Spring is in full swing in the Big Apple (as is the pollen count), so Kristina and I had a quick wander around Central Park this afternoon for first time in several long cold months.

Many of the typical warm-weather sights were back, including this, umm, man I think, who spends the whole day standing completely still on a box...

Boats in the water...

Musicians...

More musicians...

Old people getting to grips with this new fandangled technology...

And more old people getting lost.

Yup, 'twas just another glorious day in Manhattan's 843-acre oasis.

After 15 years of driving all over the world, on both sides of the road and on both sides of the car, I had to take a road test for a driver's license today hehe. Specifically, a New York driver's license. Until now I've just been driving on my New Zealand license which, while legal, doesn't cut the mustard with the car insurance company who insisted I set about getting a US license as soon as possible. I had originally wanted to wait until we got to Texas since there's less dicking around involved with getting a driver's license down there, but whatever. So, after taking a right, a left, another right, another left, a parallel park, a three-point turn, and another right, I now have a New York license :) Kristina took this shot as I was starting my test.

After a long winter of eating lunches in the office, the city can finally eat outdoors again hehe. This fountain here is a couple blocks down from my building, and is a great spot to soak up the rays, feed your face, and enjoy the Manhattan mayhem :)

This will be me in 50 years, cleaning my precious, old, beat-up piece of shit ;) That will probably be my bike down there too.

Just another day in the city. Traffic was worse than usual outside my office as I started my ride home after work tonight, and just a few blocks up the road I found out why. This bus was blocking three lanes of traffic with this old geezer standing right in its way and refusing to move, while a large gathering of people on the sidewalk looked on hahaha! I got talking to him and he explained the bus driver had looked right at him while at the bus stop but subsequently refused to let him board, so this was his one-man protest hehe. However, notice the destination on the bus is "Midtown 57th Street" - that's literally right where we were. In other words, the bus driver didn't let this guy board because it was the end of the route! I tried to explain this but I don't think the message was getting through - he just kept saying "This happens all the time!" hahaha! He obviously hasn't figured it out yet :)

Eventually another bus turned up (in the background) that was still in service, so he jumped on that one instead. In other Midtown Manhattan news, a guy who randomly clonked at least four women on the head with a hammer within a span of six hours on Monday was shot by police yesterday after he tried to clout one them (also a woman) with his hammer too hahaha! You couldn't make this stuff up! News article (with video) here.

Some mornings when I'm not in the mood to play in the traffic for whatever reason, I cycle to work through Central Park instead. While in there this morning I noticed a bird has decided to build his nest in the middle of this traffic light hahaha - perfect!

Kristina and I took a drive up to the little village of Dobbs Ferry for dinner this afternoon, about an hour's drive north from our apartment. I just picked it out randomly on Google Maps since it looked pleasant enough, and apparently it's ranked seventh on the list of top 10 places to live in New York State, according to a national online real estate brokerage.

The locals sure seem to like it.

Big old houses with large porches...

Lots of green space...

And lots of pubs (we had dinner at this one). Small-town New York in a nutshell. Interesting titbit: Dobbs Gerry is the hometown of Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook (it says so right on his Facebook page :)

A big part of America's entertainment culture is late night TV, and a big part of late night TV is David Letterman - so big in fact that he's been in the late night game for a whopping 33 years (longer than I've been alive). Of those 33 years, the last 22 have been as the host of the infamous Late Show with David Letterman. The show's studio on the left is just a couple blocks from my office in Midtown Manhattan on Broadway. Anyway, Letterman announced last year that he was retiring, and after 4,264 episodes of the Late Show across those 22 years (and 6,028 late night TV episodes across those 33 years), tonight will be his last. It's been the talk of the nation all week, so despite having never watched a full episode myself, I guess I'll check it out tonight :)

I took the four-wheeled beast out to Long Island today to have its windows tinted, partly for privacy and security when it's full of stuff during the road trip, and partly to protect against the Texas summer sun. I had to kill a couple hours while the tinting dude was working on it, so I followed my nose and found the random trail on the left, and eventually this random bike path. After some digging I found out this is the Bethpage Bikeway which runs for 12.5 miles (20kms), most of it through parkland like this. I only followed it for a couple miles before I had to turn back, but now that I know it's here I might bring my two-wheeled beast out next time.

It's a long weekend here in the US for Memorial Day tomorrow (a day to remember the fallen soldiers from the mostly-unnecessary wars the US chooses to get itself in), and so we hit the road to get out of the city for a day. So did everyone else hehe. Thanks to a bit of illegal parking, we didn't get stuck in it for long though.

And this was our destination - Bear Mountain State Park, and hour north of New York City in the stunning Hudson Valley. This here is Hessian Lake in the north of the park. The park itself covers over 5,000 acres, and offers biking, hiking, boating, picnicking, swimming, cross-country skiing, cross-country running, sledding and ice skating. Phew!

Not a bad lake as far as lakes go :) Notice the mountain in the background - more on that in a bit.

After walking round the lake we picked one of the many trails that meander through the park and followed our nose for a bit. Pretty bloody nice huh!

If you're keen, there are trails that work their way up to the summit of the mountain that take a good few hours to conquer, but we weren't that keen :)

Back on the lake (with dogs swimming in it) we found the rustic Bear Mountain Inn. This enormous wood and stone building has been sitting here for exactly 100 years. Anyway, with that we left the park and headed to the next spot I had in mind.

Two years ago Kristina and I hired a car and spent a few days doing a loop of New York State. We spent that first day following the Hudson Valley and I took this shot of Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River.

Well here's that bridge again, right across from the park, and today we walked across it :) Again, notice the mountain in the background. It's called Anthony's Nose, and I have no idea why (and I don't think anyone does either) but it's been known as that since at least 1697. Anyway, unbeknown to Kristina at this point, we were about to climb to the top of it hehe.

The view looking north along the valley from the bridge.

The trail to the top of Anthony's Nose includes a small section of the Appalachian Trail - a national scenic trail that runs 2,200 miles (3,500km) between the states of Georgia and Maine. This section of it is a really steep and rocky sonofabitch, as perfectly summed up by the look on Kristina's face hahaha!

After a 45-minute slog it was all worth it however. This is the view from the top of Anthony's schnoz, looking west over the Hudson River and Bear Mountain Bridge to Bear Mountain State Park. The lake we'd just come from is right in the centre.

Not a bad way to spend a day.

Kristina and my two-year anniversary is this Sunday and my birthday is the following day, so as a present for one of them (or both of them - she hasn't decided yet hehe), Kristina surprised me with a sunset sailing excursion on the Hudson River around Lower Manhattan tonight. This was out little guy here. Looks safe enough ;)

As we left the pier we passed this boat-load of people getting drunk. They looked like one of those migrant ships pulling in from Asia hehe.

Anyway, we raised the sail and we were off!

Looking north towards Midtown Manhattan (spot the Empire State Building towards the right there).

We headed south however past the western shore of Lower Manhattan. Spot the new One World Trade Center building there :)

Further south again to Battery Park, at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan.

From there we headed out to visit the lady herself - the iconic Statue of Liberty. Despite living here for three years, this is the closest we've been to her, mostly because the line of tourists queuing up to be ferried out to Liberty Island here are endless!

Lady Liberty's view of Lower Manhattan. Not bad!

Aside from going nuts with the camera, I sat back and soaked it all in...

Kristina decided she wanted to drive for a bit...

And that was that for another New York day :)

Another one of Lower Manhattan, as seen from the Statue of Liberty.

If you're a fan of big storms and wild weather (like I am), this is the time of year to be in New York! I shot this out of my office window at 3pm this afternoon amid severe storm warnings on the news. In the end, we got nothing, but it's only a matter of time.

Anyway, Kristina and my two-year anniversary is this Sunday and my 33rd birthday is this Monday, so we're off The Hamptons for a long weekend! The Hamptons are a group of villages and hamlets in the far-east end of Long Island forming a seaside resort. They are renowned for their picturesque scenery, great beaches, and an abundance of multi-million dollar properties. In fact, the area features some of the most expensive residential properties in the US, many of which are owned by big-name celebrities who are regularly spotted out and about. The weather forecast for Sunday is looking rough with the potential for more of these storms, so we'll see.

Kristina and I made it back to the city today from our long weekend in The Hamptons amid torrential rain that actually flooded many parts of the area yesterday. As you can see here though, we got none of it where we were 100 miles to the east, and instead had three glorious days of warm sunny weather, so hooray for that! There will be plenty more photos to follow, but the two above sum it up pretty well: cute wee town centres, and some bloody incredible homes! Add to that a great stretch of beach, expensive cars, and a questionable fashion sense, and you've got The Hamptons in a nutshell :)

Meanwhile, Google wished me a happy birthday today hehe, and apparently all my birthday wishes were too much for Facebook to handle, which went down for about ten minutes this afternoon!