Greenwich Village

Today is our last full day in NYC. We started early with a cruise on the Hudson. Our tour guide pointed out where Robert DeNiro and Nicole Kidman have apartments. He showed us where the Titanic would have docked, if it had made it to New York all those years ago. He pointed out the search crew that was still looking for debris from last Saturday's helicopter/Piper mid air collision. They've recovered all of the bodies, so they must be looking for the black box. We cruised right over the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Holland Tunnel. We cruised by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

After the cruise, we rode the subway to Greenwich Village and had some lunch.
There are some really beautiful parks in New York.

We bought some good things to eat at the Magnolia Bakery before Laura had to leave to go to her rehearsal. Garold and I found a park to sit while we enjoyed our sweet treats.

We strolled around trying to find some landmarks that were described in his AAA Guide Book. We managed to find the neighborhood where ee cummings lived for the last 40 years of his life. Many of the buildings in the Village are now owned by New York University.

We finally got tired and abandoned the walking tour. We found a subway station where we could use our very last Metro pass, but not before a crazy person approached us to apologize and tell us that he just got a haircut.

Museum of Natural History

We spent the entire day Monday at New York's Museum of Natural History. And still did not see it all. Really. We got there when they opened at 10:00 and stayed until they closed. The dinosaur exhibit is the best I've ever seen, with real bones, not plaster casts. The origin of the human species exhibit is also very good, including fragments of an early human named "Lucy." We ate in the museum's cafeteria (no choice, since they do not allow you to bring food in). It was OK but rather expensive. This museum could easily monopolize a couple of days. The admission is "suggested," and you can barter with them over how much you want to pay. But the special exhibits are an additional fee. We paid to see the Space Show, which wasn't much more than a video clip with Whoppie Goldberg narrating. After the museum we ate at Katz' Deli (the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally was shot here) and then over to a dessert place recommended by our tour bus guide. I got strawberry shortcake Laura got an individual cheescake, and Garold of course got Tirimisu.

Brooklyn

A tree really does grow in Brooklyn!

Sunday we finished up the bus tour we bought yesterday. We took the subway down to the south end of the island and caught the bus to Brooklyn! It looks a lot like Manhattan, only quieter, not so many people. They offered no stops so we did not get off.

I got some pretty good photos of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lady Liberty.

Our tour guide for this part of the trip was a douch. He actually told us he was making stuff up, and he did! We were the only Americans on the bus, so who knows how many people understood what he was saying anyway. When we got back to Manhattan, we finished up the "downtown" bus tour and luckily we got a really great tour guide. She was a retired teacher who had a wealth of knowledge about NY to share. I got a really funky photo of the Chrysler building that shows what looks like gargoyles, but really are enlarged hood ornaments from automobiles!

After our bus tour we met Laura and took a loooong walk through Central Park before finally deciding to eat at Edgar's near where she lives. It was a charming and quiet little place that is on the very spot where Edgar Allan Poe lived from 1844 - 1845 and where he wrote "The Raven." We walked Laura back to her residence and then caught the 1 back to 50th Street. See how I'm picking up the lingo? The subway here is really the best way to travel. You have to ignore the rats, though. We saw two today, plus a mouse in the park. Oh I almost forgot! We went to 5:00 PM services at the Church of the Redeemer with Laura. The congregation is the youngest I've ever seen. After the service they had free coffee and cookies. Yummy.

L'Ecole

Saturday night we rode a tour bus for an overview of the city. That's the Flat Iron Building above, and below is what Wall Street looks like from a tour bus.

The ticket allowed us to ride for 2 days, so we hopped off to take a ride on the Statin Island Ferry. This is a FREE ride that takes about 30 minutes each way. The timing of the ferry is such that you will spend around 30 minutes on the other side before you can catch the return ride.

Laura met us at the station when we finally returned, and we dined that evening at l'Ecole, a culinary institute here in NYC. We had a 5 course dinner. It started with one stuffed cherry tomato that was wonderful, then progressed on to an appetizer.

I selected a yummy shrimp and pasta dish. Laura and Garold both got a tomato and olive dish. Then we moved on to the fish course. I chose black bass, they both got the scallops. Both were delish! After that we had the main course. All three of us got the steak, the other choices were lamb, veal and duck. It was only so-so. I think we should have gone for the more unusual choices. Then they served a digestive salad, which was one tiny sprig of white lettuce along with a tiny little round piece of cheese and a dot of balsamic. So we ate that and waited impatiently for the dessert menu. Garold and I got the chocolate tart with caramel ice cream, and Laura chose the marscapone with strawberries. They were both very good. We did not get back to our room until at least 10:00 (maybe later, I was too tired to see the clock). We fell asleep almost instantly and slept ... yes, for 12 straight hours! We figure we walked another 8 miles yesterday. And that doesn't count the time we spent riding the tour bus. Our tour guide was a wannabe stand up comedian who was born and raised in NY. We heard about the air crash over the Hudson River (a phone call from Greg) and are very grateful that not only were we not involved, we did not even witness it. Although we did notice some NY Police boats speeding by at Battery Park, and wondered at the time what was going on.
PS: In the middle of the 3rd course Greg called to tell us that our first grandson (Lucas) will be born in December! We were too refined to dance on the table, but WOW! What an awesome surprise!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cezanne painted this picture of men playing cards sometime between 1890 and 1892.

I think that Van Gogh painted this vase of irises.

And these sunflowers and chrysanthemums too.

Renoir immortalized himself here.

All of these masterpieces, and many many more, are on display every day in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. I am continually amazed at how much we have in America.

Our second day in NYC we spent the entire day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a bit overwhelming, even in comparison to the huge museums (Vatican, Uffizi, Accademia) that we saw in Italy! There are so many rooms full of world masterpieces you can scarcely see them in one day, much less the 3 hours that the guidebooks recommend. We ate lunch in the museum cafeteria, where the prices were a bit high ($9.00 for a big salad with turkey and tuna) but it was good, and convenient. I took a million photos, which I will post later. I just hope I can remember what they are!!! Laura went out with her classmates to celebrate their last day of classes, and for dinner we went to John's Pizza just down the street from our hotel. Walking around a museum all day can really wear you out, although I must commend the museums here for great organization and amenities. We walked about 8 miles!

New York City

We left home at 5:30 AM yesterday and drove to Orlando to catch a flight to NYC. The Homeland Security officer at the security gate used Garold as an example for all the other passengers waiting in line, because he had all of his liquids (3 oz. or less) together in a zip lock bag! He was everyone's hero. The flight left on time and we had just enough time in Atlanta to catch the connecting flight. But then thatf light was delayed for nearly an hour while maintenance inspected the right wing of the plane. They served everyone a glass of ice water while we waited. After we took off we got 3 packages of pretzels and 2 cokes. This was our lunch. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until I heard about the passengers on a Continental flight who were held captive for 5-6 hours with no food and an out of order toilet!!!
We finally arrived in Newark and took a bus to Manhattan. You haven't seen NY until you've driven through the Lincoln Tunnel at rush hour in a bus! At last we arrived at the Hampton on 8th Avenue right in the heart of the theater district. Laura met us there and we all went to eat at Tom's Restaurant (where they filmed the exterior shots for Seinfeld). The food was pretty good and reasonable. After dinner we took a walk through Riverside Park on the Hudson. (It was the next day that a helicopter/Piper aircraft crash killed 9 people.) They have a jogging/biking trail that is paved. But watch out for the bikes. We almost got nailed when a group of bikers came whizzing around the corner. The view across the Hudson is of Newark, which, at night anyway, is pretty. Laura said it doesn't look too good in the daylight. We walked Laura back to her residence, in a very quiet clean part of the upper westside, and then came on back to the hotel for a great night's sleep.