Full day excursion into New York today. Started off with a subway ride to Battery Park, but the line for the Statue was 1.5 hrs so we settled for pix across the Hudson. We followed that with a trip down to Wall Street, then a jont over to the World Trade Center. The reconstruction on the tower replacement is coming along. There are contractors, cranes, trucks, dirt , and dust everywhere. It is a very vibrate project. Dad had never seen the Brooklyn bridge up front, so we set out for lunch and finding the bridge in one effort. We found a hole-in-the-wall local Panini shop with a Pizzeria next door for the boys. Darin's pizza looked NY style, Brandon's more like thick Ca. style. Two blocks away we were able to take a couple pix of the bridge. Not great ones, but the crew was growing anxious to get to Time Square and beyond.
Back on the subway up to Times Square which was starting to kick in with activity. We just hung out there for a couple of hours taking it all in, while supporting Brandon's effort to the find a Rolex knockoff. We worked our way up to Central Park to find it, and decided on a 1hr peda-cycle taxi tour thru the south half of the park. We got a very experienced driver as part of our negotiation and he did awesome, after we negotiated ~40% off of his asking fee. What was scheduled for 45 min seemed to take a couple of hours we were so into it. The carousel, the lakes, the statues, history, John Lennon's tribute from Yoko, and a long list of celebrity tenants in all the boundary apartments. We not sure we believe it all, but it seemed like the truth.
Back on the walk down 5th ave for all the big stores and a short stop at Rockefeller plaza. Probably too much walking, but we persevered. A couple of blisters, 85deg tiredness, but the only site not fully searched out was the Empire state building. We saw it from a couple of blocks away but didn't get the close look we planned. Quick dinner at another diner and back to hotel via the train by 9p. A little cool off in the pool and massage in the jacuzzi, and now settling in for a good night sleep for tomorrow's pouncing on downtown Philadelphia, and our local cheesesteak. It will take us a couple of hours to get there on the train, and then we'll need to be near the airport for our 6a Wed morning flight out of Philly. Not sure how the blog will fit in tomorrow evening but for sure I'll update it on the plane and post it when we get back in Ca.
Troop-Baseball, without Dad, will be headed to Boston tomorrow night, setting up their Thursday for a game at Fenway, Orioles on Friday, bus ride to Cleveland for a Sat game there, Sunday at Pittsburgh and finishing up at Yankee Stadium next Tues.
So for now, it would be best to keep tracking them at http://stranskyectrip.blogspot.com/.
Take care our friends,