I love summer convection.

So, I'm a little behind in blogging my trips, but I have to post this photo. I was at the 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan last night, and a crazy thunderstorm came rolling through. It was raining so hard for several minutes that you couldn't see NJ across the Hudson. It was fun to watch (and fun to watch people get soaked by the wind-driven rain) while I was safely under a roof. Two hours after the storm cleared, as we were eating dinner, a (meteorology) friend pointed at the sky and said "Hey, those are mammatus clouds, right?" I've only seen them twice in person before, and I turned around to confirm and saw this:

Madrid

Madrid in June. Easy to see why the Spanish siesta, as the highs topped 90 everyday I was there. Also easy to see why they keep such late hours... dinner was never before 9, and sometimes lasted till midnight.

I wandered all around Madrid for 3 days with a friend, eating tapas and drinking plenty of cañas along the way. We stayed very close to Calle de Huertas, a nice little street giving good reason to keep up with Spain's very late hours. I got my fill of chorizo, tortillas, patatas bravas, and albóndigas, and paella.

Madrid is a very walkable city, and walk I did. The sights, in no particular order, included El Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, El Prado, El Parque del Buen Retiro, Museo de Reina Sophia, Gran Vía, and the Jardín Botánico.

Monument to Alfonso XII in El Parque del Buen Retiro

Tigerlilies in Jardín Botánico

Laughing men statue at Museo de Reina Sofia

Palacio Real

Tower Bridge highlights

I was in London again for work; just a week this time around. I didn't do too much outside of work, but I did get some nice shots of Tower Bridge.

I was walking back to my hotel across Tower Bridge the first night I was there and just got across when they started raising the drawbridge to let a sailboat through.

Going up

Sorry car traffic, you're just going to have to wait for the Thames traffic

And, my last evening in town, the skies provided a nice backdrop for Tower Bridge.

High Point

I was home visiting family after running around Alaska, but I still had an itch to hike. Molly and I headed up to High Point State Park. High Point boasts the highest point in NJ: 1803 ft. If you go up to the top of the monument (which is almost always closed when I come to the park), you've breached the 2K mark: 2023 ft. Not quite Alaska elevations, but I'll take what I can get. I got freaked out when we stopped for a snack and heard a grunt and rustling up the trail. We turned right around after that. No signs of bears in Alaska, but I was reminded that north Jersey is BEAR COUNTRY.

Molly has conquered the red/green trail

Molly can jump over NY NJ and PA at the same time!

Clearing PA