I LOVE Washington Heights. LOVE IT. I would love to have a little townhouse there. It’s such a wonderful place, with parks and shops and activities. And the Hudson is right there. I was very impressed with the area.

This photo was taken from the bus as we rode by. We were on Broadway then, but I do not know exactly where. Maybe 165th street?

Very nice area. I hope to return again soon.

Well, the travel season has begun. I have plans for some real exciting excursions this year, Lord willing. A number of them include seeing New York City again. It’s such a wonderful place for sightseeing, really. There are scads and scads of museums and historic sites. LOVE it. And the public transportation is great, so I don’t have to drive through the city (thank God). I don’t know what I’d do without the metro, believe me. I still can’t understand how people can even DRIVE through those skinny streets. Talk about getting a loaded Wholesaleinsurance.net policy, yikes.

Anyway, hopefully we’ll also be traveling further out across the state this year, and perhaps we’ll do one out-of-state trip. We’ll see. I’m so excited that the season has begun so early! Usually we have to wait until late May and early June, but with such an early spring the roads are wide open!

Isn’t that a beauty?

We visited the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, in May. Wow, was it really that long ago? The city is lovely. Clean as a whistle (the side we saw, anyway), peppered with domed crown steel buildings, smooth and straight concrete sidewalks and streets colored with trolley tracks.

The car was just one of the many exquisite things we saw at the memorial. I have yet to process the hundreds of photos and blog about our week-long adventures in Virginia. It doesn’t help that I am crazy busy. :-p

Anyway, this was the car MacArthur used in Japan. I think I remember seeing a similar car in the movie “MacArthur”– Gregory Peck sat in it, engaging in a barbed repartee with the Russian ambassador. Boy, that was a great movie.

So, it was a wonderful visit. *sigh* I’m ready to go back.

with LOADS of photos from my recent trip.

We went to Geneva and Seneca Falls, NY. It was so wonderful to get out! I missed my kids and my kitty something terrible, though.

But I took hundreds of the coolest photos!! I’d probably go through a dozen epson printers to print them all… and I’m not even HALFWAY through editing them and uploading them, even though I’ve been back for a week. :S I admit, I love taking the photos, but the editing and uploading is so tedious. I often put it off.

So this photo here is the dining room of the bed and breakfast we stayed at. I’ll have a full-fledged review very soon on my blog New York Traveler.net. I’m looking forward to it!

But first… I have to edit all the photos. UGH.

Do those full spectrum light bulbs truly work? Do they really simulate daylight and make you feel happier during the winter?

I don’t know, but it sure looks like my cat, Livvy, loves the light.

I’d heard that these full spectrum lights help Northeasterners cope with dreary winters; studies show that depression and winter illnesses are linked to lack of sun exposure during the winter months. I don’t know about that, but I’ll take a full spectrum light any day. Sunlight rocks. The light is exceptionally bright; I like it. I have the bulb in this metal pink desk lamp that looks like it belongs more in Easter baskets ideas for kids than my stately black-topped desk. And the light is hindered by the thick metal housing of the lamp. But I DON’T WANT to BUY another lamp! I’ll make do.

Eventually, I’ll try to get more of these bulbs and place them in the ceiling lights in the big rooms (living room, dining room). They are unfortunately a little pricey, so I’ll have to save up.

In the meantime, Livvy is hogging my desk space to get under the lamp. It does generate a bit of nice heat.