April in NY

There are many cities, but only one New York. The sheer density of culture and human activity is an experience that always recharges the intellectual batteries, and exhausts. We arrived on a foggy morning, checked into the Algonquin and headed towards MoMA. On the way, we passed by Rockefeller Plaza, St. Patrick's Cathedral and Radio City Music Hall. The Plaza is shown at left. I have bittersweet memories of a stay here just after 9/11.

The obligatory photos of Central Park were, of course, irresistible. Thus we did not resist . . .

. . . but rather indulged.
But let's get back to MoMA. Where else in the word can you walk through a room of Jackson Pollocks . . .
past a magnificent Monet . . .
and then end up face to face with Picasso's genius? Truly amazing.

Onward, then, to Central Park West and the Museum of Natural History. What a great place to get lost in!
We capped off the evening by catching a preview performance of 9 to 5 on Broadway. Oddly, the Marquis Theater was in the same hotel at which we had presented a poster at for Psych Services two years prior. Here's Times Square, in front of the theater, at 10PM on a Tuesday.
As I mentioned above, we stayed at the historic Algonquin Hotel, where Dorothy Parker and James Thurber held court, and where, more recently, the two children in the adjacent suite played "hungry, hungry hippo" at odd hours. To escape the ridiculous for the sublime, we went downstairs to the Oak Room and listened to Daryl Sherman--formerly a regular at the Waldorf-- perform standards (and a few not-so-standards) in front of a very intimate room which seemed to consist entirely (except for us) of NY Jazz luminaries.
Lastly, for our Kiwi friends, we took a pic of Helen Clark's new digs at the U.N. on the cab ride back to LaGuardia.

Okay, I wasn't going to blog on this . . .

. . . but spring is a little more here, and I suppose that's big enough news here in MN to warrant a few lines. This scrappy little marsh marigold and its mates are most welcome. In any case, the next blog will be from NYC, and from a content perspective, just didn't seem to go.

Hiking along the Minnesota River nature reserve, here's a mini-panorama of the old Cedar Ave Bridge, where we started our walk.

We really got into birding in NZ, and this interest has persisted. Below, a male hooded merganser (the bloke with the rust-colored wing) is pictured among the reeds with a group of coots (the black chaps).

And here are a pair of Tundra Swans. Sorry for the fuzzy pic, but they were quite far away. From this photo, it is hard to appreciate the scale of these birds, which are almost a meter and a half high, weighing nearly 10kg.
The river is just a short drive to Burnsville, where Kristen's sister lives. Here's Richard with the girls (Alexandra, Maddie and Elie)
and here's Kristen with pretty much everybody (Ali, her husband, Rich, and Mateo are pictured along with Kristen and the girls).

Back in the Minneapple

Those of you who are Minnesotans (and/or public radio nerds) will get the reference, "slightly better than average", as part of the tag line from The Prairie Home Companion. Actually, those who listen to NZ National Radio on weekend mornings may also. In any case, we are back, and having enjoyed blogging the last six months in NZ so much, decided to keep it rolling. Conceptually, I'm not quite certain where this blog is headed. It may simply serve as a kind of personal scrapbook, but could also become a forum for discussion/keeping up, as there will be a link to this site on Kristen's facebook page. So, add K as a friend if you want to stop by now and then.

I won't go into the gory details, but the flights back from Welly were quite an ordeal, and only now are we getting over the jet lag (just in time for work orientation tomorrow AM). We awoke this AM to an inch of snow that quickly melted away, so we decided to take a walk North along the river, as was our custom last year Spring through Fall. Here's the panorama from about a mile upstream of downtown's edge:

Along our way, we lingered at "gopher hill" to snap a few shots of the solitary "first gopher of spring".

Here's a closer look at him (or her). In about a month, this hill will be home to several breeding pairs and their roly-poly little pups.

Along the river's edge, we encountered this lone pair of Canadian Geese. Like the gophers, their breeding season is imminent and, if it's anything like last year, we can expect hundreds of little goslings along this kilometer stretch over the summer. These same adults, now quite blase at our approach, will hiss loudly and even attack if one comes too near their young at that time.
Finally, here's a video tour of our loft for those who haven't visited (yet).

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com