PRACTICING FOR THE "REAL" THING    

    Frequently, life events don't happen the way we expect, and that's how my first month of retirement has unfolded.  I was expecting to spend January at my house, enjoying free time and planning for my trip.  However, right after New Year's, I drove Grandma "D", who spent the holidays with us back to her home.  While I was out with friends there, she fell and  broke her hip, so I stayed for ten days visiting with her at the hospital and then the rehabilitation center.   I returned home for a week, spending some time in travel preparations, then went back for a few days to check in on Grandma "D" before my ten week journey.  

    Grandma D lives in a great city--and with my time between hospital visits, I was able to do my 3 mile exercise walks, taking  pictures of the exciting scenery.  Then, I had a great idea--I would use this visit as a "practice"  page for my real trip and also as the beginning point of my trip.  So here we go!

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            COMMUNICATION

      On my walks along the shore, there were signs with information about boats and ships.  On one of the signs was information about the flags ships used for communication before they used radios and phones.  I took pictures of some of the flags.  See if you can match the flags with their meanings.

  

      
     

     Flag A                            Flag B
            
   
   


        Flag C                        Flag D

Meaning 1:   Flag____  
    "Man Overboard"
Meaning 2:   Flag____
     "I require a tug"
Meaning 3:   Flag ____
   "Desire to communicate"
Meaning 4:  Flag____
"Keep clear--on fire and have dangerous cargo"
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      This is a picture of a Coast Guard boat I took on one of my walks.  Years ago Tam, Rick and I went sailing  to Cape Cod with my brother (Uncle Les).  On our first day, the wind died and the engine on the sailboat stopped working, so we were towed into a harbor.  The next day, waiting for repairs, we rented a motor boat and went back across the bay.  Off shore, we anchored to swim and then realized that the boat was taking on water-- the marina where we rented the boat forgot to put the boat plugs back in!  We stuffed towels in the holes as a temporary fix.  After Uncle Les's phone lost power (we got a few SOS messages out),  we frantically waved and shouted to the people on shore for help, and they waved back, not hearing us and thinking we were just friendly! Before the motor boat sank, the Coast Guard did arrive and saved us in a boat similar to the picture.  I'm thinking now that a flag sure would have helped!

    WHERE AM I?
QUESTIONS AND CLUES


Picture 1
Clue 1:  When I leave Grandma "D"'s house, I walk a half a block towards this body of water, across a highway called the "Belt Parkway" to the "Shore Promenade".  As I walk towards the ocean, I walk towards this bridge that connects two islands.

Question 1: What is the name of the bridge and what are these two islands it connects?
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Picture 2
Clue 2:  As I walk in the opposite direction, I see a river separating 2 states.  If you were on a boat going up the river, you would go over 2 tunnels connecting these states, and, you would reach another bridge, similar to the one in the first picture that also connects these two states.

Question 2.  What are the two states; what are the names of the tunnels and the bridge that connect the states; what is the name of the river?

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Question 3:  WHERE AM I?  I'm in a borough of a great USA city.  What is the city and what borough am I in?

BONUS QUESTION:  What is the name of the area of this borough I'm in?