Visiting the White Mountains of New Hampshire

The White Mountains were always one of those places that I wanted to see and visit more,  having only just passed through them once or twice in the past.

Then this year, the coronavirus pandemic only really allowed for vacations to places within driving distance.  New England became an obvious choice.  And the White Mountains within New England grew in appeal.

In time,  it seemed one of the obvious places to aim to visit.

The tallest and most famous of the mountains is,  of course,  Mount Washington.  At 6,288 feet,  it is the tallest peak in the northeast of North America,  and one of the most impressive mountains east of the Mississippi River.

After a rough night of traveling,  we woke up and left our hotel in Brattleboro,  Vermont,  and headed up to the White Mountains of neighboring New Hampshire.

One thing that was impossible not to notice was just how cold it got.  It was not entirely that surprising.  After all,  it is very late in the summer season,  we traveled quite far up north,  and were at a higher altitude than we were used to.  Also,  the White Mountains are famous for having erratic weather patterns that can change on a dime.  So it was not a shock when it went from the sunny and largely clear skies in lower Vermont to cloudy and rainy and cool the closer we got to the White Mountains.

But they are beautiful,  and it was worth the whipping winds and gusts of rain.

The pictures reveal sunny skies in the surrounding area,  but with clouds hovering over the tallest peaks of the White Mountains.

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A Visit to Buffalo's Japanese Garden



One thing that I always love visiting are gardens. Last year, we went to some truly spectacular gardens during our European trip: the Tuileries in Paris, and the grounds of both the Belvedere and the Schönbrunn palaces in Vienna.

This year, with the obvious limitations in traveling, I figured that there would not be visits to such incredible gardens again.

Yet, during my research for places and things to do in western New York during our stay, there were gardens specifically in Buffalo that looked incredible. The Botanical Gardens, which are actually in Orchard Park, was one of them.

There was another, though: the Japanese Garden.

To be sure, the Japanese Garden is small, and set just outside the Buffalo Museum of History. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for with some tremendous beauty.

Now if I have one criticism of this garden, it would be that it is unfortunately located right near to a highway. The traffic was constant, and it hardly felt conducive to the spirit of serenity and reflection that the few other Japanese gardens that I have been to in the past seemed to exude. It would have been better, it seems to me, to have had this a little farther away from the busy road and constant traffic. Then again, without at first knowing it, I had driven those same roads to get here, and used them once again upon leaving.

As we passed the Niagara River separating the United States from Canada, I looked a bit sadly towards Ontario on the other side, the country that we could not visit, since the border has been closed to non-essential travel. But the serenity of the Japanese Garden lifted my spirits up a bit.

Here are some pictures of Buffalo's Japanese Garden: