MY NYC Vacation Journal

So with my "New York guide" as pictured above, my trip began.
Ok, so alot of this will probably be very boring but for me it was another exciting adventure and one that, for me, was one of the most pleasurable and satisfying trips that I have taken in the last couple years.

Following my travel journal (below), I will be trying to post some of the many photos I snapped while out East. I also took quite a bit of video and still have to figure out a way to put some of that on the web. In the mean time I am having the video footage transfered to DVD so it will be easier to put the footage on the web when I figure out how to do that.

Some of my friends will probably have read some of the things that I have written already but I know I have a few people who I didnt get a chance to email while I was out there and there are also some things I did which I didnt include in my emails.
On to my trip...................
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Day one-Friday the 28th of October

Robyn (my traveling buddy) and I started out from Racine around 2pm and due to that delay, we ended up running into Chicago rush hour traffic. By the time we got to the middle of Ohio, we realised that we should probably stop and rest for the evening (as we both had only slept for about 3 hours the night before) and start out in the early morning and try to get to Saratoga Springs by 3PM which would leave very little time for me to catch my train to NYC.
I had to call Amtrak and get a different train as my original one was supossed to leave Saratoga Springs at 1235PM that saturday. The folks at the Amtrak number were very cool and found me another train that was leaving a little later in the afternoon which gave us more time to get to our destination which was to be Robyn's new home.

The following is a blurb from an email I sent to a few friends once we got to Cleaveland late friday evening:
In Cleaveland right now. staying at a Marriott. Its 1154pm eastern time...running a little late becuase my driver out to NY State ran late...so we are staying overnight and starting out again in the morning....had to call Amtrak and ask them if they could get me on a later train as there is no way we will be out there by 1230pm saturday...so I am now taking the 330pm train out of Saratoga Springs and arriving in New York around 737pm.......but as the trains are now 3 hours later, it will be 3 hours more for me to get to Comn. and I will probably miss dinner with my friends in Shelton. Oh well.

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Day two-Saturday the 29th of October

Robyn and I got on the road about 630AM and though it was a bit cloudy, it was overall a nice traveling day. Lots of fall colors and we made pretty good time, allowing for potty breaks and coffee and a few stops for gas and breakfast. We made it through the rest of Ohio, were in Penn. for approx. 20 minutes on our way into New York state and I have to tell you that New York interstates were very pretty and scenic. The fall colors just added to the drive in such a positive way. And Robyn was so cool to drive with.

We got into Saratoga Springs with barely 10 minutes to get me to the train station. Wow, what a very cool little town. Outdoor cafes, shops, old buildings and tons of amazing mansions that are just too majestic to even describe. We pulled up at her friend's (Phillip) house and she jumped out, I gave her a hug, she said hi and by to Phillip and he rushed me to the Amtrak station. It was with 5 minutes to spare that I got to the ticket window and the agent said that the train had been delayed by about 30 minutes. Holy wow!! How lucky was that?? So I called Robyn to thank her while I was waiting for the train to arrive and then I decided to walk around the station and take a few pictures when who comes driving up the road but....Robyn and Phillip!! They had gotten my call and then found a box of cookies that my dad had baked for me which I left in her truck. They came to the train station to give me my cookies!! How sweet. They hung out with me on the platform for a few minutes and then another goodbye and then the train pulled up.

So I hopped on the "Adirondak" which got me to NYC around 730pm. After getting off the train at Penn station and then making my way over to the Subway to get over to Grand Central Station (which took me the better part of an hour with the help of a very nice young New Yorker who just happened to be going my way) I picked up my train ticket to Shelton on the "Metro North line" which was leaving at 935pm, I decided to take a walk outside and kill some time and as I walked out the door of the station, I was right on 42nd and Lexington Ave and NYC was staring me right in the face. I walked up the street, found a place to grab a quick bite and got back to the train station with a few minutes to spare. I really wasnt even hungry but I knew I had to eat something as there probably wouldnt be too much open by the time I got to Shelton.

As I got on the train heading up to Conn., I was putting my suitcase on my seat and heard a girl across the asileway say "Your smoking!" and I looked back and I was indeed SMOKING!!! My camera bag was SMOLDERING! It seems someone had threw a ciggerette butt into my bag (how I do not know!!) so there I am on the train, my bag is smoldering and filling the car with smoke and I am trying to put out the smoke by grabbing the butt inside my bag and pressing it in the palm of my hands!! Everyone is laughing and I made my first impression on my travel mates in a most unusual way!! I pulled out my camcorder and video taped my departutre on that train, making sure to catch my "savior" who alerted me to my earlier "smoking problem" on tape. The above really DID happen!!!

I got into a train station in Stamford around 1145pm where my friend Jasmine picked me up and whisked me off the hotel in Shelton where I spent the evening. Jason (her boyfriend) was MOD that evening and once we got to the hotel, he gave me the 10 cent tour and I then retired to a very nice suite they set up for me. Before going to bed, I took my video camera and did a video tour of the hotel so everyone back home could see where two of our past coworkers were now working. That Courtyard is a pretty spectacular property. Totally remodeled from top to bottom. Pretty impressive.

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Day three-Sunday, the 30th 0f October

I got up around 830AM and met Jasmine down in the restaurant around 10AM for breakfast. Jason was working so it was just us for breakfast though he did say hi and we talked for a few minutes. After breakfast, Jasmine took me on a little field trip of her part of Conn. First stop was to our corporate headquarters which are just around the corner from the hotel. We then drove over to their place so she could feed her cat and so I could see their place and then she asked me if I wanted to go to "Yale". Hmm....I thought, man I cant afford it! (That is a joke). So we drove about 20 minutes to New Haven and spent an hour or so walking around the "Yale University Campus". I took some pictures of some pretty cool old buildings and of the downtown area and also some video and then she took me down the shore of "Long Island Sound" in New Haven. We walked along the shore and picked up some shells and just enjoyed the wonderful sunny fall day in Conn.

After that, she took me up above New Haven to a state park that overlooks the city and the sound. What views!! The colors of the trees and the harbor in the distance and hills all around. It was pretty amazing. We spent a bit of time just wondering around and I took quite a few pictures and some video and then we drove back down and she got me to the train station in Stamford with just a minute to spare. and that was around 310pm. My train was actually pulling up to the platform of the station as I was getting out of her truck. I said goodbye and gave her a big hug and hopped on my train to get me back to NYC.
What a day.......




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Sunday evening, the 30th of Ocotber

Once I got back into NYC around 430pm, I walked around Grand Central for an hour or so and then I managed to grab a cab over to my hotel in Brooklyn. Grabbing a cab isnt as easy as they make it seem. I was on the wrong side of the street and a few drivers said I needed to be on the opposite side and then a few rude people decided that they would "butt" in front of me in the "que" to get a ride. That was an interesting concept in and by itself....

I got to the Marriott on the Brooklyn Bridge early evening and after checking in and realising I was put on "the 7th floor, which was the Concigere level-how cool", I decided to relax for a bit and went down to the bar at the hotel. I had a few beers and conversed with a very cool "Irish" bartender and ended up talking to another guy (Brian) who was staying there.

I was thinking about just staying in the hotel and just relaxing for the evening and having dinner there but as I was talking and looking at the menus, The bartender mentioned some street just around the corner from the hotel where there were alot of restaurants and little shops and stores and an area called the "Promanade" which overlooks the East River and the lights of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge.

So after an hour or so, I left the hotel and decided to spend the evening walking around that area of Brooklyn.
I stumbled upon a cute little street called "Cort St" and it was just a perfect evening. There was cute little restaurants, deli's, bookstores, benches on the streets, townhouses with big "stoop" type porches...a wonderful neighborhood. They even had a Barns and Noble bookstore!! (I took some video) and then I came upon a very cool looking restaurant and I walked in to check it out. It turned out to be a Japeneese restaurant. I had never ate Japaneese food so I decided to try it. Suffice to say I didnt like it, but it was an experience all the same. (Note to self...no Sushi ever again!!).

After I left there, I was walking down the street and I stopped at a Starbucks to get a coffee and as I came out of the store, I was doing some video taping and who comes into my feild of vision?? The guy (Brian) who I had met a few hours earlier at the hotel!!
We ended up walking down to the "Promendade of Brooklyn Heights" together and I got some very cook views of the nighttime skyline (also some video of that) and then we decided to look for a bar to grab a beer or something together.

We stumbled upon an Irish Pub and had a few beers, ended up getting "befriended" by a local drunk, who decided we were his buddies and he bought us a few beers and pestered us the rest of the night, I had a very good and big pub burger and on the way out of the bar aftetr 2am in the morning, we were trying to pay our bar tab which was pretty enourmous and the bartender said it was all taken care of my our resident drunk friend...it was only then that we realised that "Terry" was one of the owners of the place!! How funny. "Eimens Irish Pub" and Terry the owner made my first night back in the city a very awesome evening indeed.

It was well past 2AM by the time we got back to the hotel and I said goodnight to my new friend and fell asleep in the most comfy bed imaginable after having read a little bit of some guide books and making some "plans" on what to do in the morning....
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Day four-Monday, the 31st of October-Halloween

I woke up a little later than I had anticipated, and made my way to the Concierge lounge" and got some coffee and a little breakfast. It was looking to be a wonderful day. The sun was out and it was in the low 60's already. So it was probably just after 10AM when I walked out of the hotel and started my day by walking to Manhattan from Brooklyn, via the Brooklyn bridge! What a way to come into the city. I reccomend it to anyone and everyone as a must do!!

As I walked across the bridge, my senses started to become overwelmed by the sheer enormity of what I have only seen in movies and tv up to this point in my life. The views of the skyscrapers, the bridge itself, the other bridge to the right of me, the people walking, biking and running across, the blue sky with just a few whispy clouds, helicopters and planes flying over head and in the distance, the Statue of Liberty, and the sun hitting the Manhattan skykine...it was just like the "guide book" said and more. I managed to get a few photos and some video of that experience. A nice german couple took a picture of me on the bridge with a view of the Manhattan skykine as the background and then I continued my walk across and into Manhattan. There are many benches along the way on the bridge where you can sit and rest and I did that a few times. It took me just over 30 minutes to get across, but as I had mentioned in my video, I probably could have spent the entire day staring at all there was to see from the bridge. To the left was that Lower Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island and then to the right was the center of Manhattan, which was still shrouded in bit of what I can only describe as "smog" and if one looked really hard into the distance, you could make out the Empire State building.
The closer I got to Manhattan, the bigger everything got and it was just so cool.

I came off the bridge and right onto what I think was the "Financial center" area of Manhattan and it was just beginning to be the start of the lunch hour (11AM or so) and though there were not as many people as I thought there would be at that hour of the day, they soon started emptying out of the buildings and onto the streets. One of the first buildings I saw was a very cool looking colonial type structure. It was white with big steps and looked pretty majestic....I wondered what it was. It was gated with a big driveway and a booth with police at the entrance. I asked a passerby and he said it was "City Hall". There were TV crews massing inside the grounds so I stood and watched for a few minutes from the street. A few seconds later, the mayor of NYC walked out of the building and started talking to some people on the steps. Unfort. I didnt get a very good view of him but it was cool all the same to just catch a glimpse of one of the richest billionare mayors of the world (Michael Bloomberg I think is his name).

I was then walking up the street, trying to find my bearings and I was trying to figure out how to get to the South Shore Sea Port to pick up my "City pass" to view all of the attractions, when I came upon one of those "double decker open air red tour buses". I stopped to ask what it was all about and she explained that for 75.00, I could "take a tour of the entire island, hop on and off at will, and get some passes to most of the attractions I wanted to see" so I decided to hop on the red bus.....and away I went.
I sat at the back of the bus on top, the wind and sun on my face and though there was so much to see everywhere I looked, I feel it was a very neat way to get a "taste" of this humongous city. I took alot of pictures, got quite a bit of video, learned alot about the city and various landmarks from listening to the tour guide and had some of the nicest views of some of the coolest parts of Manhattan. We went past Wall Street and Battery Park and then the Sea Port and the docks, came up into the lower east side via China town and Little Italy and then came upon the "United Nations Buildings" and up through central Manhattan and the shopping districts and Times Square. It was totally "numbing" to be seeing all the things I have seen in different movies and tv shows throughout my entire life. We passed Rockefeller Center where I saw the "ice skating rink and the golden sculpture, the NBC building, Radio City Music Hall, Tiffany's and oh so much more. Once we got up past Central park and back down to Times Square, I departed the bus and walked around the Square for a bit.

I did a little Suvenier shopping and walked around and then decided to hop the uptown tour bus. We passed alot of other cool landmarks, went past the "Dakota" where John Lennon lived and where he was shot, and at one point even passed the "headquarters of Sesamie Street!!" We rounded the corner onto Central Park and stopped in front of the "Museum of Natural History" and that is where I disembarked. I figured I was in the perfect area to do some foot exploring of the museums and Central Park.

It was getting late already, middle afternoon, and though it was a very nice day, I realised it would only be a few hours before darkness set in, so I decided to check out Central Park. (The museums were pretty much closed on mondays anyways. The tour guide said the History museum was open but none of the special exhibits).
So I walked into the park and spent the rest of the afternoon in this "oasis" in the middle of the city. It is amazing how quiet it was in the park. I mean hear I am in the middle of this gigantic city and all the cars and noise, and I am only a few feet in to the park and I cant hear any of the city noise. It was almost "sureal". I was lucky that I came upon one of the coolest areas of the park almost immedietly.....an area called "Belvidere Castle". There was an overlook there that looked out upon a good portion of the park and in the foreground was what was called the "Great Lawn" where people layed out and played sports and stuff. The highrise apartment buildings and trees in the foreground after that and the sunny day, the trees starting to change color...it was all just as I had imagined and more. A nice couple took a picture of me of the setting I had just described. I then decided to walk down to the "Great Lawn" area and ended up stumbling upon another landmark that I had wanted to see. An ancient Egyptian Obleisk that was brought over to NYC from Alaxnadria in the late 1800s. It is called "Cleopatra's Needle" and it is said to be from the time of Moses ect....now that is old. Jut looking at that relic was making me get goose bumps. There was egyptian writing on the stone obleisk and plaques with descriptions of what the writing meant. There are three or four other obleisks that are similar and if my memory serves me correct, one is in London, one is in Paris and I think there is another one in Cario Egypt.

After spending some time looking at this monument and taking some video and some pictures, I continued my walk through the park. I came upon the "Great Resevoir" which is a gigantic body of water in the middle of the park, surrounded by an elevated running track and all sorts of neat highrise apartment buildings on the outer fringes. There were alot of people running around the "lake", some I am sure getting ready for the NYC Marathon which was coming up that weekend. The sun was just starting to set and the way the sunrays played upon the water and the buildings in the background was so cool. So one one side of my vision there is sunset and darkeness setting in and then when I would turn right, there was alot more light...it was like being in two different worlds at the same time. I dont know how else to describe it. I then walked around a little bit more, walked under some pretty cool bridges (some looking familiar from movies), walking through some fall leaves, sitting on the various benches lining the walk ways and just watching all the different types of people walking through the park (young, old, athletic, crippled, rich, poor, cute, ugly), and lots and lots of dogs! They shoud call it "Doggy Central Park"! Amazingly I didnt step in any "doggy doo doo"!!
So, it was getting dark and I was quite a ways from where I had entered the park. I ended up trying to make my way back to the entrance where I had come in and of course I got lost. Eventually I ended up somewhere in the general area of where I entered but I was still a bit unsure. A kind lady saw that I seemed a bit confused and she asked where I was trying to go. I told her I just wanted to find a subway that would get me to "Greenwich Village" to the Halloween Parade.
She took me straight out of the park and to the subway entrance off of 72nd street, told me which lines to get on to get to the "Village" and a minute before the parade was to begin (7PM), I was right there at the start of the parade route!!

The parade was like Mardi Gras. Very exciting and the air was full of fun. Ghools and goblins and lots of cool people walking down the street. My video camera started dying (battery) so though I managed getting a few minutes of footage, alot of what I saw got missed being recorded. It was one of the highlights of my day though. Around 9PM, I decided to head back to my hotel, freshen up and just relax a bit. I caught a subway pretty much right away, and got back to Brooklyn and then around midnight I decided to head back into the city to check out Times Square and that area.

I was hungry and realised I had not eaten almost all day so I stopped at a street vendor and got a hotdog, a hamburger patty and a pretzle. I sat on one of those cemet blocks on the sidewalk and street edge and it was probably the best meal I had. Taking in the night and seeing the people walk by (I was sitting out in front of Grand Central Terminal) on 42nd street was NYC in it's prime. I then walked down 42nd and passed some pretty cool things on my way. The NYC library and I think Bryant Park on my left, and then eventually I came upon Broadway and there I was right in the middle of "Times Square"!! I spent the rest of the evening walking around, having a few beers, people watching, walking through the theatre district and up and down all the city blocks. At one point I made it all the way down to 31st street and all the way up to 52nd I think.
It was close to 5AM by the time I realised I needed some sleep if I was to do anything on Tuesday morning, so I caught a late subway back to the hotel and hit the sack around 545AM.
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Day five-Tuesday the 1st of November

I got up kind of late, went over the lounge and had some coffee and then checked my bags at the Bell Station and then took off for the subway and headed into Manhattan around 11AM.
I got down to Wall Street area and headed towards Battery Park which was very cool. It was just about lunch and there were lots of people in the park. I came upon the "Sphere" that had been in one of courtyards of the World Trade Center Buildings (and had been damaged but survived all the destruction) and is now in the park as a memorial along with an "eternal flame" and some plaques. It was very moving. I took alot of photos and also some video.

I then headed towards the harbor to get to the "circle line cruise of the Statue of Liberty" which I had a ticket for.
Along the way, there were two people dressed up pretty cool like the Statue of Liberty and one motioned me over to her. She took my hand and lifted me up on a pedestal in front of her and I didnt know what the heck she was up to. The next thing you know I have a crown on my head, a flag over my chest and am holding a torch in my hand!! (Too funny)
And another lady grabbed my camera and snapped a picture of that goofy scene! She then asked for $2.00! I had no cash on me so I promised her I would come back after having visited some vendors along the parkway.

I was running late and knew that the entry gates for the cruise was straight ahead so I got there and walked into a white tent and got into line. There were Port Athourity Officers making people take things out of their pockets and put their bags in bins to be x-rayed.
I took the stuff out of my pockets and put my cameras in the bins and then they asked me to also take off my belt so I started to do that and then they said to also take off my baseball cap....I said "What the heck?? I am not going to take off my cap for you or anyone!!" ..they wanted to know why and I told them that "I am sorry but my baseball cap is on and unless the wind blows it off, it will stay on my head!!" (I hadnt done my hair that morning and it was a mess and that was the main reason I was wearing it. Plus when I put my hat on, I dont just flop it on....I arrange the rest of my hair to kind of "whisp" out of my hat a certian way) so after a few minutes of bantering back and fourth with these morons...I told them they could take their cruise and "shove it up their asses" and I moved myself out of line and on my way out the tent, I saw another officer and informed him that they had alot to learn about how to treat people and what to ask people to take off...I mentioned that next thing you know they are going to want people to strip naked before going on their boat.....and I left the tent.
I was so pissed. I went over to the ticket booth and told the agent there how I felt about their "search methods" and left the park. I did take out my video camera though before leaving the park and took some video of the Statue from the Harbor and tried using my "zoom" to get a close up. That was my "Statue of Liberty Experience". Oh well.
I then left the park and walked down towards the "911 site". It was getting close to 1pm and as I walked down the street I passed the "Stock Exchange" and came upon the "Golden Bull" in the middle of the street and took some photos and some video of that. I also passed "Old Trinity Church" and got some neat photos and video of that.

I got down to the "911 site" and there were tons of people and police milling about. Alot more than I thought there would be. When you come upon the site from the way I did, the fencing is covered by "blue plastic tarping" and you cant see anything. So I got up on one of those "parking barricades" in front of the fencing to get a better view. Funny thing is as soon as I did this, a few others did the same. I managed to look inside the site and...holy shit....there was The Prince of England (Charles) and his wife Camilla getting out of a limo, along with what looked like a bunch of security and other guys in suites. I got a bit of footage before a police officer came by and told me I had to get down. Damm. Oh well. So I moved over to the front of the site where the fencing was unobstructed but there were people about 5 deep trying to see the royalty that was visiting as well as looking at the site. I felt I needed to get some video of that...how often does one get a few mere feet from honest to goodness royalty?? My arm and hand were shaking but I think (I havnt looked at the footage yet) I got some pretty good footage of them as well as the site. (They were there unveiling a plaque commemorating the 67 britons that died in the collapses of the buildings). After the commotion calmed down, I managed to get in for a closer look at the site. Wow. How utterly devestating to this day. I overheard some people saying they should leave it like that. I tend to agree. It is probably one of the most profound moments of my life, seeing the site along with some of the steel debris still in the hole in the ground, as well as what is left of the Subway line in the distance. I probably took close to 6o photos if not more and quite a bit of video. There is 4 boards on the fencing with all the names of the people who perished in the collapses and alot of other info on the fencing. There is a highrise to the left of the site that looks like it was burned or something and has netting all over it. It was numbing to say the least.
I looked at my watch and realised it was getting late and that I had to get back to the hotel to get my bags and get over to Penn Station to catch my train home, so I left the site, walked back up towards Battery Park and got a subway headed back to Brooklyn.

As I was on the subway platform waiting for the train, I decided to do some video taping to show my friends back home what the subway system looked like. As I was recording, a police officer came over and asked what I was doing. I explained I was recording the subway sysytem as part of my vacation and to show my friends. He said I couldnt do that and asked if he could look at my video.
I showed him what I was recording. He then told me that I had to EREASE THE PORTIONS OF MY TAPE THAT SHOWED THE TUNNELLS AND STUFF!!. I was like "What...your not serious??" and he said that because of 911 no one can film the tunnels and stuff in the subway system. He also asked to see my i.d. and asked what I was doing in NYC! I was like...."I am on my vacation dude, and if you dont let me get on this next train, I am going to miss my train home and I will have to be living in "your subway tunnels!!"...so he let me go.

I got back to the hotel at 230pm, got my luggage and the bellman got me a cab. The cab driver took the "scenic route" and as all I had on me was a $20.00 bill, I told him that if he didnt get to the station soon, there would be no tip for him. (The cab ride from the station to the hotel only was 14.00 and by now this ride was already approaching 20.00). He stopped the fare at 19.00 and pulled up to the station a few minutes later. I told him I was sorry but all I had was 20.00. He said ok, no big deal.
I honestly think he was "taking me for more money...knowing that I wasnt a city person and probably wouldnt realise that he was taking the "long way" to the station. But for as many tunnels and streets we went down, I figured that is what he was doing.
I got to the station and had about 40 minutes before the Amtrak left so I wondered around the station.

The train left on time, I had a comfy seat in coach, and other than being delayed in Albany for two hours, the trip back home was uneventful. I had a few cool people sitting around me to talk to, watched a few movies, napped a bit, took some pictures of the fall foliage and some video ........
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Day six-Wed. the 2nd of November

........and on wed. morning (probably somewhere in Ohio) had breakfast in the dining car with an older couple who were on their way home to California after having taken the "Queen Mary" to England and back.

I got into Chicago about noon. A few hours late. By then I was so ready to get back to Racine. I was exhausted. So I went to get a METRA ticket to get back to Kenosha. They wouldnt take CREDIT CARDS!! and I didnt have any cash. It was only 6.00 but they wouldnt budge or anything. Oh great....now I am stuck in Chicago! Some guy walking by overheard my "plight" and gave me the money to get my ticket. Wow...a good samaritan in this day and age. I was so thankful.
The next METRA was set to leave at 1235pm so I ran up to the platform and got on that train and by 230p I was back home.
I had to wait a few hours for Bill to pick me up and got back to the hotel around 430pm and finally got home around 530pm.
And that is pretty much the just of it.
I didnt get to see a broadway show
I didnt get to the top of the Empire State building
I didnt get to experience any of the museums
But I did manage to have the time of my life.
And now I know a little more of what I want to do the next time I visit this "city that never sleeps".
Maybe another trip in the later winter or spring. Who knows for sure, but one thing for sure is that I WILL be back.
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