We are all set for our various adventures in New York City... |
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| and the adjacent areas; and do we have some adventures planned... we are going to be part of the live audience of Good Morning America, go to the Tennis US Open, tour parts of the city, do a little wine tasting, check out some history sites and we are really excited about having some friends join us for a week. Some of these adventures are on the main September page, the rest are below. | |
| Our first adventure, take the train to Manhattan, Grand Central Station to be exact, and find our way to Times Square. We decided to spend the night downtown because the train would not get us into town early enough on Tuesday morning to be in line for the GMA show. | |
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| The view from the Beacon train station closest to the RV park, this is the Hudson River with sail boats and a seagull. | Grand Central Station in Manhattan... |
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| The newly restored ceiling in the central train station. It has a picture of the constellations that go over NYC, but they are reversed of how they would actually show in the night sky... | I just loved the look of this building, I wouldn't mind living in one of those apartments, but I wouldn't be able to even afford a bathroom, I am sure. |
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| You just never know where you will find history... | The Empire State Building from our hotel room window... along with lots of other skyscrapers... |
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| Bryant Park, the white tent has something to do with it being Fashion Week in New York City... | Another view of the Empire State Building. Jim and I were walking from Time Square to go visit and see the view from the top. |
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| Macy's from the top of the Empire State Building... The store is celebrating it's 150 anniversary. It is the largest department in the world (so they say), it has 5 floors and is a full city block in size. I did go in and it was huge. They were unveiling Christina Aguilera's new perfume... | The view of the Financial District of Manhattan and to the right is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Twin Towers would be in the picture if they still existed (sigh). |
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| Looking towards Central Park from the top. | If you need any information, he's the guy to ask... |
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| The corner of Times Square that ABC takes up for the GMA (Good Morning America) show. | This is the entrance on 44th street to the Millennium Hotel where we stayed the night before the GMA show. |
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| We had a drink at St. Andrew's across the street from the hotel, they have over 200 single malts to choose from, I tried a couple of them :) Then we decided to stay for dinner, it was very enjoyable. | Empire State Building lit up at night, from our hotel room (sorry it is a little blurry...) |
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| Jim eating his scone while in line to get in. We had to be in line by 5:30am or just a little later, they really wanted us there no later that 6:15am. The show starts at 7:00am and we get to stand even longer inside, the show is 2 hours long! That was a lot of standing! | Me waiting outside in line, enjoying a Starbucks scone and decaf, fat free, latte... in other words, breakfast. |
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| Picture of Leona Lewis through the glass (from outside) during their rehearsal/sound check. | Items that belonged to Bob Hope that were going on the auction block for some of the family charities. |
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| We watched monitors (and their prompters) while the hosts were upstairs doing the news. | Leona Lewis right before her song at the end of the show. I had never heard of her before, but I found I like her music. |
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| Diane Sawyer (who had to leave early so that she could catch a flight to Minneapolis for the Republican Convention). | Kate Snow and Robin Roberts (Sam Champion was down in New Orleans). |
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Robin, Jim, Kim and Kate after the show. Both very, very nice people. |
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| That was quite the adventure for our
first trip into New York City. The next adventure is with Jim
& Allison... The four of us took off for the day to visit Hyde Park, the Vanderbilt Mansion and FDR's home and library, my Jim was driving... |
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| Driving through the gates, entering the Vanderbilt Mansion grounds... | The front of the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park... a Greek Revival home built by Frederick William Vanderbilt, they moved into the house in 1898. |
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| The side of the Mansion, you matter which side you look at, they are all beautiful... | I can't take a straight picture, can I :P this is the back of the mansion looking out over the Hudson River. |
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| The Vanderbilt's gave this Monastery lots of money to make sure it looked really nice since it was going to be part of their view.... | The Italian gardens at the Mansion... they were beautiful... |
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| more of the gardens... | the pond |
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| Allison & Jim in the gardens... | Kim and Jim in the gardens... (Picture by Allison) |
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| We needed to eat lunch and figured this looked like a fun place. I am surprised at how many "Diners" we saw through out the area. (Picture by Allison) | The Eveready lunch counter... |
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| Next stop, the FDR National Historic Site... I learned so much about FDR and Eleanor, well worth the time. | The ranger starting his tour with Eleanor and Franklin behind the Visitor Center. (Picture by Allison) |
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| FDR's tombstone in the family plot on the property. (Picture by Allison) | The park system got a private donation, a fairly large one, specifically for the FDR property. They have started the renovations. The inside is exactly how the family left it, it's almost 98% entirely original. |
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| Explaining the renovations to FDR's childhood home. | The out buildings, they usually end up as office, etc. They were originally coach houses, etc. |
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| The rose garden, a little past their bloom, but still smelled wonderful. | Jim chatting with Eleanor and FDR. |
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| The Jim's getting ready to check out the Presidential Library. It was very interesting and well worth the price of admission. | FDR actually used this office after he was President. |
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| Our next stop was Eleanor's place, Val-Kill. She never felt at home at FDR's childhood home, his mother was the "queen" there. Eleanor needed her own space. | The back side of Val-Kill, isn't it peaceful? |
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| another view of Val-Kill. | Here we go, the tour is heading in. It was very simple and very homey inside. |
| Our next jaunt was to hit some historical areas along the Hudson River and just to do a little site-seeing. There is a lot of history if you want to take the time to check it all out, we only touched a very small part of it. Check out Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, NY or Heritage New York. | |
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| First stop is the first public state park in the US. It happens to be where General George Washington headquartered between 1782 & 1783 for 1 1/2 years. | It was a very strategic site, they could monitor quite a bit of the Hudson River... |
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| While waiting for the visitor center to open, we saw this hawk (sitting on the sign post). We watched it for quite some time. | The hawk flew several times over the park, looking for something to eat I am sure. It also had a partner on one of the flights. (Picture by Allison) |
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| Looking up at the house (built in circa 1750 for Jonathan Hasbrouck) and what is now the visitor center. | Getting ready for the tour with our tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and was very good at his job. |
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| After leaving the park, we drove through some of the Historic houses of Newburgh, NY. (Picture by Allison) | I love old houses, Allison did a great job of getting some good pictures. (Picture by Allison) |
| We drove on down highway 9D along the Hudson River, with no exact place in mind, just looking for the next interesting spot. The next spot ended up being Cold Spring. We walked down Main Street, enjoyed some lunch and took a few pictures. | |
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| We didn't eat here, but a great looking Cafe... | Looking down Main Street. |
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| At the end of the street we found this Inn... | Checking out the public square down by the Hudson River, the wind was blowing just a little. |
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| A barge heading down the Hudson River... (Picture by Allison) | Small marina at Cold Spring. |
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| It took us a while to figure out what this was, at first we thought it was a prison, then we finally figured it out, it was West Point Academy. | These must be the homes of some of the instructors, etc at West Point... |
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| We have no idea what this is, but it looks like a castle up on the hill. | We stopped at West Point once we got to the other side of the river. We didn't want to take the 3 hours for the tour, but we did check out the free museum. |
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| Being a military school, there was lots of "guy" things there, like guns and such... (Picture by Allison) | Looking back at the academy, it sure took up a lot of land... almost everything you are looking at on this side of the Hudson River is academy property. (Picture by Allison) |
| Our next adventure was to go back downtown New York City and see some of the sites. We are doing the easy trip to start with, taking the tour bus out of the park. So easy, just sit back and let them drive and take us around. We catch the bus at 7:30am to get down to the ferry terminal to catch the 10:30am ferry over to the Statue of Liberty and then just pass through Ellis Island... | |
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| From the bus, we drove past the World Trade Center. (Photo by Allison) | After looking around Battery Park a little, getting ready to get in line to board the ferry for Liberty and Ellis Island. |
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| Follow the leader (the guy with the arm up and the closed umbrella) to the ferry. I think his name was Bill :P | Lady Liberty from the ferry... |
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| Castle Clinton has been many things: 1811-1822 Defensive Fort, 1824-1854 Cultural Emporium, 1855-1890 Immigration Center (prior to Ellis Island), 1896-1941 Aquarium, 1946-Present, National Monument and starting off point to ride the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. | Looking at New Jersey across the Hudson River from Castle Clinton. (Photo by Allison) |
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| The wake from our ferry and Manhattan (the FInancial District) behind us. | Lots of sailors out... around Ellis Island |
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| Moi from the ferry with the Lady behind me. | The Statue of Liberty, isn't she beautiful? They plan on opening her to tours inside, once again, next year. It's been closed since 9/11. |
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| This plaque on Liberty Island explaining the view still shows the Twin Towers... | A view of Ellis Island as we come up to it on the ferry. |
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| On the ferry, heading back to the mainland (Battery Park and Castle Clinton). | One of the waterfalls seen from the ferry. There are 5 of them to view, but they are gone as of October 13th, 2008. We were lucky enough to be able to view them all sometime during the day of the tour on the bus. |
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| Allison took this picture of a group entertaining the tourists while I went into Castle Clinton to get my stamp for my National Park Stamp Book. (Photo by Allison) | This statue was found mostly intact at Ground Zero and moved to Battery Park while the work goes on at the World Trade Center. |
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| Someone needs to take the market by the bulls "you know what" and get this economy going again! | I would use public transportation instead of paying this price for parking downtown. |
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| Observation deck from the South Street Seaport. There's food, shopping and a great view. | Brooklyn Bridge (there is a tour just to the left of the tower), and if you keep looking, the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. |
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| This was a private yacht tied up to the seaport... The Lone Ranger. | The tall masted ships tied up at he South St. Seaport. (Photo by Allison) |
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| Passing through Chinatown... | Here I am contemplating the scene outside the bus window. (Photo by Allison) |
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| While everyone is going to the top of the Empire State Building, we walked to Times Square and back. | We passed Macy's on Broadway on our way...(Photo by Allison) |
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| Taking a quick photo-op while walking back to catch the bus | Another view of the Empire State Building. (Photo by Allison) |
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| When we got to Times Square, there was a huge group of people, some choir up on a stand, and lots of area roped off, including the traffic. | The group of people in the square was "Prayer in the Square". |
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| One of Regis & Kelly's favorite places to eat, suppose to be really good and really cheap. (Photo by Allison) | St. Patrick's Cathederal |
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| Atlas at Rockefeller Center | Advertising for the US Open, Jim and I are going on Monday... (was suppose to be Sunday, but they got rained out on Saturday, so they had to postpone until Monday). |
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| During the summer, it's a picnic pavilion, during the winter, the famous Rockefeller ice rink. | Radio City Music Hall |
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| Riding in the back of the bus... | Back in Times Square... |
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| Bill said that Junior's has the best cheesecake in New York City, so we had to try it. | This is what I had, Devil's Food cake and cheesecake, it was to die for! |
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| Jim's raspberry swirl cheesecake, mine was better | While we were sitting there enjoying our cheesecake, we heard a lot of noise coming from Broadway. I ran down and found that there were a LOT of motorcycles coming down the road, all kinds, for over 15 minutes... |
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| We are heading home, looking out the window of the bus I saw the home of the New Yorker magazine | Looking back at Manhattan before we head into the tunnel and over to New Jersey... to get us back to Newburgh, NY. |
| It was a long day on the bus tour,
7:30am to 6:30pm but worth it to figure out what we wanted to do on
our next excursion to the city. The next trip downtown is on our own! We take the train again and then the subway to Battery Park to catch the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty (which we don't get off this time) and then on to Ellis Island. We spend a lot of time on the Island and then back into the city to see some other sites that we wanted to see... |
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| Jim and Allison's silhouette on the rainy window of the train into NYC. | Some of the subways were packed, luckily, we didn't have to get on this one, we were looking for the one to take us down to Battery Park. |
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| The entrance to the main building on Ellis Island. | Looking at the Lady Liberty from the Ellis Island entrance. |
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| I am chatting with my Jim trying to explain where we are so he can fine us. We are in the Oral History Project Library; the oldest and largest oral history project dedicated to preserving the first-hand recollections of immigrants coming to America during the years Ellis Island was in operation: 1892-1954. (Photo by Allison) | The Registry room as it looked when they closed down Ellis Island. (Photo by Allison) |
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| The Registry Room today, (restored to 1918-1924): The historic Great Hall, once filled with new arrivals waiting to be inspected and registered by Immigration officers, now contains historic benches and reproduction inspector desks. Visitors can re-live the experience of 12 million people processed through this cavernous space. (Photo by Allison) | We had a little rain in the early morning, a view of the Empire State Building from Ellis Island through the clouds. |
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| Grey, pink or black, what sounds good to you? | Pretty flowers in Battery Park as we left to walk towards Ground Zero. |
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| World Trade Center as it is today, re-building the area to include new sky scraper(s) and a park. We walked across the covered walkway that you see in this picture. | Today is Sept. 10th, 2008. The picture was taken through the window from the walkway. This is ground zero and will be very busy tomorrow. (Photo by Allison) |
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| Posters of what the area is suppose to look like when it is done, but I am not sure they really know yet. | There were quite a few reporters hanging around, getting "quiet" pictures before the big day. One reporter actually stopped the "other" Jim to interview him. |
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| We got off at Canal street so that we could wander around Chinatown. | Is that a Chinese Starbucks? |
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| We started looking for lunch and no one wanted to Chinese (go figure), so we found this Italian place, Cha Cha's in Little Italy. Chinatown is slowly but surely engulfing Little Italy. | Jim, Allison & Jim trying to figure out what to order for lunch. |
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| Scene's from Chinatown, it is huge! | Duck anyone? (Photo by Allison) |
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| More China Town... (Photo by Allison) | China Town meets Little Italy... (you can see the restaurant sign where we at lunch down the road). (Photo by Allison) |
