NEW YORK DAY TWO PART ONE: USS Intrepid

Our second day in New York City was a very busy one so I'm going to break up the posts in order to keep the videos to a manageable size. We had an agenda for the day. When we booked the trip we purchased an online voucher for City Tickets, a book of discounted tickets for a variety of touristy kind of stuff around the city. One of them was for a circle tour of Manhattan, a boat cruise around the island; one of the "checkmarks" of things I've always wanted to do. The cruise didn't leave until later in the afternoon so we decided to walk down 7th Ave to 42nd Street and then over to Pier 83 from where the boat departed. This was our MO in New York, walk from location to location and discover what we could along the way.

Our route took us down to Time Square again and we were able to take some shots in the daytime, getting a good view of the ball that marks the count down to New Years. Dick Clark was not present, but I did think I spotted Ryan Seacrest huddling over a steam grate mumbling "does my hair look good"

One of the advantages of giving your time to wander and doing it on foot is what you discover on the way. Just south of Broadway we came across a restaurant that would later have some signifigance to us; it it hadn't been 10 in the morning, we surely would have had some ribs and beer at BB King's Blues Club; anyone who knows us understands that

We knew that down at the same pier from where the boat cruise departed there was something called the Sea and Air Museum; we decided to check it out before we went on the cruise. We were expecting some sort of building down at the pier, what we didn't expect was that the museum was housed on a boat ... well not a boat. A ship. A rather large ship. An aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid

There was a 24 dollar price for admission which at first I was reluctant to pay (yes that squeaking in your ears is indeed my wallet .. hey, stop looking at my wallet!) but common sense and Collette prevailed: Dude, how often do you get to explore a real honest to god aircraft carrier, even a decommissioned one. As it turns out, it was money well spent

The Intrepid was a true fighting ship with long service through World War II and right up till about 1975. It was originally opened as a museum ship in Philadelphia then moved to New York in 1982 and became the Sea and Air Museum. They begin to refurbish the Intrepid in 2006 and we saw evidence that that process is ongoing. Besides the Intrepid, the pier featured the supersonic Concorde ..

... as well as The Growler, a diesel powered strategic submarine

You are able to board each the plane and the sub (for an extra price) but I wasn't interested. I couldn't see investing money just to go aboard a passenger plane that wasn't go to take me some place and although the sub interested me, I couldn't justify paying to see if my claustrophobia would kick in. Maybe next time.

The Intrepid offered us enough, as it turns out. We started on the Flight Deck; it was cool to just walk on the deck of an aircraft carrier but there were many many different kinds of aircraft to look at. Helicopters included a Coast Guard Sikorsky S-62

A US Navy SuperCobra

and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois among others

Of course there were many jets as well. There are over a dozen aircraft up on the flight deck and we had a perfect sunny day to observe them all. They selected aircraft that represented the entire span of the carrier's long service. From 50's era MiGs that the Intrepid fought against ...

... to the A-12 Blackbird, a Cold War era spy plane

All of these aircraft had flown from, or against the Intrepid during its history

There was more, of course, to the Intrepid than the flight deck. I went up into the Island, which is the ship's superstructure, it was incredibly claustrophobic. You'll see in the video a few shots from the command bridge where, during combat, 12 men served; very very very friendly men one must assume.

One floor down from the flight deck is the hanger deck, a 13,000 square foot space where once planes were prepped for flight then lifted up to the flight deck on huge elevators. There is a lot on display there, including one of the carrier's huge propellors.

And of course there were several aircraft down there, including this Hurricane

Besides launching aircraft the Intrepid also participated in the American space program. It fished both Mercury and Gemini space craft out of the ocean; it also of course retrieved exotic alien space craft but those weren't on display, that has all been covered up ... THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED BY THE US STATE DEPT AND THE MEN IN BLACK

From the exotic to the mundane: A little display that gave you the sense of what it must have been like to have to actually live aboard an aircraft carrier. The plastic case in which these bunks were placed was only slightly smaller than our hotel room

There were a lot of interactive exhibits on the hanger deck including this a little Bell 47 helicopter that you could climb into. It was the same kind of chopper featured in the TV series MASH. The kid was blonde so he couldn't be Alan Alda, perhaps Wayne Rogers discovered a time machine, in search of his career

The Intrepid was definitely worth the price of admission. There were many volunteers all over, many of then Navy vets, who were always willing to talk to me and answer any questions. Sometime later this year they are going to mount the space shuttle Atlantis on the flight deck ... I'm assuming the alien saucer will be somewhere around the poop deck.

Here's the video. Next up: Our three hour boat cruise around the entire island of Manhattan

NEW YORK CITY DAY ONE: Central Park and Times Square

This is the first post accounting our recent trip to New York City. It was the first visit for both Collette and I and it was done pretty much spur of the moment, all online; we had visions of winding up staying in the very finest shipping crate on the docks somewhere but luckily, it did not turn out that way.

We ended up staying at the Wellington Hotel, a lovely older building with uniformed doormen and bellboys, an elevator system that seemed to work on some kind of lottery system in terms of the car arriving when you wanted, beautiful art deco fixtures, a room small enough that you really had to love whomever you shared it with and a shower with enough water pressure you had to check your skin to make sure it was all on your bones .. trust me, that is not a complaint.

Never having been to New York before, it was difficult for us to judge, beforehand, where the Wellington was located. As it turns out, it is almost perfectly located, not only right next to a subway but about two blocks from the south end of Central Park, a five minute walk away from Times Square, 42nd Street and Broadway, and right next door to Carnagie Hall. So yes, I finally got to Carnagie Hall and I didn't practise one little bit.

When we arrived our room was not quite ready, we had a couple of hours to kill. This was Tuesday and it was a gorgeous day in New York, sunny and in the mid 70's so we decided to walk around a bit. Central Park is one of those places I've always wanted to see and we were literally two blocks away from it. If we couldn't see the park from the hotel (which we could) we could smell it ... it was of course the scent of the city's famous horse drawn carriages.

As we entered the park we really had no idea where we going. There are maps posted around the park but we just started wandering; this would set the tone for our stay in the city. Even when we had a destination in mind Collette and I set out on foot, happy to explore whatever we found on the way; we averaged about 10 miles of walking per day while we were in New York. We loved how accessible the city is; a New York block is about half the size of a Toronto block so things were often much closer than supposed.

One thing that was not smaller than expected was Central Park. It really is an impressive place, we walked there for about 4 hours and only covered about half of it. On that sunny warm day tourists and locals alike were there in large numbers but the park is so large we never felt crowded. As we entered we noticed many people sunning themselves on massive boulders; the bedrock of Manhattan is a stone called schist .. which leads to a popular local joke that of course, New York City is built on schist.

One of the cool things about the park (and NYC in general) was stumbling upon sites that you've seen on TV or in the movies. I've seen several programs that feature the beautiful and ornate bridges of Central Park. There are many of them and none of them are simply utilitarian; all of them are graced with an ornate Victorian sensibility.

Grand Central Park is much like New York City itself, it is a whole comprised of different neighbourhoods, each with its own distinct personality. One of the most famous such areas is Strawberry Fields, the tribute to John Lennon, set up on a hill directly across from the Dakota Apartments where Yoko still resides

While we there we met an extraordinary New York street character: Gary, the mayor of Strawberry Fields. A mostly homeless artist who began decorating the mosaic circle of the memorial and who has become the Field's spokesperson, delivering a monologue to tourists that details the memorial's history and intent. I captured some of Gary's speech in the video at the bottom of this post

Central Park is not just a place of rock and tributes and bridges, it is a place of water. Several streams and a couple significant bodies of water, notably The Pond and The Lake (OK I guess we can never accuse these names of being overly imaginative) It really is something special to have not only a huge tract of grass and trees in the middle of such a crowded city, but to also be able to stand by the water, hearing the lapping of the waves and watching the ducks with the skyscrapers looming in the middle distance

Another example of nature in the city was presented to us in the form of a red tailed hawk, up in  a tree, having himself a little snack, the snack being a rather large grey squirrel. I now know why everyone kept their little dogs on leashes.

One of our many surprises while wandering through a park was a small yet incredibly ornate Victorian "castle" built on a huge outcropping of rock. This is Belvedere Castle, constructed in 1869 as some form of folly, overlooking the Ramble, a section of park where narrow paths wander through thick clots of trees and brush, and also overlooking The Lake and several open fields

The castle is more than a viewing platform, its architecture is quite beautiful, with little details that were lovely and surprising

From Belvedere we wandered past The Boathouse where one could loll on the patio or rent a rowboat and we found Bethesda Terrace, another stunning example of Victorian architecture, featuring the largest fountain in the park, all designed in the 1860's. The terrace is on two levels, with a pair of broad staircases that lead down to the fountain, flanked by the waters of the Lake.

The upper part of the terrace led us to the Mall, another area I recognized from movies. It features a bandshell and a stunning long, broad walkway bordered by overhanging elms and flanked by busts of literary figures.

Despite the summer like weather it was still March and there were no leaves on the trees but you still had the impression of peace and serenity and coolness, right in the heart of the city. The park is truly a special place; here in Toronto we are blessed with several large parks but nothing compares to this. As Collette and I walked along the long tree lined corridor we were serenaded by a sax player, like something out of one of the movies in which this place has been featured. It was a perfect end to our impromptu visit to this very special place

We made our way back to the hotel and finally checked in. After washing up and resting we made our way out as evening settled in. One of the "checkmarks" that we wanted to deal with was visiting Times Square. Looking at a map, the square seemed a fair piece away from the hotel. We were on 57th St at 7th Avenue and Times Square is down at 42nd Street; we assumed it would be a fair walk. Not in New York. As I noted earlier, a NYC block is about half the length of a Toronto block. As we stepped out of the hotel onto 7th Ave, we could see the lights of Time Square gleaming just a short distance away

I have to admit that Times Square is pretty amazing and we visited it several times due to its proximity. 42nd Street and Broadway are here, lots of resturaunts, bars and of course theatres. Right at the square itself is a couple of small plazas where the streets are shut off, one of them featuring a kind of grandstand where people can sit and watch the action

There was the building that housed the New Years Eve ball and the statue of George M Cohan, all familiar from TV and movies and books, pretty amusing to see in real life. 

It was a great way to end our first day in New York City. OK, maybe a part of me was curious to see the old sleaze bag Times Square from Midnight Cowboy but hell, that didn't work out so well for Dustin Hoffman.