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Beaver Lake Nature Center: Deep Woods Trail
October in upstate New York is for leaf peeping. You can drive around and view the foliage from a distance along the roadside, or you can go straight to the source. On this particular crisp Saturday morning, I chose the latter with a trip to Beaver Lake Nature Center’s Deep Woods Trail. The Deep Woods Continue reading
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Beaver Lake Nature Center: Bog Trail
On Sunday afternoon, I figured I was overdue for a nature hike. It was a chilly, wet, and gray day, so I decided to lean into the dismalness of it all and walk through a bog. Onondaga County’s Beaver Lake Nature Center is my go-to option for walking in the wilderness. Its Bog Trail is Continue reading
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Owl Be Seein’ Ya
A few months ago, I wrote about how I could not bring myself to end my continuous-days streak on the Duolingo app. I’m proud to report that upon hitting the milestone of 731 days (two years plus one day), I disabled all of the notifications on the app and am finally taking a break from Continue reading
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October
I’ve heard it said that tourism is all about collecting clichés. When it comes to the enduring clichés associated with the fall season, I don’t need to engage in tourism to collect them. They are right outside my front door. Central New York has all of the stereotypical/archetypical ingredients of American autumns in spades: pumpkin Continue reading
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Fish and (a Few) Fowl
In previous posts, I’ve shared some photos of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Now it’s time to round out my Charm City trilogy with some shots that Griffin and I took during our visit to the National Aquarium. Being a fan of zoos, aquariums, science museums, and the like, I’ve wanted Continue reading
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Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
During our recent trip to Baltimore, Griffin and I spent some time touring the city’s Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is home to the National Aquarium (subject of a future post), some museum ships, and assorted shops and eateries. We were there on a beautiful Saturday afternoon — the perfect time to be on a Continue reading
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Oriole Park at Camden Yards
On September 16, Griffin and I visited Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards to watch the home team soundly defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-0. I will have more to say about the trip, the game, the Orioles, and Baltimore in general in the future, but this post is devoted to some pics that we Continue reading
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Felt Hat Day
Happy National Felt Hat Day to those who celebrate. For those of you non-weirdos who don’t know arcane details about headwear, Felt Hat Day is traditionally observed on September 15 as the day to switch over from wearing straw hats to wearing felt hats. It goes back to the era when brimmed hats were pretty Continue reading
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Memento Mori
“This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.” – Seneca We all waste time. We all procrastinate. We all kick the can down the road on doing worthwhile things because we are so preoccupied with the day-to-day Continue reading
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Birdwatching
In case you were wondering, I can confirm that, as of September 5, 2023, the Baltimore Orioles still own the best record in the American League. In related news, Griffin and I will be traveling to Baltimore next weekend to catch a crucial late-season game against the hated Tampa Bay Rays. I haven’t been to Continue reading
About Me
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 