AWOL

I have been doing so much traveling and sightseeing lately that I barely have time to work on my various writing projects, keep up with email and keep my website fresh, let alone to blog. I've got plenty of words and images in my head, but somehow when my eyes are full, the need to write observationally takes a temporary back seat.

After Alaska (which, in case you're a new reader, was incredible - click here for some posts about that), we spent a little time at home and then went to New Jersey to go boating with some friends. We enjoyed a weekend of beautiful weather (wasn't there supposed to be some sort of heat wave across the US??), and spent Sunday boating into New York Harbor. I think the last time I saw NYC from the water was over 10 years ago when we took the kids on the ferry to Liberty Island. I'd forgotten how peaceful Manhattan looks from the water. It's hard to believe there's so much striving and crowding and bustle when you see it glinting quietly in the sun, looking like a fairy tale version of itself. There's also that mirage effect - it looks rather as if the skyscrapers are floating just slightly above that little sliver of island and that if they actually rested on it, it would surely sink under the weight.

And to get within 200 yards of the Statue of Liberty as we did - well, call me a Midwestern rube, but I'm a sucker for that lovely lady. She's beautiful and inspirational and still a symbol of many good things about America. Amazingly, neither she nor the NY Harbor are chock-a-block with visible security either. The hole near Battery Park where the Twin Towers used to shoot up into the sky is, to anyone familiar with the old skyline, a poignant and compelling memorial, and the fact that the Harbor is still open and accessible seems also to say something beautiful about the American spirit.