This is Part II of my Friday off from work and hanging out with my Mom and our day’s adventure.
On the way home from lunch in Princeton we stopped at the Rockingham Historic Site in Kingston, NJ
While the Continental Congress met in Princeton, Rockingham Historic Site served as General George Washington’s final Revolutionary War headquarters for almost three months in 1783. In November 1783 Washington received the long awaited news – the Treaty of Paris had been signed, and the thirteen colonies were indeed independent of Great Britain.
For eight years Washington had served his country in the American Revolution, and as one of his last official acts, at Rockingham wrote the Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, delivered to Newburgh, New York.
Also known as the Berrien Mansion, the original two rooms of the farmhouse were built between 1702 and1710. Enlarged into a grander home in the 1760’s by Judge John Berrien, the house and grounds are preserved and interpreted as the temporary residence of George and Martha Washington. Physically relocated three times since 1896, Rockingham Historic Site maintains a fine collection of 18th century furnishings, Children’s Museum and Colonial kitchen garden.
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Below is my Mom patiently waiting for me, holding my filters, while I snapped some photos of the Berrian Mansion fence line which you’ll see below.

This fence surrounds the whole property of Rockingham and I loved all the lines so I found the perfect spot to take this along the road side.

As we were driving home from Kingston I spotted the top of red barn out of the corner of my eye. I think I have an eagle eye when it comes to old barns! As soon as I spotted it I needed to stop and check it out…so I found somewhere to turn and got out of the car to shoot it while mom waiting in the car.
As I was photographing the red barn I caught Mom taking this photo of me with her cell phone camera through my dirty car window…(not my best angle. LOL!)

Then I spotted her in the car sending the photo (above) to my Aunt. Guess she thinks driving by shootings are funny too! 🙂

I love barns and even though I couldn’t see much of it I liked that I could see the red peeking out with AMAZING clouds overhead.
I took the 2 photos below with the 18-200VR. I wish I popped on the 12-24 but I was on the side of the road and hurrying!!
They came out even better than I imagined it would. I love them!
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I also decided to try processing the photo above with a texture to give it a whole different feel. What do you think?

Our last stop was at the Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve:
The Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve is in the Stonybrook-Millstone watershed. The trail system in the Griggstown area covers 376 acres, but these trails connect to other trails that transverse the entire length of the 685 acre Ten Mile Run Greenway. The northern border of much of the property is bounded by Simonson Brook, with Coppermine Road as the southern boundary. The site contains both 102 acres of open fields and 583 acres of woodland. Historically the fields were row crops but more recently the property was used as a horse farm.
My mom snapped this of me setting up my tripod through the open car window with my point & shoot camera:

The photos below are what I was shooting when my mom snapped the photo above. I shot them with the 12-24 Tokina. Can you BELIEVE the sky? I could not and I still can’t!
I love the little bench on the left…empty benches appeal to me for some reason. I also love the pathway. If I see a path I must photograph it! 🙂

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A minute or two after taking this photo the skies opened up and rain poured down like crazy.
I didn’t care if I got wet but I did care if “the gun” (my camera) did!
We ran to the car, I got the camera put away, and mom closed all the windows and the sunroof in the car and we headed home. What a mini adventure!
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