East Coast Trip

We recently spent seven days on a trip to eastern locations (five days involved driving!). The primary motivation was to attend a wedding reception for Jessica and Mike at Mike's parents home. We decided to take advantage of the trip to visit friends in New Jersey as well and to see my sister and brother-in-law at their convenient midpoint location in Ohio. Somehow, I failed to take any pictures at the reception or at my sister's home, but I can tell you a bit about our visits in New Jersey and to Harpers Ferry, WV, which is near Mike's parents home.

We visited good friends David and Robert at their second home in Highlands, NJ. Mostly, we just "hung out" and relaxed, but David, Kathie and I did go for a morning stroll. The Highlands bridge is being rebuilt, and I knew that grandson Henry would want to see the crane, so I took some shots of that. If you look closely, you can see David and Kathie in the lower right corner as they study the crane.

The old draw bridge is being replaced by twin higher spans that will allow water vessels to pass below without traffic being stopped.

David and Kathie posed for me near an old anchor.

Then, David and I took a turn.

Finally, one of Kathie and me to make all combinations complete.

Above David and Robert's home are the twin lights of Navasink, about which you can read more here. We have toured these famous twin lights in the past. They are housed in a gorgeous old stone building, and there is a museum with lots of information about Fresnel lenses and other lighthouse lore.

A little further along our walk, we paused to look at the New York City skyline across the water to the north of Highlands.

Here is a view from their living room looking east across their deck and out into the Atlantic Ocean. The deck is a wonderful place to hot tub, enjoy a drink or a meal or the evening breezes, and to see the night sky and passing ships.

One evening, the moon rose above the ocean and was a bright red/orange color. I attempted to capture the sight, but the time exposure was tricky, so the quality of the image is poor. Most of the distant lights are party boats or fishing boats out in the Atlantic.

Robert prepared an outstanding meal of shrimp, scallops, and couscous, which we enjoyed on the deck.

The next two days were spent in Maryland at Mike's parents home. Kathie and I took advantage of a free morning to visit the Harpers Ferry National Park. This small, historic community is in a spectacular geologic and geographic location at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. Mountains and hills in the Appalachian range rise on all sides of the rivers and the town.

A park volunteer offered us a walking tour, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was hot that day--in the low 90s.

Harpers Ferry has, not surprisingly, flooded many times.

Here is the original main street.

I knew of Harpers Ferry's Civil War involvement, but there is much more history associated with the community as well. Lewis and Clark did part of their outfitting there. The many factories and mills that were once there were the site of the original introduction of interchangeable parts for manufactured items, and the town hosted a school/college for freed black persons after the war.

Of course, the most famous and well-known aspect of Harpers Ferry's history was the John Brown raid that preceded the Civil War by about 18 months. This spot marks the location of the building in which the abolitionist and his sons and others tried to hold out against the town and the army. He had come there to attempt to take control of the armory and its cache of weapons in order to build up an army aimed at defeating slavery.

This is the actual building in which that holdout took place. It was moved to a different location for various reasons, but the intent is to finally relocate it to the original historic spot just about a block away. Brown's efforts failed when Colonel Robert E. Lee (then a Union soldier) led a company of marines to Harpers Ferry to overpower and take him prisoner. Brown was later hanged by the Commonwealth of Virginia for treason. Harpers Ferry and all of what is now West Virginia was then still a part of Virginia.