look on my husband’s face when he saw the SR-71 Blackbird.

Gorgeous day

We’ve only had two wedding anniversaries, but we also celebrate the anniversary of when we got together … seven years ago today. We had a lovely evening wandering around the city, starting in the Public Gardens, then up Charles Street to the Liberty Hotel for dinner, back down Charles Street, to Newbury Street where we saw a sukkah in front of Emmanuel Church, then we passed through Copley Square on our way home.

The view of Bay State Road (in the foreground), the Charles River and Cambridge from a 5th floor conference room.

We wanted to see some colorful New Hampshire leaves, and it had been too long since we’d seen Sara and Eric, so we made some last-minute plans and drove to Keene, NH. We had an incredible brunch at the Stage Restaurant, wandered around for a bit, then headed over to Mt. Pitcher and walked to the top for some incredible views!

 

I had about an hour to kill before our pre Yom Kippur dinner, and I needed to clear my head after a long week, so I took a walk around the Fenway neighborhood and found myself wandering through the Fenway Victory Gardens: “the oldest continuously operating Word War II Victory Gardens in the United States, spanning 7.5 acres with over 500 gardens.” Who knew?

The gardens are part of a park that’s about half way between Boston University and the Gardner Museum … two places that are a 15 minute walk apart, and where I have spent a lot of my time in the past 8 years … and yet I have never wandered yet another one of Boston’s incredibly little hidden gems.

The Fenway Victory Gardens are truly beautiful and bizarre. It’s one little secret garden after another along narrow dirt paths, each garden with it’s incredibly unique and often strange qualities. You can feel like you’re alone and lost (in a good/peaceful way) among the endless rows of gardens, and yet you can hear traffic not too far away, you can see nearby apartments, and you can see nearby landmarks such as the Prudential Tower. The contrast made this oasis of calm and quiet even more beautiful. In many cases, it’s clear that the gardens are not just places to grow plants and produce, but also places for peaceful personal reflections. Many of the gardens featured wandering paths, sitting nooks and an enormous variety of personal touches.

 

Brian went to MIT’s annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch while I went to a lecture at the Gardner Museum. I was bummed to miss out of pretty shiny things and family time, but it was a great lecture.

Here’s my photoblog post from when we went to this together last year.

Photo by Brian D.

So good to catch up with the beautiful Fiorentino family at the Harvard Fall Festival!

Lovely day for a wedding at Brooksby Farm in Peabody … I had the honor of assisting the wedding photographer!