I (heart) NY

I’m writing this installment of my blog from the comfort of my friend’s study on Long Island in New York State. As noted in the last blog, I arrived via the ferry and got to Pat’s house about 7:15pm. After decompressing for a few minutes (and showering!) we headed out to one of his favorite haunts for dinner. And what a meal it was: lots of excellent food and drink and a chance to catch up with Pat, whom I hadn’t seen for several months. We loosely scheduled out the next three days of my visit, starting with a daylong sight-seeing tour of New York City on Friday.
We checked on a few train schedules and set a plan to leave the next morning at 5am and take the train with all of the commuters into Penn Station. From there we decided to hit the Statue of Liberty first since it would have the longest lines later in the day. (Pat’s been tour guide for a number of his friends’ visits, so he knows the ropes.) Arriving at the dock around 8am we were able to get on the first ferry and procure the free passes to enter the statue itself. (You can only go into the pedestal area; since 9/11 they no longer let people climb the spiral staircase into her head.) Security was extremely tight and it took us over 2 hours to get through the lines and see the museum in the pedestal. It was interesting and the statue certainly provokes certain emotions, but I’m not sure it was worth the hassle. [Editorial and perhaps somewhat controversial comment: as one lady noted, maybe the terrorists have already won…or maybe we need to be less restrictive. Yes, they could blow the Statue of Liberty to bits, but since it’s just a symbol, would that really make America any less America? Aren’t we, as a people, more pragmatic than that? Isn’t symbolism (and making symbolic statements) really mostly important to the religious extremists?]
Anyway, I left a bit frustrated, deciding that I didn’t have time to spend on Ellis Island and get the rest of New York City covered. So as the boat stopped to let people off at Ellis, I jumped off, stuck a toe onto it, and got right back on the ferry. We wanted to head over to Ground Zero, which we did (lots of construction on the new office building / monument) and grab lunch at Chevy’s, where we had Mexican food served in New York City by a waitress from West Africa (Gambia). The world is getting smaller!
We grabbed a subway to head up to the Empire State building, the first of many subway trips as we spent the day whizzing around NYC (literally – but that’s another story). The security lines were nearly as long as at the Statue of Liberty. I asked about going up the stairwell – I really wanted to climb the whole thing - but was told in no uncertain terms that the stairwell was closed to the public except for one day a year – otherwise they would need to post security at every single floor “to check people for explosives”. As I say, maybe the terrorists have already claimed a victory…
The view from the top WAS stunning and Pat pointed out various landmarks, including Rockefeller Plaza, where were going next, and St Patrick’s cathedral and Central Park. We explored each of these and then took the subway out to Yankee Stadium. Being a lifelong baseball fan, I’d always wanted to see it, although unfortunately the Yankees weren’t in town. I got a pretty good photo of the front of the stadium anyway. Another subway ride took us to dinner at a TGIF in Manhattan. After dinner we were able to walk to Times Square and see it in the dark – looks a little like Las Vegas with all of the lights and video screens. Walking back down to Penn Station we snagged an ice cream and waited for the train back up to Long Island. It was a long day as we got back to Pat’s house after midnight, having logged over 31,000 steps, which equates to at least 13 miles of walking.
Despite his exhaustion, Pat had an obligation to be at a friend’s house at 2am to put a whole pig on a rotating spit so it could cook in time for the big party and pig roast scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I stayed home and slept and then got up in the morning to do an hour of hiking in the green belt behind Pat’s house. This pine barrens area is managed by the Nature Conservancy and covers a pretty good chunk of Long Island in that region. I saw lots of evidence of deer and skunk but no actual fauna.
We ran a couple of errands associated with the party and then I spent much of the afternoon cleaning out the Prius in preparation for it being ‘in storage’ in Pat’s garage while I fly back to California for 10 days. I set the sleeping bag out to be aired out and the ice chest as well. I think I’ve got the car in good clean organized shape for me to start the second leg of my journey when I fly back on September 6…
The pig roast was a blast and I met a lot of new people. Won some horseshoes, lost some volleyball, and ate ‘til I nearly got sick. Tomorrow we plan to visit the ‘other’ tip of Long Island, not the one I ferried in to, and then take a friend’s boat out in the afternoon and evening for some exploration around the island waterways. I’ll post this now, since I have a connection, and then write how that went. Have a great day everyone!