Tagged With "Prospect Park"
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Re: American Samoa: The Park, The People and The Culture
What an exotic experience! Hard to believe there's an American National Park that so few people visit. Thanks for sharing this unique destination with us, @59NationalParks!
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Re: Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: Coral, Currents, and Clear waters
The Yucatan is wonderful place, and so much more that Cancun. For those who don't scuba there is Xel-Há national park near Tulúm. This lagoon is wonderful place to snorkel and with beautiful fish in a more controlled environment.
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Re: New Orleans Winter Walking
It's a beautiful hike, Whitney! I dislike the heat and humidity of New Orleans' summer, but this time of year sounds inviting and it's obviously charming! And while it's cold, winter is also beautiful. Here's a photo from my favorite place to hike, a 1 minute walk from my home, Fish Creek Provincial Park. We hike here along the Bow River in all four seasons, including winter. Snow slows you a little but it's not that deep as a rule. If it gets icy, you use microspikes.
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Re: Mar. 17. 2016. Why did the Chicken cross the road ?
When you were a young boy DrF, were you made to stay back in class when the other kids went on a nature trip ? Did you ever pick flowers in the park and take them home? A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
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Re: Union Square NYC
Hi Jonathan, thanks for sharing this info about Union Square. We were in NYC in Oct and had wanted to see this area, but sadly never made it due to time. It is definitely on our list to see the next time we are there - hopefully in the spring so we can sit out and enjoy lunch while people watching We did make it to Battery Park though, and that was pretty interesting. Thanks again for sharing.
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Re: Where In the World is TravelGumbo (#199)
Saturday's clues include enough of a glimpse of the background to say "city park," but where? Two more clues tomorrow before the answer is revealed.
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Minho Park
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Well, for a start, make sure you visit Reno, Travel Luver. It's a much small town than Vegas but still has all the casinos, restaurants, etc that you'd expect from a Nevada City. From here it's easy to do a day trip to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or down to Carson City. Reno is actually the closest major city to Great Basin National Park, say about a 3-4 hour drive. Vegas is 6-7 hour drive away. Salt Lake City is closer to Great Basin than Vegas. But you really can't do it as...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
A friend who was a park planner for the National Park Service said his favorite park was Big Bend in Texas. He's a lover of desert landscapes, wide-open spaces and, in the case of this park too, almost no visitors. Another orphan, no doubt. http://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Thanks for the note, PortMoresby. I've visited a lot of the US parks, but Big Bend is still on my "to do" list. They do white water rafting trips there, which appeals to me. One of the things that a lot of folks enjoy about these "orphans" is that they are so sparsely peopled, with few tourists. I think the US Parks system is the USA's biggest tourist asset. I'm certainly a huge fan. Seems whenever I'm in a US Park, more German is spoken than English. The German folks certainly are aware of...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
The comments on "orphan parks" made for some interesting thoughts. How do we (as a society) choose what to save for parks? When you consider urban parkland, the point is obvious: people who have no land of their own need areas for public recreation. In other cases, individuals with wealth and influence have created parks in areas important to them personally (think of Acadia and the Rockefellers, Palisades Interstate Park and Morgan partners). But setting aside and maintaining areas like...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Pheymont, you speak as if budget cuts are in the future when in fact the Park Service has been functioning with less and less for years now. The Service has a mission to which they're dedicated but less funding has meant "deferred" maintenance on buildings, trails, you name it. And when features of a park are deemed unsafe or there isn't personnel to oversee visitors then parts are closed. I've experienced that myself recently when a trail I've visited in years past was closed. I have no...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Costs for the existing parks is mostly maintenance and salary. In the face of a broke federal government, I would favor increased user fees. $10-20 for a family to visit a national park for a week is the greatest bargain out there. People who love the parks would happily pay twice as much and I don't think the extra cost would be a deterent. Also, it's reasonable for those with concessions to pay up more than they are. They are given a monopoly and some of those profits should go back to the...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
No, I'm painfully aware of the past and present cuts...but I see more ahead. My concern is that there are loud voices (my own included) to speak out against cuts to parks that have a big "fan base," including Gateway here in the NY area. Because so many speak out for those parks, I fear that NPS will increasingly "hide the damage" by even more drastic cuts to others--perhaps even outright abandonment. And that's not so far-fetched an idea. For some 20 or more years here in New York, Prospect...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
PHeymont, I don't believe we disagree. I think the problem is that the park system relies on "federal handouts" and when a government is broke, there's less to hand out. As I said, I sort of favor them being self-funded by their user and concession fees. That's a lot of money already (if it was all kept in the parks) and people would be willing to pay more IF they knew the money stayed in the parks and didn't get diverted back into the Washington's general budget. Orphan parks would be...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I've often advised travelers with jam-packed itineraries to step back and leave themselves time to take a walk in a park or sit there a while, experiencing what the locals see and do. That is absolutely excellent advice. I hope that most people were wise enough to take your advice. Many of my best trip memories are made of such stuff. Thank you so much, PHeymont, for this walk in the park. It is just what my jangled nerves needed today.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I suspect a walk in the park is a habit acquired over time and familiarity with a place. I have a feeling, too, that the urge to go at top speed is the initial and overriding one. Or is it years and not travel experience that slows us down enough for such places to finally come into focus? Looking back over the decades I think maybe it's the latter.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I do think people's perspectives and priorities change with time. For example, I care little about a bar or nightlife scene in most of my destinations nowadays; that mattered more to me when I was much younger. I have always loved walking in parks because of the beautiful gardens, etc. But I think i'm much more into people watching in these places than I used to be. One of my favorite places to visit is the provincial park a short block from my home. It's grand to go for a walk in it, see...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Maybe travel advice of the very concrete sort then, hotels, trains, etc. is the most satisfying for all concerned. A suggestion to slow down just may not compute, something for each of us to discover on our own. So PHeymont may be preaching to the choir...may he continue.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Good advice is good advice. People can accept it or ignore it. I'm all for freedom of choice. But sometimes an alternative needs to be presented in a clear way, as PHeymont has nicely done in this piece.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I don't disagree. Just pointing out the nature of human beings and, like world peace, we can wish for it while not actually expecting everyone to join in. But lessons are learned from war too and how would we feel about every tourist in town flocking to OUR park.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I've mentioned in other pages that I love wide open spaces - like the State Delaware Park - but the designer of New York Central Park rung a Bell with me. Frederick Olmsted came to Liverpool to check out the "Peoples Garden" and he wrote in 1850 : "Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
It is clear that the "dumb" animals always seem to know the best places to hang out. We can never have enough parks. Nice to read that Frederick Olmsted also knew a good park when he saw one. Thanks for that info GarryRF
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Garry's note about Olmsted's travels (and he was quite a traveler) set me off on a quick look to find the park he was referring to (which I didn't; apparently "people's garden" was a description rather than a name?) and found that Liverpool has more parks and especially top-class parks than any British city besides London. The article also mentioned that for reasons of health—and keeping social unrest down—the city commissioners set out on a park-building spree starting about 1833. Many...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Another Park from the 1850s. People would escape Liverpool for the day and travel north to Hesketh Park. 20 minutes on the train. This is taken in Mid-Winter.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Originally Posted by Grouchy Gumbo: The last pic is of my cousin Priscilla, who lives in Prospect Park. I see that you gave her a little gnosh. Not that she needs it. She seems to be putting on a little extra "winter coat" this year. She has a fine home. I would really like to visit the park sometime. Grouchy, I'm curious how a squirrel manages long distance travel to visit relatives. Maybe you can enlighten us mere mortals.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #4.5, 12/6/13
The towns of Oxnard and Ventura are next to each other. Using Streetview seems to eliminate Ventura Pier, not as many buildings as in DrF's photo. I'm not finding anything called Oxnard Pier so I think maybe the pier closest to Oxnard is Port Hueneme Fishing Pier which has almost no buildings, park and parking lot, it would appear.
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Re: How to visit Florida's Everglades National Park
I will have a car rental. We will be there in December and have 2 nights to spend at or near the park.
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Re: Weekend getaways. Where's your favorite spot
There is always something to do here in Redding. This part of California is known for its natural setting and Gold Rush history. We like to picnic at Shasta Lake or visit the Gold Rush ghost town at Shasta State Historic Park. Hiking at Lassen Volcanic park is always invigorating. In the Spring, you cannot beat a visit to the 220 acre arboretum at Turtle Bay.
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Re: Weekend getaways. Where's your favorite spot
Living in Calgary now, my favorite weekend get away is the Canadian Rockies. Banff is just an hour away and with it thousands of square kilometers of unspoiled wilderness, like the scene below in Sunshine Meadows: or nearby Kananaskis Country. And in the winter it's beautiful with snow and has world class skiing. Sot he Canadian Rockies is where I like to go.
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Re: Magnificent Plaza de Espana
Yes. It was built for the 1929 World's fair. The park is still quite extensive with pavilions. Some are still beautiful and now museums, gov't buildings etc.
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Re: California road trip ideas
That helps me figure out what to tell you, Mrs. Briggs OK, so I'd suggest you fly into LAX. You'll need a car rental to get around LA. Spend three or four days here, may go see Disneyland, maybe go see Universal Studios, maybe go to Knott's Berry Farm. Maybe see the making of a TV show. You could easily spend 10 days in LA, but you've got 10 days for the whole trip, I guess, so that's all you'll have time for. Then head out of the city. You'll want to head out on Hwy 101, which takes you...
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Re: California road trip ideas
I wish I could remember where, but somewhere not too long before SF, there's a state park on a beach that the elephant seals are on. They are huge and they are incredibly funny when they move, but also fast, It's worth a stop for a while. And just a little further north was a state or county park with redwoods. Maybe someone here will know where I'm talking about!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5
There are probably a million miles of hiking trails in north America alone. But not many of them are this well groomed, with borders on the side of the path, smooth surface or well made wooden handrails where it seems none are needed. Ferns imply a shaded moister setting. This looks like some kind of urban park to me, not a wilderness park. PHeymont is an east coast guy, although he gets around a lot. I don't hike there, but who knows east coast hiking trails around here?
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5
I see ferns, and I see birch and evergreens. Pretty sure it's back in the east, but I don't think it's a city park, because it's not set up for a lot of visitors. Wonder where!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5
Yeah, but he also posted about Lisbon, Spain, a park in Brooklyn, France, Chicago...so I wouldn't put too much stock in Maine.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5
I don't see the stones, looks like wood along the path to me. My first thought was NYC, Central Park. Then I thought the park in Brooklyn made more sense in this context, Prospect Park. I agree it looks more like an urban than wilderness place, very tidy. So that's my best guess. I have no plans to search the internet for matching photos this go-around. So that's my thought & I'm stickin' to it.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5
Originally Posted by PortMoresby: I don't see the stones, looks like wood along the path to me. My first thought was NYC, Central Park. Then I thought the park in Brooklyn made more sense in this context, Prospect Park. I agree it looks more like an urban than wilderness place, very tidy. So that's my best guess. I have no plans to search the internet for matching photos this go-around. So that's my thought & I'm stickin' to it. In a far far away land, long long ago, there was a young...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, December 12, 2013: Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth, Minnesota
Hello again Theodore Sorry for the late response to your question. Personally, I do not think it is worth the time and effort it would take for you to drive to Duluth from Minneapolis for only one day in the winter time. The ride from Minneapolis to Duluth one way on Interstate 35 will take you 2.5 hours, and that's under good driving conditions. In the winter, chances are you will encounter bad weather, and that will definitely add to your driving time. Duluth doesn't shut down in the...
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Re: Tampa Bay Automobile Museum: 3) cars from the USA and UK
Great pics of great cars. I will put the Tampa Bay Museum on my list of things to see. Additionally, The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky is awesome, as well. It includes a 50's diner cafe featuring period stuff for lunch. Less than a mile away is the Corvette assembly plant, which offers tours. This is the only place in the whole wide world where Corvettes are assembled. Both are definitely worth a visit. The National Packard Museum is located In Warren, Oh and is small, but...
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Re: A Visit to the “Spine Garden:”Cactus in Arizona’s Sonora Desert
As it snows and storms outside, a welcome diversion! I find all cacti interesting but there's something captivating about the saguaro forest around Tucson. While visiting Saguaro National Park (years ago, before it was a national park), I remember a newspaper clipping tacked onto the park's information board. The headline read something like "Saguaro cactus involved in double homocide". Seems a drunk yahoo with a shotgun drove out to the desert to kill himself a giant saguaro. He did, the...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day. January 14, 2014: Calgary Peace Bridge
Glad you like the pictures IslandMan. Yes Calgary and near by Banff National Park are beautiful parts of the world worth visit. If you are not into ski, summer (please note, it is very short here) is the best time to come. Let me know, I will take you to the best spot to see the bridge! Have a good day. Dr.Y
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day. January 14, 2014: Calgary Peace Bridge
The bridge on the bottom right of the picture 3 is called Bow River Pathway. It's a pedestrian/cycling bridge connecting the downtown ore - Prince's Island Park - The North bank of Bow river. The Peace bridge and C-train bridge are further west! Ha Ha Karl, you need get out more
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Mar 10, 2014: Fiori di Como, The Bellagio, Las Vegas
Well, when you're in Vegas for your anniversary sometime GarryRF, spring for the Bellagio for even just one night and let your beloved wife see the fountain show from that side of the street! I enjoy Vegas in small snippets -- 2-3 days every few years is about perfect. Great place to meet friends, eat well and enjoy a show. Gamble if you want, though I find it too painful to have my wallet stripped that way. I like to go there in the spring and fall so I can head into the surrounding desert...