Princeton 2

This morning I drove out to Liberty State Park . From here, you could, if you wished, take the ferry to Ellis Island or the Statue of Liberty. The description on the website of “A green oasis in the heart of Metropolitan northern New Jersey” is a bit optimistic. There is some grass in-between the train station and the ferry dock. That is about it. I just used the proximity to shoot the Manhattan skyline. The air is significantly better today, so I did not have the haze I was expecting.

From there, I drove out to The Great Swamp NWR , yet another suburban forest that was saved from development some years ago. Again, this is a lovely property. They’ve built several boardwalks, blinds, and platforms. This is good planning and benefits both humans and animals. I did slightly better today in terms of capturing images of birds. Even with a 1.4 extension on my 500mm lens, they are still quite small in the frame. One of the many challenges is getting the lens to focus in the relatively small subject in the frame.

When I returned to my car for a snack before a second walk, I met Betty who was the volunteer on duty today. She gave me some background information on the refuge and we had a nice chat as she was interested in my journey. On the way back from my second foray on a different trail, I met Frank and Gina. Frank is a musician, originally from NJ, but currently living in the Monterey area of CA. He had just returned for a visit. He was also very interested in my journey and impressions of various different states. We talked about meeting when I return.

This is my last day in New Jersey and I will not be sorry to leave. While the state has some nice natural areas, I could find little else to recommend. Princeton University seems like a self-contained entity - I did drive through campus a few times and it looked lovely. But the culture and history that I have found in other states seemed to be absent here. And I am still fighting the toll issues, which did not do anything to enhance my stay.

Tomorrow I head out to Pennsylvania. I’ll drive all the way West to Pittsburgh, then work my way back through Lancaster and Philadelphia before continuing up the East Coast.