New York City August 2008

Day 1 Saturday, August 16,2008
We made it. Vancouver to New York. The Cathay Pacific flight was late arriving in Vancouver and was an hour late arriving at New York Kennedy Airport. We did not get to the brick brown stone until 11:45 after a $70 cab fare. Having said all that the flight was great with great service, great meal, great wine and an entertainment screen that was also great. The flight went by quickly. We were tired when we arrived in Brooklyn so just took a quick look at the home and went to bed. Took a while to get to sleep and we woke early on Sunday.

Day 2
After a leisurely morning of coffee and reading the paper we decided to go to the subway station one and a half blocks away and by a two week pass for unlimited riding the subways. Cost $48 each. We then decided to take the subway to Coney Island. What a place that turned out to be if you were into rides. The beach was long and lots of people and the amusement park stretched along the beach. One of the oldest roller coasters is here. After and hour or so and lunch in Coney Island we headed back to Brooklyn and walked down to the Brooklyn Promenade, The view from the promenade was of Manhattan and quite the view. We took lots of pictures and knew we have arrived in New York. On our walk back to where we are staying we went by many interesting neighborhoods. We bought some groceries to get us through breakfast and the odd dinner over the next two weeks. . The red brick brown stone home we are living in is like a town house we would see in BC but is 150 years old. Quite narrow with four floors including the basement. The top floor is rented out with a separate entrance. Feels strange being in some one else’s home but we are getting used to it.

Day 3
We were up and at it today. We wanted to go on a bus tour around Manhattan but did not book it because we had not taken the subway into town so did not know how long it would take. We were down to the Rockefeller Centre in just over 30 minutes in rush hour. We had to walk two blocks and we were in ah of all the tall buildings. In fact by the end of the day we both said we don’t ever remember seeing so many stores selling anything you could imagine. The bus tour we took was 5 and one half hours and very good. Gave us an overview on Manhattan and we can not go back and see some places in more detail. Highlights of the day were the memorial for John Lennon in Central Park, the ride on the Staten Island Ferry and the 9/11 Site. Seeing the financial district was of interest to Dave. We finished the day off going to the top of the Rockefeller Centre called “Top of the Rock” 70 floors up. Great views on a sunny day. Our trip home on the Subway was not a smooth as the morning. We stopped dead on the tracks and did not move for an hour. The train was packed full of people and we were standing. Marilyn was quick to point out we were stopped under the east river. It was a great day to experience New York.

Day 4 Tuesday, August 19, 2008
We Love New York and we are having a great time. When you hear that New Yorkers are always in a hurry and that New York never sleeps who ever coined those phrases is correct. In fact we are taking this morning (Thursday) off to sit, relax and catch our breath. Back to Tuesday. Some of you may be aware we housed a student, from Holland, in our home over the summer of 1987. Paul Theunissen is his name. He is now married to Shediah and has a daughter 6 and a son 4. They live in a condo on the east side near the mid point of Central Park. We were able to make contact with Paul and had lunch and dinner with him. His family is visiting his sister in law in Princeton NJ, We did not get to mid Manhattan until 10:30 and got of the subway at the New York Public Library. Hard to describe but more than any library I have ever seen and a magnificent building.

I may not have mentioned it but yesterday morning on the subway we were talking to a woman from Brooklyn was going to work and she asked where we were from mentioned she was meeting someone that is in management of Granville Island. Apparently she is involved with the proposed waterfront development in Brooklyn Heights and they want it to be like Granville Island. It is a small world. Another thing I would like to add is that people say that Vancouver is the home of spandex and lattés well in New York you have to have a Blackberry in your hand, I Pod ear phones in your ear and have a newspaper tucked under on arm.

After the public Library we went to a long lunch with Paul. It was wonderful seeing him again and catching up on his life. Both he and his wife have done very well in the financial world and believe me you would have had to do well and love work to live where they live.

After lunch we went off to the United Nations and a great tour. The tour leader was a gal from Brazil and when we mentioned we were going to Brazil she ask us to stay back after the tour and gave us good tips on visiting her country. She gave us a good tour. After the United Nations we walk through the Dag Hammershold Park. Dag was the second head of the United Nations and asked New York to designate the park as a place for protests if people wanted to protest thus not interfering with the ongoing life in New York. It seems to work and thus the name of the park. We strolled up first and second avenues up to 58th and Lexington St to Bloomingdales where we were meeting Paul for dinner. Had a lovely dinner at an Italian Restaurant with side walk dinning. Paul had gone on Craig’s List and presented us with tickets for Thursday night to the Broadway Play “Wicked”. After a great dinner and good conversation about New York we caught our F line subway home. Took us a little longer getting home (about 11pm) this evening as we were quite a bit further north by Central Park.

Day 5
Another early start as we wanted to get to the half price tickets (TKTS) for the Wednesday afternoon matinee. Line went quickly and we got tickets to”Chicago”. We had about 20 Broadway and 20 off Broadway shows to look at so it is hard picking out. The show we wanted to see “Jersey Boys” which is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons has been sold out months ahead. We took a walk from Times Square up Broadway to see where the theatres were located. We also found the theatre where Jersey Boys was playing so went to the box office. He had good seats but separated. We decided to bite the bullet and took the tickets. After that we headed off to 5th Avenue as Marilyn wanted to shop. The only think I can say about 5th Avenue is that the washrooms in Sak Fifth Avenue are some of the best I have ever used. Marilyn enjoyed our short stay on 5th Avenue but a return visit will happen. We decided to call Paul and see if he was available to for lunch, he was so we had lunch with him. The good thing about knowing a New Yorker is they know the short cuts. We had to be at 50th and Broadway for the Chicago show at 2 pm. He showed us a shuttle to Times Square so we had plenty of time. Chicago was great. This production had a lot of energy. We had 3 hours before Jersey Boys so we did a loop walk up to Central Park Drive then over to 5th Avenue then back to 52nd a Broadway for the evening production. The Condos and Restaurants we saw across from Central Park were unbelievable. We were way out of our class and ended up having dinner at Applebee’s. Marilyn did get to see the plaza out side CBS where they have the “Morning Show on CBS. We also saw where they tape Dave Letterman and saw the street they close down when he does his stunts. Fun to see these places but we have to tell you the number of people on the streets is unbelievable. I had to hold on to Marilyn so we would not loose each other in the crush as the masses moved from one street to the next. So exciting to see how this city works. Paul said that after 9/11 New York is a much friendlier city. We can see that as we have been welcomed and helped when ever needed and did not feel threatened which may be because we see a lot of security around Manhattan.

“Jersey Boys was great including all the songs from our era and a great theater and our seats although separated worked out fine. I was 4 rows from the front on the left hand side. Marilyn was in the middle 8 rows back from the stage. We will not say what they cost. We got out of the performance about 10:20 and after a walk to the subway got home about 11:20 and felt safe all the way. A great day!

Day 6
You can now see why we need a day to just relax. Got up later and after Marilyn put a wash on we went out in our neighborhood to have brunch. Found a nice restaurant with a good brunch then picked up groceries. I am now catching up on my blog. We will leave here about 5pm to walk a few blocks to a French Restaurant for dinner then walk to the next subway station and take the train to Broadway and another evening performance. I will comment on “Wicked” in part 3 of the blog.

Day 7 Friday, August 22, 2008
“Wicked” was a great play in a wonderful theatre. It was the story of the wicked witch of the west and the good witch of the east from The Wizard of OZ before Dorothy. Sounds a little off but they pulled together a great story and good script. We enjoyed it. We were home by 11:30 pm so I can’t say enough about the subway system.

We got up Friday ready for a busy day with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We left the house and decided to walk all the way to Manhattan. We walked the streets of our neighborhood then through downtown Brooklyn and then over the Brooklyn Bridge. What a beautiful bridge which was the first suspension bridge ever built. It was finished in 1876. The walkway we took over the bridge was added and was raised above the car traffic in the middle of the bridge. People and bikes can exist easily on this walkway. Why can’t Vancouver get their act together on the Burrard Bridge?

After we got off the bridge we walked left down through the financial district and past ground zero. I mentioned that ground zero is now just a construction site. They have built a covered walkway about a half block away so the public can view the site. We were on that walkway on day 2. The church across the street from ground zero is quite a shrine having survived the great New York fire in the early years and the collapse of the 7 buildings of the World Trade Centre. The only thing that happened at the church was one tree on the NW corner of the property near grown zero was knocked down..

We had a nice lunch nearby then it was off to Battery Park to board the boat to take us out to the Statue of Liberty. It took some time in line but the boat was big and got us out to Liberty Island in good order. We had a lovely afternoon learning about and viewing the Statue of Liberty which is quite a tribute to the American people. We were getting ready to board the boat for Ellis Island the Immigration Center when Marilyn felt she had come down with a bladder infection. We decided to head for our home in Brooklyn and get some medical advice at the New York Methodist Hospital. The advice confirmed Marilyn had an infection and they gave her a prescription to get on the mend. We got home about 10 pm.

Day 8
We stayed close to home this Saturday while Marilyn was on the mend. I went out and got lunch at a local deli store called Stinky, a great little store with lots and lots of cheese. We ended the day with a steak BBQ.

Day 9
We got off to a good start going to Central Park which has been around since 1858. We are glad the city preserved over 800 acres of land for the park. It is all man made as New York was hilly and all bed rock. Over the years this land has been turned into a wonderful park. In the early 80’s a public/private partnership in the form of the city and the Central Park Conservancy was formed to run the park. In the 1970’s the park was going in ruin and from what we saw today this is why New Yorkers live in New York. We had a great walk through to the middle of the park where we stopped to have lunch at the marina. We met a couple that live just a few blocks away 6 months of the year and live in Palm Desert in the Del Web complex not far from us in Indio. They told us all sorts of information about the park and what was going on today. They sent us off to see the New York Turkish Festival at the north end of the park. We did visit and see a great festival going on with lots of food, music and dancing. After that we made our way to the Lincoln Center and there “Out of Doors” performance. It was the 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival. All this is free and all the entertainment in the park is free and you could spend each and every day going to see great entertainment. We sat and listened to the music for some time then left to go find a subway route home. We arrived at our home about 6 pm having had another great day in New York.

Day 10 Monday August 25, 2008
Today we decided to stay in Brooklyn. We took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and went under the bridge. Here we ran into an ice cream factory. So guess what we stopped and picked up a lovely ice cream. We also took time to look at the waterfall under the bridge which was designed by an artist, in fact there are four of these along the water front. They all pump up the river water and it comes back down as a large waterfall. What was not recognized is that the river water has lots of salt water from the tide changes and when the wind is up it sprays water on any trees close by and they are dying. So today we had no wind so the waterfall was working.

We walked along the water front on the Brooklyn side opposite the lower Manhattan tall buildings. Quite impressive as our walk took us to the east end of the Brooklyn promenade and you may recall were on the west end of the promenade the day we arrived. We now got to walk the whole way. We eventually ended up in downtown Brooklyn where Marilyn got to shop in stores more to our economic status not the high priced 5th Avenue stores. We got home later in the afternoon and went out to a Vinny’s a local Italian restaurant. We had another wonderful meal all in our local Smith Street.

Day 11
We headed off thinking we would go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is at 81st and 5th Avenue, the mid point of Central Park. We had to take the subway to 87th and Lexington which was close to our friend Paul’s apartment condo. We called him as he had to be home to oversee the renovation of their kitchen so he invited us up to see. What an apartment. Hard to describe except the ceilings are two floors high and the decoration is beautiful. You can’t imagine the cost he incurs to keep up the building. I now do not feel bad about paying my condo fee which I felt was high. This is a typical mid Manhattan owner apartment. Paul wanted to have lunch with us as he and the family were going on a short vacation to Maine. That means we would not meet his wife and children but understood as you could not live in the apartment the way it was during renovations. We went out sightseeing around the local streets until we saw Paul for lunch which was just great. After lunch we decided not to go to the MET and as Marilyn wanted to do some more shopping we decided to walk down Madison Avenue from 81st street until we got tired. We soon learned this shopping street was also out of our league. It was geared to business people and the individuals that live in these very expensive apartments. One comment we will make is that there are an equal amount of men’s clothing stores as women’s.

A couple of New York comments: we would say New York is at least or maybe more diversified than Vancouver; we saw very little begging in the streets not like Vancouver where it is all over the place; people do not pick up after themselves as there is paper etc all over the place, the streets are clean but paper accumulates; we felt safe; people were helpful, friendly, courteous on the subways getting up to let seniors or ladies with children sit. It is a great city to visit.
Dinner was at home tonight with leftovers.

Day 12
We have seen just about every neighborhood in Manhattan except Greenwich Village, Soho and Chelsea. Today was going to be that day to visit these areas. We started off with the one part of Greenwich in the Italian area where we had a coffee in one of the longstanding coffee houses. This was a good experience and very good coffee. We got to see Washington Park, crossed busy Broadway again and travelled by the art shops of Soho. These areas are all different and unique and we enjoyed seeing how these New Yorkers live. We spent all day going through these neighborhoods until we were exhausted. We never did get to Chelsea. Boy have we put on the miles walking in New York and we hope it makes us more fit. We have walked up or down more stairs then we are used to both in the home we are staying and in the subways. We decided on the way home to go out and have a pizza in the local area we are staying. It was a wood oven fired pizza like we have never had before. Another great ending to a very busy day.

Day 13
We wanted to see Prospect Park the big park in Brooklyn so it was again off in the subway only this time in the opposite direction a couple of stops. We had a good long walk through this park from one end to the other. We walked around the 50 acre lake then back to a main entrance. I guess we walked for three hours. I would say the park is about the same size as Stanley park, just more manicured. After that we walked down some of the side streets in this area called park hill. Again we saw many beautiful brownstones. During a stop for lunch we received a call from Paul’s office saying they had received a package I was waiting to receive. On our next trip we are going to Brazil and the package was two Stethoscopes for Gustavo which he is buying to give as gifts to two graduating doctors. This particular model is hard to get in Brazil. So it was off to the subway and a trip to Grand Central Station. We got the parcels, had a coffee and stopped at a wonderful market to pick up dinner then back on the subway. We went all that distance and home again in two hours.

During our stay we did 29 individual trips on the Subway for a cost of a two week pass at $47. You figure the math but the big thing is that well over half of those trips were a distance longer then Waterfront Station in Vancouver to the end of the Surrey line. I believe that is a three zone cost in Vancouver. The regular price of any one ride any distance on the subway or bus here in New York is $2. A good system that is well used.

Day 14
This is our last day in New York as tomorrow is clean up day in Brooklyn as we pack our bags and get ready to leave. I have ordered a car to take us to JFK Airport at 8 pm for our 11 pm flight.

This last day we spent 6 hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I would have to say this is the biggest museum we have ever been in let alone an art museum. Marilyn asked the lady when we bought our tickets if you only have today what you would see. She suggested the Egyptian display, the European Masters and the Modern Art. At our 1 pm lunch time we had hardly even touched the Egyptian art. After lunch we did the other two areas but very fast and by 3:30 we were exhausted so decided to head for a coffee and then the last subway ride home.

For our last night we went to a French restaurant we got to know earlier. It was just 4 blocks from the house where we had a great rack of lamb dinner.

Today is Saturday with all the wash done and we are packed. We went out for brunch and will just wait until the car arrives to take us to the airport. We hope you enjoyed our ramblings from New York. Dave and Marilyn