July 31, 2007

Land of Patriots and Red Coats - Boston

Boston is the "Cradle of Liberty" and the place where ideas for the American Revolution were first pre-conceived. It is rich in American colonial history... where Patriots staged the "Boston Tea Party" and Red Coats battled on Bunker Hill. It is the place where the spirit of "No Taxation without Representation" originated.

Boston is home to the USS Constitution, old Gothic churches and the first public school in America. Boston is Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, JFK, Mitt Romney, Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and 60 colleges of higher learning.

Freedom Trail



Site Meter












Beacon Hill and "Where everybody knows your name......"













1) Faneuil Hall is the first American architecturally-designed building formally designed by architect-painter, John Smibert in 1742 2) Faneuil Hall in 1776















1) The Big Dig ..... Engineering mess or marvel? 2) The Big Dig Administrators' Building



















Colorful Boston








The Traveler at the Boston Architecture Center










1) Trinity Church 2) Old South Church 3) Granary Burial Ground























Organic and Orgasmic Food Experience?? (see last food review at the bottom of glass window of restaurant in the Italian North End) and Chanterelle Mushroom at US$40/lb















Red Coats marching by Paul Revere's House....



Jewish Holocaust Memorial..... Poignant and Provoking!
















1) Malaysian cuisine in Boston - Penang Restaurant 2)Ye' Old Irish Pub



The Road to Harvard






















Cambridge


VE RI TAS - To Harvard Prospect/MBA Wannabes: If you don't know what "Ve Ri Tas" means or what language it is, don't bother applying for admission.... you will never get accepted!!


















Mr. John Harvard and his Yard on campus





Cape Cod

From Manhattan, I drove through 4 different states (New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts) to reach Cape Cod. The New England countryside is typical anglican.... reminiscene of the old motherland. The houses are quaint, white and cape-cod type. "Kennedy" is a household name here especially in Hyannisport and Martha's Vineyard.... and Chappy (or Chappaquiddick... remember Ted Kennedy's younger days?).




Tip of the Cape
Provincetown, located at the tip of the cape, is not only an upscale gay mecca summer vacation playground, it is also the site of the first landing of the Mayflower. Plymouth Rock is actually the second.... the Puritans decided that Provincetown was unsuitable for farming because of the sand dunes and sailed on. The town, filled with expensive B & B's, restaurants and shops, comes alive at dusk.

Puritan Monument and Provincetown at dusk



The Traveler at Martha's Vineyard




















"I always go to Hyannisport to be revived, to know again the power of the sea, and the Master who rules over it and all of us."










Passing through New Haven, CT - Yale Campus.....

where Michael B (confirmed non-member of Skull & Bones), John Kerry and George W. Bush went to college.


July 22, 2007

Vieux Montreal, Nouveau Montreal

The road trip from New York to Montreal on I-87 took six hours. The drive through the Adirondack Mountains was very scenic... very green... reminded me of the rainforests in Borneo. I took a detour into the town of Schroon Lake for gas. There, I stumbled upon the little town of Adirondack where the infamous ergonomic summer lawn Adirondack Chair was first conceived.

Montreal is clean, cultured, ultra-modern and bilingual. The architecture of the skyscrapers is impressive, contemporary and innovative. Old Montreal is cobblestoned-streets, neo-Gothic catherals and old European architecture. Old Port on the St. Lawrence River bears a resemblance to Venice. For those of you who are geographically-challenged, Montreal is an island....


Old Town Montreal












Rue St. Paul ===>








Churches & Cathedrals of Montreal



Notre Dame Cathedral












The Old and The New














Canadian Center for Architecture


Bernard Rudofsky Exhibit









Wanted for Murder ==>
Graffiti sprayed-painted at McGill University.....
French Canadiens dislike him too!