The New Jersey Turnpike between 7A and the Lincoln Tunnel:
When you cut through Trenton from Philadelphia via US 1, there’s one of those fantastic “stealth” cell phone towers designed to look like, say, a tree. It took a while but I finally figured out that this one is the TowerCo PA2036 Stealth Tree Tower in Morrisville, Pennsylvania:
Catching up on various Philadelphia-area stuff from the end of 2009 . . .
After shooing away skateboarders at LOVE Park, the City gave them free reign under I-95 in FDR Park:
The Dream Garden mosaic at the Curtis Center:
Elsewhere in Center City, the I.M. Pei-designed Society Hill Towers (what’s with this guy anyway, getting props for these hulking monstrosities in the middle of low-slung neighborhoods? He’s also responsible for the Silver Towers in Greenwich Village, which was recently landmarked and similarly absurd . . .). The intriguing Rohm and Haas Building. Foglietta Plaza, somewhat forgotten between Society Hill and Penn’s Landing. Welcome Park. Great meal at Jose Garces’ Amada Restaurant.
In South Philadelphia, the Holiday Inn Stadium, which is actually a lot bigger than it looks from the baseball stadium:
(The Holiday Inn was featured on an episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.)
Driving through Frankford and Kensington to visit Philadelphia Brewing Company (they have tours on Saturday and the beer is highly recommended!). In Frankford, Womrath Park, which Jen said was the site of various punk shows in the late 1990s (and which was also known as “Hooker Park” back then).
In Port Richmond, Byrne’s Tavern and Green Rock Tavern, which has a JFA paisley skateboard (check out those rail and tail guards!) that must be 25 years old . . . wow:
Jim’s Steaks in Northeast Philadelphia.
Main Street and Dekalb Street in Norristown over in Montgomery County.
Another trip to Longboat Key, Florida at the beginning of November . . .
They were selling Yankees gear in the JetBlue terminal at JFK on the morning of November 6:
Meanwhile, flying over a thoroughly dejected city of Philadelphia:
The beach at Longboat Key. I think this is a Great Blue Heron:
There’s this great vestigial ranch house sitting abandoned among the resorts along the beach:
Hurricane Ida kicked up relatively big waves on the 9th of November:
We stayed, as usual, at the Four Winds Beach Resort. Here are pictures of the St. Mary Star of the Sea Church.
In Sarasota, Central Avenue in the Rosemary District and the Boatyard Boardwalk Shops.
We went back to the Star Fish Company in Cortez, which deserves all the accolades it gets, plus some — excellent fresh fish in a low-key setting. The Peel & Eat Gulf Coast shrimp are fantastic (we don’t really eat the shrimp they serve up in New York, so this was a treat — not trying to be snobby, just that shrimp flown in from elsewhere usually sucks — at the same time, it was really depressing to see the local Publix sell those shitty Thai shrimp rings — yuck), as are the mullet and grouper (can’t remember which is which, but I think the first is the grouper and the second is the mullet):
