I managed to haul my carcass out the door again this morning for the second time in a row. I’ve got a number of good results but will have to process them at a later date. So much to see and do here – no time to process photos. A good problem to have!
Kathy and I took a whale watch cruise this afternoon out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. We love seeing the big whales in person and were not disappointed with this trip. I have a tough time taking good photos on cruises like this, because there are so many people jockeying for position whenever a whale is spotted. I much prefer the smaller, more intimate vessels, but they are tougher to come buy and usually much more expensive. We did see some whales, and I got a few photos. Although I did decide to spring the $20 to but the photos from our naturalist/photographer on board!
I set the alarm for an early exploration of Rockport. It seems that in order to walk around town in the morning here it is a requirement to have at least one dog. I guess that’s what you do in the winter if you don’t drink whiskey. 😉
Motif #1, located on Bradley Wharf in the harbor town of Rockport, Massachusetts, is a replica of a former fishing shack well known to students of art and art history as “the most often-painted building in America.” The original structure was built in 1840 and destroyed in the Blizzard of 1978, but an exact replica was constructed that same year.
Enroute today from Hyannis to Rockport, Massachusetts, we made a stop in Plymouth to see the Mayflower II. We didn’t go aboard, but got some good views from the shore. We also saw the so-called “Plymouth Rock.”
I wasn’t able to determine the significance of the photographs on the side of this building but will do more research when I get home.
Update 9/19/21:
Thanks to my lovely and talented research assistant, I was able to gather the following description:
“They Also Faced The Sea” installation was designed to keep the spirit and the presence of Portuguese culture alive by Ewa Nogiec, artist, publisher of iamprovincetown.com and owner of Gallery Ehva, and Norma Holt, photographer.
The installation of five larger-than-life black and white photographs of Provincetown women of Portuguese descent, mounted on a building at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf in Provincetown Harbor, is conceived as a tribute to the Portuguese community and its fishing heritage.
Norma Holt’s photographs from Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum collection of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral and Frances Raymond, are meant to represent all of the women of Provincetown who over the years have been the backbone of this vital fishing village. They came from a long line of hard-working people, immigrating mostly from the Azores and mainland Portugal. Their families fished the waters off Cape Cod for over 200 years, built a major fish packing and distribution industry and made an important contribution to the history and culture of Provincetown.
Portuguese women faced the sea in many ways: as mothers, wives, sisters, friends and family of fishermen, as cooks, laundresses, nurses, teachers and telephone operators. They kept the culture alive, sang the songs, danced the dances, buried the dead, gave birth, cooked and kept the church at the center of their lives. Above all, they were resilient through good times and bad, their strength and courage easily matching and supporting that of their male seafaring counterparts.
More information can be found here: https://www.iamprovincetown.com/PortugueseWomen/
There is a large Portuguese population in Provincetown, and this artwork commemorates the contribution of the Portuguese women to the seafaring history of the area.
Another state in the books! Beautiful country along Cape Cod, more exploring to do tomorrow.
In order to show that I did, in fact, get my self out of bed at a photographically productive hour, here are a few photos from around town this morning. Sunrise was 6:23 and I was out the door about 6:10, uncharacteristically early for me without a good reason. Fortunately I got some pretty decent results!
And yes, I did take a photograph of Mystic Pizza, although we haven’t eaten there. 😉
I’m caught up with my postcards but don’t expect to stay that way. We start the “New England” part of our journey today and have a lot we want to see. The good part is that we will be staying multiple nights in each location from here out, so hopefully there will be some time for processing.
The Narragansett Towers, built in 1883, are the only remaining part of the original Narragansett Pier Casino. One of the most recognizable landmarks in Narragansett, The Towers currently hosts weddings, dances, dinners, plays, and fashion shows. Its location, adjacent to Narragansett town beach, makes it an ideal venue for social events.
Scranton, Pennsylvania is known as The Electric City due to its early adoption of electric lighting in 1881. The sign is located atop the Scranton Electric Building in downtown Scranton. We spent our second night out at the Radisson Hotel, located in the former Lackawanna Railway Passenger Station. I have photos of that too, which will come later. 😉
Kathy and I embarked this past Friday on our Great New England Road Trip, spending our first night in a very non-New England (but still lovely) Staunton, Virginia. Beverly Street in downtown Staunton, Virginia (pronounced ‘Stanton’) is blocked off so restaurants can do outdoor dining. I shot this after dinner at Emilio’s, an excellent Italian restaurant located on the street behind my vantage point for this shot.
The photo is a teensy bit soft as it was taken handheld at 0.8 seconds, ISO 6400. 😉