High Line, New York City

Does it count as travel when you're a 10-minute walk from home? When it offers views of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Del Posto, I have to say yes. Julie-Anne dropped in for an impromptu visit so it was a good excuse to amble over to the High Line to see how it fares in Fall. There were a few random blossoms but mostly bushy greens and grays with one miniature tree bearing the first autumn leaves. This park is expanding uptown with a new entrance coming right down the street! It offers a pedestrian-way free of bikes, dogs and crosswalks. A wonderful place for a relaxing stroll with peaks of - and peeks at - charming decay and towering grandeur.

STONELEDGE FARM, South Cairo, New York

We've been getting all our vegetables from Stoneledge Farm this year through a membership in the Chelsea CSA. The produce has been abundant and delectable. The farmers invited all the CSA members (1300 families) up for barbequed pig and corn so we paid our $5 and signed up for the 2 1/2 hour chartered bus trip from New York. It was a glorious September 11th day, perfect for tromping around in the tomato patch and skipping stones down by the stream. That tomato patch had been plowed under for the season and the remains were left to rot. I rooted through the debris and filled my backpack to the breaking-point with 12 plus-sized ruby ripe tomatoes. It was a festive occasion with tours and tractor rides and local farmers selling maple syrup, flowers, gourds and other sundries. We came home with a 1/2 gallon of the least expensive syrup we've encountered since weather started wreaking havoc with maple syrup production! Guess who'll be making waffles?! After all, a body needs something to balance out all that ruffage. (For more CSA posts, click here for my other blog.)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia

Old Town Alexandria is one of those places I go just often enough to sort of know my way around and wind my way to the same haunts. It brings back snippets of memory from High School through Grandmotherdom. I can time-travel while I sit on the top floor of The Fish Market on King Street and peel my spiced shrimp or wander the concrete floors of art galleries at the Torpedo Factory. Alexandria is small enough to delve in for a day and catch the full flavor. We stayed two nights on our drive north from Wilmington. En route, I exited for a gas-station rest-stop that turned out to be two-miles out. So we followed the signs for the Potomac Winery, thinking it would make for a quicker stop. Wrong! We forged up a windy road with no restroom options and realized we may as well stay the course rather than backtrack. It turned out to be a great place to refresh and stretch our little legs. When we reached Alexandria we were delighted to find ourselves in a 10th floor room with a view of the Potomac (another Priceline success story!) and a river-front-park-walk-away from the heart of Old Town.

I'd anticipated driving into D.C. but decided to give the car a 36-hour rest and our only form of transportation was the round-trip Trolley ride, where Elliott befriended football fans from Idaho and the Matthew Henry ferry-ride over to Georgetown, where Elliott befriended more football fans from Idaho. We meandered along the canal just long enough for Elliott to drop his sandal in, and for Gaga to rustle up a stick and fetch it out. Elliott didn't complain about wearing a wet shoe through dinner at the mainstay Vietnam Georgetown Restaurant on M Street. The food was so good, I wouldn't have noticed if I'd been the one in the wet shoe! We made it back to the dazzling and bustling waterfront just in time to board our boat for a sightseeing tour of the monuments-by-night that I recommend you not miss on a trip to D.C.

WILMINGTON, North Carolina

Any town with a commercial riverfront provides enjoyable opportunities to stroll and sidle up to an umbrella table for soothing dining. We happened to hit Wilmington's lovely boardwalked tourist area in the mid-day 95-degree heat so indoor cool-refreshments proved desirable. From our lovely digs at Jenny's house we mainly ventured out to the beaches. We spent an evening strolling at Wrightsville Beach, then returned for a day-long vigil when Hurricane Earl stirred up hefty waves that side-swiped most of the surfers, toppled a pier-beam that required attention from the Beach Rescue team, and sent a lifeguard charging into the waves to calm a swimmer in distress. We finished off the beach day with appetizers on the deck where we battened down all of our dinnerware to prevent wearing our food from flying. 

A lovely day-trip took us first on the car-ferry to Southport, where we dined on our favorite outdoor-picnic-table-right-on-the-waterfront style lunch. Then, without a map, we ventured to Caswell Beach, which is a narrow strip with houses flanking both sides of the road and sporting only the tiniest public parking area, making the beach a fairly private affair. We decided to drive back to Wilmington and happened upon Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, a major pre-revolutionary fort on the Cape Fear River that was razed by British troops in 1776. All that's left are crumbled stone foundations dotted along a well-developed trail with lovely waterfront vistas. My favorite part of the trip was passing a swamp with a sign that read, "Don't feed the animals." "What animals?" Benedicta and I said in unison followed by, "Look, there's an alligator," again in unison. Of course, I had to stop the car and get a close-up look. The first sighting was a small alligator that scampered toward me as I made my way to the pond-front. Then she kept her head turning to watch my every step. The second alligator was much larger and fairly disinterested. For me, any travel day with an animal-sighting is a travel day well-spent!