Today is the end of our third full day at Liberty Landing Marina in New Jersey. I am (not very) sorry that I have not posted every day, but the Admiral has had us on a busy schedule.
The main event on
Monday (Day 2-189) was dinner in Chinatown with Terry's 2nd cousin Bill and his daughter Katelyn. We took the ferry over to Manhattan (see picture at right). We walked over a mile to a Chinese restaurant chosen by Bill who used to work and live in Manhattan. It was fantastic! It turns out that he is a very good and informative tour guide as we walked past City Hall and on the way back we walked a little further north into the edge of Little Italy. We stopped for ice cream on the way back and then took a cab to the ferry landing since we were getting very close to the departure time for the last ferry of the day.
Tuesday (Day 2-190) we started off north from the marina to see a bit of the Jersey City side. The marina is on the south side of a half mile long channel that has other marinas and condos. We started off by taking the ferry across the 200 yard wide channel. It makes stops on both sides before going to Manhattan, and this little cross channel trip used to be free, but like everything else, it now costs $2.00. Kind of pricey for such a short ride, but I appreciated saving walking around the far end of the channel (twice). The picture at the left shows the boarding of the ferry at our marina, and our destination is essentially that high rise condo on the back right of the photo. Like I said, it was a short ride... For our mini tour we walked to a small, local Caribbean restaurant that seated about 14 people. The food was great as was the price, but it was spicy! After lunch I headed back to the boat for a nap while the Admiral walked a little further to a Radio Shack for some cables for the TV antenna.
After my nap and Terry installing two one foot long cables for a much better reception, we headed for the ferry to Manhattan. The picture at the right shows the ferry landing in Manhattan. It can accommodate 6 passenger ferries at a time and they really move them in and out as fast as they can. Our destination was the 9/11 memorial about 3 blocks away from the landing.
I had seen pictures of the memorial at Ground Zero, but of course, it was much better in person. It is a beautiful setting with a real feel of serenity in the midst of this busy city. We saw the museum, but it was only open to survivors and relatives of the victims. The Admiral met a lady in the marina who had come to NYC to be amongst the survivors who had early access to the Museum. Both she and her husband had been at work in different towers on 9-11. They were among the 35,000+ survivors on that day. The media gives a lot of attention to the number of victims on that fateful day, but obviously it could have been a lot worse.
On the way to the Memorial we passed very close to the base of the new One World Trade Center. This picture was taken about 100 feet out from the base of the tower, and the view is virtually straight up... It is only partially an optical illusion since the tower does get much smaller at the very top. There is still a lot of construction both above and below ground in this area, but we could already get a feel for the beauty of the final area.
On the way back to the ferry we stopped again at the movie theater complex near the ferry dock. We missed the first couple of minutes of "The Chef", but I found it to be a very enjoyable movie.
After the movie, we rushed to the ferry dock and managed to catch the next to last ferry for the day. This was our view back at the NYC skyline as we crossed the Hudson River on our ferry.
Wow! It was quite a day, and we still have one more full day to look forward to....
Day 2-191 is our last full day here, and the Admiral has been looking forward to this particular day for a long time. No, she is not looking forward to leaving! Today, we are going to see the Broadway musical "Wicked". From the ferry dock we walked about 6 blocks to the subway, which we took to the theater district. This was something of a thrill for me since in all of my previous trips to NYC I had never taken the subway. The plan was to arrive near the theater about 2 hours before curtain time and to have lunch at "The Three Monkeys". I had a Margarita Flatbread. Yup, by any other name it would be a flatbread pizza, but it was really delicious. I was even careful not to drink too much Diet Pepsi since I knew that the musical would last 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Of course, there were many famous sights in this area. We even went past the Ed Sullivan Theater with the Late Show sign.
I must admit to having been a little curious about the "Hello Deli" after so many weird stunts there on the Letterman Show. So, in case you ever wondered, it really is right around the corner from the Sullivan Theater...
After lunch, we went directly to the theater, which was just about to open its doors as we approached. The picture at the left was taken from our seats and shows part of the main curtain, which is a map of the Land of Oz, and the structure on the left is a series of gears and stairs that sits out in front of the stage.
Of course, there should also be the "obligatory" picture of the happy theater goers. So, here we are anxiously awaiting the start of the performance. Wow, I really enjoyed the musical and the whole experience in general!
In case you are wondering, I did have a tie in my pocket just in case, but I never even remotely felt the need to put it on...
Here is one more picture of our adventure to Broadway as part of a truly great day.
Was three and a half days in New York City enough? No way!
Will we be back? You can count on that!
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