Penguin Girl

Governor’s Island

Early last Sunday, E and I went across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island and spent a bit of time wandering around Fort Wadsworth, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The penguins opted to stay home, where it was considerably cooler, but we had some fun without them. I have more photos to sort through and upload, but so far these two are my favourites of the day.

A different view of the Verrazano than I am used to, living on the other side. :)

“Sunflower” detail … this made me giggle uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes. This is in a *FORT*!!

I originally planned to write about something else today, but I found out the name of my phobia and hadn’t gotten as far drafting as I would like. (Sure, I could have googled years ago, but what fun is that?)

This morning, my husband forwarded me an article, To Gephyrophobiacs, Bridges Are a Terror. I’ve gotten better over the years, but I don’t think you’ll see me skipping across large water crossing spans for fun anytime soon. I do think I would have enjoyed my 6 hours in Venice much more had I conquered more of my phobia all those years ago. I’d love to go back and see. ;)

Well, the desire to go travel that’s true, but I either seem to manage first impressions really well, or Foo them up incredibly and burn that bridge miles before I’ve even gotten to it. It seems that the majority of my mess ups are for those scenarios that are in a mixed casual/business setting and with women old enough to be my sister (meaning between my age and 20 years beyond that). I also need to think before I jump in and email (or talk), I tend to let words out first and my brain catches up on the implications a few hours later. Bleah. It just added to my Monday.

Anyway, travel is definitely in the air, so I thought I’d link to a few maps that have caught my eye recently (though not all relate to travel). I warned you earlier that posting will be light these next few weeks. Sorry!

From Gothamist the subway, reduced. I find this very beautiful, a bit frightening if I think too hard of the inner details, but simple and pleasant to look at.

From information aesthetics, Paula Scher artistic maps. I am worried my brain my plotz if I try to quatify the amount of information bombarded at me each day.

From Strange Maps historical Courses of the Mississippi.

From information aesthetics an epidemiological disease visualization. Because I haven’t slept much recently, I might as well keep you up too. ;)

From Strange Maps a simplified map of London. Wonder what NYC looks like given Manhattanites are the highest paid. (we live in Brooklyn)

As many people travel extensively at this time of year, I wish you all safe travels.

If you driving at all, please try not to rush and stress over where you needed to be ten minutes ago. Please take care around pedestrians and the other cars on the road. Please, be a smart driver.

If you are flying I wish you lots of luck and patience. Deep breath. You’ll get to where you’re going (eventually). ;)

I obviously don’t have much for today. Yes, I could talk about some potential funkiness with the F line (this morning, our conductor asked the driver what route we were taking as we pulled into Jay Street), but there really isn’t much to say. I don’t have any new travel photos to post, nor any really good train stories. It’s going to be quite intensive the next couple of weeks so I expect word counts to either drop off or triple. My blog doesn’t write itself, unlike Stephanie’s.

For those in the US who celebrate it, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving. (I plan to post the rest of this week). For those of you elsewhere, I’m sorry I missed commenting on your holidays. I notice them in my calendar but do not always have anything to say other than wishing I had the day off.

I leave you with the USA.gov site: Travel Safely. It is a list of links mostly geared toward air travel, but one may be potentially useful to someone. ;)

This photo reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in the woods with a small stream in my back yard. I have always been fascinated by the colours of autumn leaves and I just love how they look under still water. I want to apologize as I know that this isn’t a very good photo. It was taken in October of 2005, with E’s old digital camera when I knew even less about photography than I do now. Autumn is definitely here with temperatures in the 40s when we leave for work, let’s hope it stays. My cold is better, which is definitely a good thing. Happy Tuesday!