New Jersey and NYC

We arrived, with a couple of hours delay, to heat and humidity in the 90's. Katherine's dad and step mum met us and drove us to their home in panther valley a private housing area built into woodland with lovely views of the valley. It's a few miles from a small town called Hackettstown in NW New Jersey about an hours drive from New York City.

Sitting out on the porch (we're virtually the only ones as everyone else are inside with their air conditioning) we've enjoyed some interesting wildlife. A ground hog sniffed along the grass close by, a raccoon was spotted briefly, and we were visited by hummingbirds and cardinals. Deer often cross the roads and go into peoples gardens and we recently had an evening at some friends who occasionally had black bears wonder into their garden and steal bird food. Apparently a mother and her cubs can be very dangerous, they have to keep dogs and themselves inside.

We had a day trip to NYC and wondered around the Soho area before heading off to Brooklyn Heights to look back at the Manhattan skyline and walk back over the Brooklyn bridge which is fantastic. We were told later that the bridge was packed with people fleeing Manhattan and its dust and debris and fear on 9/11, walking the bridge you could imagine it.

To celebrate Katherine's dad's birthday, we headed for the New Jersey shore, right to the southern tip of the state, Cape May. Here we lounged on the beach and were treated to some dolphins playing in the wake of boats not far from the waters edge. Also a wedding party descended onto the beach in the evening, so we sat on the balcony of our hotel, wine in hands, and watched the whole ceremony trying to guess who was who. We also sat around the pool, played shuffleboard(a game where you have a pole and shove a koit kind of thing into a numbered area) and were offered apple martini's by our partying young neighbours. We had lot's of good food and massive portions, risking being harpooned by whaler's the next day on the beach.

We're looking forward to Miami, and joining the latin beat. We go there on the 22nd for 3 nights and then rent a car to Venice on the gulf coast for a couple of days to see Katherine's grandparents. We fly to Quito on the 29th and have found a great hostal near to the old town, go to http://www.secretgardenquito.com/contactus.html we're there for 3 nights and will need to acclimatise to the altitude. Further south, close to the Peruvian boarder, we hope to stay at this incredible hostal http://www.izhcayluma.com/en/frameset.html Now we are getting excited!!!

Oh I nearly forgot, the clay hotel in south beach Miami, is the same place David and I stayed at back in 1994 when we first got to the US, so it will be fascinating to see it again.