National Parks

Spent a couple of hours at one of the country's newest national parks, Patterson Great Falls in Patterson, NJ.

Although there are write-ups that state the falls are quite impressive during "floods", the recent drought here has resulted in some fairly low water levels.  Still, the falls are 77 feet high and you definitely can understand how powerful they must be when there's a greater volume of water pouring over them.

While I was in the visitor's center I met a fellow collector of national park passport stamps.  These are self-inking stampers that serve as a small memento of one's travels.

Historical Travel

In 1966 my father was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia.  I was 7 years old at the time. While we lived down there we would take driving vacations to Florida.  We went to St. Augustine a few times.  I have to say, I really liked the place.  Even though it was, and still is, a tourist trap, there’s something about it I really like.  I remember visiting the alligator farms, the Old Jail and the Fountain of Youth.  But for me the biggest attraction (literally and figuratively) was the fort there, the Castillo de San Marcos.  I enjoyed walking along the walls and looking out over the water and the land there.  As a young boy, it was very easy to imagine being a Spanish soldier besieged in the fort by the English.
  
It actually successfully withstood 2 sieges by the English. 

While going to school in Atlanta we had a course in Georgia history, and that’s where I learned about James Oglethorpe and the War of Jenkins’ Ear. Oglethorpe led one of the sieges of the Castillo, which failed.  He later redeemed himself by turning back a Spanish invasion of Georgia at St. Simons Island.  

I was fortunate to visit St. Simons and view the remnants of Fort Frederica, pictured here.

In addition to the Castillo, the Spanish also built a smaller fort on the Matanzas river which leads to St. Augustine.  The fort was designed to protect the inlet.  Despite many trips as a boy to Florida, I never saw Fort Matanzas.  Finally, on a trip to Florida with Karen after we were married, we drove down the east coast of Florida and I saw it.  Alas, it’s only accessible by boat, and there was a thunderstorm in progress so I wasn’t able to get out there.  Maybe some other time!!!

  

After a long and painful process I finally finished Catch 22.  I hated this book, but was too stubborn to quit reading it.  It's on all of the "bests" lists I currently have going so I needed to plow through it.  I understand that it's an "anti-war" book and I get that, I just found it way too quirky for my liking.  So to Yossarian, Milo Mindbender, Colonel Korn, Colonel Cathcart, Hungry Joe and the rest of you nitwits, I bit a fond good riddance.

I'm going to see how long the idea of having a blog lasts.  I'm going to use this to keep track of thoughts on the books I read as well as other things.  I just finished "This Body of Death" by Elizabeth George.  This is the third book by her that I've read and I enjoy her very much.  I plan to go back to the beginning and read her "Inspector Lynley" novels in order.  Elizabeth George lives in Ohio but her books are set in England.
I recently read a book by P.D. James, who also sets her stories in London. I'll be trying to read her series in order as well.