Nature Ali's Grand Adventure - Day 11, June 30th.

I grew up in the Village of Pelham Manor, NY and had not been there since I was a child. Took a quick trip around the town realizing that the town apparently shrunk since I was a child, I used to walk ten miles to school and now the walk was only a mile. It is so strange how the house I grew up in was the same size but the yard looked so much smaller. A beautiful village that has changed little except for the residents and the names of the stores, the old pizzeria at Four Corners is still there, but the Grand Union I worked at is now a CVS Pharmacy.
We left the old homestead for a lunch appointment with my fellow staffers at Audubon in Manhattan. We programmed the GPS to take us to 225 Varick Street in New York unfortunately; it took us to Brooklyn instead of into the city. The detour made us really late for our lunch date, but we made it.
It was really nice to meet so many of the people I have only communicated with via email or phone. We went to a nice Italian Restaurant with Anna and Susan. The lunch was really long but I really enjoyed the company. I am glad I don’t work in the New York office though; the traffic alone would stress me beyond reason. It is nice to know how many wonderful capable people run Audubon.
Unfortunately the long lunch left little time for me to visit my childhood girlfriend Liz. (Plus the city traffic really got me frazzled although my sister commented how quickly my polite California driving style reverted to the aggressive New York driving of my youth).
We left the city on a quest to see Cape May, New Jersey and help me get in some birding for the day. Got down to Cape May just before sunset and enjoyed the beautiful resort town with lots of birds, quaint buildings and handsome cabs giving tourists a nice evening look at the town. We drove through Delaware and Maryland and arrived in Manassas around midnight.
430 miles