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Boston-Portsmouth Air Show Weekend

Jonathan — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:39:34 +0000

This weekend David and Christopher came out to visit and go to the air show at Pease. The weather was perfect and we all had a great weekend.

On Thursday night I picked them up from the train station at Exeter, NH and went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Delicious!

I took a day’s vacation on Friday and we went to the Hampton Airfield Café for breakfast and then watched the aircraft take off and land. After breakfast we headed over to Pease to see if we could catch a glimpse of some aircraft arriving for the weekends air show. We were able to watch for around 5 minutes before the police started moving people on.

In the afternoon we drove up to York to see York Beach and the Nubble Light. We stayed around York for most of the afternoon before returning home for a BBQ.

On Saturday and Sunday we went to the Airshow at Pease. The weather was great and we saw a great deal of aircraft both on the ground and in the air. I was lucky enough to sit in the pilot seat of a Delta Airlines 757 as well as a KC-135, an aircraft I have seen a lot at Pease over the last couple of years. We also toured a KC-10. The air display included an F-16, F-15, F/A-18 as well as the Blue Angels and the Brazilian Air force Smoke Squadron.

Here are some pictures from the air show, with captions where possible:

F-16 Fighting Falcon

U.S. Navy Blue Angels

U.S. Navy Blue Angels flying past the tail of a Boeing 757

U.S. Navy Blue Angels

U.S. Navy Blue Angel

Air show crowds taking shelter from the sun underneath an A-10.

Taken onboard a KC-135 looking back towards a KC-10.

Flight controls inside a KC-135.

Looking out of the KC-135 towards F-15′s and F-16′s

F/A-18 Hornet

F-15 Strike Eagle

Turtles

Jonathan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:31:41 +0000

The turtles were out sunbathing again a few days ago on the wetlands near our house. We have seen them a lot this summer but on this day we saw more than usual. They are quite nervy so I had to be quick to snap some pictures of them before they noticed me and made their escape.

Cape Cod – Part 4 – Bass Hole

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:40:02 +0000

One of the places we returned to regularly during our stay in South Yarmouth was Bass Hole. It was undoubtedly one of the best places in the cape to see the sunset. The boardwalk extends over a marshy creek and provided fantastic views of the wetlands.

Here are some pictures I took at Bass Hole during our time in Cape Cod:

Cape Cod – Part 3 – Sandwich

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:54:42 +0000

Meghan and I returned home on the Wednesday for work but the lure of spending another couple of days down in Cape Cod was too much! We drove back down on Friday night to surprise the family and spend the weekend there.

On Saturday we spent most of the day in Sandwich, the oldest town in Cape Cod.

Dexter Grist Mill. The oldest on Cape Cod:

Sandwich is famous for “Sandwich Glass”. We didn’t do the tour of the factory or see any of the glass blowing but I took this picture in the shop while I cooled off in the air conditioning!

The Sandwich Boardwalk. In 1991 Hurricane Bob destroyed the boardwalk. Individuals and businesses donated planks to rebuild the boardwalk. Each plank has the name of the person or business who donated it, some have jokes, others a saying or memorial. The boardwalk leads to Town Neck Beach.

It was another beautiful day in Cape Cod!

Cape Cod – Part 2 – Route 6a, Provincetown and Plymouth

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:06:00 +0000

On Tuesday we drove scenic route 6a from South Yarmouth to Provincetown. On the way we stopped at the Salt Pond Visitors Center which had a lovely view of the pond.

Marconi Beach in Wellfleet. Where Marconi successfully completed the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U.S. and England in 1903.

Church of St. Mary of the Harbor, Provincetown, MA:

The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown:

The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown. Dad and I climbed it to check out the views from the top. It was hot and humid and pretty much wiped us out!

The view looking down the cape from the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, MA:

The following day, Meghan and I returned home to NH for a couple of days. On the way home we stopped off in Plymouth to see the famous Plymouth Rock where the Mayflower landed in 1620.

Cape Cod – Part 1 – Martha’s Vineyard

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:41:47 +0000

It’s been a while since my last post, 44 days in fact so it’s well and truly time to catch up. My parents and brother were out to visit us in July for two weeks and for the first week of their visit we stayed with them in their rented house down in Cape Cod. The weather was beautiful, if a little humid and we got to see plenty during our stay.

On Monday July 12th we took a boat ride from Hyannis to Martha’s Vineyard. We spent most of the day walking the island taking in the interesting buildings and beautiful beaches and parks.

I took this picture as we departed from Hyannis Port:

A nesting Osprey on our way into Martha’s Vineyard:

A park in Oak Bluffs close to where we docked:

Cape Cod is full of beautiful Hydrangea’s. This was in someones front yard:

The beach at Martha’s Vineyard:

Martha’s Vineyard was very beautiful and it’s definitely on our list to go back and do again some day, with a longer stay so we can explore other areas of the island.

C-5 Galaxy at Pease

Jonathan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:23:06 +0000

A C-5 was doing some low fly by’s and touch and go’s at Pease today. I went down at lunch time and shot some video of it from both ends of the airport.

Nesting Robins

Jonathan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:07:18 +0000

We were out enjoying the memorial day sun today and got watching a robin collecting food for her nesting chicks. She was going back and forth between our lawn and her nest under our deck with plenty of treats for her little chicks. I shot some video of the robin on our lower deck and then used a ladder to get a little closer to the nest.

The American Robin is not as cute as it’s European counterpart and is actually a member of the thrush family. The two types of robin are not closely related.

Pulpit Rock Tower

Jonathan — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:37:13 +0000

In Honour of Memorial Day, the “Friends of Pulpit Rock Tower” and “The NH Fish and Game Dept.” opened up the WW2 Pulpit Rock Tower in Rye, NH. The tower was built during WW2 to help defend the New Hampshire coastline and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The tower was opened once last year but had been cleaned and restored to open today for Memorial Day. The tower may be opened again this year for July 4th.

The tower was 7 stories and provided some good views of the NH coastline looking south.

A video clip of inside the tower:

Summer Sun Photos on WMUR News at 6

Jonathan — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:11:13 +0000

During my lunch break yesterday I drove down to Wallis Sands Beach to take some photos of the beach goers enjoying the spring heatwave. I submitted them to WMUR and they were shown yesterday afternoon on the 6 o’clock news!

Here is a clip: