NYC

We made it to NYC.  For some reason I was under the impression that the landscape would settle down as we went south but it kept getting more spectacular.  A lot of rolling hills with fall colored trees and cool rock formations.  I've been to New York City when I was really young, but I really don't remember anything about it.  I was amazed when I saw the skyline.  This place is huge!

 This is about 20-30 miles north of NYC

 I've been pretty lucky about crossing paths with friends on this trip.  I got to see Mary in Detroit, Evan in Troy, and now Emily.  Emily is actually a friend from Belize.  She was there for two years in a volunteer organization and was working at the same school as me in Punta Gorda.  She's from long island, so she was my tour guide for the day and drove me around the city.  I have to admit I could never drive in downtown New York City.  I was nervous enough in the passenger seat (even though she was a terrific driver).  As cool as it was to see the city, I definitely could never live here.  Too big.

 Here's time square.  You can sort of see the ball up on top for new years.  We took a bus downtown today and just walked around.  Some of the places we went: central park(amazing...except they made me take my slackline down), chrystler tower, grand central station, a couple huge churches, and a huge library.  Fun day, but my legs are tired.

I couldn't resist :)

So tomorrow morning we're taking off for Norfolk, Virginia.  It should be about 3 days offshore so we're all pretty excited.  It will be a good warm up for the next leg (virginia to St Thomas).  We'll have to take night shifts and get used to sleeping out at sea.  We should also be sailing by the statue of liberty tomorrow morning which we have yet to see.  Then on to the ocean.  The weather is calling for strong offshore winds, so it should be good.