blight

I don't know what that thing it, but it's a big and easily identifiable building on Atlantic Highlands.

I went to Coney Island in March. When I walked to the end of the pier, I squinted my eyes and said, "Hey!!! That's the Highlands!!!"

"How can you tell?" asked the friend I was with.

"See how the land is all flat there except for that building sticking up in the middle?"



"So you can identify New Jersey by that giant blemish, boil, blight on the landscape?"

"Yeah! Isn't that awesome?!"



Also seen in photos taken from Coney Island: the Twin Lights (above)...



...and Sandy Hook lighthouse (above)!

For as often as I've seen New York City from Sandy Hook, it was really cool to do it in reverse.

(The originals of these photos were taken at absolute full 10x zoom, full resolution. And I still had to crop those last two photos to ~420 pixels wide.)

prickles

A cactus? In New Jersey?!

This is a prickly pear cactus. Wikipedia says: "Prickly pears are also the only types of cactus natively found to grow in the eastern United States. Opuntia [the prickly pear genus] are the most cold-tolerant of the lowland cacti, extending into western and southern Canada."

They're not common around here--I only ever see them in Sandy Hook, which is a sandy windy salt-marshy kind of area. And half of the cacti that I see there look like half-rotten roadkill (yes, I'm sure they're not ACTUALLY roadkill), so I can't say that they exactly thrive in this area.

sunset 11

Okay. So. I know I've shown the sun setting over Sandy Hook before, and I know I've shown the kitesurfers in Sandy Hook Bay before, but have I shown them TOGETHER?!

Seriously, though, this blog has been totally devoid of color lately. It's summer! I thought I could leave the drab browns and grays for winter!

Soooooo here's a colorsplash.

TRAFFIC OMG

DO NOT GO TO SANDY HOOK ON A WEEKEND.

They've decided that the Highlands Bridge needs to be replaced (with... a non-drawbridge. how this is going to work, I don't know). This unfortunately obstructs the ONLY ROAD out of Sandy Hook. Traffic is like this for several miles, and it was like this for the entire time we were there (from about 6:00-8:00PM on a Saturday--not exactly prime beach time). Construction of the bridge is supposed to continue for 3 years. Three years of this! Egad. You'll probably only get archive photos of Sandy Hook from me from now on.

(Click here to see a map of where Sandy Hook and Atlantic Highlands are in relation to each other. Leave a comment for me if the link doesn't work.)

bay

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go,
For if I do
My mother will say:
"Did you ever see a whale with a polka-dot tail
Down by the bay?"

creeps

Another rare interior view of Battery Potter. It was the world's only disappearing gun battery that used hydraulic elevators to move the guns above a protective wall. (The concept is a little like the classic image of raising, firing, and quickly lowering a gun to shoot over a trench or other form of wall... except the gun was as big as your kitchen.)

I'm aware that this isn't the sharpest photo in the history of photographs, but it was a handheld two-second exposure (leaning against a wall), so please cut me some slack. :P

(These past few days have been RAAAAAIIIIINY, so no outdoor shots for you.)

berries 3!

After nearly an hour of research, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not sure what this plant is. After plugging what I know into the Virginia Tech Identification Thingie, I think it might be a Possumhaw viburnum, but I'm not confident in that assessment. Possumhaws do seem to exhibit red leaves in the winter, but the black (or dark blue) berries don't seem to grow quite the same way, and the leaf shape seems a little off.

I found it on Sandy Hook, right by the salt marsh but closer to the beach, in February... so if it can handle a windy salty beach winter and still look like this, it must be pretty hardy.


P.S. This is Post # 300!

423

Guard house to the Fort Hancock missile control area, repainted circa 2001 to match the original "deadly force green."

she sells seashells by the seashore

...but she dropped one
(by the seashore).

(I'm not going to harbor any false impressions that this is a fantastic macro. It's overexposed, and it was taken with my old Nikon, which has a very finicky macro setting and doesn't like to focus on whatever subject I have in mind. BUT! It is neither a landscape nor an architectural shot, both of which dominate my winter photography... so enjoy it while you can. :) )

girlfriends

Overlooking Sandy Hook Bay.

The weather was ridiculously warm today. Nobody wore jackets (except cold-blooded people like my mother, who find themselves freezing in the warmest of climates).

This evening, it was apparently 42 degrees F in New York City. This is unusual, as my town is a little over an hour train ride from the city... and it was 62 degrees here.

Winter has been dancing EVERYWHERE except here. Snowstorms and general wintry climes have occurred to the north, the south, the west... everywhere except the Ocean Township area.

cove cave

A drainpipe in Horseshoe Cove (of Sandy Hook), which is located on the bay side of the hook.

...for those of you who aren't familiar with the topography of Sandy Hook, here's a map.

felled

Here's how I like to think of this:

A guy was zipping down the street at a hundred miles an hour! He was going SO FAST that he didn't even SEE the speed limit sign, and he plowed right over it!


P.S. This is only sort-of black and white, not REALLY black and white.

earle

I believe this is part of Earle (known as Naval Weapons Station Earle or the Naval Ammunitions Depot [N.A.D.] Earle), located in Sandy Hook Bay.

...Correct me if I'm wrong.

All I know is that Earle is one of the (several) military/weapons bases around this county, and this battleship-looking thing was seen right about where Earle is supposed to be located.

doggie

Yes, that tiny group of pixels at the top of the boardwalk is a dog. You'll have to trust me on that one. (I didn't have my fantastic-zoom camera with me, and I had skates on my feet, which didn't allow me to get closer, since it would've meant standing still on an incline, which is pretty tricky when an incline means you ROLL BACKWARDS.)

sunset 6

Way way WAYYYYYY oversaturated, but who says colors always have to be realistic?

red, white, & blue

Fort Hancock, on Sandy Hook, used to be an active military base; nowadays, the only active military presence is the U.S. Coast Guard (and its colorful signage!).

stairway 4

A rare inside view of Battery Potter!

It's falling apart and a bit structurally unsound, so they don't really allow parties there anymore... but I hear it used to make a hell of a Halloween haunted house.

potter

Happy Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, I have no photos of turkeys to celebrate the day ('though I do have some turkey vultures), so you get a photo of Sandy Hook's own Battery Potter.

lookin' sharp

A building in Fort Hancock (Sandy Hook), near--or an actual part of--the U.S. Coast Guard hangout.

skyline

Point-of-interest photo.

This isn't a photo OF Monmouth County, but it certainly is a photo FROM Monmouth County. On a relatively clear day, you can see New York City from Sandy Hook. Check it out- that's the Empire State Building there on the right.

THEORETICALLY, there is a ferry that goes between Sandy Hook and NYC, but I've never seen it.

(This photo was taken from the rooftop of Battery Potter.)