Pismo Beach - End of the Summer Camping

Camping doesn't get much better than hanging with Cousin Martha and Jasper-the-Wunder-Pooch at Pismo Beach North Beach Campground, along the Central California Coast. Foggy in the morning, followed by temperate days. The beach is close enough for multiple daily pooch walks. We strolled into town along the sands, as well as heading south towards Oceano. Went out to eat only once, and honestly we wouldn't have needed to do that - cooking in camp was easy and lovely.

Slow Travel: Stanford Succulent and Cactus Garden (Arizona Garden)

At this time of year there's quite a bit of fruiting and flowering going on among the cactus. My mother used to make cactus jelly when I was a kid living in rural Arizona, and it makes my mouth water seeing the nopales

Walk past the Stanford Family Mausoleum - A lovely spot - And head vaguely west to the cactus and succulent garden. http://bgm.stanford.edu/groups/grounds/special/arizona

The garden is not heavily visited - though it has a regular cadre of visiting walkers and dogs.

Slow Travel: Taking in Turtles at New York's Bronx Zoo

I thought it would be easy to figure out the type of turtles we saw on our trip to the wonderful Bronx Zoo, after I'd returned home to California - But the zoo has an extensive reptile collection! Should have looked more closely when I went. 

I wonder if these are the same variety of turtle that lives in the turtle pond at Central Park, just below Belvedere Castle? We had a very lovely picnic there one evening in late August.

This zoo not only has great extensive natural habitats for it's non-human animal inhabitants, it also has wonderful landscaping that made our hot summer day very pleasant. Their are many varied eateries too, which is handy if you didn't bring along a peanut butter sandwich like I did!

Riding the zoo monorail was an especially nice treat as you look down on many endangered animals not viewable from the main zoo. I've long been partial to wild Mongolian Przwalski's Horses who live in the monorail-only area.

Slow Travel New York City

* Dutchess County is a doable field trip from Manhattan. I'd love to go during apple harvest season

* My daughters apartment is two doors down from a Saturday Farmer's market. A little local below seems to appreciate the beans he found there!

* The Metropolitan Museum of Art, only 6.5 blocks from my daughter's apartment (!) is famed for it's Egyptian collection. I always return to the Temple of Dendur - whole enclosed within the museum

* I'm quite partial to the enormous (looks to be life sized?) blue whale in the Natural History Museum - another splendid place to visit. 

*We were lucky enough to hear the Boyd Family singing gospel music, beneath the arches of the Terrace adjacent to the Bethesda Fountain They can often be found there - Their music is also available on amazon - though I bought mine then and there!