~ What I did on my Summer Vacation ~

My arrival in the Big Apple.
I was here to visit my one and only son, Sonny Boy, and his wife Mrs. Boy.
It was my third trip here.
If you have been here you know that every new trip here ... is new.

On our first morning, SB and I took a stroll around Brooklyn, which is absolutely oozing with charm.
You can see that charm spilling over this window box.

On the ferry on our way to see the Big Statue.

One World Trade. On the rise.

Sailboats.  Sigh.

Seeing her from the boat.

And through the trees ... and the chain link fence.

The next day Mrs. Boy and I went down to the memorial at Ground Zero.
It was stunning and heartbreaking all at once.

I did my best to capture the sparkle of these falls.  Amazing.

SB (an architect) explained that the outer perimeter of the fountain is the footprint of the building. The inner opening is a footprint of the core of the building, the elevator tower.
You might already know that.

The next day was a 'trip withing a trip' to see the landscape of Connecticut and a visit to Yale.
I'm pretty certain I felt smarter there.

They don't call it the Ivy League for nothing.

The architecture was stunning.

The foliage, amazing.

The water droplets on the lily pads ... freakishly large.

Thanks you SB for being my bestest boy.
Thanks Mrs. Boy for taking a precious day off to hang with your MIL. Who does that??

And thank you NYC for being so Grand.

~ The Eastern Sea ~

I've been gone.  On vacation.
Although, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I was not sitting around ... vacating.
I was walking miles of pavement and absorbing years of history and laughing heartily.
I was with my son and his wife.
They live in Brooklyn, NY.

There are weeks worth of pictures from our forays into the Big City.  Today I am just concentrating on the day we drove up to Connecticut, visited Yale and ended up on this little stretch of beach on The Sound.
I'm a little bruised from pinching myself.  Yes ... this bucolic beauty is very real indeed.

 For starters there was this very charming lighthouse.
I love my SoCal beaches ... but I am not seeing lighthouses on my walks there.

The water was very warm and lovely.  The sand was darker than I am used to.

The sun as you can see ... is setting over the water.
This is because we were situated east of the Long Island Sound.
I foolishly asked, "Why is the sun setting in the West?" as a way to express how odd that was.
My son is still laughing.
At me.  Not with me.

The sunset was incredible.

As were the lobster rolls.

We were so busy doing stuff for three days that I never bought any souveniers.
Not even a foam Statue of Liberty headband.

Before we left the beach, I picked up these beauties to add to my collection of shells.
These, combined with umpteen wonderful memories are fine souveniers indeed.

What's your vote: East Coast Beach or West Coast Beach??