Cape May & NYC 2012
1st - 13th June 2012
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Introduction
This holiday is a little strange in being a sort of pilgrimage, cathartic, selfish, exciting, humbling and hopefully full of birds trip. Whilst I was ill in 2009-10 I became fixated with travelling to New York and in particular Central Park. I have no connection to New York or indeed with America but as I went through treatment and had time to read and enjoy music I began to feel a strange sense of finalisation and new beginnings as songs from Elbow "One day Like This" and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind". Before long I was intrigued about standing in an oasis amongst a concrete jungle and watching one of the wonders of the world. Central Park is that Oasis and Migration the wonder of the world. It also seemed to hold out a feeling of moving on and a sense of there being a future, something I was keen for Mandy and myself to realise. Then things led me further that way as Mandy and I attended a lecture by Pete Dunn (Author, Birder, Naturalist and founder of World Series of Birding) who made Cape May a place we should see and before long we were setting on visiting.
We were at first put off at the high cost of the holiday in total as it seemed Cape May was clearly a sought after place to stay for the Native population. We emailed a few places that rented various types of accommodation but we always fancied a more home rental affair. We checked on a few places through companies with little success but then found private owners. We exchanged a few emails but some seemed to be a little naughty on prices until we found what seems like a made for us place, Dragonfly Cottage. In the accommodation section further down I will place more details of contact for accommodations. We have booked the reservation for the cottage on the 15th November having to arrange a Bankers Draft in US Dollars and send this to the owners to confirm the booking, leaving us to pay the balance on arrival in cash. Now to book the rest
Cost Breakdown
New York Accommodation
Sheraton Lincoln Harbor Hotel 3 nights £
Hampton Inn 1 night £
Cape May Accommodation
Dragonfly Cottage 2nd-9th June 2012 $560 (£355)
Travel Insurance (inc pre existing medical condition £123 )
Tranfer to and from Manchester airport with Althams service (£50)
Car Hire for 9 days using Holiday Autos. It is an intermediate size car with full insurance and includes full tank of fuel £374
Booked 8th December 2011
General Observations Of The Trip
FLIGHT: Never having flown with this kind of airline before.
Outbound Details
Plane Type Boeing 757-200 with 3+3 seating Flight Number UA21
Brochure Flight Time Wed 1st June Man-Newark 09:25 - 12.15
Actual Flight Time Wed 1st June Man-Newark 00:00 - 00:00
Inbound Details
Plane Type Boeing 757-200 with 3+3 seating Flight Number UA020
Brochure Flight Time Tues 12th June Newark-Man 19:35 - 07:40 +1 day
Actual Flight Time Tues 12th June Newark-Man 00:00 - 00:00 +1 day
ACCOMODATION: Hampton Inn:
Sheraton Lincoln Harbor Hotel:
Cape May Dragonfly Cottage:
CURRENCY: We
CAR HIRE: This
CULTURE:
We found
BIRD WATCHING:
The bird watching was
BUGS On
1st June Friday
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3rd June Sunday
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4th June Monday
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5th June Tuesday
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9th June Saturday
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13th June Wednesday
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