I finally get back to New York City since my visit with my son and his girlfriend in February. This time I went to downtown Manhattan to see the work and the Memorial since I was there last. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me this time. I took the pictures on my phone which are on the link accompanying this post.

The tower is a beautiful structure and this whole area is going to be nice when they get done with it. Being quite tall and not having the space to get the entire tower in one shot (hey, this is Manhattan) I went and used the panoramic feature on my phone to get it all in. This led to me taking a number of shots in this way. Hope you like them. The museum was closed, but I was able to get a shot of what lay inside through one of the glass panels on the side. Looks to be the pair of trident columns they have been talking about in the atrium area. I do wonder if those are the original escalators going down to the lower level for the trains.

I went and visited the World Financial Center which I had not gone to before. I had seen pictures of the marina behind there and the boats were impressive. For me obviously the yacht Arabella was my favorite. I have a thing for sailing vessels. I’ve never seen one of this size up close. I looked it up on the internet to get more information on her and I find that she was a chartered vessel. That was at least until last year due to circumstances. The vessel is 160′ LOA (length over all) with a beam (width) of 24′. She is listed on superyachts.com for 9.95 million dollars. Too rich for my blood.

I’m am currently in Belgrade, Serbia to work as well as train on an 804 A/C unit that we build. I spent the week before last in New York City visiting with my son and his girlfriend from Japan. Seems every time I take a vacation something comes up and I go to work somewhere else. I am not complaining as I love the diversity of cultures and experiencing what each has to offer. I am obviously quite fond of architecture, art and especially food :D.

I would have posted the pictures from New York, but have not converted them from the Nikon format of my new camera. Last week was pretty busy at work and I will get to them when I get back. For this trip I set the camera up to take both raw (.NEF) and produce a JPEG which i could readily work with on my laptop since my Photoshop installation is at home.

I have work to do tomorrow and it has been a long trip, but I wanted to post some the pics taken tonight. I will update the gallery as I take more pics. Enjoy.

Just wanted to get these pics up for you right now. I will comment more sometime… wow almost forgot, its my birthday this Thursday. Anyways I will try and comment more in the next couple of days. We were snowed in for two days waiting for the street to get plowed. I am ready for work tomorrow if we are open. Don’t know what the roads out there will be like except for what I have seen on the news. Hopefully not too bad otherwise I may turn back. Will check the news in the morning. Goodnight.

I am writing this post ahead of time 😯 as I will be checking out tomorrow and driving back down to Connecticut. Nice feature with WordPress is I can write the post now, publish it, but set the publishing time to be some time in the future and it will update my blog at the right time while I am out. So on with the blogging…

The Lodge

It was a great trip these past few days here at the Black Bear Inn in Bolton Valley, Vermont. I had been here once before three years ago in October. Unlike the last time I was here, we had snow on the ground and the weather got a bit harsh outside. I drove through some of that a couple of days ago. I have video of the ride up the access road back to the Inn. I haven’t decided yet how I am going to do video here (YouTube or some other video service). That day you could not see the peaks for anything.

As you know I started backpacking this year and really enjoyed it. I have read plenty and in that reading found and talked to some individuals that have done some alpine backpacking. I could not imagine myself doing that, well.. at least not solo. Part of it is fearing I may get disoriented and lose the trial. The other, of course, is the cold and I got a taste of that when I took the Jeep out for a spin a couple of days ago running some errands. In the valley other than the snow falling I didn’t think it was too bad. At altitude the mountain shows how bitter it can be.

Mascot

What I love about the Inn is how it contrasts to the weather outside. Where it is harsh and unforgiving out there, inside it is warm and inviting. The staff is friendly as well as the guests that I spend time with when sitting in the lobby area which I make a point to do. You feel very much at home here. Some of that may be due to this being a small operation here. For me, for the second time in three years, this is a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of life back in Hartford. Breakfast is not something I often do when back home and I make certain I am up for every meal. They offer two choices for what you can have. The dinner menu is at the bar so you know what is available that evening and changes everyday. You can let them know at breakfast if you will be making it for dinner. I of course am considering making plans to come back sooner and not let it go for too long again.

The day after the Jeep Rally I had a fishing trip that was scheduled. That was a busy weekend for me. This would make my third time this year that I have gone. Before this year I had never gone fishing on a chartered fishing boat. I had fished with my dad plenty of times when I was growing up here, but we had fished off the jetties along the coast of Connecticut. It’s just six of us that always charter with this company, Osprey Fishing Charters. We always get our limit of fish every time we go and after we spend the rest of the time catching porgies until it is time to go back to shore. We start out around four thirty in the morning and come back in around ten a.m. This pictures are at the top of this post. Enjoy 🙂

If you don’t know it by now I’m a big fan of the Jeep. More specifically the Cherokee. My first interest with the vehicle came from my sister who once owned one. Ever since i have had it in the back of my mind to own one.

Since I am the owner of one I of course look through the web for products and peruse the forums looking for what others have done with their vehicles. In the area of Somers, CT they have a Jeep rally they do once a year. I have been looking to attend an event and hopefully partake in some of the festivities. This past September I was fortunate and got to go to one. It took me well over a month and several washes before I was able to get the mud all out from under my vehicle. I have attached the pictures I took at the rally to this post. Enjoy.

* Pictures moved to updated post *

I finally found a plugin for how I want my gallery set up to be. A single photo with the post to be clicked on if you want to see the photos. At this time I am attaching the Adirondacks trip pictures to this post. I will move the pictures to the appropriate post once it is done.

Yes, I am back. I got back on Monday evening around nine in the evening. This trip was plenty interesting and I can’t wait to blog about it. It was beautiful weather up there and no contact from work or anyone other than the other backpackers up there :D. I will try to get a post up by week’s end with a gallery set up for the pictures. Take care.

I have plans on being in the Adirondacks during the Labor Day break. I still have to work on the necessary items I want to have with me and yet keep the weight as low as possible. I have taken all the items in my backpack from my last trip, other than the clothing and food, and weight each one separately. I will post that information on here when I get home tonight from work.