Day 12 - Tram and Theatre

Today was a relatively low key day, but it was bitterly cold during the day (-6 deg's) but still with no snow.  We started off subwaying it over to the East side to catch the Tram over to Roosevelt Island.  When we got off  the subway we had a little bit of a stroll to get to the Tram and on the way we stumbled across Dylan's Candy Store. I kid you not, three levels of lollies, chocolates and the like. We bought these flavours to have a taste test, haven't cracked them yet, so can't comment, but bacon chocolate, who would have thunk it?

Nick trying to make his sweet selection

 

Sour Fart lollies available at Dylan's on any given day

 

Mack at the lower level of Dylan's

 

We then headed to the Tram ride, I use the term Tram loosely, as it is actually a cable car, it takes about 4 or 5 minutes to get across to Roosevelt Island and a lovely view is taken up and down the Avenues and the East river. In the 60's / 70's Roosevelt Island was developed for low cost housing.  It actually looks really quite modern, obviously had a facelift or two since inception.  Had everything you need there, subway (both train and food chain), supermarkets, nail and beauty salons, fire station, schools, parks, it's own bus system , mental hospital and heaps more.

 

This is Roosevelt island -It isn't massive, but I think houses around 10,000 residents.

 

This is the cable car taking off from NYC, we reckon it holds around 100 people.

 

When we finished at the Tram, we headed back to the subway through Bloomingdales and had a bit of a wander, Peter was looking for a party shirt but to no avail. But we did stumble across a display of the Beatles drum kit, apparently this was the real deal, so a photo op was begging with our resident budding drummer.

 



 

At times square we had some lunch and then Sue and I went to see "Motown the Musical" the story of Motown Records, it was really good and the singing was excellent. We left the theatre and it was arctic cold, we crossed the block and went into Junior's bar and restaurant, by this time it was 5pm, we were to meet Peter and the boys at 6.40pm at the theatre next door to see the Lion king. Junior's was packed to the rafters, at this point we were just happy to stand and wait with everyone else as it was warm and close to the next Theatre.  We were standing in the foyer area for about 5 min's when I heard the door bitch yell out "there are a couple of seats at the bar, 1st in 1st served", "That's us, We'll take it" I yelled back.

 

We had an hour and forty minutes to kill at the bar and neither of us really wanted much, just wanted to be indoors and warm. We ordered waters and sat on them, then ordered a slice of New York Cheese Cake to share and sat on that, then ordered a hot chocolate and sat on that, finally the 1 hour and 40 minutes passed and we went to meet the Duplex males.

 

Let me tell you, Lion King the theatre production was just excellent.  I walked out of Motown thinking how good that was, but the Lion King left Motown in it's dust.  I was sitting next to Nick and he was clapping with vigour and enthusiasm, he loved it.

 

 

Then it was back into the freezing cold and head back to the subway to come home.



Day 11 - Not so Jersey (Transit) Sure?

Today I cut away from the family and went my own way.  I had researched and found these wonderful outlet stores in New Jersey, called the "Jersey Gardens", all I had to do was catch the 111 bus from the Port Authority (42nd Street) and I get dropped right at the door, how simple is that?....  Before I delve into the logistical specifics let me tell you about the outlet mall.

It is on two levels, and is massive, I didn't even complete the whole thing as the queues at the checkouts started to piss me off, so I knew it was time to leave. Now I've not been to a whole heap of outlet malls but I was very impressed with the selection of stores and variety. There were massive savings to be had in the post Christmas sales.  The kicker is, in the state of New Jersey there is no tax on shoes and clothes - BINGO!! Overall I'd say Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall is a winner, however New Jersey Transit is not a winner. Now for the logistical specifics.

At the Port Authority the queues at New Jersey Transit to purchase your tickets from the person in the booth are just horrendous. Off in the distance I noticed a lonely 3, yes 3 hole in the wall ticket machines. I make my way to these machines and purchase my ticket. At this time it is about 11.28am, next bus 111 to JG is at 11.45am.  Brilliant I think, heaps of time for me to find my way to the platform.  So I make my way up the escalator to the platform and the platform is FULL, there is no where to stand except right at the top of the escalator so any one to come up behind me has no where to go (and there is no down escalator, only up). Yep they had to stand at the bottom of the escalator and wait there. Unreal.  One bus turns up, that fills up (by this point i'm no where near the front of the queue).  We wait a few more minutes, the next bus 111 turns up, that too fills up (nope, I'm not on that bus either). Luckily a third bus pulls up and I make it onto that bus.  Half and hour later I am at JG. 

Shopping, wandering etc....  3.50pm I head back to the bus pick up area, next bus is 4.10pm, brilliant I think, 20 minutes early, I'll be on that one. 

Oh no you won't white girl.....

3.50 pm is almost pitch dark, it's cold, it's pissing down with rain, queue is massive and no bus shelters in sight, just stand at the designated pick up point and wait.  And wait I did until 5.05 pm. Yep, 1 hour and 15 minutes in the dark, cold and rain. Two buses came and went before I reached the part of the queue that I would make it onto the next bus. There was no option to catch a cab, as none were coming by, so I had no choice but to wait with the wet masses for the bus. New Jersey Transit clearly know that hundreds of people are wanting to get back to Manhattan, why they don't put more buses on to cater for the demand is beyond me.

I didn't wear my waterproof boots today, so at this point my feet and legs are wet. Finally when I make it onto the bus I am plonked in the seat directly behind the doors that are halfway down the bus. With the traffic, this bus ride time is doubled, 1 hour from JG to Port Authority. That is 1 hour of freezing cold draft air coming in from the doors in front of me and hitting my wet legs and feet.

Getting off that bus and into the Subway, I have never been so happy to be in the dirty New York Subway cause it was toasty warm in comparison to that bus.  Oh yeah I forgot to mention there were clearly issues with the gears on the bus, but the old girl chugged away and limped into it's destination "Praise you, sweet Lord Jesus" (you are to imagine that said in black ghetto!!)

In summary:

Jersey Gardens Mall is excellent

New Jersey Transit is not

 

I don't have any photo's of Jersey Gardens but here is their web site if you wish to explore. www.jerseygardens.com

 

I didn't take a single photo today, so I will share this snap of me Mackenzie took of while I was waiting in a queue, I don't remember which queue it was, there have been so many!!

 

Day 10 - High times on the High Line

Today was a relatively low key day.  Peter and the boys started off doing the women's work today, bless their souls, they took all the washing off to the dry cleaners.  Only they submitted the washing half an hour late, so now we won't have our washing back until Monday evening.  Yep, my thermals are in that washing.  I'm not laying the blame on Peter here, I could have gone to the laundry which is just around the corner and to get my dirty garments to recycle them, but I had already worn those thermals 5 or more days solid (really, I've lost count), so I opted to leave them with the washing service.  Today was fractionally warmer at about 9 degree's, so with my 2 coats, 2 Lycra under tops, scarf, gloves and hat I was warm enough.  Tomorrow is meant to be around the same temp but rain is threatening. I think I shall be warm enough tomorrow, but god knows what the weather is doing on Monday.

On our street West 30th, a few blocks over is where the High Line Park starts, so we made our way over to it for a nice stroll.  The High Line Park is an elevated urban park.  It's not particularly wide as it is built on an old rail line.  The rail line used to carry freight and I understand it was left derelict for years.  Around 2009 it was made into this pretty cool urban park. We walked it from 30th Street to 12th Street, I think it went for a little longer, but we cut out here as we wanted to go to the Chelsea Markets.

Duplex lads sitting at one of the viewing areas at the High Line Park

This pier, with these original gates which are rusted to the hilt is viewed from the High Line. This is where the surviving passengers of the Titanic were bought to disembark after they had been rescued.

 

The only lawned area on the Highline (although the lawn is "Closed" during winter), with some funky architecture to the left.

We found this tiny pop up skating rink at the bottom of the High Line, they had these cute little penguins that the kids could glide around on while learning to skate.  I needed one of these penguins on Christmas day to help balance me at my ill fated skating attempt.

 

By this time I think we are on the cusp of Chelsea and the Meat Packing District (I think?). They were lovely old cobble stoned streets, with some quite upmarket fashion designers and stores in this area.  We sniffed out the Chelsea Markets, which would have been fabulous for a decent leisurely wander.  These markets seemed to have it all, shops with all sorts of wonderful gadgets and nick knacks, food and wine etc.  Once again it was just too crowded to appreciate, so you couldn't even zip off to have a quick squizz in a shop if something caught your eye.  And lunch, impossible to find a table for 6.  Next trip to New York when ever that may be will certainly entail a trip back to the Chelsea Market. (Chris & Shell, I'd suggest this place should be on your 'to do' list, hopefully the crowds will have died down by the time you arrive).

This was a Christmas decoration in the Chelsea Market, picture doesn't do it justice, it looked gorgeous.

We found a lovely little gourmet kebab place over the road and round the corner from the Market, they accommodated our table of 6 after they moved some other people, how's that for service, although I wouldn't have thought that to be great hospitality etiquette for the poor people that were moved.  None the less, we were totally chuffed!

From there, I cut out and caught the subway back to Penn Station as I wanted to go to the movies, but when I got to the cinema the movie I wanted to see wasn't on until another hour.  So I just flagged that idea and waked a couple of blocks home.  From lunch the family made their way over to the Union Square Markets, although Sue said they were nothing special, they then made their way home too. 

Peter and the boys headed back to the park for about half an hour to throw some hoops at the basket ball court before dark.

Tonight I am gladly home with the boys in the warmth, Pete and Sue have gone dancing at the Manhattan Ballroom. 

The New York Subway that we have been navigating.

Days 8 & 9 - Tony, the Tony Award Winning Tour Guide & Big Bird on the Brooklyn Bridge

DAY 8 - Tony, the Tony Award Winning Tour Guide

Today we were on the go relatively early and did the sub zero early morning walk to the Hudson River on 12th Ave & West 38th Street - Pier 78 to be exact. We decided to do a 90 minute cruise that went from mid town on the West side, was supposed to turn around at the United Nations Building on the East Side, but we did the "U'y" a bit before the UN building for some reason.

Our tour guides name was Tony.  Initially he struck me as a theatrical old queen. He was excellent in his knowledge and mostly kept every one captivated, although I did fall asleep, but it's nothing unusual for me to fall asleep on a boat, always have done, always will do.  Tony told us he went to some acting/theatrical school back in the day with Robert De Niro. Tony proceeded to tell us that De Niro dropped out and he went onto graduate. So drop out De Niro goes on to be one of the biggest actors in the world and graduate Tony goes onto be a tour guide on the NY water ways.  Something wrong with that equation. Poor Tony gets his audience from the Tourists hitting the Hudson.
(I thought I had a snap of Tony to share with you, but on searching through my photo's I don't - SORRY).

The sturdy "Henry Hudson" vessel that ferries us about Manhattan Island

 

View of Mid Town Manhattan (shame the sun isn't out)

 

View of Down Town Manhattan/Financial District.  That tall building is the Freedom tower, it is the new building that sits on the Twin Towers site. The actual tower itself with out the spire stands at the exact same height as the original Twin Towers stood at.

After the tour we went to the Landmark Tavern for Lunch, it the oldest Irish Tavern in New York and dates back to 1868.  I think the chef's may have dated back to 1868 as it took us FOREVER to get our meal and the presentation was quite 1980's style, but we were quite happy sitting in the warm cosy tavern whilst waiting.  As we were about to walk into the tavern, finally it snowed. But don't get too excited, it was just a teensy tiny bit of fall and not even any sight of snow when we came out of the Tavern, all very short lived.
 

Peter & Nick out front of the "Landmark"

 

Peter's nice plate of Bangers & Mash.  Check out that presentation, you'd be eliminated from Master Chef if you served that up to George, Garry & Matt.

After lunch we took the one block walk over to the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space museum. I had been there in 2009 with Allister and with all my layers on, couldn't be bothered trying to navigate my way around the spine of the ship, I opted to hit the Space part instead, this had been added since 2009.  It houses the NASA space shuttle Enterprise. The shuttle is size able, but smaller than I imagined.  Once I finished there, I headed to the cafe area in the ship and waited for the family.  I was in my element, I took my backpack off, laid it on the table and used it as a pillow. I had quite the sleep while I was waiting for the family.  I am stoked I had that but of shut eye, cause with was to follow I needed all my energy....

Boys out front of the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space museum

 

 Boys on the deck of the "Intrepid"

 

Space shuttle Enterprise as it arrives in NYC piggy backed in on a 747.

 

 Space Shuttle Enterprise, where she now rests.

After the Intrepid, we strided up W46th Street from 12th Ave to 5th Ave.  Then from E46th to E34th to the Empire State Building, let me tell you it was freezing and the queue was even worse than the cold. Long story short, we lined up for 1 lousy hour and 40 poxy minutes before we got to the observation deck. When we hit the deck it was dark and it was even colder on the 86th floor of the ESB than it was on the ground (although no surprises there).  Sue, Nick & myself caught a cab home after the viewing, the Duplex hero men walked home, show offs!

View of the Chrysler Building from top od Empire State Building

 

Peter & Sue with the Chrysler Building just to the left of Peter.

DAY 9 - Big Bird on the Brooklyn Bridge

After a good night of rest (and yes my bed bug still continues to steal the doona) we subway'd it over to Brooklyn, had a bit of a wander around the suburb of Dumbo before walking over the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Yes we all know the views of the bridge are spectacular and iconic, but I saw the best sight of all.  I like to call him Big Bird.  He was one true hipster with the outfit ensemble to boot, matching sunnies and all. I'm sure you can picture the swagger that was going on.  I think he was lost and was looking for Mr Snuffeluffegus (is that how it's spelt?) and Sesame Street gang!

 

Duplex lads on the Brooklyn Bridge

 

 Yep, another fake selfie - Thankyou Mackenzie

 

 

From Brooklyn Bridge, we made our way down to China Town and had lunch at an authentic (or so we thought) Chinese restaurant.  The men who worked there were rude, but they didn't care, they were getting the tourist dollar.  As we were such a large party we were shoved down the back of the restaurant near the kitchen.  We ordered some dumplings and pork buns for starters, we were commenting on how nice they were when they arrived.  Imagine how disappointed I was when I saw the freezer in the kitchen open up and there they were.... frozen commercially packaged bags of dumplings and pork buns. Nothing authentic about that.

 

Nick with his non-authentic massive bowl of noodles

 

 

Erica - I took this photo just for you. See, you've trained me well, I'll still always sniff out a fish market!!

 

From China Town we wandered about down town and in through Soho.  Mackenzie was on the search for Dube juggling store, he had purchased things from them online before, although no purchase was made this time.  Just as well Mack made it into to Dube to at least have a look cause after 23 years of trading in the same location, they are about to close down on 6th Jan.  Then we found Washington Park and headed for the Subway home.

 

When we got back to the apartment, Sue and I headed off to do the women's work, grocery shopping.  The guys went off to do the men's work, ball games in the park. (Also something wrong with that equation).  As Sue and I were going back to the apartment with our groceries, I passed a 'SPA' which was just around the corner.  So I delivered the groceries back to the apartment with Sue, de-layered my clothing, changed my shoes and hot footed it back to that 'SPA'. 

 

I use the term 'SPA' loosely, it is really just one of those illegal immigrant nail salon's.  It was clean, warm and I was stoked to see an auto clave, so I knew there was at least some element of hygiene. Sophia tended to my massage needs, 30 minutes on the feet and 30 minutes on the back.  I was in massage heaven for that one hour, Sophia was pretty darn good, so hopefully the massage effects will last a few days for me.  And there it is, day 9 done!

Romance v Reality

As I had been to New York before, I had envisaged these wonderful wintry gems that would be great fun to do with my nephews.  Things like top of Empire State and the Rockefeller Centre, the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, Times Square, Ice Skating, mucking about in Central Park and the like, these were the beautiful visions I'll call the romance.

The reality is:
The joint is packed EVERYWHERE you go because of all the tourists, it is freezing bloody cold and no matter how many layers you pile on you're still always cold, your feet get sore from all the walking, you get sick of taking coats, gloves, hats on and off all the time.  Boy's couldn't even get into the M&M's shop in Times Square because of the queue.

Don't get me wrong I am totally over the moon to be here doing this, but never in the 2 and bit years of planning did I think of the reality, it was all the lovely beautiful visions I had in my mind and how simple it was all going to be.

Penguin

I bought two sets of merino wool thermals with me, thinking I would wear one pair a day.  Oh no, I'm wearing both sets of thermals under my clothes. Seriously I feel like the Michelin man and my movement is restricted from all the layers.

My nephews have even nick named me "Penguin" as I am teetering about like a penguin as I can't move properly cause of the layers.

I did splurge before leaving Australia and bought some Alpine Socks from Mountain Designs, I think they were about 40 bucks a pair, but I'm telling you, they were worth every penny, my feet, have never once been cold.  Best money I ever spent.

Day 7.2 - Christmas Arvo at 'MSG'

Hazza and I had tickets to see the New York Knicks play at Madison Square Garden today.  Hazza, the avid basket baller and follower was far more engrossed in all the game proceedings than I was until the Celeb Cam came to life. (These celebs were seated about 50 metres from us, and we had a pretty good view of them)

First celeb they showed was the Oscar winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  So he's giving a wave and a smile etc, etc. and who should I notice sitting behind him, giving a big ole cheesy smile in the back ground, none other than Australia's renowned 'girl about town' (see, I've used the nice terminology for her), Lara Bingle.  She was there with current squeeze, Avatar actor and Rockingham's own Sam Worthington.

Sitting next to Phillip Seymour Hoffman was his son.  But sitting next to the son was Adrian Grenier and Jerry Ferrara from 'Entourage', aka (Vinnie Chase and Turtle).  Entourage would have to be one of my all time favourite shows, so I was pretty chuffed to be in the same venue as them.  If it's good enough for Vinnie Chase, it's good enough for me.

They also showed some Model, who was stunning but I had no idea who she was, some NBA player and some other actor, once again no idea of either.  Sam Worthington, while he was sitting in Celebrity Row he never made it up onto the big screen.  I reckon Lara would have been pissed about that.

Now let me tell you about my observations of Lara Bingle.  All she did for the ENTIRE game was play with her hair or rest her head on Sam's shoulder. Now and again the phone would come out, but that never lasted too long, it was back to hair fixing and shoulder resting. And obviously all I did for the ENTIRE game was watch her!!

So yes, I did see some basketball, but I was far more interested in watching the shenanigans of Celebrity Row. Snap is a bit grainy cause of the zoom, but here are the main players in my basketball game outing!! Look closely.

 

By the way, the Knicks were thrashed by Oklahoma (see I do know the final outcome!!!)

 

Day 7.1 - Christmas Day Antics

Merry Christmas to all of you and yours (even though it is now Boxing Day in Australia).


We woke up to a pristine, brisk, clear -6 degree day, but still no snow in sight. Whoa, she's cold alright.

 

Duplex Lads on the way to the subway at the start of the days outing.

No pressies this year for each other, so we had some breakfast and headed out for the day.  We caught the subway up to Columbus Circle and hopped off at W59.  Made our way across the bottom of central park on foot over to 5th Ave and briskly walked til we found the ice skating rink in Central Park.  Nick, Mack and myself gave it a red hot go.  Well the boys gave it a red hot go.  I had two pretty hard stacks in the first 3 minutes, so I did one loop, holding onto the edge/railing for grim death and then got off.

 

 

(boys in Central Park with a NYPD 3 wheel tuff mobile as made famous by Hamish and Andy during their New York Gap Year in 2011)

 

Pretty Central Park view of lake and bridge.

 

After the skating we hot footed it back through Central Park over to the West Side again and ducked into the infamous Empire Hotel, as luck would have it, at the bottom of the hotel was this relatively hoity toity restaurant called Ed's Chowder House, which is where we had Christmas Lunch. This place was really nice and not overly overpriced.  We were all happy with this find.

Hazza and I cut out from lunch as we had a hot date at Madison Square Garden to watch the New York Knicks play. But that is worth a whole other post of it's own.

Day 6 - "Where's Sammy at?"

  ** CHRISTMAS EVE 24.12.2013 **

 

 

Today we ventured out early, destined for a "Harlem Spiritual Tour".  We met the bus at 42nd street along with every other tourist in Manhattan and made our way up to Harlem via the West side.  Alvin was our guide and he was very knowledgeable and even a little comedic at times.  Paul was our driver and very good.  However by then end of it, I thought Alvin & Paul were going to have words as Alvin wasn't happy with the route Paul was taking.

We drove about Harlem for a bit seeing the sights and then we stopped at a Baptist church to catch "a show" (We weren't allowed to take photos).  Don't get me wrong the gospel singing and happy clappy was absolutely fabulous and something we'd never experienced before. However, I was sitting behind where the "service leader" would talk to her helper and was privy to some of her comments which the "audience/congregation" weren't meant to hear, which lead me to think that perhaps the service wasn't as spiritually authentic as it was made out to be. Hmmmm.

 

 

There was a whole lot of "praise the Lord" "Hallelujah" and "God Bless" going on. Then came the "Show" portion of the service.  The choir strolls out and take their places, it seemed to be completely unorganised chaos. This entire choir are recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, so they all had reason to praise the lord for their new good fortune.  Each solo singer just got better and better, finally they were trying to decide who was to sing their finale.  What some black woman from upstairs yells out "Where's Sammy at?"  So Sammy makes his way to the front, big black dude, long dreads, and a full on hobble due to his recent hip replacement.  He sang one song which was just divine and then he sung "Oh Happy Day" as his finale.  People got pulled up to the front to sing and once again Nick was called up.  So "White Chocolate" lives again.

 

 

After this we head back to mid town for a spot of lunch and then navigated our way over to Rockefeller Centre so we can hit the Top of The Rock viewing decks, the views are just spectacular.  We stayed up in the freezing cold so the boys could take a Go Pro time lapse movie of the Manhattan skyline, so I'm going to be looking forward to seeing that one once completed.

 

After that we subway'd it to our area and we grabbed some dinner at a local Irish pub. And now here I am blogging.

 

It's freezing cold here at the moment, I think snow is looming.  Today in NYC it's still Christmas Eve, but I know in OZ it's Christmas day, so a big merry New York Christmas to you and yours and I trust that Santa beings you everything you have wished for.

 

As you are invested in the blog now, you'll all be glad to know that the toilet in the new apartment is STILL fully functional - Praise the Lord!!!



Day 5 - Moving on up, Moving on out....

Today we moved apartments, and thank goodness, cause frankly another 24 hours without adequate ablutions would just be too much to handle.  This new apartment is the personal apartment of the guy who had rented us the other, he has gone travelling today and moved us into his 'penthouse'.  Don't get me wrong this one is far more spacious, modern and comfortable but probably still not 'penthouse' as to what we'd expect a penthouse to be. But hey, we have beds, central heating, TV, Wifi and an OPERATIONAL TOILET what more could one want?

The day started off with packing up all our belongings, and sorting out our washing.  The laundry was 5 blocks from the old apartment and round the corner from the new apartment. So in we traipse with our 34 pounds of washing at $1 a pound, how could one resist.  We dropped it off at 9am and picked it up all cleaned,  pressed and folded at 5pm, how is that for service? I wish we had a Chinese laundry service next to our house in the 'Gee'.

After dropping our laundry we subway'd it up to 42nd Street and headed to one location with some exhibits.  We all chose different exhibits to see.  Sue & Hazza saw bodies (I think was the pick of them), Peter & Nick saw a Lego exhibit (apparently this was very good), Mack & I saw a pirates and shipwrecks exhibit (very average).

After that we hot footed it via the subway up to the Bronx for a Yankee Stadium Tour. This was quite interesting and I got told off twice for using my flash on my camera. nothing like living on the wrong side of the law! Peter and Sue had to leave the tour early to go do the final apartment move, so after the tour, the boys and I navigated the NYC subway from the Bronx to our new apartment on west 30th Street.  We did make a small stuff up, but worked our way out of it.

Peter and Sue have gone to a Jazz Club and soul food tour up in Harlem tonight.  The boys and I are hanging in the apartment and the boys have each washed their hair tonight (I gather that normally this is a chore they don't enjoy doing).

 

P.S. I hear that tomorrow there may be a possibility of snow.  (It lightly rained all day today)