Vacation Photos

I got all the photos up and now I'm too tired to write about them much.

We just got back from a trip to Suffern and Cape May.

Driving from Suffern to Cape May was a Nightmare from Hell. We left too late((9AM instead of 6 AM). Everybody in New Jersey was driving to south New Jersey. It was bumper-to-bumper on six lanes going about 30 MPH. What should have been about three hours on the Garden Parkway turned into about nine. At least we had Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries to sustain us. Oh, and it was something like 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity, too.

However, once we got there we had a great time. The Atlantic Ocean is much warmer than the Pacific, and the shells are different, too.

Meerwald

Tuesday afternoon, some of us went sailing on a refurbished clamming schooner, the A J Meerwald. Luckily, the booms were above our heads, so no one got clobbered when the wind shifted. The ocean was calm, but the winds picked up to about 12 mph, so we got spray across the bow a few times. I took a ton of pictures and made many mental notes for when I have to write sail boat scenes.

Cape May Beach House

Various members of Mark's family came and visited. Probably the highlight of the familial visit was Tuesday night Karaoke (and Gong Show). Although I didn't win the fabulous cash prize, I did win the three female judges over because I was a gay man singing Abba's Waterloo.

Jersey Shore

Cape May is a really old town. There were many Victorian houses being beat up by the ocean weather. There was also a lot of wild life. I'm sorry to say I never did make it to the lighthouse or to the bird sanctuary (although I did see lots of interesting birds like skimmers, terns, and white cranes). After the Aug 5 Full Moon, it seemed like all the crabs and dragonflies came out of the wood work.

Cicadia Study

All too soon, our week on the Jersey Shore was over and it was time to head back to Suffern. What's cool about Suffern is that it has lightning bugs and cicadas (which we don't see much of in Northwestern Oregon).

Hmmm. I see I haven't loaded all the pictures because Suffern has a really cool sundial, and I don't see the pictures in my galleries...

At the very last minute, we discovered we had a free day to go to New York. I went to the MET. Mark went to more places -- like China Town and the Museum of Natural History -- and then to the MET. My digital camera's batteries died (from 60 to 0 in ten seconds, argh!) and so I only got about ten photos (at the end of this gallery) before I had to switch to my cell phone's camera.

Met Artefacts

Now I have to decide which is more expensive, e-mailing the photos to myself or getting some little cable thing. . . although, it's possible that I might be able to do some sort of Blue-tooth solution. . .