The US Open Men's Semi Finals

My husband and I had an unexpected and very exciting treat this past Saturday.  We were invited to attend the U.S. Open men's singles semi final matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. Arthur Ashe Stadium, a part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is located within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and is the main tennis stadium of the US Open. It is the largest "tennis only" venue in the world!

This is the play board that shows the results of all the matches played before this date and the ranks of the players. Serbia's Novak Dojokovic played Switzerland's Roger Federer, and Spain's Rafael Nadal played Scotland's Andy Murray.

I took the photo above and below from the lodge section of Arthur Ashe stadium, where our seats were located, you can see a view of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and a portion of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park which was once the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and 1964 World's Fair. The photo below is one of the 32 courts in the facility, where a wheelchair athletes match was being played.

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It was 11:30 AM as we entered the stadium and the stands were just beginning to fill up.

The sky became overcast and a half hour rain shower delayed the beginning of the matches. I enjoyed watching the suction/fan cars that came out to clear the court of water.

Very soon the sky was bright blue again, and the ubiquitous sports blimp was in the air over the stadium to broadcast a panorama view on TV.

At the beginning of the first match the stands were packed with a capacity crowd.

A special recognition to the anniversary of 9-11-01 was on the court.

Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Bradley Cooper, Billie Jean King, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Andy Samberg, Paul Simon, Sandy Koufax , Stanley Tucci and Jeremy Piven are among the many stars watching the men's singles final and the camera placed their images on the scoreboards during set breaks.

Novak Dojokovic

Roger Federer

Roger was a five time former winner of the US Open.

The four hours quality of play was intense, but Roger Federer was defeated in five sets in his quest for another US Open title with a 7-6(9), 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 5-7 defeat against Novak Djokovic in the semi-final.

After a brief interlude the second set of men's singles took the court.

Rafael Nadal

Andy Murray

(Andy had changed his shorts from black to white towards the last set)

It was nice to see these two players grace and sportsmanship. Their matches were particularly exciting to watch.

Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to set up a final with Novak Djokovic this past Monday.

I loved this scene above on the scoreboard as the blimp showed us the sun go down behind the buildings in Manhattan in a blaze of color.

We were still in the stadium well into the night and saw the harvest moon rise in the sky. The two semi final matches lasted many hours, and in my opinion it requires fortitude from the fans in the stands to sit such a long time. I had to take a few walks to stretch my legs during the matches. The excitement of play on this level is mesmerizing, however, and I marveled over the stamina of the players and their strength and skill to be able to volley a tennis ball with a velocity as much as 135 miles per hour for so many hours!

The outside tennis plaza was still abuzz with activity, as the women's semi final matches followed the men's semi fanls, and that crowd was waiting to enter Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Novak Djokovic was the ultimate winner of the 2011 Men's Single competition on Monday, September12, 2011. Djokovic battled back problems during the finals, but used his superior return game, defense and speed to play with confidence to defeat the 10-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-1, to win his first career US Open crown.

It was very exciting to be part of the action and see history being made! I'm almost encouraged to take up tennis...that is if I had younger and better knees that could take all that stress. I think I am destined to limit my activity to power walking in the park everyday.  

Do you play a sport? What is your favorite way to keep physically fit?

I'm adding this post to the "Outdoor Wednesday" event on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer, and Watery Wednesday and Jenny Matlock's Alphabe Thursday -- the letter is "V" and I'd say it was very exciting to see the men's semi final US Open match!

Dancing In the Streets

Do you feel that summer is slowly slipping away? I do.  It was so unusually hot and humid here in New York City this summer that many of my usual outdoor activities and plans did not materialize as I stayed inside in air conditioning instead.  I may have read more books than usual but I missed going on picnics, outdoor concerts, and taking more long walks.  One thing I happened to see recently this summer, however, which raised my spirits, was public displays of dancing!   
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The photo mosaic above is of the Canadian choreographer-dancer Paul-André Fortier, performing a 30-minute dance called “ Solo 30 x 30.” He performed at noon each day for 30 consecutive days, ending in August 14, in the open air at 1 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan as part of the annual summer "River to River Festival." Rain or shine, and through oppressive heat, he danced in silence to his own internal sound track. Whirling, pantomiming, reckoning, and gesturing, his artistic contribution to the summer festival was a joy to watch!

Seeing one of his performances made me remember the 1964 Martha and The Vandellas song "Dancing In the Streets."

"Callin' out around the world

Are you ready for a brand new beat?

Summer's here and the time is right

For dancin' in the streets...."

This photo mosaic is of an assortment of dances I saw while walking along the Coney Island boardwalk a week ago.  There were small groups of people having a good time dancing to live music all along the almost 3 mile long boardwalk. The small boy was an amazing break dancer for his age!

"... All we need is music, sweet music

There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'

And dancin' in the streets..."

The last group of dancers I saw that are in the photos above were dancing to the music in the New York Mets baseball team's beautiful Citi Field before the game. There is a restaurant and lively Fan Fest family entertainment area behind the scoreboard area of the stadium and many fans took the opportunity to dance to the music!

"Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear

Just as long as you are there

So come on, every guy grab a girl

Everywhere around the world

There'll be dancin'

They're dancin' in the street..."

If you'd like to hear the "Dancing In the Streets" song watch this video:

"This is an invitation

Across the nation

A chance for the folks to meet

There'll be laughin' and singin' and music swingin'

And dancin' in the streets."

I hope before this summer is over you have a chance to dance a little in the streets where you live!

I'll be adding this post to Mary's "Mosaic Monday" on her blog Little Red House. Please drop by her blog on Monday to see her beautiful photos mosaic and links to all the other blogs participating this week.

The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, Queens, NY

After enjoying a boat tour of Jamaica Bay in New York City, my husband and I were excited to visit the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor Contact Center, which is part of Gateway National Recreation Area.  It is located in Broad Channel, Queens, and is the only wildlife refuge in the national park system.

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The entire Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is one of the most important urban wildlife refuges in the United States. Encompassing 9,155 acres, it is comprised of diverse habitats, including salt marsh, upland field and woods, several fresh and brackish water ponds and an open expanse of bay and islands. They are all located within the limits of New York City. The Wildlife Refuge is renowned as a prime birding spot where thousands of water, land and shorebirds stop during migration. More than 325 species have been recorded here during the last 25 years.

On the day we visited the visitors center there was a scheduled tour given by Park Ranger Dandelion (her real first name) to view Osprey that were nesting in the refuge. Ranger Dandelion was showing us the bird log box in this photo where visitors can record the species of birds they observed on their visit.

As you can see by the heavy grey skies hanging over the refuge trail, rain was threatening, but we were lucky and it never appeared.

"One of Jamaica Bay's biggest success stories is that of the osprey. On the verge of extinction in the 1970s due to DDT pollution, the osprey population has been increasing thanks to the efforts of the National Park Service and other agencies that work in the bay. Visitors can often spot these birds at their nests on one of the specially built platforms in the refuge." source

The ranger told us the Osprey chicks were close to "fledging," which means learning how to fly and leave the nest.

The Osprey is a large raptor, reaching 60 centimetres (24 in) in length, and its diet consists almost exclusively of fish.

As we were viewing the Osprey an Egret flew over our heads!

One of my favorite photos of our visit was this shot of the bucolic pond with the towers of Manhattan about 12 miles away in the background. There were many Canadian Geese and other shore birds in view.

According to this web site "the refuge is also home to an impressive array of native reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, over 60 species of butterflies and one of the largest populations of horseshoe crabs in the northeast."  The ranger told us that the orange flags mark the location of the eggs of the terrapin turtle.  There was some concern because raccoons were digging them up and eating them and the rangers were trying different methods to protect the eggs.  If you enlarge the photo you can see some of the egg nests were protected by a wire mesh cage.

Egrets in a marsh alongside the trail. Enlarge this photo to view their long spindly legs.

Can you see the Egret flying by in this distant Manhattan skyline photo?

We saw many wildflowers, wild berries and milkweed along the trail and some of this, "Leaves of three - let it be."

 Poison Ivy! So please remember the Jamaica Bay Wildlife refuge is truly a wild environment in New York City!

I'm adding this post to "Outdoor Wednesday" on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer. Please visit Susan today to see her outdoor post and links to many blogs that are participating today.

Jamaica Bay Boat Ride for Mosaic Monday

My husband and I took a boat ride last week aboard this vessel that was a National Park Ranger sponsored ecology tour of Jamaica Bay, which is part of  Gateway National Recreation Area.  Jamaica Bay is primarily located in the southwestern tip of Long Island in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City.

(All photos can be enlarged by clicking on once, and then again when a new page opens.)

Above is a photo of a map of Jamaica Bay that the rangers handed out on the boat.  The area within the dashes is all part of Gateway National Recreation Area. We would be traveling past nesting islands and verdant marshes that are located in the bay.

A few photos of the scenery that we saw from the boat as we pass under the Marine Park - Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and sailed past Riis Park, Belle Harbor, and the Rockaways. In the bottom middle photo you can see the bar/restaurant called The Warf that I blogged about previously.

The building in the lower left is the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. It was decorated in red white and blue for this special event:

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Please take a few minutes to watch this video which shows the Wounded Warrior event that took place in the Rockaways to honor a group of wounded soldiers from the war in Iraq. We owe so much to these brave men and women, and this event will make you feel so proud and happy for them, and for the people who organized this event.

I loved how seagulls and terns followed our boat and I took many photos of them, as you can see by this mosaic.

Jamaica Bay is the best place in New York City to observe seasonal migration of birds. The bay's islands and their ponds are a key layover spot for birds along the Atlantic Flyway.

A few snowy egrets that I spotted as we sailed by.

The island of Manhattan shining in the distance. The Empire State building can be seen in the middle.

Jamaica Bay is in the middle of the New York metropolitan area, and the uplands around the bay, as well as much of the Rockaway barrier beach, are dominated by urban residential, commercial, and industrial development. One example of this can be seen here as one of the islands is called "Subway Island" as the A train passes over it on its way to the Rockaways.

A subway passing over the bridge from Subway Island.

In order for boat traffic to pass through the subway bridge this trestle swings around and opens.

Here it is after our boat passed through.

John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York is also in close proximity to Jamaica Bay and most airplanes fly right over it. The airport is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States

Many airplanes flew right over us when we were sailing in close proximity to the airport.

It is amazing to me that nature and civilization have found a harmonious way to exist. I am glad that most of the waters and marshes of Jamaica Bay have been protected since 1972 as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area under the auspices of the National Park Service, and that conservation is now in effect to preserve this valuable part of our environment from further development.

Our boat ride ended in a beautiful sunset and in our greater appreciation for part of the waters that surround New York City.  For such a populous city we are fortunate to have such beautiful links to nature right at our front door.

I'm adding this post to Mosaic Monday on Marys blog Little Red House. Please visit Mary today to see her beauriful mosaics and links to many participating blogs and their wonderful outdoor posts.