Last night I booked the hotel for the New York History conference in Cooperstown early next month. The NYSHA conference should be a lot of fun. With the cool weather we’d been having in New York, June seemed so far away until yesterday. Today, though, has been the warmest day of the year so far, and the rising temperatures had everyone talking about their summer plans. It is difficult to believe Memorial Day weekend is a few days away. This afternoon I submitted my annual leave requests for June-August. I will be splitting time between here and our place in DC. Today I also joined Shorewalkers, a group that hikes various points of interest in the New York area. There is a walk in August that covers the Civil War and other monuments of Hoboken and Jersey City that I am especially looking forward to. I intend to criss-cross the five boroughs this summer, in a group setting but also by myself, to explore New York history, especially out-of-the-way New York history. My list is growing.