Rockingham Park

Rockingham Park in Salem, NH features harness racing. They race trotting or pacing Standardbred horses hooked up to small carts apposed to galloping Thoroughbreds with their typical saddle riders. The Standardbred was developed in America and has a strong build and a good character. The races are one after the other at the Park so there's not too much down time and bets are taken inside. The horses look like they are not overworked which is important to me and they are just a ball to watch. I love them! Their names kill me too: "He's a Player", "Ask for Bliss, "Frankly Fit", and my favorite "Aim for the Stars".

The photos below were taken with my film BlackSlim Devil camera.

DC Trip

I went to DC recently for the second time and I highly recommend visiting. The monuments and federal buildings are gorgeous in person and the Smithsonian museums are just incredible, not to mention free. There are some nice restaurants and bars in the area as well. Places that get extra kudos: Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Arlington Cemetery and of course the National Mall.

Botanical Garden

Lost ducks we found under a car

Korean War Memorial

Watergate

Arlington

Piano at the American Art Museum

Pompeii at the American Art Museum

American Art Museum

Adams Memorial, by Augustus Sain-Gaudens 1886

“Clover” Adams, wife of the writer Henry Adams, committed suicide in 1885 by drinking chemicals used to develop photographs. Adams, who steadfastly refused to discuss his wife’s death, commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a memorial that would express the Buddhist idea of nirvana, a state of being beyond joy and sorrow.

Winter in VT After Christmas

I spent several days way up in northern Vermont, having the luxuries of civilization provided not by basic electricity but by my dad's array of generators, inverters, solar panels, and who knows what else. I went snowshoeing with my mom and the dog which was fun until I fell through the ice of the pond up to my knees. We came up to what looked like a dip in the snow where a river fed into the pond and when I tried to jump over it I just kind of slid down and once I hit the ice I just kept going. I was stuck pretty good since I couldn't get a grip on anything. When I got out my toes were about as freezing as they have ever been but as far as those kinds of experiences go it wasn't that bad.

We went snowmobiling a couple days too. We came across a whole herd of deer on the trail and followed them for a ways. They were the biggest deer I had ever seen and their coats were a deep red with snow white patches.