The MV Grand Republic

One of the fun things of visiting Port Jefferson, is to watch the coming and goings of the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry.  These are BIG boats, and it is fascinating to see how carefully and gently they are docked when they arrive.  The first time I traveled on one of these boats was when I was a boy with my father.  We drove to Bridgeport, parked our car, and traveled as pedestrians.  That would have been back around 1952.  I remember looking over the side up in the bow and seeing dolphins diving and following alongside the ship.  I don't believe there are any dolphins in the sound any more.

The MV Grand Republic is huge.  It is 300 feet long and 52 feet wide, and was built in Panama City, Florida in 2003.  There are three ferries all together.  The ferry company was founded in 1883, and it is one of the oldest operating ferry companies in America.  The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry carries approximately 1.3 million passengers and 500,000 vehicles annually.

It almost takes several photographs to show how long the ship is.  I wished this one had docked on my side of the pier, and I would be able to show the entire ship without the dock and pilings in the way.  Oh, the "MV" in front of the ship's name?  It stands for "Motor Vessel" and is only used for commercial ships.

The St. James General Store

In our touring around Port Jefferson and Stony Brook, Dick said we should drive up to St. James, where he and Trauti lived when they were living here.  I had heard of the St. James General Store, but believe it or not, in all my years living and working here, I had never been to this place.  This store was built in 1857, and much of the community was centered around this store at that time.  The majority of customers consisted of local farmers and sailors who depended on the general store for their goods and services.  The store was owned by a number of individuals and couples over the years, and then in 1990 it was purchased by the Suffolk County Department of Parks where it is one of the buildings in the St James District.   That is a national historic district located at St. James in Smithtown Town, which includes 21 contributing buildings, and two contributing sites.

This is Pat who was the storekeeper when we visited, and she was a delight to talk with. Today, as it has done during the second half of the 20th century, the store has sold various late-Victorian-era artifacts. The second floor contains old books and children's toys related to Long Island history.  So I did have to buy one book - about the barns of the North Fork.  Oh, and some licorice!

American Vernacular

We had another lovely day with our friends Trauti and Dick.  We travel first class - lunch was at McDonalds today!  I realized that we always do a group photo but had not done one so far, and what is a more perfect background than McDonalds!  So here it is.  And what can be more American than the McDonald's arches, and the American flag.  American vernacular indeed!  It is hard to put into words, the richness of a friendship that began in 1966 and which has lasted all these years.

Just a Sunset

We have driven out to Stonybrook today, to meet our friends, Dick and Trauti who live in Masachusetts.  They took the ferry from New London and drove from Orient Point to meet us.  I worked with Dick starting in Rochester in 1966 and then at Newsday, and we have been friends all these years.  They wanted to come back to Long Island and drive around and see where they had lived when they were working here and see the changes.  Then we had dinner at a restaurant in Stony Brook, and afterward walked down to where we could see the harbor, and this gorgeous sunset.  Dick and I tried to outdo each other in getting the best picture of the scene...   :-)   That's what friends do!  We both won!

Algae Bloom

I drive or ride my bike past this pond nearly every day.  Recently, the whole surface of the pond was covered with an algae bloom.  That has to do with warm weather.  I thought that this was bad for a pond, but then I went to the Penn State website and learned something about these algae:

"Pond Algae: It's Not All Bad!  While long strands of filamentous algae are unappealing and have little value to the pond ecosystem, some other types of algae can actually provide important benefits to the pond. Planktonic algae are microscopic algae living throughout the water.  While plankton algae blooms occur in response to warm and sunny conditions in the summer, the algae growth is supported by high levels of nutrients in the water (most often phosphorus and nitrogen) that may come from fertilizers, manures, septic systems, urban runoff or animal waste entering the pond.  These blooms usually disappear in early fall around the first frost, causing the pond to clear up very quickly - often overnight."

In any case, the algae makes for interesting photographs.  The first photograph reminded me of how some galaxies in the night sky look through my telescope.  And the lovely swirls in the photograph above are quite beautiful.

This is how much of the pond is covered by the bloom - nearly the whole thing!  What a surprise to see how quickly the algae covered the whole pond.  Perhaps I hadn't noticed, but it seemed to happen overnight.

A Tree. In The Rain...

We went down to Home Depot and Lowes to look for a new faucet for the bathroom vanity.  It was Labor Day so we figured traffic would be heavy, so we took the back roads to get there.  We take this road each Sunday to get to church.  It was raining, and as went by this small pond that we pass each week, this tree stood out in the rain and mist.  Being the intrepid photographer that I am - afraid of nothing, I pulled over to the left, and stopped, and rolled down my window just enough to stick the lens out, to shoot this!  And you thought that the life of a photographer was easy...   :-)

Oh Goodie! More Condos!

Fun with my drone today!  There has been a lot of construction down the road for the last few months.  There are piles of sand all along the roadway, so it is impossible to see what's going on behind the sand.  So I went down there with my drone, so that I could fly up and get an aerial view of the property to see what was going on.  Holy cow!  That is some big project!  Look at the extent of these concrete walls!  They have been talking about building condominiums here for years, and now they are finally doing it.  I cannot imagine what these buildings are going to look like when they are done.

This property once contained large oil storage tanks, which were demolished years ago, and the property has been empty since.  One thing I have decided to do, is to go there and photograph the site from the ground, from all different directions, to record the scene for history.  And then, of course, I will document the buildings that get built here, because I know you all will want to see what happens.  By the way, up beyond those white tanks in the upper right hand corner of the photo, is where the old power plant was located, before it was demolished.