Greetings from New York. The next two blogs are our recent adventures arriving and touring the big apple. Here we are sitting in Bryant Park by the main public library on 42nd Street & 5th Ave. updating our blog! There's free wireless in this park. Now that's a big city!
After a beautiful anchorage off of Croton we began the final leg of this river trip to New York City. More industrial now as you pass through Yonkers. You can see the George Washington Bridge from many miles away and then…you can see the skyline! You can see the Empire State Building! How exciting to have traveled through 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, 3 canals, mast down, mast up, repairs and so forth and now here we are approaching the Big Apple. This is a great pay off for time spent so far.
We had talked previously with the nice people at the 79th street Boat Basin and were looking forward to taking a slip there. It ain’t cheap but this is New York. In case you’re sailing in it is $2.50/foot + $10/day for electricity. They have a bathroom and shower and free laundry. It is gated and there is someone on duty 24 hours a day to let you in. So in marina terms this is expensive but in hotel terms it’s cheap!. We had planned all along to blow a little cash and enjoy New York.
I knew I was arriving at low tide so after some hand waving and talking with Pedro the harbor master we tied off on the face of their sea wall and waited for the tide to rise enough for us to make it through their shallow harbor entrance.
My daughter, Leah and her husband Jason arrived at the boat basin almost simultaneously by car as they were on their summer driving vacation from their PhD work at Fermi Lab in Illinois. What a fine spot for our first reunion after 66 days away.
There are no words to describe the streets of New York. I’ve spent most of my adult life in and around Chicago and I felt like a hay seed! It is bigger, sure, but that’s not it. It is completely different from ANYTHING! So busy. So many little stores, shops, markets. I love the open fruit markets right on Broadway. We walked and walked and walked! We would stop for beers or snacks or lunch or dinner and surprisingly, I’ve never seen friendlier locals! All the waiters and just people in general are easy to talk to and seem pretty happy with their own situation in the big city.
On Wednesday we took the subway (really easy to figure out) down to Ground Zero near the southern end of Manhattan. From there we meandered all the way north to Times Square! We found the West Marine store on 37th street and bought charts for the Jersey shore and also for Long Island Sound. We may go explore the sound for a bit before turning south again for the Chesapeake. We probably walked 60-70 blocks in all! We took the subway from there to 79th street and then the short walk to the Boat Basin. Good news, the boat basin has a very nice little restaurant and bar right there so that’s where we had dinner. A great day in old New York.
My daughter, Leah and her husband Jason arrived at the boat basin almost simultaneously by car as they were on their summer driving vacation from their PhD work at Fermi Lab in Illinois. What a fine spot for our first reunion after 66 days away. 
On Wednesday we took the subway (really easy to figure out) down to Ground Zero near the southern end of 
1 comment:
Yes, a wonderful time in old new york but still the home of the stinkin' Mets! sg
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