Exploring New Jersey- in photos (Wk 4)

in #travel7 years ago

Intro

This summer I got a job at Princeton University so, I will be living in West Windsor Township for 2 months. I have never been to New Jersey before so I've got a lot of exploring to do.

Week 4

Finished my fourth week here.. almost halfway to my return to the great Maine.

New York City

(80 min train from West Windsor)

Not in New Jersey, but very accessible from New Jersey and a likely weekend trip if you are staying in NJ for a bit. Thanks to NJ Transit and the Princeton Junction Train Station in West Windsor, I was able to go to the "Big Apple" for the first time in my life. The train stops through eastern Jersey and arrives at Penn Station, Manhattan. I met a friend there and explored the walk-able radius of the station (far walking). Notable spots were Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History, which is free entry for the last hour that it is open. More to come on my thoughts of New York in the next week, as am returning to New York for a two-day excursion to see a friend in Brooklyn (possibly entire blog post dedicated to NYC).

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New Jersey Audubon- Plainsboro Preserves

(6 miles from West Windsor... somehow 20 min drive but only 35 min bike)

Pleasant bike ride from West Windsor to the Plainsboro Preserves, where these is a visitor center, trails, a man-made lake, and much wildlife. The habitat at the park looks natural, wild, and un-touched by humans (aside from the trails..). Very wrong impression! The land was used very long ago for quarrying, then farming. Since then it has been mostly taken over by wildlife, allowing us to have outdoor-nature recreation. The park is centered by a lake that resulted from the area dug for quarrying. It looks good but no swimming is allowed due the irregular lake bottom topography. The park is home to many wood animals and bird (over 200 species spotted there).

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Trying to picture if there was not water here.

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Anybody know what type of fungus these are?

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Sorry this last shot is blurry, still a nice turtle.

I will continue to post my ups weekly. To read past weeks, refer to my blog page. They are entitles 'Exploring NJ- in pictures (Wk __)'. Maybe I will come back and add a link but I somewhat doubt it would make a bit of difference.