M&I / GBMINI

This morning we headed to the north side of Lake Apopka and joined Oakland Nature Preserve on a kayak tour of the canal that links Lake Apopka to Lake Dora! Margaret and I shared a kayak (happily without tipping over!) for the 2-1/1 hour trip north to and through the canal lock, and back again. Lots of photos (and beautiful weather):

Last weekend Margaret & I traveled to New York for a short vacation, shared with some of my family, that had headed over from Europe. We were treated with fabulous late September weather in the mid 70s, perfect for walking the city – we stayed at Hotel 50 Bowery, a nice hotel with great views (especially from the rooftop bar) right in Chinatown with easy walk to Little Italy and central in Manhattan to head uptown or downtown …

Our hotel was very close to the Manhattan bridge, so we took a walk across that bridge, then turned round to cross back over the Brooklyn bridge (which was crazy busy with other walkers!). Lots of great views of course, and dark by the time we got back to the hotel.

Next morning we took the subway to Grand Central Station and met up with Angela, Iain and Paul; from there (after breakfast) we toured Central Park and Times Square … we finished the day back at Chinatown for dinner.

Next day Margaret & I walked south along the East river to Battery Park, met the others and with them took the ferry out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Tourists, of course!

Back on Manhattan Island, after dinner we walked to the nearby 9-11 memorial at World Trade Center, and see the ongoing recreation of this area. The memorial is beautiful, peaceful – but also tragic.

Next day, our last, we went uptown again to meet at the American Museum of Natural History. To be honest this was rather too much to see – so many corridors, so many displays; we left after seeing only a small part (but quite enough!)

After that we returned to nearby Central Park and finished our vacation with a horse & cart ride …

(previous New York trips: 1995, 2008, 2009)