Goodbye Jersey City, again.  My fickle eyes can’t appreciate a familiar scene, my stubborn ears are too accustomed to the sounds…  I’ll return with a stereoscope of memories, and a phonograph of new recordings from other worlds.

When I was a very little girl, I grew up playing hopscotch and jump rope on the streets and the sidewalks.  Jersey City was a concrete wonderland, gritty, and breezy.  Things got more and more dangerous, and Jersey City became this danger zone, a mouse trap waiting to snap.

The present.  While JC was “cleaning up”, it seemed to me the soul of Jersey City had been cleaned up too.  Lately, things resemble only a shadow of the sunny urban streets I remember.  I’m happy that things are safer, but sad that Jersey City is hardly a wisp of what it once was.  The pretense of cruiser bikes and adults hula hooping in the streets make me wonder if there is hope at all. Things are becoming so… homogenized.  Oh, well.

The possibility of traveling and leaving Jersey City for a couple months is becoming more and more tangible.  An electromagnetic phantasm, this opportunity can disappear the second you reach out to confirm its presence.  In the meantime, while my mind sits in a departure lobby, I’m having a lot of fun sweating it out in the infancy of this summer in my home town.  I went to the Hamilton Park Festival, yesterday, and it felt like the Jersey City I remember.

Magically, the sporadic rain seemed to fall everywhere (when it did), except on us.  All we felt was the moist breath of the Savannah air, and the sweet magnolia-perfumed breezes.  We drew in the smell of  dew on the leaves.  Spanish moss dangled from the live oak like a sleepy party streamer, hung there by a ghost statue.  Resurrection fern crawled along their branches, blooming at the drop of rain.

At serene Bonaventure Cemetary, overlooking the river,  the air was heavy with a wistful mixture of peace and sorrow. The nostaligia of aging stones carved with stentorian names echoed in the silence of the moist air.  No picture can do Savannah justice.  It’s a living, breathing city.

All photos taken on Mayfest, May 16, 2010, at Circa Restaurant in High Bridge, NJ.

All shots taken with iPhone 3GS. My favorite go-to point and shoot. Ever.

I think my pictures came out a bit dark, but I am still falling in love with the D90 everyday.  (Sorry D70!)

To new environments!

Classic.

The breathtaking Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. 1873

Historic Downtown remains untouched.

Cotton, anyone?

Well, ya know what I mean.

Down on the water. (Savannah River)

Action shot! Haha.  River Street.  St Patty’s day is celebrated all month.  Over 40,000 people go to Savannah on St. Patty’s Day itself!

Stone stairways in Savannah lead from the street down to the River.

Savannah River viewed from the street above.

Sleepy weeping trees.