Wind Song Journey

Tuesday - Jerry and I took the PATH train from Jersey City to Manhattan. Only $4 round trip got us to 33rd Street. From there we walked to Times Square. Overwhelming.

It was lunchtime. Decided on Roxy's Deli. Saw the prices and thought about moving on. But didn't. Jerry and I usually split so ordered a corned beef sandwich. It was a pound of meat. The server taking our order said there is a fee for splitting but if we ordered a side, it would be waived. The sides were the same price as splitting. It was quite a sandwich.

After lunch, it had started raining.

That's me in the yellow rain jacket looking so touristy and mid-western.

We just started walking, with no particular place in mind.

To get out of the rain, we slipped into Macy's. Eight floors and two buildings of Macy's. Hard to imagine the size of this place. Took the old escalators up all eight floors. We did buy something but ended up picking the wrong size so had to return it to the Macy's in Jersey City the next day.

Had enough of NYC for one day so headed back to the PATH train and the boat.

So I haven't mentioned the marina. Newport Yacht Club and Marina is on the Hudson. Ferry boats and Statue Cruise boats and cruise liners and container ships are passing by all day long. There is a seawall but doesn't seem to provide much protection from wave action. Had read that it would be rockin and rollin but had no idea how much. The boat rocked starting at 6am and didn't stop until after 8pm. Not gentle rocks, but violent jerking. As long as you held on, it was OK and there were breaks in between when the boats weren't passing by but you had to be aware that it would, in fact, happen and could knock you over if you weren't expecting it. We got used to it but were concerned our company might have difficulty with the swaying and jerking of the boat. But the view from the boat was spectacular.

The Empire State Building off the bow of Wind Song.

Wednesday - walked to Home Depot only a few blocks from the marina. The cleaning process begins. Worked most of the afternoon. Jerry was in the engine room working on stuff. Weather was amazingly perfect. Temps in the 70s during the day and high 50s at night.

We've had flowers on the boat lately and it has been so nice. I really enjoy fresh flowers.

It's so easy for things to get cluttered living in small quarters. Jerry had to take pictures of the clean boat. The boat windows are open most of the time so dust is everywhere. I certainly don't keep up with it so when I deep clean, vacuum, the whole works, it shows.

Thursday - Hung out on the boat today. Kendell (Jerry's son) and Pearl (significant other) arrived for dinner. They had a car and were leaving for Maryland Friday to visit friends. Would be back Sunday. So good to see them both.

Friday - Kendell and Pearl left in the morning. Trudy (Jerry's daughter) and her family, Joe, Grace, Dylan and Rose, arrived about lunchtime. We had a quick lunch then walked to the PATH, destination the High Line in NYC. Jerry and I heard about it from a woman we talked to on Tuesday when we were in the City. She encouraged us to visit. We thought it would be a fun trip with Trudy, Joe and the kids so left that until they arrived. They had heard about it from friends in St. Louis so must be the place to be.

The High Line Park is an aerial greenway. It is built on a section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad. Currently, High Line Park runs from the Meatpacking District through the neighborhood of Chelsea. It is lovely.

If you look closely, you can see the old tracks. The park landscape include naturalized plantings that grew on the disused tracks.

Grace taking in the sites from the park.

Looking out from the High Line over unfinished rails.

Fascinating architecture of NYC

Watching from the High Line rail as the finishing touches are being applied to this incredible wall mural.

The Moon's at the High Line! Rose is taking advantage of the park bench and her dad's lap.

So from here we walked to Times Square. We passed Madison Square Gardens, Radio City Music Hall and one of these quirky elevator type car garages. There were several of these in midtown.

I tried to find something about these parking garages on-line but the only things that came up were much more futuristic than this.

Walking in New York City on a Friday afternoon was challenging. Times Square was much busier today than when Jerry and I had visited Tuesday.

Back to Jersey City, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner before going back to the boat. Some beautiful sites from the boat.

The new World Trade Center looms over the other buildings on the cityscape. It is unfinished at this time.

Of course, the Empire State Building, a familiar site of the New York skyline.

Another view. The large brick building in the foreground is the ventilation building for the Holland Tunnel just across from marina.

So we had 7 people on the boat. Where did they all sleep you might ask. Well, it worked out great. Trudy and Joe slept in the forward stateroom, Jerry and I slept in our stateroom and the 3 kids, Grace, Dylan and Rose slept on the bridge. We offered the dinette which converts to a bed and the salon sofa, but they all jumped at the opportunity to sleep up top. They loved it.

Saturday - A Wind Song trip to the Statue of Liberty and around Manhattan Island. But first, a cute happening on the dock. A few of us were sitting on the sundeck this morning before 8am. I noticed a female duck up on the dock across from us. There was a sailboat there with 3 steps going to the boat. The duck got up on something behind the steps first, then quacked. She then hopped onto the boat and quacked again. Finally, she waddled over to the hatch and quacked. Eventually, the lady of the sailboat, came out, scooped something out of the container behind the steps and threw it out into the water to the female duck and drake. Obviously, this wasn't the ducks first time here.

Zoom in on this picture and you can see the duck on the rail of the boat

And here she is feeding her friends. She told us she has lived on this boat at this marina for 12 years. She has been feeding this female duck for several years now. Buys special floating food for the ducks and geese. BTW, she has a cat on the boat too.

One of the many tour boats cruising around the statue this morning.

Staten Island Ferry racing across the Hudson.

Going under the Brooklyn Bridge on the East River.

Dylan spies someone taking his picture. He and Rose spent most of the trip on the bow of the boat.

Cruising along the Harlem River

Recycling tires as fenders for these piers.

Had to wait for the train to pass so the bridge could swing open for us and a few other boats. As we passed through this bridge we are back on the Hudson River

Another interesting building.

Surprised us all passing the orbiter Space Shuttle Enterprise sitting on an aircraft carrier and a Concord SST next to it

Just a cool picture with so much stuff going on as we passed by.

A unique version of golfing on the Hudson. We had seen the tall netting from the High Line and couldn't figure out what it was. It's a driving range. At least three levels.

Returned to marina. Still rocking but the ferry traffic had settled down mostly by this time. We made a huge salad for dinner. As Trudy and I were chopping, I looked out the window of the galley. I saw a milk crate from Guernsey on the boat next to us. It prompted me to tell Trudy about the wonderful couple we had met from there. The boat rocked and I could see the name of the boat, Hurah. Our friends, Angie and David were docked next to us. Unbelievable that we would end up in the same marina after our travels and theirs. The last time we had seen them they were driving to New York from Charleston then home to Guernsey for a month. They had friends aboard as did we so didn't visit long. So good to see them.

Sunday - Happy Father's Day! So great having kids together today.

We are off to Central Park.

David and Angie on Hurah taking off for a few days.

. We took the PATH train to 33rd Street then walked to Central Park at 57th Street. Beautiful green in the middle of chaos

We are standing next to a grove of American Elms in Central Park. Gone from neighborhoods around the country, victims of Dutch Elm disease, but the Central Park Elms are isolated from contamination and are closely watched by the gardeners of Central Park Conservancy. They now form one of the largest remaining plantations of elm trees.

Bethesda Terrace and fountain

Radio-powered sailboats in Central Park's Conservatory Wate

Everyone was getting hungry and Dylan requested street food. Trudy found a vendor with high marks on Yelp and it was on the way back to the PATH train. We walked along 5th Avenue, saw the remarkable homes and apartment buildings as well as the designer retail stores. And again, the streets were full of people. Being from Kansas, I just can't get over the number of people living, working and shopping in New York City

This is the place. Gyros or platters. This is the line for this place and it was constant but moved along quite fast. It was kind of funny, they ask if it's for here or to go. If it's to go, they will give you a bag, if not, you just carry your food to the nearest step or curb.

We all found a place to sit and enjoyed the wonderful chicken and lamb with the "white sauce" that according to someone on Yelp "is as additive as crack". Great food, everyone was full.