Visiting the Boston Common, Christian Science Plaza, Harvard Art Museums and BU Since we live near Boston the early Fall is a nice time to head into the city to see the sights. The heat and humidity from July and August are gone – as are most of the summer tourists. So, this September we took a few trips into the city to visit the Boston Common, the Christian Science Plaza and Mapparium, and the Harvard Art Museums. Here’s a brief overview of each of these interesting Boston sights. The Boston Common is a public park in the heart of downtown Boston, consisting of 50 acres of land. Founded in 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. During the winter of 1775 and 1776, British soldiers installed artillery entrenchments on the Common, and a garrison of 1,700 Redcoats encamped there. On 24 August 1824 Revolutionary War hero Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Lafayette (the Marquis de Lafayette) celebrated the 50th anniversary of our nation's founding at the Boston Common as part of a 13-month tour of the United States that he took at the invitation of President James Monroe, Although Lafayette had planned to visit only the original 13 colonies, his farewell tour eventually took him to all 24 states. Fun fact: cows were forbidden from grazing on the Common in 1830. Today you can take a Swan Boat ride on the lake, ice skate on the Frog Pond, ride the Carousel, listen to music at the Parkman Bandstand, see the bronze ducks modeled after Robert McCloskey’s famous children's book “Make Way for Ducklings”, play tennis and baseball, or just stroll around and enjoy the grounds and statuary to include:
The Christian Science Plaza is a 13.5-acre site that houses the original Mother Church (built in 1894), the Church Extension (built in 1906), the Christian Science Publishing House, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, a 690 x 100-foot reflecting pool, and the Mapparium. The Mapparium is a three-story stained-glass globe, bisected in the middle by a glass walkway so you can walk inside the globe and see the world in a way that doesn't distort the surface of the Earth. The Mapparium globe shows the world as it was in 1935. So, while the size and position of the continents are correct, the map's political boundaries are long out-of-date. Another interesting phenomenon is that the globe reflects sounds such that while you are standing on the bridge can hear a person from the other end when they whisper. The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985). The main building contains approximately 43,000 square feet dedicated to exhibitions for the ~250,000 objects that the museums possess. The Fogg Museum is renowned for its holdings of Western paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings from the Middle Ages to the present. Particular strengths include Italian Renaissance, British Pre-Raphaelite, and French art of the 19th century, as well as 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and drawings. The Busch-Reisinger Museum is the only museum in North America dedicated to the study of art from the German-speaking countries of Central and Northern Europe in all media and in all periods. The museum holds one of the first and largest collections of artifacts related to the Bauhaus design school (1919–1933) which fostered many developments in modernist design, late medieval sculpture and 18th-century art. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum collection holds important collections of ancient Mediterranean and Byzantine artifacts comprised of significant works in all media from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East to include Greek vases, small bronzes, and coins from throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The museum also specializes in Asian art, most notably, archaic Chinese jades (the widest collection outside of China) and Japanese surimono, as well as outstanding Chinese bronzes, ceremonial weapons, Buddhist cave-temple sculptures, ceramics from China and Korea, Japanese works on paper, and lacquer boxes. In addition, the museum holds works on paper from Islamic lands and India, including paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and manuscript illustrations, with particular strength in Rajput art, as well as important Islamic ceramics from the 8th through to the 19th century. While we were in the area, we also walked along the Charles River and through Boston University (BU) on one of our visits since it was a beautiful day heading into a clear night. Here are a few photos from our various adventures in Boston: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 
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Amazing Sights of the Harvest Super Moon and the Clouds Last night, 17 September 2024, the weather was clear enough to see this month’s Harvest Super Moon – but the clouds were also out - so we saw some really interesting sights as the moon and the clouds interacted. As the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox, this was the Harvest Moon – named as such since during the fall harvest farmers sometimes needed to work late into the night by moonlight. Unlike other full moons, the Harvest Moon rises just after sunset for several consecutive days, creating an extended period of natural light in the early evening. Last night’s moon was also a super moon and the moon appeared particularly large in the sky owing to the coincidence of its closest approach to the earth (the perigee) with a full moon. If you want all of the scientific details, and all the dates, times and distances for full supermoons until the year 2100, Astronomer Fred Espenak has created a table that lists all of them at: Here are some of the photos showing the spectacular sights that we saw last night between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM here on the East Coast: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 23 Days Following the Path of the Vikings We recently made it home from a 22-day trip that followed the path of the Vikings from Amsterdam to Boston. During our trip we traveled over 7,600 nautical miles (~8,700 miles) and visited the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia) and Maine before returning to the US in Boston. During our 21-days on the ship we were very fortunate since the North Atlantic seas, which can be rough, were unusually calm. We couldn’t have asked for a better Trans-Atlantic crossing. In addition to all the sailing, we also hiked all over the locations where we made landfall – through all types of country and urban terrain. The sights that we saw were diverse and amazing: whales, seals, porpoises, puffins, Icelandic Horses, icebergs, geothermal geysers, waterfalls, volcanic craters, the rift between the European and North American tectonic plates, rock formations, world renowned and local art, architecture ranging from Cathedrals to fishing towns, Viking ruins and artifacts, brilliant moonlight nights, and spectacular sunsets that occurred after 11:30 PM. We were lucky enough to even get to Nuuk, the Capital of Greenland. We weren't supposed to stop in Nuuk, but the two scheduled Greenland stops (Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) were iced in, so the ship changed plans and headed to Nuuk (a port that the ship had never been to) instead. We even crossed the Arctic Circle (66 1/3 Degrees North Latitude) and celebrated it with the traditional Polar Bear/Blue Nose ceremony. Having seen lots of Viking artifacts in Norway, Iceland, and Greenland, when we got to Newfoundland we completed our Viking activities by going to L'Anse aux Meadows, the first European settlement in the New World, tied to Lief Erickson and dated to somewhere between 990 and 1050 AD. Here's a map of what our overall trip looked like.  During our 23 days of traveling we visited the following major sites:
As always, we took thousands of photos – so we’ll be editing and posting them as soon as our schedule lets us get around to it. Here are a few teaser photos to give you a brief overview of some of the sights we saw until we get around to posting the photos from each location on our Adventures page. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) The Animals Keep Getting Closer Maybe it’s just me – but sometimes I get the feeling that the “wildlife” in our neighborhood is getting just a little too comfortable around humans. So that you can see what I’m talking about, here are a few photos from the past 12 months of the animals that surround our home - Bears, Bobcats, Cormorants, Coyotes, Deer, Foxes, Fisher Cats, Hawks, Owls, Snakes, Snapping Turtles, Turkeys, Woodchucks, and a Turkey, Duck and Bunny all snacking together. Some of these photos are from our yard, some are from our local walks and hikes, and others are from our neighbors: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) What a Double Header – Seeing the Aurora Borealis and the Space Station on the Same Night We had an amazing coincidence occur earlier this week when, on the night of 11 May 2024, as we were waiting for the Aurora Borealis to appear, the International Space Station (ISS) streaked directly overhead.  The largest man-made object in space, the ISS is 356 feet (109 meters) end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones. The solar array wingspan (356 feet, 109 meters) is longer than the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 (262 feet, 80 meters). In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets at a speed of 17,100 mph (4.76 miles/second). Here’s a short video of what the ISS orbit looks like as it passes 248 miles above the Earth. Note that the highlighted “cone” shows the locations that can see the ISS as it passes by. Because of its size, and the sun’s rays reflecting off its metal hull and solar panels, the ISS is very visible against the night sky – if you know when and where to look for it. Luckily, we knew that the ISS would be passing overhead that night, so we noted the compass directions that it would come from and head off to, and were prepared to look for it at the scheduled orbital pass time.
 Here’s a time sequence photo montage of the ISS passing overhead during the 6 minutes and 34 seconds that it was visible to us.  We even captured a short video of the ISS streaking through the night sky. (click on the arrows to expand the video to full screen since the ISS was shot against the dark night sky) Although we initially headed out for a chance to see the Aurora Borealis, the fact that we saw both the Northern Lights and the ISS passing overhead made for an unforgettable night. The Northern Lights Made a Rare Appearance Here in New England Last night the conditions were good for potentially seeing the Northern Lights here in New England. So, on the night of 10 May 2024, we ventured out in the late evening and luckily got to see some amazing sights between 9:30 PM and 12:30 AM from a variety of locations around our town. Prior to heading out we consulted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/) to check the forecast to find out if the conditions were actually good for seeing the Northern Lights in our area – since they’re the authoritative source for solar and space environment data. 
We also checked our “Sky Live”, “Moon Calendar” and “Lumnos” apps to see what the sky conditions were, the phase of the moon, and the location of the moon in the night sky – and the viewing conditions were excellent. The only odd thing we found was that our cameras “saw” the lights (which are caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth’s electromagnetic field) much better than our eyes. So, we had to shoot lots of photos and then see what showed up on our cameras. Needless to say, we were surprised many times because the faint colors and striations that we saw in the sky were much brighter and more pronounced in the images that our cameras captured. Here's a great write-up by Ewen Bell explaining why this occurs: "Why Auroras Look Different on The Camera" The gallery below shows photos of the Northern Lights that appeared in our town’s skies that night: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 10 Days Seeing Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Belton and the Sights In Between To get 2024 started off on the right foot we took a 10-day trip to Texas; a state that we’ve been to many times before – but not in the past few years. Since Texas is so big we tried to plan out a trip that allowed us to spend more time sightseeing and hiking than driving. To accomplish this, we laid out a triangle – Houston to San Antonio to Austin to Belton and then back to Houston. Everything worked out great. We only had to drive 960 miles. Got to visit several friends. The sights were uncrowded. And the January weather cooperated (with cold and snow arriving in Texas the day after we flew back home). Here's a map of what our overall trip looked like.  During our Texas travels we visited the following major sites:
As always, we took lots of photos – here are a few to give you a taste of what we saw. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) Lots of great sights, outdoor activities and friends. Just what you need to make a wonderful trip. Last Year We Slightly Grew – While increasing the Number of Our Returning ReadersAs with all other websites, during the year we’ve continuously tracked our Hiking, Camping and Shooting (HCS) website traffic ever since we launched it back in 2016. Because we recently finished up 2023, we thought that we would share some of our latest statistics from the year with all of you so that you can see who our readers are, where they’re located and what they read. In 2023 our readership increased by 7% and came from 104 different Countries from around the world. During the year 77% or our readers came from within the United States with 23% coming from the rest of the world. The largest concentrations outside the US were from the following 20 Countries:
  Once again, we had readers from all 50 of the United States - with the largest concentrations being in the following 20 States:
  In 2023 we saw an increase in the number of people reading our blog posts – something we like since it means that people are finding value in the original content that we generated over the year. The 35 pages and blog posts that people read the most during 2023 were:
Since we have readers from around the world - there is constant activity on the site during the day – with no single day really seeing significantly more readers than any other time.  Most of our readers find us either by searching on Google (63%) or by previously having been to our website and coming directly to us (26%). A smaller percentage (11%) find us through other sources to include our Hiking, Camping and Shooting Facebook page.  The majority of our users view our website from either their mobile device (57%) or their desktop computer (41%).  Hopefully this data shows you that in 2023 you were once again in good company as you read through our Hiking, Camping and Shooting gear write-ups and blog posts. We hope that they gave you some information that made all of your adventures a little more fun. Wherever you’re from, we’re glad that you stopped by to look over our HCS website and look forward to seeing you again in 2024 as we grow even larger and add more gear write-ups, blog posts and adventure photos. The Essential Gear and Knowledge That You Need to Prepare for Mishaps in the OutbackAs we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, one of the main reasons that we started our HCS website back in 2016 was to share the knowledge that we had acquired during our many years of Hiking, Camping and Shooting. So we’re always gratified when someone reaches out to us to say that they found our gear evaluation criteria, product information, blogs, adventure photos, "Useful Apps", and "Other Helpful Information Sources" links to be helpful. In that vein, this week, Marc and his son Tyler (who is in the process of earning his Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge) dropped us a note to say that they found our site to be helpful. And, as with many contacts that we receive, Tyler wanted to “pay it forward” by letting us know about another great online resource that he had found; an article from Advantis Medical on “First Aid and Outdoor Recreation”.  Since we’re always looking for additional information, we checked out the article. The article starts out with 9 paragraphs discussing a few of the most significant First Aid risks that you can face when hiking - at a high level:
But the real payoff of the article is the fact that it has links to 14 other webpages that cover a wide variety of wilderness First Aid topics from a broad set of viewpoints. So it’s a great starting point to jump off from.
For us the topic of First Aid is so important that we have different gear for Hiking and Camping and Disaster Preparedness – since because Camping normally includes getting further from civilization, staying overnight and making meals outdoors, the level of activities and risk increases, and in Disasters there are more extenuating circumstances that require additional supplies. So, if you’re interested in relooking your First Aid gear and knowledge before you head out into the wilderness again you should take a look at some of this material. I know that with these resources Tyler won’t have any problem obtaining his Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. Improving Our “Carry and Defend” and “Defensive Shooting” Skills During the past month we took two shooting classes with Bill Dalpe from Patriot Firearms School & Defense: “Carry and Defend 1.0” and “AR-15 Defensive Shooting”. Both of the classes were worthwhile since they helped us practice and hone our existing skills and taught us some new techniques.  The Description for the Carry and Defend class was: Elevate your live fire skills beyond the static draw and shoot format. To achieve this we will expose you to neurological conditioning linking your basic skills (physical) to in context (your brain) realistic training. This better prepares you to use these skills under dynamic stress. Become an efficient defender for yourself and your family. The following topics are covered:
The Description for the AR-15 Defensive Shooting class was: This Patriot AR-15 Defensive Shooting class is designed to expose students to an efficient method of defending themselves with an AR-15 during a dynamic critical incident. All of the principles and fundamentals of the USCCA AR-15 Shooting Fundamentals program are applied. The following topics are covered:
If you are interested in seeing what classes Bill has to offer you should check it out at Patriot Firearms School & Defense LLC. |
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