Lillypads and tree reflections in a pond at October Mountain State Forest, where we stayed a night on the way to Boston.
 
 
 

Near the above pond we found a big web belonging to this spider, who we suspect had just eaten a bumble bee.
 
 
 

We stopped to see Amanda's alma mater, Smith College.  This building is a dorm she lived in.
 
 
 

Amanda on a bridge near falls on campus.
 
 
 

Whale watching cruise on a day trip to Cape Cod, the humpbacks' spray looked nice (note the rainbow) but smelled really bad.
 
 
 

The oddest looking fish in the world, a mola mola (head on right side): tough-skinned jellyfish eater, looks like a floating fried egg several feet across.
 
 
 

The whales made rings of bubbles to trap fish, the glided along the surface to scoop them up, and gulls tried to steal a few.
 
 
 

A friend of Amanda's from college who came with us to Cape Cod, Kiersten watches the sun go down from the boat.
 
 

We stayed in Amanda's sister's vacant apartment in the upper crust Boston neighborhood of Beacon Hill.
 
 
 

Views of sailboats and skyline while taking a walk along the Charles River.
 
 
 

We stop and make use of the camera's timer feature.
 
  

 
Amanda in front of a flower shop, Faneuil Hall, and skyscrapers.
 
 
 
 

We journeyed next to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  Here we paddled along Willoughby Cliffs.
 
 
 
 
 
  The next day we hiked up those cliffs.  Here's the view from the mountain summit - note the dragonfly (top left quadrant).
 
 
 
 

At the mountaintop, another hiker tamed this chipmunk with a peanut (my camera does not zoom, I'm really this close).
 
 
 
 
 
The view from a clifftop vista, looking down the lake.
 
 
 
 
 
From the same lookout, Amanda being statuesque.  Our campsite was near her elbow.
 
 
 
 
 
We rented mountain bikes in East Burke and rode the Kingdom Trails.
 
 
 
 

After driving through Northern Vermont and stopping at Burlington for dinner, we saw this sunset over Lake Champlain.
 
 
 
 

The same sunset, with intricate cloud formations, seen from the Crown Point bridge from Vermont into New York.