Day 17, Wednesday:
Today we travelled up to New Jersey to stay with my friend Heather, her husband Marc, son Liam and their dog Colby! They live in a place called Matawan, very close to Aberdeen, about an hour south of New York City. We left a bit later than intended due to alarm not going off... then we went to El Salto's for lunch with Ben before we hit the road. It took around 3 and a half hours to get there, basically straight up the Jersey turnpike.... wow, what a boring stretch of road, hehe. I thought New Jersey was actually a very beautiful place, I have no idea why it's the butt of so many jokes!! We arrived just before dinner time in the end and spent some time with Heather and Liam before Marc arrived home, then we had dinner together. I haven't seen Heather for around 5 years I think, and it was wonderful to see her again, and finally meet Marc and Liam. Liam is almost 2 and apparently none too thrilled with strangers, but seemed to like James and I- he's just gorgeous and James and I both loved him to bits!! Colby, the springer spaniel, is also very gorgeous and we had fun playing around with him :-) We hit the sack around 11pm after lots of chatting and catching up, and lots of laughs. Heather and Marc are fantastic people, all of our friends back home would love them if only they lived closer...!!
Thursday, Day 18:
Well... today was the "big day"... we finally made it to NYC!! Hurrah!
Heather wasn't able to come along with us as Liam had an important mid-morning appointment, but she dropped us at the train station where we could catch the train right into Pennsylvania Station, underneath Madison Square Gardens. We arrived around 11.30am, and headed straight to Sbarro across the road for a slice of pizza and to get our bearings. Heather and Marc had lent us a couple of maps of the city so we familiarised ourselves with them a little before setting off. Now, some of you may know that James was not at all excited about this venture into the city- but he actually seemed pretty enthused once we got there, and seemed to get a kick out of my excitement at being in such a big city!! Luckily we had great weather, still not overly cold- I just had a sweater on and was fine all day (fyi- I wore my navy blue sweater with AUSTRALIA in big letters across the front- I think James thought I was a tool, but hey, I was obviously a tourist anyway, camera constantly in hand... besides I have to represent :-) haha)
We walked straight up 7th Avenue to Central Park where we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park- it was gorgeous, and took around 20 minutes. We then walked up E 59th Street and happened to walk past the RM Williams store- so James dragged me in and we chatted to the clerks in there who happened to be from Australia. The guy in there said he was from Peterborough (mid-North of SA), what a small world. It's also the only RM Williams store in the whole of the USA- no doubt for all the urban cowboys in the big city :-)
We then headed to the famous FAO Schwarz Toy Store and saw the giant piano made famous in the Tom Hanks movie 'Big'. It was an awesome store, would have been great to spend some more time in there, but the rest of NYC was beckoning...
Without going into every single detail of our day... in short, during the afternoon we saw Times Square (and went back there in the evening and had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.!!! Soooo great, and lots of Forrest Gump artifacts there too!), Rockefeller Plaza, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Plaza Hotel (where parts of Crocodile Dundee was filmed), St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Empire State Building, perused 5th Avenue and drooled at all the amazing stores and the equally as amazing prices... we walked and walked and walked...
During our early dinner at Bubba Gump's we decided that we would go to the World Trade Center site, but as James didn't want to take the subway we thought we would walk. Well, we walked all the way from Times Square down 7th Avenue through Greenwich Village and Soho (ie- a looooong way), made it to Tribeca and then got kind of lost- so we caught a cab the rest of the way and spent a sobering half hour walking around the site. It's mostly closed for construction as they're now building the Freedom Tower, but there are enlarged photographs and a memorial board up on the fence on the west side and still flower and candle tributes littered around. We then caught a cab back to Penn Station as there was NO WAY we were walking all the way back!! We got back into Jersey by 9pm, and Heather collected us once again. Once we got home we were pretty exhausted and not far from bed... so we chatted to Heather and Marc for a little while then crashed!!
I had a brilliant day in the city, and I think James enjoyed himself too for the most part- I was really glad to be able to go at least once, and maybe we'll have the chance to go back and see all those things we missed on our first visit. I don't think that I'll be in a huge hurry to go back though- it sounds obvious to say, but NYC is just a massive city (something like 11.5 million people) with massive pollution, a throng of people jostling you constantly, cars, horns, noise and smells!! It's definitely got it's great points... but it's also got it's, ummm, not so great points :-)
Friday, Day 19:
We got up this morning and had breakfast with Heather and Liam, then Heather took us for a drive around the New Jersey area. We had lunch together at Chili's before departing for Baltimore once again and I think got back just before tea time.
It was so wonderful to see Heather and her family, and I can't wait for them to come to Australia one of these days so we can introduce them to everyone :-)
James headed over to Wolf's for a while later on and I went out with Debbie to a local craft store and picked up a few bargains. We then went to the local ice rink to collect Steven and 4 of his friends and did the "drop off" which meant we didn't get in until almost midnight!!
Today we travelled up to New Jersey to stay with my friend Heather, her husband Marc, son Liam and their dog Colby! They live in a place called Matawan, very close to Aberdeen, about an hour south of New York City. We left a bit later than intended due to alarm not going off... then we went to El Salto's for lunch with Ben before we hit the road. It took around 3 and a half hours to get there, basically straight up the Jersey turnpike.... wow, what a boring stretch of road, hehe. I thought New Jersey was actually a very beautiful place, I have no idea why it's the butt of so many jokes!! We arrived just before dinner time in the end and spent some time with Heather and Liam before Marc arrived home, then we had dinner together. I haven't seen Heather for around 5 years I think, and it was wonderful to see her again, and finally meet Marc and Liam. Liam is almost 2 and apparently none too thrilled with strangers, but seemed to like James and I- he's just gorgeous and James and I both loved him to bits!! Colby, the springer spaniel, is also very gorgeous and we had fun playing around with him :-) We hit the sack around 11pm after lots of chatting and catching up, and lots of laughs. Heather and Marc are fantastic people, all of our friends back home would love them if only they lived closer...!!
Thursday, Day 18:
Well... today was the "big day"... we finally made it to NYC!! Hurrah!
Heather wasn't able to come along with us as Liam had an important mid-morning appointment, but she dropped us at the train station where we could catch the train right into Pennsylvania Station, underneath Madison Square Gardens. We arrived around 11.30am, and headed straight to Sbarro across the road for a slice of pizza and to get our bearings. Heather and Marc had lent us a couple of maps of the city so we familiarised ourselves with them a little before setting off. Now, some of you may know that James was not at all excited about this venture into the city- but he actually seemed pretty enthused once we got there, and seemed to get a kick out of my excitement at being in such a big city!! Luckily we had great weather, still not overly cold- I just had a sweater on and was fine all day (fyi- I wore my navy blue sweater with AUSTRALIA in big letters across the front- I think James thought I was a tool, but hey, I was obviously a tourist anyway, camera constantly in hand... besides I have to represent :-) haha)
We walked straight up 7th Avenue to Central Park where we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park- it was gorgeous, and took around 20 minutes. We then walked up E 59th Street and happened to walk past the RM Williams store- so James dragged me in and we chatted to the clerks in there who happened to be from Australia. The guy in there said he was from Peterborough (mid-North of SA), what a small world. It's also the only RM Williams store in the whole of the USA- no doubt for all the urban cowboys in the big city :-)
We then headed to the famous FAO Schwarz Toy Store and saw the giant piano made famous in the Tom Hanks movie 'Big'. It was an awesome store, would have been great to spend some more time in there, but the rest of NYC was beckoning...
Without going into every single detail of our day... in short, during the afternoon we saw Times Square (and went back there in the evening and had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.!!! Soooo great, and lots of Forrest Gump artifacts there too!), Rockefeller Plaza, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Plaza Hotel (where parts of Crocodile Dundee was filmed), St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Empire State Building, perused 5th Avenue and drooled at all the amazing stores and the equally as amazing prices... we walked and walked and walked...
During our early dinner at Bubba Gump's we decided that we would go to the World Trade Center site, but as James didn't want to take the subway we thought we would walk. Well, we walked all the way from Times Square down 7th Avenue through Greenwich Village and Soho (ie- a looooong way), made it to Tribeca and then got kind of lost- so we caught a cab the rest of the way and spent a sobering half hour walking around the site. It's mostly closed for construction as they're now building the Freedom Tower, but there are enlarged photographs and a memorial board up on the fence on the west side and still flower and candle tributes littered around. We then caught a cab back to Penn Station as there was NO WAY we were walking all the way back!! We got back into Jersey by 9pm, and Heather collected us once again. Once we got home we were pretty exhausted and not far from bed... so we chatted to Heather and Marc for a little while then crashed!!
I had a brilliant day in the city, and I think James enjoyed himself too for the most part- I was really glad to be able to go at least once, and maybe we'll have the chance to go back and see all those things we missed on our first visit. I don't think that I'll be in a huge hurry to go back though- it sounds obvious to say, but NYC is just a massive city (something like 11.5 million people) with massive pollution, a throng of people jostling you constantly, cars, horns, noise and smells!! It's definitely got it's great points... but it's also got it's, ummm, not so great points :-)
Friday, Day 19:
We got up this morning and had breakfast with Heather and Liam, then Heather took us for a drive around the New Jersey area. We had lunch together at Chili's before departing for Baltimore once again and I think got back just before tea time.
It was so wonderful to see Heather and her family, and I can't wait for them to come to Australia one of these days so we can introduce them to everyone :-)
James headed over to Wolf's for a while later on and I went out with Debbie to a local craft store and picked up a few bargains. We then went to the local ice rink to collect Steven and 4 of his friends and did the "drop off" which meant we didn't get in until almost midnight!!
Ooookay, I think I'll post this and continue my update in the next post :-)
3 comments:
wow, you did in one day that took your father and I about three, did you get to see the Statue of Liberty? I loved NY but as you said tooooo many people for me.
Your friend Heather is she Aussie or someone that was in Aust.?
will write soon love Dad and Patxxxxx
Actually, I met Heather through Michael- do you remember she came to stay with him in Australia in around 2001?? We all went up to Goolwa to visit you guys one day :-)
PS:- no, unfortunately we didn't make it to the Statue of Liberty- we got close though!! Next time...
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