Day 79 New Smyrna -looks good!

It was about 4 hours and 33 miles from Titusville to New Smyrna, and it is like a whole new world. For the past 3 travel days we had been in the Indian River Lagoon, which has no tide. About halfway today, we followed a dredged cut/channel across Merrit Island as the island and lagoon were ending. This put us back into a situation where we have just a somewhat narrow barrier island between the mainland and the Atlantic Ocean. We are back into tides again, and the first picture today, which appears not to show much, is actually just one of many oyster reefs that we passed today at low tide.  We saw LOTS of manatees virtually all along the way, and my personal "guesstimate" was 16, but sometimes we were not close enough to actually tell whether the swirl of tail or head was one or two manatees. There is only an estimate of the toal number of manatees in Florida, which is 5,000 for 2013. For most of the trip up the east coast from Stuart, we have had many manatee speed zones both within and outside of the IntraCoastal Waterway. Usually the speed zones within the waterway are short, e.g. under bridges and in canals or manmade cuts. However, we had one section today that was about 8 miles long where it was "Slow Speed-Minimal Wake" everywhere. It was a good thing too as there were manatee all along this portion. The bird watching was pretty good also. For example, we saw our first Roseate Spoonbills on this side of Florida.

The second picture is from the aft deck of Lucky Us at the New Smyrna City Marina and was taken at dusk. The small mangrove island and the dock to the left are lots of white Ibis and pelicans, including "lots" of baby pelicans. Its going to be noisy outside tonight, and for once it will not be loud music from a nearby bar...

      We took the electric scooters about 1.5 miles to the local movie theater complex and saw "Smurfs 2". Not a lot of blood and violence, but otherwise, it was enjoyable. The BIG NEWS on the entertainment front is that tomorrow night we have tickets to a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" at the local theater company. One of those little known facts about me is that I love local theater and was a supporting member of up to three local theaters for many years before retirement. So, thanks once again to the Admiral we are going tomorrow night!

     

For about half of the trip to the movies, we rode along a waterfront residential street with nice, older homes, and to my surprise, there was a traffic circle -Whoop!

We also cruised along the "usual" restored old downtown, which unlike the last two appeared to be busy...

So far, New Smyrna seems like a very nice little town, but we still need to check out the beach on the ocean.

Day 78 in Titusville

After a very short day on the water yesterday, we deserved a day off. Right? Man, I love this retired life... Today, we left the boat about 11:15 am to scooter about 0.8 miles to Koler's Cobbler, which is a very nice little restaurant downtown.  I had my "usual" lunch of broiled chicken on a Caesar salad and this just set the stage perfectly for peach cobbler with a scoup of ice cream followed by a nice nap back at the boat while the Admiral caught up on her netflix episodes (the marina's free internet is excellent).

 

After my nap, the Admiral lured me into walking a whole half mile to the Gemini Space Park. The first photo shows the sculpture that is the center piece of the memorial. Around the edge of the center piece are granite monuments with names, flights and pictures etched into the granite. There were also bronze hand prints for the astronauts. The setting was lovely and the "memorial" honored the gallant men of the Gemini missions in an impressive, but low key manner. 

Then it was time for the gruelling half mile walk back to Lucky Us. My big accomplishment for the day was writing and addressing postcards for the grandkids. However, all was not lost since by then it was time for dinner. This time I insisted that we take the electric scooters since the (waterfront) restaurant was at least 2 tenths of a mile further than the Space Park. The final picture shows the Admiral and me out on the fishing pier with the restaurant in the background.

     Tomorrow we are off again, travelling 33 miles north to New Smyrna Beach, which is only 15 miles south of Daytona Beach (for reference). We are slowly working our way north along the Florida coast to Jacksonville where we plan to spend more time exploring the St. Johns River.

 

Sea ya!

Day 77 -21 miles north to Titusville

Our trip today was a leisurely 3 hour trip (20 miles) from Merritt Island to Titusville. We basically went from the south to the north end of the Kennedy Space Center, which is on the barrier islands to the east of the IntraCoastal Waterway. The massive Vehicle Assembly Building was a landmark for the entire trip. It was the largest building in the world (by volume) for many years. Now it is number 6 (?), but it is still the largest one story building (by volume). The bridge in the first picture was on a NASA canal from the Waterway to Port Canaveral, which was/is used to deliver large engines, fueltanks, etc. Our marina was on this channel, and shortly after passing under this bridge, we saw large swirls all around the boat. Due to manatee warnings, we were only going 5 mph in the canal, but I put the engines in neutral so that we could "drift" slowly through the manatees. 

It was difficult to count, but

there were at least 7 adult manatees plus several calves. This friendly "fella" came within 10 feet of the boat and had a look around. Then as he/she wandered off, we had an open path to slowly motor past the herd. The rest of the trip was pretty quiet, and the weather was really wonderful.  For over 40 miles, which includes all of the past two travel days and most of another, we have been traveling between Merritt Island and the mainland. Technically, most of this has been in what is called the Indian River or more appropriately, the Indian River Lagoon. It is brackish water and is fed by many small rivers and streams. another "world's capitol" is claimed by Titusville. They lay claim to eing the Redfish Capitol of the  World. As they say, "That's our story and we're  sticking to it." The city marina in Titusville is on the edge of the old, partially restored downtown and is boardered by parks. This scenario for the marina seems to be a reoccuring theme, which is fine with us...
    late in the afternoon we went 4.5 miles to a theater complex to see "Grownups 2". The movie had some wonderfully funny scenes, but overall it was too much slap stick comedy with no real theme. Special thanks to the Admiral for putting up with my choice of a movie! However, it may be a while before I get to choose again...

     Tomorrow? Who knows what we will do. Stay tuned...

Day 76 fun at Kennedy Space Center

Today we start with the "obligatory" smiling faces on a bus...  We took a shuttle from the marina at 9:00 am to the Kennedy Space Center a few mles away. I have visited the Johnson Space Center (Houston) a number of times over the past 36 years, but I was really looking forward to the bus tour around the center. Why? I knew that the area was huge, but being able to go up in an observation tower and see for myself just how big everything is... Okay, I thought that I was prepared, but the size of everything was still impressive.

...and the second picture is of the same great looking couple. Why? Well, everyone knows that "I'm so vain", but the real reason is that the Admiral bought this picture. Thus, I am trying to get added value by actually using the picture.



An example of part of what I mean about scale can be seen in the second photograph of a tractor tread from the mobil crawler that moves the assembled rockets to the launch pad. There is no scale in the photo so it is not obvious that the treaad is about 5 feet wide. On the bus we followed the gravel "tractor path" for several miles. The gravel road is actually two lanes, which are each about 15 feet wide and separated by an even wider grass median. At first thought, you might think that two crawlers could pass one another, but the crawler is so wide that the tracks on one side use "one" road and the same for the other. Thus, without actually seeing a crawler, I know that the crawler is really huge

Okay, okay... Just one more of my favorite pictures from today. This one shows a "forest" of rockets with a Saturn 5 lying horizontal in the background. I first saw a Saturn 5 at Johnson Space Center in 1977 just a couple of years after the Apollo Program ended. I remember thinking then "how did that ever get off the ground?" I'm still wondering about that.

We got back home to Lucky Us aout 3:15 pm so it was a good, long time at the Space Center.

The final picture of the day gets back vaguely to the topic of boating. It seems that many boaters have a "thing" about protecting their beautiful teak and holley floors or at least keeping the dirt out. Walk along a dock and you will notice a variety of "No shoes, please" signs, but I thought this one a bit more likely at least to get read if not honored. 

Tomorrow, we are off headed North again. We plan to go a couple of hours to Titusville, but we'll see how we feel about it in the morning. I could reaally get to like this "no agenda/itinerary" stuff.

Day 75 to Merritt Island (Cape Canaveral area)

The Admiral got an early start by going to the Farmers Market in the Eau Gallie area of Melbourne only 5 blocks from the dock. Not a lot of local produce at this time of the year, but she did get some great grapes. After that we had a 45 minute visit from some retired military friends of Terry's parents (and family).  They were stationed together in Indiana back in the 60's. 

The second picture shows Perry and Roberta as they were leaving.  Most of the small marina is in the background. The area around the marina reminded me of some of the small channels off of the main harbor at Annapolis, MD. Houses sitting 25 feet above the water with long sloping lawns down to the water.

The last picture from melbourne shows a scarecrow in a garden that the Admiral passed on her walk to the market. A real authentic looking scarecrow??? Now I wonder. Where are there grape vines in that yard?

Our boat trip to Merritt Island was 25 miles and took just under 3.5 hours. The final photo is of two manatees in the channel to the marina (two dark forms near the center of photo). For a mammal that moves as slow as a manatee you would think that they would be easy to photograph, but I guess not.

     Our marina for the next two nights has a pool, small store and a nice restaurant where we went for dinner. The marina has about 250 boats mostly about our size (+/- 5 feet) so you would think that they would have no trouble finding a slip for us. I put Lucky Us into the slip stern first with no problem. After we had all of the lines set, we found that there was only 30 amp power and not the 50 amp service that we need. Terry phoned the office, and they told us to move about 6 slips down. So, we untied everything, and once again I back into the new slip. I got Lucky Us about halfway in and all of a sudden she stopped. We were tightly wedged between 2 pilings since the slip was too narrow.  After yet another phone call, I put her stern first into the third slip, and this time we had enough room and the correct power...  Everything had gone pretty smoothly on all three dockings, but my nerves were more than a little shot by this time. Of course, with each "move" we acquired a bigger audiance as more people became curious as they saw us moving around... After checking in at the marina office, we both jumped into the pool to cool off and relax! That really felt good!

  Our marina is just off a dredged channel that was (is?) used to transport  stages of rockets to the Kennedy Space Center. Kind of like coming full circle. In June of last year when we were returning to our home port on Clear Lake, we passed the space shuttle on a barge headed for the Johnson Space Center just across Clear Lake from our home... Well, no barges this time, but we are signed up for a "shuffle" to take us to Kennedy Space Center in the morning.

Day 74- scenic 52 miles to Melbourne

Beautiful weather for the 52 mile trip from Ft. Pierce north to Melbourne, FL. While in Ft. Pierce, we had driven north 14 miles to Vero Beach a number of times for shopping and movies, but today we went past the town on Lucky Us.

There were several VERY nice residential areas along the waterway with 5,000+ sq ft houses. This picture shows one older home (left) and one under construction. Most of the trip was sparcely populated with lots of small mangrove islands formed from dredged sand from the waterway. There were nice and scenic views in abundance.

Our marina in Melbourne is in the Eau Gallie (pronounced "oh galley" and is French for "rocky water") area of Melbourne. It was once a separate town, but now the old Eau Gallie downtown is a restored arts district within the city of Melbourne. EGAD stands foe the Eau Gallie Arts District, and tomorrow morning (Saturday) there will be a Farmer's Markey there. Wanna gues where the Admiral will be in the morning???

     For dinner we went to "Squid Lips Restaurant" on the water next to the arts district.

Unlike the name implies, the only squid on the menu was a fried calamari appetizer... I opted for a citrus marinated salmon that was quite a different taste from the "usual" salmon taste. The admiral had an unusual but very good shrimp grits dish.  I tried a bite of the grits, and in my "modest" opinion unlike most grits, these were great. Altogether there were 4 different dining areas (restaurant, indoor bar, outdoor Tiki bar and tables on the sand beach). All with scenic views of the waterway.

     I suppose that having a statue of a squid in the lobby would have been true to the restaurant's name but perhaps not that attractive? Obviously, for some reason they chose a shark as a greeter in the lobby? Well, I'm not going to lose any sleep over their logic or choices... In fact, speaking of sleep, I will e-talk at you again tomorrow.

Day 73 "Day of rest" -well, sort of...

After two nights sleeping in a bed the did not rock gently (i.e. on land). I got a wonderful, long (9 hours) of sleep. The Admiral got up an hour earlier and went off to buy several months worth of pop, water, etc. Over the course of the day, I spent several more hours in the engine room checking water levels in batteries (9 of 11 batteries are lead/acid), cleaning raw water intake strainers, checking verious other fluid levels and generally having a "fun" time.

     We drove to Vero Beach (12 miles) to a movie theater to see "Pacific Rim". The Admiral has been wanting to see it, and I finally ran out of excuses. In order not to spoil it for you, I will only tell you that the popcorn was excellent. That's actually the deal - I'll go to any movie as long as I can have a (re-fillable) bucket of popcorn...

a few final pictures. One of the not terribly fond memories that I have of 3 trips to Qatar is all of the roundabouts (or traffic circles) that they have. Talk about scary! Three lanes of traffic with people cutting back and forth...  Well, just down the street at the exit from the marina is a roundabout. This one is pretty benign as there is almost no traffic so it was actually fun to scoot around it. Whew!

In the morning the Admiral

will be taking the rent car back early, and then we will be off north to Melbourne, FL, which is a trip of almost 50 miles. The final picture is of Lucky Us in the slip where she has been for the past week. I kind of like this picture since it looks like there is a palm tree on the aft end of the fly bridge. Yes, that would be tacky, but it would be better than the pink flamingos on the bow of that sailboat in Stuart...

Day 72 Best day off the water so far...

Well, what could that title possibly mean? Think no further. Just think Grandkids! Special thanks to Jill and Bob for making it possible for us to meet up with them and (sorry folks) even more importantly, the Grandkids at Tampa Airport.

As you can see, there was considerable excitement all around. Face-Time on i-Pad is wonderful, but nothing replaces a real hug and/or kiss! We had a very busy lunch on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburgh. We were definitely suffering withdrawal after just over 10 weeks on the Great Loop, and it was certainly special not to have to wait until early in November to see them again. Katie (15+ months) Will (3.5 years) and Sarah (will be 5 in early Oct.) were definitely a sight to beHOLD.

As you might imagine, we did plenty of holding...

The Admiral displayed her leadership skills by "allowing" me to be the photgrapher, but I did manage to get in one or two of the pictures...

Sadly, the visit ended far, far too soon, but we are now back onboard Lucky Us feeling very tired but also very happy!
     Tomorrow has already been declared an official "Day of Rest".  Obviously, the Admiral and I do not agree on everything but this vote was unanamous!

Day 70-71 off to Orlando to see Harry Potter

Yup, I missed posting yesterday, but it was busy. After  more clean up, fix up, etc. on the boat, we set off for Orlando for the Admiral's long anticipated visit with Harry Potter. Today, we arrived and parked at Universal Studios just as the "Island of Adventures" opened at 8:00 am. The rest of the park does not open until a much more sensible 9:00 am.

Of course, there were plenty of "period" stores and restaurants on the way to the school. And of course, it was commercial but well done.

The actual Hogwarts School is quite a landmark and can be seen from a long ways away. However, as we approached, you can see the gleam in the Admirals' eyes. The main "attractions" were two large and one small roller coasters. They did offer a "walking tour" of the school, but it just wound through the same corridors that the also contained the long lines for the roller coasters... My thought was that this was not very impressive... However, there were talking pictures, etc. as we had anticipated. They really did not have it laid out so that you felt like you were actually "in" the hallowed rooms (my humble opinion)...

The rest of the morning was spent getting wet, then wetter and finally getting completely soaked. Oh yes, it also rained a little. The rides in Jurassic Park were fun but that is where we got wet and wetter.

The animated dinosaurs came at you from all direction, including this one that popped up beside the boat. This ride was fun and only a little wet...

Please, no comments about my boat handling abilities. This was actually part of the movie set.

Of course, what really matters is that the Admiral really had a good time. 

She continued to have a good time until we went on this ride after lunch.

Of course, after this ride we were completely soaked from head to toe. It was also raining lightly so we decided to head back to the motel for dry cloths and a little rest.

Then it was back to the park to complete the tour. We did manage one more, very sedated ride in the Dr. Seuss area. Finally, a nice slow, dry ride. Whoop!  In addition, we met up with the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2!

     We ended the day by stopping at the movie theater complex and seeing "Red 2" again. We both enjoyed it as much as the first time, and of course, rhe second time you pick up more of the dialogue as well as gestures/body language.

     After that it was time to head for the motel. Not counting the "rest-dry clothes" break we were gone for over 12 hours. Great but tiring day!

Day 69 in Ft. Pierce, FL

It is going to sound like we took the day off, but instead, it was a day of maintenance, etc.

I got the "esay job while the Admiral tackled cleaning, straightening up and putting away weeks worth of "stuff" that seems to accumulate. Our impression of many people who live aboard on a full time basis is that they never leave the dock largely because their boats get too "cluttered".  Well, in one sense we are live aboards, but we are also travelling most of the time. Thus, the boat needs to be "neat" or one well placed wave can create real havoc... Meanwhile, I spent three hours changing the oil and oil filters on the main diesel engines. You can see the six 1-gallon containers of oil at the top of the picture, as each engine takes 3 gallons of oil. You can also (barely) see an orange 5-gallon pail with a black lid at the bottom of the picture. There is a pump on the lid that is connected via hose to a slip connector on the white fiberglass covered (stringer) low rail on the right side. This fitting is connected to a hose that comes from the bottom of the oil pan on each engine. This would be a slick job if it were not necessary to run the engine to "stir up" the sludge in the bottom of the oil pan. This means that it gets hot in the engine room (Oh. poor me.... ha ha). Once the oil is pumped out and into the 5-gallon pail, it is a simple matter to change the filter and put in 3 gallons of new oil. Then it is simply a matter of reversing the 12 volt DC pump for pumping the oil into the now empty white plastic gallon oil containers.  It really is a pretty slick system, but of course, stray drops of oil seem to end up all around (and on the operator). It was also time to clean up the hull under the engines to get off old oil spills (and leaks along with assorted flakes of rust, dirt, etc.). In the engine compartment of your car, there is no floor. So, all of the "mess" falls out on the highway or if you are unlucky, forms those lovely oil spots on the garage floor. Fortunately, in our case the boat has a "floor" under the engine - it's called the hull...

    We ended the afternoon with about a half hour of "face time" talking to the grandkids on the i-pads. We mainly talked to Will and Sarah, but 15 month old Katie kept proudly showing off how well she now walks as she cruised through the fore and background with a very big smile on her face.  At 5:30 pm we met up with Tom and Nancy in the Tiki Bar-Restaurant for dinner. Terry and Nancy were work colleagues during Terry's time at TAMU-Galveston. They live in Vero Beach a few miles north, but they will probably be travelling when we go through there next weekend. We had a fun time. Thanks for visiting!

     Probably some more of the same types of jobs tomorrow with hopefully some fun time for good measure.

Day 68 the Captain celebrates (?)

Late yesterday, we made the decision to stay for about a week in Ft. Pierce partly because the Admiral wants to visit her dear old friend "Harry Potter" at Universal Studios in Orlando. Thus, we rented a car for the week.

The "celebration" in the title of today's post refers to the fact that today is 6 months plus 1 day since I had a seizure last January. After a seizure, one is not supposed to drive for 6 months (seizure free). So, the 6 month part is indeed good news. It does not mean that I will never have another one, but the "odds" are much improved. I did not keep the seizure a secret, but at the same time I did not rent any TV time to advertise the fact.  I actually had the seizure in the driveway at Terry's parent's home in Rockport, TX. I spent part of 4 days in the hospital in Corpus Christi, and after all kinds of tests, they found no underlying cause. So, here we are six months later, some 1300 miles and nearly 10 weeks into our boating trip. It seems that there are no rules about boats and seizures... If you think about it, this might explain why you usually see me wearing a life jacket with a safety harness, and why we have a TV camera to monitor me while the admiral is below, safety lines, etc.

There was a Saturday morning Farmer's market across the street from our dock. I did not go, but the Admiral brought me a delicious scone (home grown no doubt). In another part of the waterfront park, there was also an art-souvenir-trinket market.

I did browse through some of this market. Trust me. I was not tempted to buy any thing...

As I was leaving the market area on my electric scooter, I took this picture, and I was immediately latched onto by the owner of this Corvette. He had converted a perfectly good Corvette into a smart (i.e. all electric) car. The engine and transmission are gone, and the rear area is full of batteries, which are (red) barely visible in the picture. Since I was riding an electric scooter, he thought that he had found a true soul brother. I did not have the heart to tell him that I took the picture as an "oddity" at best...

The next picture also falls into the same category of odd things that I have seen along the way. Take for example, this perfectly good sailboat with the 2 pink flamingos as "hood" ornaments.

I suppose that the rest of our day slightly followed this same off beat theme.  We drove up to a great movie theater in Vero beach about 15 miles north of Ft. Pierce. We saw the new movie "Reds 2". We both really enjoyed the movie, and the Admiral said as we were leaving that this was the first movie in a long time that she would love to see again.

     Tonight we had our first Mexican food since leaving Clearwater about a month ago. I had a fajita salad that was really pretty good. Sorry Texas! I really do not miss B-B-Q, but I still like to get some GOOD Tex-Mex food on a fairly regular basis...

Then we toured around the area including driving out across bridges to several of the barrier islands. Sure enough, the Atlantic Ocean was right where it was supposed to be...

Day 67 arrived in Ft. Pierce

Left Stuart at 8:30 am and arrived at Ft. Pierce about four hours later. Really nice weather with 5+ mph winds and scattered clouds. In fact, it is now 9:40 pm, and we have not had any rain... Whoa!
 

     A "real" picture of an osprey from today. Several days ago, I put in a picture of what I thought was a soaring osprey. Although the Admiral changed the picture the next morning we have had several people who either saw the blog post or received the post via email before it was changed and pointed out that her soaring osprey was actually a turkey vulture.  This morning on our trip to Fort Pierce, she spotted another soaring osprey and captured this picture to make up for the mistake.

     Another tail/tale of a lost fish... We came to a stop in the waterway as this man alone in a boat drifted across the waterway. He was having a great "fight" with a tarpon, that jumped completely out of the water 4 or 5 times. In this picture, the tarpon is horizontal just above the water and at the feet of the fisherman. About 15 seconds later, the line broke, and we had another classic view of a tired, disappointed (but also secretly happy) angler.

      After checking in at the marina, we had lunch outside at the waterfront Tiki Bar & Restaurant. I had a fairly average Caesar Salad but with great grilled shrimp on top. Later, we went about 1.5 miles south via the electric scooters to a theater and saw RIPD (Rest in Peace Department). The movie was good, but the genre reminded both of us of Men in Black. Let the sequels begin...

 

     Once again, we are in the city marina, which is adjacent to (you guessed it) the restored, historic downtown.  I am almost 100% sure that tomorrow will involve some shopping, and I don't mean groceries even though there is a farmers market in the park adjacent...

Day 66 in Stuart - a remarkable old downtown

We left Lucky Us about 10:15 am

for a walking tour of downtown that lasted nearly 4 hours since we enjoyed it so much. As a city, Stuart is 99 years old, but that part of the local history mainly dates from the railroad. We made a wrong turn and ended up Crossing US #1 and going directly about 2 blocks to the middle of the old downtown.  It is a wonderful mixture of old and new buildings that all fit together. Although as we crossed the main road, we did see this sign trying to sell an entire (small) city block.

The downtown was busy and more like a local, working downtown, i.e. no souvenir stores. Yes, there were plenty of restaurants, bars and coffee shops, but as the Admiral discovered, there were quite a few clothing, novelty and art/antique stores.

I loved this sign! At the same time it seemed strangely out of place. There were plenty of people who were old enough to have been Hippies, but I never saw anyone with a pony tail or braids, etc.

Lately, most of the Florida towns that we have visited are the "World's" something, and indeed, Stuart claims to be the Sailfish Capitol, which is celebrated in this sculpture.

The curly tailed lizard on the square paving block is nearly 10 inches long. We saw quite a few of these lizards today (mostly smaller).

We also visited the local museum, which we had thought would take only a few minutes to view since it was in a small restored, wooden store with living quarters in the back. However, we had not anticipated the nice lady who insisted on giving us her own personal tour. She had grown up here and was well versed in the local history. In additon to fishing and early (train related) tourism, there much logging and harvesting of pineapples. Also, there was a period  after WW II when the area produced huge quantities of mums. Well, that's undoubtedly more than you wanted to know about Stuart.       We stopped at the Riverfront cafe, and we both had a great salad  that was topped with a fried filet of Dogfish.  A new variety of fish for me, but we both loved it. 

Going back to the marina, we took the correct route of about a half mile on a boardwalk along the waterfront park. Notice that the the Admiral was kind enough to let me carry her purchases.

About 3:00 pm, we took the electric scooters and headed off to West Marine and the movie theater, which are both a little over 2 miles away. We saw "Despicable Me-2". The second batch of popcorn was much better than the first, but the whole movie was quite enjoyable. On the way back to the boat, we stopped at Publix Grocery just as the rains hit. The worst rain was while we were inside, but our bright yellow slickers were definitely needed on the ride home...

Tomorrow is a travel day of about 4 hours as we will turn North into the Atlantic IntraCoastal Waterway and begin a long journey to New York City and beyond...