NY Day 2: Times Square, Central Park, and HEAT!

What a day! Our new and improved PLAN for attacking New York began at a bus stop right in front of our hotel. For under $4 per person, we were delivered within 20 minutes to Times Square. Easy Peasy. It's probably good that we began the day at Times Square, because even at 11 am, it was crowded and overwhelming. I can't imagine encountering that at the end of the day when we were exhausted. We started in the theater district and quickly found our way to the scene of countless New Years with Dick Clark. At that early, optimistic hour, we thought we would stay long enough to see it all lit up that evening, but we didn't last that long in the heat.

In the theater district, even the MacDonalds was flashy.

It was Fleet Week and we saw sailors not only from our Armed Forces but also from other countries. It was a kick to tour Ellis Island with Japanese officers, and watch the European sailors joke around with the giant clam at the Natural History Museum.

The sidewalk scene was a circus - with hucksters trying to sell you tickets on tour buses, show tickets, and people dressed up in knock off cartoon character costumes in order to get tips from picture takers. I must have a look that says, "I'm lost, my feet hurt, and I need someone to yell through a megaphone at me" because every single tour company huckster approached me. Every single one. My favorite guy was this one, however. It's blurry but his sign says "Keeping It Real. Trying to get some weed" and asks for donations.

We had a couple of stores we wanted to see, and so we did some walking to find them. First, was the Disney Store. We walked off of the hot, noisy, and crowded street and into . . .  a theme park. They have done a great job with that store. I did manage to get out of the store without giving in to the tshirt buying fever that grips me in every store in every state I visit during vacation. And I don't even wear tshirts all that much . . . but in those moments, I NEED that I <3 NY tshirt. And while I liked New York, I really don't think I'm ready for an I <3 NY tshirt kind of commitment. Even if it did have a Mickey on it.

In our wanderings we also visited Rockefeller Plaza which was much smaller than I imagined, but had great stores surrounding it - the MET Store, the Lego Store, and of course Nintendo World. Amy was pretty excited about the Nintendo store. I suppose I could roll my eyes (and maybe I do) but I do bear some responsibility here. When I was pregnant with her and on reduced activity, I was busy playing the original Nintendo - Pipe Dream and Mario. Mark and I used to go to "arcades" when we were dating and newly married to play video games before there were nintendo games. So . . . she was probably hard wired for nerd-dom. And I might have even had a mild case of tshirt-itis in the Nintendo store. It might have happened, but I escaped.

By this time we were tired and ready to go see Central Park. We had this idyllic picture of hanging out on the grass, eating ice cream from a vendor and getting a little quiet time. Yeah, right. The first problem with this plan was the trains. We have used public transport in Washington on vacations, and Amy used the London rail system extensively this spring, and so we weren't completely new to the process. But the New York system seems to be deteriorating and is generally filthy. Peeling paint, more gum than cement on the floor, and tile floors covered in muck and worse. While some of the subways stops were better than others (the ones near the Museum of Natural History were beautiful), the overall condition was poor. We also noted that as we drove through the state park the day before - everything was rusty, weedy, and overgrown. On the train to Central Park, it was jammed and unpleasant. However, it was air conditioned and it got us where we were going.

This sign was on the train we took:

Some things just don't seem like they should have to be forbidden, you know?

We knew we probably weren't going to have the pleasant, lazy afternoon at Central Park that we had imagined because we were exhausted from walking, it was in the high 80's with high humidity, and every other person in NY had also decided to go to the park on Memorial Day. It really was a beautiful park, however. I can see why people love it so much. We visited Belvedere Castle, which was a part of the park we had wanted to see . . . and then we hit the wall.

We were all so hot and footsore, we just wanted to sit down with a cold drink. Unfortunately for our pocketbook, the closest place for that was the Museum of Natural History. You could not go to the restaurant or gift shop without a ticket, unlike the museums in Indy, so we bit the bullet and bought tickets. $52. Then we found the basement food court and had 2 hot dogs and a hamburger - which easily were the stalest ever actually consumed for $32. But, it was air-conditioned and I think I'd have paid twice what we did to get cool and get off my feet. Once we sat and refueled ourselves a bit, we did really enjoy the museum. It is the museum from "A Night in the Museum" and we couldn't help but think of scenes from the movie at every turn. Roosevelt sits astride his horse in front of the museum, and the dinosaur bones in the main entrance are just like in the movie - except that it is also jammed with people. The diorama displays are just like in the movie and while we were tempted to call it the National Taxidermy Museum, they did do a really nice job of display. We especially enjoyed the oceans exhibit where they paired models, dioramas, and videos. I even found the scary monkey from Night at the Museum. You could not catch me in that museum alone at night. Not with that guy still hanging around. He is scary!

The up-side of the high price of entry and food kept me from being quite as tempted over the tshirts,, at least. We just about closed out the museum at 5:30, and took the subway train directly from the station attached to the museum, back to the bus station at Times Square. Along the way, a young man of about 12 or 13 stood up, apologized for the interruption, and did a dance routine to a boom box blasting "Thriller." Pretty cute, but the New Yorkers on the train did not even crack a smile.

The bus station at Times Square was more like an airport than a bus station, with several floors, multiple gates, and news and souvenier stands lining its broad halls. Our bus arrived right on time, and we were delivered through the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey and to our hotel in comfort. In the two days of frantic researching for this trip, most of the online advice was to stay in New York proper so that you would be able to go back to your hotel easily, etc. And, I suppose if you were doing shows as well as touring, that would make sense. But our 20 minute commute was perfect for us. Our hotel is in a business district, close to a Panera and a Bone Fish as well as a Walmart and Sams Club.  The rooms are spacious, something we would not have had in NYC and the area is a lot more quiet than we'd have had there - and we saved a few dollars. A cheap introvert's solution.

Tomorow we head for home and we all are ready. We loved Maine, and we enjoyed New York as well, but we are ready for home. We'll take two days to get home since it's a solid 12 hours from here. A few days of uneventful driving and a wiggly puppy waiting for us at the end of the road sound wonderful.

NY Day One: We Survived!

Yesterday was a driving day. We left wonderful, quiet, contemplative Maine, and began the second and opposite part of our vacation. We drove almost 8 hours yesterday, but broke up the drive with a brief stop in Boston to see the USS Constitution. The best part of that visit was that while we were taking pictures of the ship, some fresh-from-training sailors struck up a conversation with us - all for the sake of giving us some extra info about the flags being flown on the Consititution. They were so young and so proud to be in uniform and to be serving our country. I asked what ship they would be shipping out on, and found out they were assigned to a submarine. The day or so before there had been a nuclear submarine that had a fire while in dock, and one of sailors them said that the news reports of the fire had "freaked out" his parents. As they wandered off, it was hard not to think of all the very young soldiers and sailors who have served our country over our history, and of their parents, waiting at home.

Our day today started with a drive into New York. Once again, our GPS took us an interesting route - through a state park. We weren't far from the city, but you never couldn't have proven it by our surroundings. I'm used to California, where Los Angeles is surrounded by door to door people, rolling out as far as the eye can see. By contrast, NYC seemed to us to be hiding. Finally, the forest gave way, and we had proof the city existed.

Our route had us going down through Manhattan and then going through the Holland Tunnel. Mark successfully navigated this route while Amy and I oohed and ahhed over the first glimpses of the city. Our goal was to park in New Jersey at Liberty State Park and begin our tour of Ellis Island from there. We arrived without incident, found this memorial to the World Trade Center.

Once we entered the old train station to purchase our Ellis Island tickets, we immediately wished we had been able to purchase and printout tickets online. It would not be the first time we would feel the sting of our last minute planning. The line was a little long, and security was tight - it took about 90 minutes. We were in line with modern immigrants and visitors from all over the world. There were a lot of families, and it was fun to people watch all the cute kids. You couldn't help but think of the interminable lines the original immigrants must have waded through. The building we were in was an original ferry and train station where immigrants who had been though the process at Ellis Island were able to purchase tickets to go on to their destinations. The train lines are no longer active, but they keep them as a (decaying) memory to those days.

The LINE. Fortunately it was cool, with the breeze blowing through the open but shaded area. One had the feeling that the process could have been streamlined just a bit.

Abandoned railway station.

I have quite a few more pics of these areas that need cropping or photoshopping, and no energy or time to do it, so these few pictures will have to do. I kind of liked the train station lost to weeds - it gave it a ghostly appearance. Both Mark and Amy thought it just looked uncared for.

After the first line, we went out into the sun to wait for our ferry. It was only about 15 minutes and we had views of the city to look at while we waited.

We had decided not to do the Statue of Liberty since it is down for repairs so our main excursion was Ellis Island. It is a huge place! The bottom floor begins with the story of immigration in general - what areas of the world immigrants came from and what the reasons were they wanted to leave. This was eye opening. the sheer numbers of immigrants that came in such a short amount of time makes me wonder that the country did not implode under the financial strain of the influx. There are thousands upon thousands of heartbreaking stories but there were even more stories of impossible successes. Astonishing, really. Young people who set out on their own to brave the new world, young families that worked together to find their slice of freedom. Men and women who wanted freedom badly enough to leave everything behind and work every hour to make it happen - many with the belief that their children would benefit. I think we were in line with a few of their descendants today, and as photos were taken and glimpses of conversation overheard, you could tell that those early sacrifices have paid off. We spent a couple of hours here, and could have done more.

 Lost luggage. Can you imagine after all they went through? Losing your luggage? For us it's just a matter of buying a few new clothes. For them it was everything they owned in the world. One exhibit had a display of items brought to remember home by. One was a coconut!

Ellis Island

Soft Pretzels! There was a small cafe and a snack bar with indoor and outdoor seating. It was pleasant to eat with the view of the Statue of Liberty and views of the city.

We did not get very close to the Lady, so all we have is a side view.

After Ellis Island we made our fateful error of the day. We decided to go to New York. Our tickets were for NJ to Ellis Island and back, but you could take a NY bound ferry if you wished. The problem is that you'd have to purchase another ticket or take a train or water taxi to get back to your car in NJ. Having read up on this the night before, we felt confident we knew what we were doing (ominous music should be playing in the background here . . . .)

We exited the ferry at Battery Park, and walked towards Ground Zero. We had hoped to go to the  Ground Zero Memorial and knew that we needed a timed ticket to be able to go to see it up close, but hadn't been able to get one online the night before. So we thought we'd just go, and see as much as we could. Unfortunately, it is all blocked off. We did sneak a couple of peaks through barriers at the construction process. Since it is Memorial Day weekend, the free passes to the memorial are hard to find and we are not sure we will make it to the actual memorial, which is kind of sad. But again, this trip was very last minute.

 Gound zero. I still cannot fathom the loss of those towers. The empty sky where they stood, even after 10 years, is still difficult to take in. Even outside the barriers, the mood of the crowd was somber here. The new tower, Freedom Tower, is rising taller and taller.

I had not been feeling well so we decided to get back to NJ and find our hotel. It was about 5pm when we headed back to Pier 6, where we had been assured there was a water tax back to Liberty State Park. Not only was there not a NJ water taxi, but there was an extremely rude water taxi employee who gave us NO help at all and did little more than grunt in response to our questions. I have a very good friend who, in spite of her petite looks, deals with this kind of person very well. She is always threatening to "rip the face off" of rude and unhelpful people. She always has the choicest comebacks. However, she wasn't with us, so we were forced to just be really irritated. The taxi worker had pointed to pier 11, so off we went to Pier 11. This is NOT a short walk. But, we checked out smart phones and it sure looked to us like we'd find the water taxi we needed there. The short answer is that no, there was no water taxi to NJ at Pier 11. So it was time for our secret weapon: AMY! Amy's trip to London this year was a boot camp of big city navigating. She helped us get to the PATH station for a subway ride under the river, and then to grab a light rail line out toward Liberty State Park. Brilliant! Why we didn't put this part of the planning in her hands to begin with I'll never know. Without her, I would be sleeping on a park bench in NY.

Buying our PATH tickets. We liked how it said to "dip" your credit card.

In the end, Mark still had to go about a mile to the car. And, even after a long day walking all over Ellis Island and NYC, he was not only a gentleman and offered to go get the car while we waited, but he jogged to it! That's right, my 51 year old husband jogged to get the car. I am incredibly impressed. I may be a broken down wreck at 50, but he is lookin' good and pretty darn sweet, too!

We were bone tired when we finally got to our hotel. Our GPS again routed us the most interesting way to our hotel, which was only about 9 miles away. I think that somewhere in its setup, these boxes are checked:

• all directions must never go more than two blocks in any direction without a turn
• must go through the worst parts of town
• if at all possible, include 38th street. 

Fortunately, even our crazed GPS could not work in Indianapolis' 38th street on this one, but it did manage the first two.

Needless to say, we do not want a repeat of our transportation failings tomorrow, so Amy has generously spent an hour this evening planning our trip tomorrow along with all the associated train stops. Our hotel has a bus stop right out front that will take us straight to Time Square to start our day. On the docket for tomorrow are: Central Park, Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building, and Times Square. If it rains we can always spend the day in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We had intended to go to the NY Public Library, but it is closed on Monday. I am very sad about that. Also, when we went to their website this evening, a splash page appeared talking about branches closing and budget cuts. Somehow NYC isn't as much of an escape from real life as Heavenly Days . . .

Day Seven: Last cottage day.

The weather was foggy and drizzly today, and so we had a pretty quiet day. We spent the morning planning the second half of our trip, which originally was to head to Niagara Falls. But the closer we got to it the less appealing that sounded. As much as we are not big city vacation people, none of us have been to New York or Boston and so the planning began. As of right now, we aim to drive through Boston tomorrow on the way to New York and spend two days seeing the big city.

We ate lunch in Ellsworth at the Riverside Cafe (highly recommended) and browsed through antique shops up and down the main street. Amazingly, I managed not to buy anything, even though my favorite store had somehow combined a very nice antique shop with a Crate-and-Barrel type store. The antique stores had good prices compared to Indy, and overall had less junk. Too bad that kitchen hutch wouldn't have done well strapped to the roof of the car . . .

On our way back to the cottage, we managed to finally spot one of the adult foxes in the neighborhood. I got out of the car to snap his photo, while his kits played in the brush. For once, he stared me down instead of just running away. I blinked first.

Mark thought it would be cool to go down to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse again in the evening fog to see the lighthouse functioning. You might recognize this lighthouse as the one featured on the back of the Maine State commemorative quarter (I knew I had seen it somewhere). Our cameras didn't do too well with the dim lighting conditions, but here's what we got. I was disappointed there wasn't a real fog horn to go with the light. I had to supply that sound effect myself.

The fog so thick when we first got there the lighthouse itself was a little fuzzy.

And what good is a computer with photoshop lite if you don't mess with a picture now and then?

 On the way back up the trail to the car we found these micro-flowers.

Each one is about 1/2 inch in diameter. I love the amazing details in creation.

At dinner this evening we filled out the guest book page and the survey the owners left for us. It is a little sad to leave. The view from this cottage has just been an inspiration every day and is a world away from our daily lives. There have been emails and details to track from work but just the change of scenery is so refreshing. We will miss the Heavenly Days Cottage and all of its special touches.

The kitchen door - the one they leave standing wide open the day you arrive

with the keys on the dining table.

We never saw a loon close up, but sitting here on the porch, we could hear their call!

Bits of cast iron wear that I'm assuming have been found on the property. This piece, inscribed "Royal Atlantic" is the decorative piece off of a wood burning fireplace. The Royal Atlantic stove company was based in Portland Maine and was making stoves at the time this house was built. A new one would have looked something like this.

Obviously, we love history and the stories behind things. The book on Mount Desert history in the cottage helped us answer a lot of our questions, and having the internet is a great thing for satisfying curiosity. Mark for instance, has been curious about lobsters since this is lobster country, so at dinner tonight he was reading us a wikipedia article on lobsters. This gives him the ability to use his unique parenting skill: Deflect with Trivia. If Amy complains about something, or is doing something he doesn't like, he can just throw out random trivia like a secret weapon. Did you know that lobsters have a mating dance? Did you know that the female lobsters carry their eggs on their claw and protect them there after fertilization? These are the kind of facts that can stop a kid of any age in their tracks and make them forget what they were talking about.

The only important part of this cottage I haven't written about that needs mentioning is the scary scarecrow. He is posted by the walkway and every single time we drive up he scares me. I cannot look him in the eye. The owner tells us that he is there to scare away the crows, and it appears he does that job well, but he is seriously creepy. We have named him Stephen, after Stephen King who lives somewhere around here. He is probably best forgotten, but I may take a picture and add it here later just to remind myself that he was just a scarecrow from the hardware store and not a nightmare. Seriously, I can barely walk outside to the car in the dark because of Stephen.

Tomorrow, it's off to Hartford Connecticut and from there to New York. Our pictures will likely change drastically from rocks, trees, lighthouses and flowers to buildings, streets, and people. I hope we all don't get whiplash!

Heavenly Days Cottage on Somes Sound

Mount Desert Island, Maine.