Boston Road Trip
The Lancaster team soon got bored and decided on another road trip; a longer one this time. The Boston trip was easily one of the most consuming trips I had. The drive alone was 8 hours. We dropped by a couple of hotspots within the vicinity.
Cape Cod
It's interesting to see so many shops still "Closed for the Season". When we were there, it was the first day of operation for almost a quarter of the shops there. Cape Cod is basically a small and somehwhat sleepy fishery town. I suppose the highlight of this place was the lobster meal we had for lunch.
Nice view of the cape
A local church
Nike commercial wannabe
the sky, the sea and the sand
the gang
Salem
Now this is the interesting one. In the eve of the 16th century, the Witch Hysteria outbreak disrupted an otherwise peaceful town. It started with a few teenage girls hallucinating and behaving crazily. Before long, these girls started accusing some townsfolks for bewitching them, which started the hyteria. Innocents were hanged. Those who pleaded guilty were set free if they name someone else who practice witchcraft. It was a period of distrust and backstabbing in Salem. By the time the hysteria was over, 19 have been sentenced to death.
Many years later, the girls who started the hysteria admitted that it was all a hoax. But what motivated them to play such a deadly prank? One of the most likely theories said the unusually high humidity during that period caused a certain fungus "Ergot of Rye" to grow on the townspeople break. This fungus is the origin of our modern day drug, LSD.
Cat and Weijia on the softtoys
Salem graveyard
names of the dead
official mascot of Salem
mirror mirror on the wall
the Hogsworth's graduating class of 2006
trinkets outside the Witch Museum
the gallows, the executioner and the prisoners
Pickering Wharf
Took a short drive to Pickering Wharf. Since it was pretty much rainy, we couldn't do much except taking a few photos beside the ship "Friendship of Salem".
the historical ship
Adrain on board the ship
By the time the rain actually stopped, most of the shops had closed. Disappointed, we headed back.
Being the photographer, I was the permanently the one walking furthest behind. Just after I took the above shot, I turned back for one last look....
....lo and behold, I saw one of the most beautiful rainbows I had ever seen in my entire life. Everyone stopped short and ran back to the river. It was a full semi-circle, completely surrounding the ship, and there were 2 of them - one rainbow on top of each other. Because we were so near to it, we couldn't capture the entire thing within one camera shot. In the end we took 7-8 shots hoping to capture parts of it. After spending one entire night, I managed to stich the shots we had, and it looked something like this.
One of the most beautiful moments of my life. Too bad the second rainbow was not really captured.
Salem II
This is definitely one of the stories I would tell my grandchildren next time - going on a ghost trail. The was a resident certified ghost hunter who put together a special program to trace all the underworld activity going on in Salem. Apparently we were in the right place at the right time, since the solar eclipse that happened 2 days ago was supposed to stir up electromagnetic activites around the area (ghosts are explained as a scientific phenomena here).
These "activities" appear in 3 forms.
Apparently some nasty spiritual activities were capture on this spot by the guide himself
Another alley with lots of "activities"
The spot that used to be the old prison for accused witches
The tour ended with the tour guide showing us some photos he took.
Boston
Finally, the place where this trip was named after. Typical of an American city - lots of
skyscrapers and bustling with people.
Stopped by a church to have a look at the pre-service preparation. Interestingly, this church had a long history, a huge pipe organ and a full-fledge gospel choir with services in 6 different languages; but the total membership was still smaller than FCBC.
Gospel choir rehearsal
lots of sky-scrapers
a nice arch beside the harbour
Cat, Adrain and Shamir having a good time
Cape Cod
It's interesting to see so many shops still "Closed for the Season". When we were there, it was the first day of operation for almost a quarter of the shops there. Cape Cod is basically a small and somehwhat sleepy fishery town. I suppose the highlight of this place was the lobster meal we had for lunch.
Nice view of the cape
A local church
Nike commercial wannabe
the sky, the sea and the sand
the gang
Salem
Now this is the interesting one. In the eve of the 16th century, the Witch Hysteria outbreak disrupted an otherwise peaceful town. It started with a few teenage girls hallucinating and behaving crazily. Before long, these girls started accusing some townsfolks for bewitching them, which started the hyteria. Innocents were hanged. Those who pleaded guilty were set free if they name someone else who practice witchcraft. It was a period of distrust and backstabbing in Salem. By the time the hysteria was over, 19 have been sentenced to death.
Many years later, the girls who started the hysteria admitted that it was all a hoax. But what motivated them to play such a deadly prank? One of the most likely theories said the unusually high humidity during that period caused a certain fungus "Ergot of Rye" to grow on the townspeople break. This fungus is the origin of our modern day drug, LSD.
Cat and Weijia on the softtoys
Salem graveyard
names of the dead
official mascot of Salem
mirror mirror on the wall
the Hogsworth's graduating class of 2006
trinkets outside the Witch Museum
the gallows, the executioner and the prisoners
Pickering Wharf
Took a short drive to Pickering Wharf. Since it was pretty much rainy, we couldn't do much except taking a few photos beside the ship "Friendship of Salem".
the historical ship
Adrain on board the ship
By the time the rain actually stopped, most of the shops had closed. Disappointed, we headed back.
Being the photographer, I was the permanently the one walking furthest behind. Just after I took the above shot, I turned back for one last look....
....lo and behold, I saw one of the most beautiful rainbows I had ever seen in my entire life. Everyone stopped short and ran back to the river. It was a full semi-circle, completely surrounding the ship, and there were 2 of them - one rainbow on top of each other. Because we were so near to it, we couldn't capture the entire thing within one camera shot. In the end we took 7-8 shots hoping to capture parts of it. After spending one entire night, I managed to stich the shots we had, and it looked something like this.
One of the most beautiful moments of my life. Too bad the second rainbow was not really captured.
Salem II
This is definitely one of the stories I would tell my grandchildren next time - going on a ghost trail. The was a resident certified ghost hunter who put together a special program to trace all the underworld activity going on in Salem. Apparently we were in the right place at the right time, since the solar eclipse that happened 2 days ago was supposed to stir up electromagnetic activites around the area (ghosts are explained as a scientific phenomena here).
These "activities" appear in 3 forms.
- Orbs (bright perfectly-shaped spheres)
- Ectomorphs (semi-solid shapes)
- Apparation (takes on a tangible figures, like a face or object)
- Maximum exposure
- Maximum ISO setting
- Maximum shutter / aperture setting to get a decent non-blurred photo
Apparently some nasty spiritual activities were capture on this spot by the guide himself
Another alley with lots of "activities"
The spot that used to be the old prison for accused witches
The tour ended with the tour guide showing us some photos he took.
Boston
Finally, the place where this trip was named after. Typical of an American city - lots of
skyscrapers and bustling with people.
Stopped by a church to have a look at the pre-service preparation. Interestingly, this church had a long history, a huge pipe organ and a full-fledge gospel choir with services in 6 different languages; but the total membership was still smaller than FCBC.
Gospel choir rehearsal
lots of sky-scrapers
After we got bored of all the city sight, we went to the the harbour. It was a perfect sunny day at the pier with seagulls soaring, private yatches sailing, people having coffee beside the sea...this is life.
a nice arch beside the harbour
Cat, Adrain and Shamir having a good time
Enjoying the breeze
one day, I will own one of these
shot across the other end of the harbour
one day, I will own one of these
shot across the other end of the harbour
posted by Wayne at
9:00 PM
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