Happy Autumn!

 If I had to choose, I'd have to say my favorite thing about the Autumn is the smell in the air. It's crisp yet wet and fresh with a hint of decaying leaves as they turn their brilliant shades of red, orange, yellow and brown. A smell that reminds me of the apple orchard I used to visit when I was little. The sky may darken but the lanes I travel glow with warm colors that brighten the world if only for a short time and with them come the spirits of the past that draw me into yearning for old traditions long since broken by time and age.
One is never too old to visit an orchard, no, but with age comes responsibility and with responsibility comes less time to do... well really much of anything. Yet when I was younger we always found time to head upstate, where we would hit up an orchard until I was red in the face from running about looking for the best of the apples and my parents would always joke "look at your cheeks, so read someone might mistake you for an apple!" We would then gather our apples, take the hay ride back to the car and head to a dinner/restaurant called Grandma's where we were greeted by animatronic displays and cases full of sugar coated cookies and pies aplenty. How I miss those days, yearning each year to go apple picking just once more like I used to, rather than just visiting the local market to get my apples, shined, waxed & touched by countless hands.
Well, this year, though we couldn't head upstate, we finally found our way to an orchard. It was small & a little crowded & lacked the hay ride & abundance of trees & apples,(less apples due to an early season) but heck, it was still an orchard & where they lacked apples they had peaches and plums to fill their void (well not exactly all that many plums).

(There were very strict rules about picking apples in the restricted zones, if caught your apples were confiscated and if caught again you were expelled without a refund. Though the sign said the apples in that zone were not ripe... they looked to be the ripest, reddest, JUICIEST apples I have seen in a long while. A lot of people, sad to say, went home empty handed that day.
There were also signs warning about bees:
"Warning: There are bees in the orchard this year. If you have an allergy we recommend that you DO NOT ENTER to go picking. If you choose to go picking you do so at your own risk."
With that warning in mind I entered & found no bees... until I stepped on a swarm of them. My voice went up three octaves that moment and I ran like the wind, only to find more at the plum trees as I grabbed a plum and gently turned it around- TADA bee! -I'm not a big fan of bees- So... when an orchard warns you about bees... THEY ARE SERIOUS!)

PEACHES!

Some kind of berry! (Not meant for picking or eating, I don't think)

I spent a short while in the orchard wandering then chasing after the butterflies, thinking they might lead me somewhere with the best fruit since they tend to have good taste in sweet things. Of course they all ended up going toward the forbidden zone or toward the pasture beyond the orchard.

 

Hmmm, now looking through my pictures it would appear I didn't really take any pictures of the apples... or the plums for that matter. Oh well.

Needless to say we managed to fill up a bag or two worth of apples and one for peaches and half of the plums. Then on our way home we stopped at a farmers market which was a ways down the road.

Gourd Pumpkin things!

I like how the ones to the left are named "Spooky gourds" though they're not all that spooky.

I wanted to take a picture of the Brussel sprout plants because they were really weird looking (in my opinion... I've never actually seen a brussel sprout plant before so I was getting really odd looks when I exclaimed my fascination of them... they looked like big hands holding little pods...)

Corn Stalks with ears!

If ever you stop at a farm stand and they are selling fresh cooked/roasted/grilled sweet corn, I recommend you buy an ear... I did and it was the tastiest corn I have ever eaten.

(droplet of water on some kind of lettus-y plant)

I have never seen a cricket like this in person before. It kind of reminds me of the cricket from the story: "The Cricket in Times Square" By George Selden

And of course no trip to an orchard (or the market) is complete until you make (or purchase) a fresh apple pie. My favorite part my Autumn tradition. The only one I refuse to let go of.

And for the heck of it:

Guess what was chillin' in front of my house when I got home yesterday.

:)

Playing Tourist

Even though I live in NY, and have been around the city countless times, I still like to play tourist now and again. By tourist I mean, do the things that are set up about the city to show visitors the sights and sounds of our fair island. Every year they come out with new and inventive ideas and I hope to do more in seasons to come. Last year, or perhaps the year before, I decided to do one of the Double Decker tours. It was nice so I recommend it, especially hop on hop off. Just make sure you listen when they tell you where to catch the next bus. This year however, rather than go by street and get stuck in any grid lock, we went by boat through the NY Water Taxi C.O.
http://www.nywatertaxi.com/tours/hop
They have several packages out but again, Hop On Hop Off is the way to go. You can either stay on the boat the whole trip or get off at all or a few of the hop off locations. We got a decent deal and were able to purchase our tickets in advance through the kiosk on 42nd street (by kiosk I mean a person wearing a giant yellow flag and a fanny pack with a ticket machine inside- THERE IS NO STORE FRONT- we learned that the hard way. So look out for the flag and don't be fooled by the wall/window they have that has a "take your picture" thing in it. That wall will not get you tickets).
New this year, the company now uses Double Decker buses to bring you to the Pier where you will meet the taxi. They are still ironing out details with the buses, such as getting them to run as long as the taxi tour is running, but to grab it at least one way is decent. If you miss it, the walk really isn't that bad, but you might still like to hear what the guide on the bus has to say.
The bus meets you at FoxWoods theater (presently showing: Spiderman The Musical - Great special effects in the show BTW) and takes you down to Pier 84, home of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

With purchase of our tickets we were given discounts to go into the museum, but forewent the offer knowing the taxi would take up most of the day, and it did.
Pier 84 is a lot nicer than I remember. There is a mini water park for little kids, a dog run and a grassy knoll on which people can lay or picnic on, if one is so inclined, and if you are no in the mood to go by boat then you can rent a bike and go your own speed. Just be careful driving and watch our for cars and pedestrians.
This day at the Pier I was lucky enough to catch the annual Tug Boat Races and boy, it did not disappoint. I have never seen so many tug boats in one place before and though I missed the spinach eating contest I'm sure that was alot of fun too. http://workingharbor.com/tugrace_home.html

Reaching the finish line

The Meagan Ann-First place!

The Bronx- Last Place but still graceful and full of pride and cheer!

A bystander tug watching the race, just in case a tug needed a tug of its own.

And all the rest.

The boats showed off a bit, a harbor fire boat put on a water display, showing the power of its hoses and a speed boat with harbor patrol close in tow put on a short show. Then came the real games.

First the tugs made a big circle

Then they filled in the circle coming nose to nose with each other. Then with a puff of black smoke, it was on!

TUG BOAT WRESTLING!

And that was all she wrote- My taxi docked and I had to rush off for the rest of my NYC adventure.

See the tall netted structure in front of the freedom tower? Had the Titanic finished her voyage and made it into harbor, that is where she would have docked. The netting now represents the height and length of the ship and keeps the spot open "should she ever dock". Well really, the spot is now a driving range (golf) and the net is meant to keep balls from hitting boats and business' but it's symbolic enough, I guess.

Our guide was quite informative though most of the people on our boat didn't speak English. He tried and I think he got his points across as everyone rushed to whatever side he pointed out something interesting on, and took pictures excitedly.

One of our first stops was pier 17. It too had a very nice park, though I still don't really get the mushroom theme. *shrugs* from there we went to Battery Park to visit the 9/11 memorial, for more info see my previous post: http://tobynooler.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-day-of-remembrance.htmlThe walk was a bit long but still very nice. I never knew there were so many parks and gardens in the city, many of them very new by the looks of them. Our tickets for the memorial were included with our taxi tour tickets.

The Turkey of Battery Park. Every time I come down here I have to see if I can find it and take its picture. I don't know how many there are but its still a lot of fun to know we have wildlife beyond stray cats/dogs and pigeons running about.
From there we went to South Street Sea Port, walked across the bridge to Brooklyn, waited on a grueling long line for ice cream and ended up not getting any because the boat came before we got inside the tiny building.

Then we were off to cruise past Ellis Island and Liberty Island (we could not stop at either because it would infringe upon tour boats set specifically for those two spots) If you plan to go to Lady Liberty know in advance the line with be VERY LONG and you might be waiting A VERY LONG TIME. so get there early!

Lady Liberty, given to us by the French as a symbol of progression. What you can't see is that the statue is actually on motion/ posed as though she were on a march, ever moving forward. Immigrants are who gave her the image of all that means freedom. To them she was warm and inviting, yet strong and firm. A symbol of their futures in America.

I just barely remember the time you could get up close and personal with Lady Liberty, not you can just barely get up close.

Then we were well on our way back up to pier 84.
There are alot of water related activities you can do while you visit NYC. If a water taxi isn't your thing then why not try A circle line cruise, The Beast Speed Boat, A catamaran, a Sail boat, a kayak, a cruise ship, or even try your luck with swimming (in specified areas to keep you safe) Hey, they say the water's clean enough now...

A Day of Remembrance

 

I don't really think there is much I can really say here. I recently took a water taxi tour down the Hudson (more on playing tourist another time) and included in the ticket price for the tour was a pass to the 9/11 memorial. So we went. I thought I would be okay. It was a nice day, people were treating the space as any other memorial site (ex: Washington dc monuments) I've been to, but as I made my way around the site the folks I was with began pointing out names of people they knew. That got me. It wasn't until we passed the memorial gift shop (yes there is one) where testimonies were being played as people purchased shirts, pins, books, search & rescue plush pups that I, admittedly, cried. Not a lot mind you but I got choked up and shed a tear or two.

I won't turn on the tv for the next few days until the stations have played out their memorial specials.

I don't need to watch them. I have my own memories and the memories of survivors I have met and those who lost loved ones to remind me of that day.

I will NEVER forget that day.

(The -under construction- "Freedom Tower" as seen from our boat on the Hudson)

(The entrance to the site is on Albany ST and though there is a long line it goes quick. Make sure to keep you tickets out until you get into the site because they check it several times as you wind your way through the lines and check points)

(The Towering Giant, standing tall, reflecting the face of adversity, watching over the emptiness left behind by hatred as the four corners of the world come streaming together, filling the gaping hole in our hearts with love, hope and the power to rebuild, to move on, but not forget. )

(Click on Image for full view- blogger is cutting it off)

(A photo of a photo -my scanner's not working- that I took roughly 3yrs before the attack. Twin Towers as seen from the observation level at the top of the Empire State building. I did not intend for this effect, that is honestly how the original photo came out)

 Well that's it from me for today.

well actually...

You see that door down there? That's on the inside of the reflection pool... does anyone know why there is a door/panel down there? Its just in the middle there... *shrugs* Probably just for maintenance.

 

Have you held your loved ones close and told them that you love them yet today?

You should.