Leonard Link

Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park, near Bunnell, Florida

My husband Tim and I came down to Ormond Beach, Florida, on Wednesday for the wedding of my nephew Denver Scott Leonard to Kristin Larmer, which took place Thursday evening.  This morning we decided to have a little expedition, so we drove up to St. Augustine.  Along the way, we saw a sign for Bulow Plantation Ruins, and decided to take a look.

This is a wonderful little gem of a state park, off Old Kings Road nine miles south of Bunnell, which is between Ormond Beach and St. Augustine, of course.  The park is what remains from a rather large early 19th century plantation that was started in 1821 by Major Charles Wilhelm Bulow on 4675 acres he had acquired in Seminole territory.  He cleared about 2200 acres and planted sugar cane, cotton, rice and indigo, but it seems like the main activity on the city was growing and processing sugar cane for shipment to market as sugar and molasses.  Bulow died soon after starting the plantation, leaving his young son John in charge.  John Bulow was evidently an efficient manager, because the plantation reportedly thrived.  In 1831, John J. Audobon stopped at Bulow Plantation while on a bird collecting and painting trip in Florida and noted in his diaries that Bulow was a wealthy planter who provided hospitable treatment to Audobon.  Bulow became mixed up in the Seminole Wars as an opponent of the government's decision to remove the Seminoles to the west, but in the end Seminole endings burned the structures on the plantation and Bulow and his family had to leave.  He ended up going to Paris, where he died at the young age of 26.  The place was restored as a state park in the 1970s.

All the land that was cleared for farming has relapsed to something like its natural state, thick with vegetation, trees and bushes and the like.  Enough of the stone sugar mill survives to suggest the scale of the structure that had existed.  There is also a surviving remnant of a  spring house, the outlines of the plantation house, and remains of the boatslip where materials would be loaded on barges for transport.  The plantation road running from the highway to the park site is spectacularly lined with gorgeous trees, and the entire site is beautiful and well maintained, with a park ranger on duty.  We thought it was well worth the detour to look the place over.  There are picnic tables near the ranger station by the Bulow Creek, and it is possible to rent a canoe or bring small craft to put in the water there.

A nice find --- but no t-shirts for sale.  (Imagine a park without a gift shop!)

A Governor's Island Expedition

My regular theater and concert-going friend emailed on Friday, asking if we would like to go to Governor's Island this weekend.  I had never been there, and it seemed like an opportune time, so we agreed to make a date for Sunday.  Tim and I and our friend met at the Marine Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan in time for the noon ferry.  During the summer, free ferry service is provided to and from the island.

Governor's Island is a large island in New York Harbor, a 7 minute ferry ride from the Marine Terminal (which is directly next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal).  The British first secured possession of the island in 1674.  After independence, the new United States determined to use Governor's Island as a military post to provide security in New York Harbor.  Reputedly the effectiveness of the fort constructed on Governor's Island was proven during the War of 1812 when the British decided to attack Washington DC rather than New York.  The island was subsequently converted to various military uses, until the 1990s, when the Coast Guard pulled in Atlantic Area Command headquarters from the island, and a deal was worked out for it to be returned to New York City's jurisdiction.  Various development plans have come and gone, but what is there now is an empty island with the remnants of the long military use - unused buildings of various provenance clustered at the north end facing the Manhattan and Brooklyn shores, athletic fields, a golf course, a promenade around the perimeter, bicycle paths.  In short, it is a bit of rural America in the heart of NY harbor.

The National Park Service plays the managing role at present, and the place is open to the public during "the summer season," this year from June 5 to early October.  The free ferry service runs on Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 7 pm.  There are occasional weekend concerts and special events.  Arts groups have been allowed to install exhibitions in some of the buildings, and other groups have been allowed to make use of the ground.  There is a bicycle rental service, although many people bring their bicycles over on the ferry.  There are also plentiful food vendors.  So it is a nice setting for a summer outing.

But prepared to do lots of walking if you are not a bicycle user!  We trudged around, checked out various exhibits, looked at the interesting buildings (the commander's residence is certainly worth a visit), and had some entertainment of an unusual sort.  Big Apple Circus got permission to set up a trapeze rig on a central lawns and use it for their training activities, so we watched for half an hour as a group of Big Apple acrobats put trapeze trainees through their paces.  The pace of the island is quite relaxed, and it was a pleasant rural outing without having to rent a car and travel outside the city.

There are half a dozen more weekends left before they close down for the season.  Anyone looking for a pleasant weekend expedition, especially with kids -- there are arts activities for kids going on there -- should check it out.  Even the free ferry ride back and forth is fun!

Thanksgiving Travel

I approached the airport for my trip from Newark to Orlando with some trepidation yesterday, but actually everything worked out quite pleasantly, perhaps due to the phenomenon noted in the NY Times the other day that people are doing their Thanksgiving travel earlier and earlier.  In any event, Terminal A at Newark was not particularly crowded Wednesday morning, getting through security was no big problem, my JetBlue flight to Newark departed the gate on time, took off reasonably soon thereafter, landed in Orlando close to the scheduled time, and let us off the plane only about 5 minutes after the arrival time listed on my ticket.  The Orlando airport also did not seem particularly crowded by comparison to my non-holiday travel experiences.  The only slowness I encountered was at the Budget Car Rental line, where they could have had a few more agents on duty to keep the line moving faster.  So the vaunted holiday madness did not materialize.  Let's hope the same holds true for my return on Saturday morning.

Two Faces of JetBlue - The Trip from Hell?

Well, maybe it wasn't as bad as all that.

For a quick run down to Ormond Beach, Florida, from New York City, for a family event, my husband and I booked on JetBlue for a round trip from LaGuardia to Orlando and back again.  We booked the tickets on June 16, for travel on July 24 and July 26. 

The trip down from LaGuardia on Friday July 24 was uneventful, Flight 393 taking off and landing approximately at the scheduled times.  The flight crew was friendly and efficient, the check-in smooth, and we could have no complaints.

The situation two days later was dramatically different.  National weather patterns were a complicating factor, of course.  The nation was wracked with thunderstorms on Sunday, July 26.  Orlando had its downpours, and so did the NYC metro area, as did other parts of the country.  Clearly, a situation for concern.  And the way the airlines run, this is usually a recipe for passenger inconvenience, which we encountered. 

When we arrived at the Orlando airport for our scheduled 5:33 pm departure to LaGuardia on Flight 394, the signboards were indicating only a slight delay on departure.  We checked in, and as the delay lengthened, had time for a dinner on the ground.  The delay ended up being more like 2-1/2 hours, attributable to the delay in the airplane which was coming from Washington DC.  Once that plane landed, there was a quick turnaround and they boarded the aircraft, even though they knew that we would not be able to take off for some considerable period of time due to weather conditions in the NYC metro area.  Why did they board us if they knew we would not be able to take off?  They needed the gate for subsequent arriving and departing flights.  So we sat in the airplane on the tarmac for four hours in order for them to have the use of the gate.  Of course, they don't serve meals on these flights, just beverages were offered....  They said they would wave the extra charge to view the movie after we got airborne, but we never got that far...

So, the 5:33 flight boarded at about 8 pm, then we sat out in the airplane until about midnight.  At that point, they told us that there was a possibility we could soon take off for NY, however a passenger was insisting that she be allowed to get off the plane, and they also wanted to take on additional fuel (was that a make-weight?  the pilot had previously announced that they had "plenty of fuel"), so we taxied back to the gate, let off the insistent passenger, only to be told that in the time it had taken for us to go back to an open gate and let her off, we had missed the window of opportunity to fly up to LaGuardia, which has a 'curfew' for landings during the wee hours.  So, sometime after midnight, we were told the flight had been cancelled, and we should line up at the podium at the gate to rebook our flights.  This process was barely underway when we were then told that the rebooking would take place out at the ticket stations, so we all rushed out past security to the ticket windows, where a small staff was waiting for us with the news, of course, that most flights up to the NYC area the next day were heavily booked.  After we were all lined up in one queue, they opened another line, and lots of people rushed there, producing a bit of disorder.  Since an entire plane-load of passengers descended on them at once, there was quite a wait.

So, by about 1 am, we were rebooked on the earliest flight that could get us up to NYC on Monday - Flight 46 to JFK, leaving Orlando at 10:53 am.  Rather than sack out on benches in the airport or go exploring for a hotel in the middle of the night, we took advantage of the Hilton that was there.  The airline announced right off the bat that because this was not a cancellation due to mechanical difficulties, they were not responsible to pay for meals or hotels.  So we were out $169 for a room at the Hilton, and we managed to get checked in and get to sleep towards 1:30 am.  (We were also required to reclaim checked baggage, so it took a little time after we were rebooked before we could go to the hotel.)

Then, the next morning when we went to check in - a rude surprise.  The ticket agent had not mentioned to us that we would be charged for an "upgrade" for the seats to JFK.  In fact, she said nothing about what seats we would get, saying they would be assigned at check-in.  When we went to the kiosk to check in, it would not print out a boarding pass showing a seat assignment unless we paid an extra $50 for an upgrade to seats with "extra legroom."  (Yes, JetBlue charges you extra if you are seated in a row that features a few more inches of space between your seat and the seat in front of you than is normal.  And those of course are the available seats because most people shop on price and so the ones with the surcharge are more likely to be what is available for last minutes customers.)  Which meant we would have to stand on another long line for seat selection in hopes of getting other seats on that flight - quite unlikely, given the number of customers seeking to get to NYC as a result of the cancellation, so we paid the extra $50.

So - one passenger's insistance on getting off the plane meant that we were out $169 for a hotel, $50 for an upgrade, and the loss of  a Monday workday, since arriving at 1:20 at JFK, reclaiming baggage, and then taking public transit into Manhattan, didn't get me home until about 3 pm.  (Yes, this flight took off a little late but they made up the time and we landed as scheduled at 1:22....)

Maybe not exactly the trip from hell.  After all, we arrived safely.  And we can't blame JetBlue for the weather.  But some of the airline practices involved here are just objectionable from a consumer point of view.  If they cancel a flight, we shouldn't have to pay for an upgrade for tickets we didn't specifically request.  And if they know they are not going to be able to fly out for hours, they shouldn't board a plane and sentence people to sitting for hours in a sealed aircraft on a runway.  (I felt the beginnings of post-air-travel cold coming on last night - but so far it hasn't blossomed forth - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.) Some genius in the airline industry has to figure out an alternative, more user-friendly method for dealing with weather delays.

Had to get this air traveller's rant off my chest before getting on with my work today....

The High Line - Manhattan's Newest Park

On my way home from the Law School, this afternoon, I took a detour in the West Village in order to experience The High Line, Manhattan newest park.  And this is, quite literally, a park.  The structure is under the ownership of the New York City Parks & Recreation Department, although it is being directly constructed and maintained by a specially-formed non-profit corporation.  The first section, stretching from Gansevoort Street in the West Village up to West 20th Street, Chelsea, has just been open a few weeks, and I was eager to see for myself what all the excitement is about.

The excitement is justified.  This is a terrific amenity, a brilliant addition to Manhattan's distinguished collection of public places.  The High Line is an old elevated railroad track that used to run down the far West Side from midtown deep into Greenwich Village.  The trains were strictly freight, making deliveries from goods that came across the Hudson River to the midtown docks.  Given its utilitarian purpose, the High Line actually ran through some warehouse type buildings, and some buildings were constructed around it.  As trucks replaced trains as delivery mechanisms in Manhattan, its use decline until trains stopped running entirely several decades ago and it was abandoned and fell into disrepair.  Some sections down in the Village were dismantled to make way for development of the far West Village, but preservationists got their act together and stopped further dismantling.  Then some visionairies proposed turning it into an elevated park for a neighborhood that doesn't exactly have a surplus of park and recreation land, and with help from many generous donors and some government money, they have begun to turn their dream to reality.

This first completed section is a marvel.  Beautiful plantings, conveniently placed benches, a little amphitheatre constructed in a boxy bend of the bridge, conveniently placed access steps (and an elevator at 16th & 10th Avenue for those who need assistance to get up there), marvelous views of the Hudson River and the industrial landscape of the far West Side.... even at just about ten blocks for now, it is an absorbing adventure to walk it.  And, unlike the foot traffic on the street, up here almost everybody seems relaxed, smiling, basking in the quietude of no cars.  I can see this becoming a favorite hangout for some, a place to sunbathe, a place to contemplate, a place to meet friends...  I think this is going to be a big hit with natives and tourists alike.  And I can't wait for the rest of it to be completed.  Everybody, donate!

The best place to access the High Line is at either end, Gansevoort Street or West 20th Street.  Each end is a bit inconvenient to the subways - a bit of a hike - but worth the effort.  Open hours during the summer are 7 am to 10 pm.  I was there around 6 pm and there was a nice crowd without it being oppressively crowded.  I imagine it is truly spectacular after dark!  And it will probably be thronged for the 4th of July....

A Passover Hiatus

This blog is quiet for the week, as I am in Florida on spring break celebrating Passover with Mom and the family.  Back to the LGBT news beat, etc., when I return to NYC....