Best way to beat the heat and grime of New York City is to head upstate. But not everyone is fortunate enough, or filthy rich, to be able to own a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains. And New York hotels don’t come cheap either. So, for those of us stranded in the City, NYC offers a splendid collection of zoos, an aquarium and plenty of gardens.

Central Park Zoo & Tisch Children’s Zoo: The zoo recreates the natural habitats of over 130 species. Star attractions include Ida & Gus, the polar bears in the Polar Circle. Then there’s the Ice Pack building with penguins tottering about, the noisy and vibrant rainforest with all sorts of exotic specimens including tropical birds, snakes, frogs and lizards. If you’re there with your children, don’t forget to visit the Tisch Children’s Zoo. Details here.

New York Aquarium: New York City’s only aquarium, situated by the sea next to the Coney Island Amusement Park, boasts over 350 species of aquatic wildlife with over 8000 specimens. The latest addition, and a huge draw, is Baby Akituusaq aka Tuusaq, a roly-poly walrus calf born a year ago in June 2007.

Tuusaq, now weighing 400 pounds with tiny teeth just beginning to show, is a pampered brat, with everyone at the Aquarium, including his mother, Kulusiq aka Kulu, doting on him. His father, Ayveq, passed away a few weeks back, on June 22, 2008. More details about the New York Aquarium’s animals, hours and rates here.

Other zoos and wildlife parks include the Bronx Zoo, the Queens and Prospect Park Wildlife Centers. Major gardens include the Brooklyn and New York Botanical Gardens. Then there’s also the Staten Island Botanical Garden, which you can visit by taking a free ride on the Staten Island ferry, which would be a good idea for a summer afternoon anyway.

Photo by Stig Nygaard via flickr (creative commons).

I attended the travel bloggers meet-up at Blogher on Friday afternoon. The travel meet-up was originally discussed by Pam Mandel at nerdseyeview and on Blogher.  It was moderated by Suzanne Reisman at  cussandotherrants (who has also written a new book, Off the Beaten Subway Track, more on that later) The majority of our time was spent on introductions, but we did have a few moments to discuss how we could create a more tightly-knit travel blogger community.  Delicious Baby collected cards from everyone who is interested in building the community and will be posting the list of bloggers on her site.  I captured a few names during the introductions and subsequent discussion of some great travel blogs I want to add to my google reader in addition to the blogs already listed:

ms.adventuresinitaly

perceptivetravelblog.com

Jet Set Girls Blogspot–all about girls getaways

See Jane Fly–for the female road warrior

Mommy Poppins–telling us how to get more out of NY

TasteFood

Headed to Margaritaville

everyday adventures

What A Trip written by Nancy Brown, a contributor to Uptake

Mile High Mamas–(the Denver Post)

KitchenGadgetGirl (and consultant to Uptake) has an idea for creating a page with RSS feeds  from all the sites that wish to participate. I think this is the best idea yet, but I may be biased sine I have been working with her for nearly a year.

Uptake also have  a travel blog search widget we created in cooperation with the t-list to make it easier to find travel bloggers everywhere.  If you are interested in participating, please go here to join the search widget and here for information on the twitter t-list..

A few corporations sent some representatives including SeaWorld, DisneyWorld Orlando, Teleflora, and the Hilton were all there to gain insight into the travel blogger community.  They want to reach travel bloggers of all kinds (see Blogher, travel is big business….)

Many of the bloggers were interested in building a more cohesive community and wanted to make ourselves more available to other bloggers, publicists and corporations trying to reach us.  Please add to the conversation.  Give us your ideas to build a more connected travel community.  Next year, we hope Blogher ’09 will have a panel devoted to travel.

Girl’s Getaway and Camping don’t usually go together in the same sentence, except when you are talking about my girlfriends and Costanoa, the something-for-everyone camp experience located half way between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Last month, I dragged my two intrepid girlfriends, Kim and Marie, with me for a weekend away from the boys and kids. Wow, what a great girl’s getaway!

We arrived on Friday afternoon to find our Pine Village Tent Bungalow all ready for us. A bit of a tight squeeze for three friends, it nevertheless offered us the opportunity to channel our inner 12-year old and pretend we were on a sleepover! That, and conveniently located comfort stations, allowed us to relax while still communing with nature.

As much as I enjoy lugging out my Dutch oven to cook dinner when we family camp at Big Basin, I was thrilled to visit the Cascade Bar & Grill for our meals. Wonderful local cuisine and wines ensured the three of us were well fed. After dinner, while my friends went back to our bungalow, I stayed at the lodge to meet up with a group of other travelers for a little Naked Eye Stargazing.

Saturday morning, we had our choice of many activities, including horseback riding, surfing lessons and yoga – in the end, we decided to join a hike to Franklin Point with a local tour guide. On the way, my friend Kim ooh’d and aah’d over the coastal flora and we took in the gorgeous views of the Northern California coast. We had to hurry back, as we had reservations for massages at the spa – well worth it, as the masseuses erased all of the week’s tension.

On Sunday, after check out, we headed out to Harley Farms Goat and Dairy Ranch for a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the operation, plus a special cheese tasting at the end. I also insisted we stop at the Pie Ranch Farm Stand to pick up pie, claiming this was much easier than actually picking our own berries at Swanton Berry Farms!

Driving back home over the hill, I reveled in the time spent with my good friends and the chance to get away from my everyday life in such a beautiful retreat. Already looking forward to our next girl’s getaway. Paris, anyone?

Photo courtesy of Henryk Kotoviski