Hawk Watching in Central Park

It was a lovely late autumn day the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we were out in the Rambles of Central Park just hiking around when we saw Pale Male, the New York City Red Tail Hawk sitting in a high branch checking things out.  We rented a row boat and went out on the lake and got another good view of the hawk.

It is amazing that all this hiking and woodsy adventure is right in the middle of New York City. 

Niagara Falls

This summer went quickly, but they all do.  Charles did some touring to Los Angeles and Tokyo before coming back to NYC in early August.  In fact, in Tokyo he went through a typhoon and earthquake followed by an earthquake and a hurricane in New York.

We have taken many short trips to Long Beach and Governor’s Island (Video) locally and to Niagara Falls, Ontario. (Video)  The Falls delights all ages.  There is something about the breadth and grandeur that is spellbinding.  We rented a car and left early one morning for a 5 hour drive to a water park in Canandaigua, in the Fingerlakes district of New York State.  We amused ourselves on the way up by using Miranda’s iPhone to locate a Starbucks that was not too far off the highway anywhere in the middle of northeastern Pennsylvania.  Eventually, we did find one and recaffeinated.

The waterpark was fun for the boys.  There were huge slides and gigantic slides.  We went down most of them.  The wave pool and the water playground were also fun. All of July, Miranda had taken the boys to a pool close to our apartment so they were perfectly at home in the water. 

Exhausted from 4½ hours of exercise, we left the waterpark and drove to Batavia, NY, where we checked into a motel, had some health food at Burger King and went to sleep.  The next morning we drove into Niagara Falls, NY across multiple bridges and along roads Robert Moses designed.  We went across the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, Ontario as Charles had been told that the best views were from the Canadian side.  Immigration was easy and after a few wrong turns that gave us magnificent views we managed to arrive at the Hilton.

Amazingly they gave us a room at 10:30am so we took our few things upstairs (to the 30^th floor) and unpacked to stunning views of the American and Canadian Falls.  We had brought the portable espresso machine and milk frother with us so we made some coffees and just sat and enjoyed the view for a while.

Next we were off to the Maid of the Mist, probably the most famous attraction at the Falls. It didn’t take long until we were on the boat with mist spraying all over us.  We donned rain ponchos but we still got rather wet. The sound was thrilling, so much water falling so far, crashing onto the rocks close to us. The tour boat which must have had a strong, tugboat engine made its way up to within about 100 yards of the falling water of the Horseshoe Falls.  Essentially, the boat was surrounded on 3 sides by falling water. Miranda took photos and videos despite the mist and we’re glad she did.

We enjoyed a little snack at a café above the dock (which had an amazing view too) then Max suggested we not go directly to the next attraction, Under the Falls, but instead, go back to our room to rest, go for a swim, and then go to the attraction.  It was an excellent idea and we enjoyed the view more and had a swim in the hotel pool which had a 3 story waterslide built into it.

When that was all done it was too late to go Under the Falls so we merely strolled around the strip and then down to the walkway along the Canadian side of the Falls. The next morning, after another swim, we went Under the Falls.  It was claustrophobic and very noisy, and Charles misplaced my Maui Jim’s somewhere and to his great chagrin, never found them.

We went for on last swim before checking out.  Immigration on the US side took a little longer.  We wondered why the line to come to Canada was short in the morning and long in the evening and vice versa for the US side.  One possible explanation could be that there are casinos on the Canadian side.  Before heading home we stopped on the US side of the falls at Niagara Falls State Park.  Though the view was not as good, our proximity to the falls was even closer.  The water at the top was crystal clear so one could see the rock bottom about 3 to 5 feet deep despite the swiftness of the running water.

The 6½ hour drive home was punctuated by two very strong thunderstorms.  It didn’t make driving any easier, especially the downpour on I-80 just before getting to the GW Bridge, going 60mph surrounded by semi-trucks!   But by the time we arrived at our door it had stopped raining. 

We all agreed we could have spent one more day in Niagara Falls. 

Angry Bird Japan Tour 2011

Who would have ever thought a tour to Japan could have been so much fun!  I’d been in Tokyo every 3 years since 1984, so I’m acquainted with the city, the trains, the markets, the tourist attractions, the people etc.  These days, I’m usually content to bring along a project to work on when I wake up each morning – at 4am ( in the summer it’s already starting to get light). I didn’t really have a project to work for this trip but Miranda, Riley and Max provided me with one that was really fun to work on. 

Miranda had gotten the boys stuffed animals of the Angry Birds (and the Pigs too) because they had both been playing it incessantly.  They sent me a photo of three of the birds lined up all looking rather angry and it looked to me like an image of my family that I left behind. They were all angry at me for leaving!

When I mentioned this to them, the idea came up of posing the birds in various ways and taking photos or videos of them.Then they would send those images on to me and I’d put them together making up some story. The ideas kept flashing back and forth across the ocean! All three were filled with ideas but Riley was especially creative and took a lead role in the filming.We produced 4 short videos, now strung together. It was a great way to stay attached to everyone while being 10,000 miles away.

Oh, and did I mention the typhoon and the earthquake that hit Tokyo while I was there?

Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road

We arrived in Melbourne (flew on a new A-380 -- nice!) on time (those flights don’t have much room for error!), cleared customs quickly and picked up our rental car.  I asked Miranda to keep an eye on me for a while as it had been 3 years since I’d driven in Australia.   I do have an Aussie Driver Licence (their spelling!) but every time I come back it still feels like I’m “driving on the wrong side of the road”!   The boys fell asleep in the car on the way in to Genna’s (Miranda’s sister) house.  We took our time because I wanted to stop at a store in the “CBD” to get some of my favorite coffee –“midnight oil” is its name.  Alas, the store was gone, NO COFFEE! 

We arrived home and the boys woke, they were now officially on the new time zone.  They are perfect travelers.  No one was home so we unpacked leisurely.  Ron called on his iPhone 4 from New York and we stood our  iPhone up on the desk and FaceTimed with him for 30 minutes as we were putting things away; excellent smooth picture, simultaneous audio, to someone 10,000 miles away – amazing technology, oh yeah, and free, too!

Melbourne is mild in the winter.  It usually goes just above 60 in the mid-afternoon and drops to 40 at night.   “Four seasons in every day” is one way weather is described in Melbourne, for instance, right now it’s hailing but I can see lots of blue sky!  Everything is still very green as there is daily rain (thought not much) and the Aussie trees keep their leaves but lose their bark!

We went to the store and stocked up on TimTams, Vegemite, Magnums, VitaWheats, and other Aussie fare that we can’t get in New York.  It’s always fun exploring a grocery store in a different country.

Miranda had a great reunion with her family when they all arrived home later that evening.

William Chambers, Riley & Max’s cousin, had his 6^th birthday party the following day.  It was an Aussie-rules footie party with lots of running, kicking, passing and goal scoring.  We all were barracking for Carlton – Go Blues! The weather was beautiful that afternoon.  Miranda and Gen had made a footie cake that was delicious, even more so because we forgot to bring a knife with us to cut the cake so it had to be scooped out with a plastic spoon.