In June of 2002, husband Paul and I took a trip by car to New York City. We were attending my cousin’s wedding in Nova Scotia that month, so we settled on a plan to extend our vacation afterwards and to take in some of Maine and Massachusetts on our way to the Big Apple.

With our plan already in place when 9/11 happened, we thought about cancelling the U.S. leg of the trip, but ultimately decided to go anyway. No trouble to notice the absence of the Twin Towers in the photo above, as well as the absence of the new Freedom Tower.
I will never forget our visit to Ground Zero.


In retrospect, I’m glad we didn’t cancel. It was a memorable experience all around.
*Photo Challenge: Cityscape by Nancy Merrill Photography


In a fishing village like Newtown, you will often see brightly-painted buoys adorning fences, rails and walls, particularly in summer.


While buoys of all types are still used for fishing. . .

. . . many are adapted solely for decoration.

When creating the title for this post, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Don Henley song, The Boys of Summer.

Hello, my peeps! Apparently it’s my 13th birthday today, so I guess I have cause to celebrate.



























