Overall Journey Dates -- April 22-29, 2016
Cap' n Baldy here!
New York City ... dubbed The Big Apple by sportswriter John Fitz Gerald back in the 1920's ... also the subject of unending bits of advice given to us by New York-loving friends ... "Ya gotta ride the Staten Island Ferry, ya gotta visit Zabar's Deli up on Broadway and West 80th, ya gotta visit Fat Black Pussycat down in The Village ... all right, already! We love all of you but our poor brains can't take any more suggestions about what to see and do in New York! We don't want to start our New York journey with fried brains!
The Skyline of Manhattan
This is not our first trip to New York City. However, it has been 10 years since our last visit. I've visited this city a multitude of times while I was working as an engineer, quickly passing through from one place to another. Barbara and I have passed through here when traveling from one continent to another. Once, I endured the city noise while presenting a paper here at the Winter Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.We plan for this New York visit to be different from any previous encounter. We began to savor the true treasures of this incredible city while visiting with our kids 27 years ago. Our enthusiasm grew when we visited with our daughter Sue 10 years ago ... but we only had one full day to see as much as we could! This time, we have seven days to experience as much New York life as we are able in this period of time!
This journey is a series of present moments...so I'll be presenting my narrative in several posts in the present tense. Y'all must recognize a couple of important thangs at the outset. Firstly, I am writing this narrative post-trip when we are both exhilarated and utterly wiped out ... no matter ... we shall still present our narrative in the present tense! Secondly, as this is a big journey for us, this is a long narrative ... so y'all can read my words or not as y'all wish ... however, y'all MUST scan through Goldilocks' glorious pictures ... I say this this because I love y'all ... now, let's get going!
Thursday, April 21th -- IT'S UPON US! -- We have important "bidness" to do before our departure at 0630 hours tomorrow morning. We have to clean up our place a bit and say hi to our post-knee-surgery granddaughter Laurel. After that, we have to transport our raucous parakeets, Bella and Spike, to their "home away from home ". Barbara has a bit of packing to do as yet. I'm all ready and am impatient to leave! Patience is a virtue I must learn to ceaselessly cultivate!
Friday, April 22nd -- TRANSIT EAST AND ARRIVAL! -- We are not here to bitch about difficulties in current air travel. We are here to celebrate the courtesy and efficiency shown to us at our airport's Security Checkpoint, our sense of excitement before we depart, the views of our lovely home town from the air ... a procession of little things during our 5-hour journey across our country. Of course, I do have to relate that the Boeing 737 aircraft heating system is not operating correctly and it's damn cold up here at 37,000 feet! We get a blanket to keep us warm! There are things for me to celebrate up here ... cloud fields...starkly beautiful desert where a person would die very quickly if unprotected ... the sight of Goldilocks' lovely blue eyes in the sunlight ... decent coffee, hot and fresh ...
Always Awe-Inspiring!
Our ride from JFK to our hotel in Manhattan takes TWO HOURS! A fellow traveler on our shared shuttle bus has a wedding to attend in the Chelsea District ... she will not make it in time ... we now see that the City is alive ... exciting, maddening, exhausting...always edgy and interesting and never boring ...
New York is a City of Jaywalkers...no one pays heed to Walk Signals ... of course, the locals have a Sixth Sense about when to cross without getting killed...we are more cautious!
I don't wish to over-use the term "home away from home" ... nor do I wish to over-use superlatives... but our accommodations in New York are beyond those we could have ever dreamed of! The Phillips Club in Lincoln Square is an intimate members-only extended stay hotel across 66th Street from the Juilliard School, one block from Lincoln Center, three blocks from Central Park, and 100 yards from the Number 1 train subway station! Through the generosity of Joyce and Bob Blumberg, friends who are members here, we are able to have use of a completely furnished 750-square-foot 1 bedroom apartment in this wonderful hotel for our entire New York visit for next to nothing in cost!!
Sanctuary! Mary, our room attendant, expertly makes up our room and places Travis and Peaches, our travelin' bears, on our pillow! And to make our life here even better, Gourmet Garage, a really cool grocery and prepared food store, is right next door to our hotel!
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Saturday, April 23rd -- THE SOUTH END -- The Ritual of Morning Coffee is always the same...I go out and bring coffee back for Barbara and me ...the same daily rite is performed here as at home ... except that our coffee-of-choice here is not Starbuck's ... it is SoHo Blend, brewed fresh at Gourmet Garage! New Yorkers DO coffee and one cup of this luscious dark brew satisfies a person's caffeine requirements all morning!
Reality by Goldilocks
It is now early morning. The sky is cloudy and rain is probable. We are in Brooklyn at the pedestrian entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge...ready to start our trek across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Borough of Manhattan.
Immediately, the need for recognition of an important difference between Goldilocks and me becomes very clear. It is to be accepted without question that I am the Navigator. The Way of the Navigator requires that I insure that our party expeditiously and safely cross the bridge ahead of the oncoming rainstorm ... a steady pace is to be maintained with an alert eye ahead for potential obstacles or hazards... constant awareness of our current position is to be kept at all times ("DON'T step over that white line into the bike lane!") ... a coldly hostile outward gaze is to be aimed at clueless oncoming pedestrians who wander into our path ... are y'all now clear about these indispensable requirements? Good! Let us proceed ...
It is perhaps no surprise to y'all that the Way of the Navigator is NOT the Way of the Artistic Photographer ... who is Goldilocks. Her Way is Step ... See a picture ... Take a picture ... Step ... See a picture ... Take a Picture! Usually she wins ( a good thing for both of us) unless we are so exhausted that we can't see straight ... then I win. That circumstance comes much later in the day.
So...we begin our one-and-three-quarter mile hike across the Brooklyn Bridge. Our transit is best expressed in Goldilocks' pictures ...
Light rain starts to fall as we start to cross...
Padlocks are placed on the bridge by love-struck couples ...
Herself by Himself ...
Himself by Herself ...
Sunshine starts to appear as we enter City Hall Park in Manhattan ... trees are in bloom ... gorgeous beds of tulips line the walkways ...
Blossoms shield a high-high-high-rise residential tower ...
The Flag of the City of New York is flying at City Hall today ... I have a fetish for flags ...
We scuttle through narrow streets of Old New York at the bottom of Manhattan Island . In need of a coffee break, we eschew Starbucks in favor of a little local joint named R & R Coffee. Sipping hairy coffee and sharing a good oatmeal cookie, we survey the passing outside scene ... next to us, a pretty young girl converses in Russian over her cell phone ...
Trudging onward, we finally reach our immediate goal ... South Street Seaport ... now resurrected into a thriving community of shops, museums, restaurants and recreational activities!
I'm TIRED and I want FOOD!!!
We have lunch at stainless-steel-modern Industry Kitchen along the main Seaport walkway, sitting outside and watching a procession of passersby ...
I Hate Running by Barbara Brislin
Breakfast Pizza -- underneath all that fresh arugula sit three eggs ... I haven't eaten pizza in decades ... until today!
Barbara's salad lunch looks all VIRTUOUS ... but...she DID take a big share of my pizza!
South Street Seaport is a prime location for ball caps!!
We make a jagged scurry across the great Financial District of Lower Manhattan ...
On to the National 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center ... we shall spend five hours here on a Viator comprehensive tour of the Memorial, Museum and One World Trade Center ... That event is a major adventure unto itself and shall be covered in our next post ... Stay connected ...
Affectionately,
Baldy
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