Day Trip - Staten Island

Wow, it appears things have changed.  Blogger has a new look.  Anyway, sorry for the delay with posting.  Yep, I'm on vacation.  And yes, I'm basically doing what I do every vacation.  I sleep.  The only saving grace this time around is that I've been doing my morning jog most mornings.  No, I didn't run this morning.  No, I didn't run yesterday morning either.

Back on track.  I planned an event for my social networking group.  I asked members for a day for the event...I got one reply, so I posted the event for July 14th, thinking at least one person would show.  Well, over the course of a few weeks, another member (who lives on Staten Island), suggested a restaurant that the group would enjoy.  And he said that he was going to join us on the Staten Island exploration.  Well, the day of the trip, I called to confirm a meeting spot.  Unfortunately, Staten Islander was busy.  He told me that his car wasn't working for an appointment that he had to go to...but moments later said he cancelled.  I decided, I would do the Staten Island Day Trip on my own.  Everything went according to schedule.  I enjoyed the ferry ride over.  The ferry ride was free.  There wasn't much to see at the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial.  Snug Harbor was enjoyable for its botanical gardens and wide open feel.  There was a 9/11 educational center located in Snug Harbor.  I thought the educational center should have been located nearer to the 9/11 memorial.  The Staten Island Zoo at $8 was a bit pricey for what was there.  The place was very small.  In my opinion, it wasn't so much a zoo as it was an exhibition of animals and animal facts.  The Staten Island Museum was also small.  However, the $3 price seemed right. Beso's?  It was a very nice restaurant, but it really didn't fit in with the overall theme of the "Day Trip".  It was very pricey!!  But since it was recommended by a member who I thought was going, I included it in the scheduling.  Although it didn't seem to fit, I didn't want to seem like an uncultured cheapskate, so I went to the restaurant.  I paid $30 for a pasta and meat dinner with an extra side order of spinach and two 12oz. glasses of water.  Both the vegetables and the water were extra.  Although the water was free, I had to ask for it.  After I left, I wanted to go to Burger King, but I needed to catch my train.  So, I settled for two donuts and a pint of Haagen Daaz.

I took about 200 photos.  I will post some of them here.  The attached photo above was taken from the Internet.