Coast to Coast - Day 9

Thursday June 30
We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant again, making sure to bring some money for a tip this time. On Tuesday when we arrived, we left from the Newport Station and arrived at the WTC stop.  Today our stop dropped us in the newly opened Oculus station.  It was not nearly finished as far as all of the shops being ready to open, but it was open enough for the subway to drop us off there.  It was a lovely station.

Today we were meeting up with Bill from Freetoursbyfoot.com.  (The tours weren't really free, each participant was asked to pay an amount they felt appropriate.) We arrived at Wall Street in front of the Federal Building and across the street from the NY Stock Exchange.  Chris asked if there was a restroom close by and was given directions.  Out of the 20 or so people waiting for the tour to start, probably 80% of them headed to the restroom.

We began our guided tour with Bill with lots of information about the history of the city.  Some of the locations we visited included Trinity Church (though we weren't able to go inside due to a Preschool Graduation), Andrew Hamilton's grave, the common business man statue, World Trade Center site, St. Paul's Chapel (which was under construction and off limits then), Chinatown, and Little Italy (Fanelli's for a snack).

As we sat on a stoop eating our snacks and listening to Bill, a lady walked up to us and motioned for the girls to move.  Amy kind of gave her the eye while she passed and the lady commented, "What?  You giving me that eye!"  She brushed past Amy and muttered under her breath, "Schmuck."  You take the little space they do have, and they don't appreciate it.  But she wasn't polite about asking them to move either.

After the tour was finished, we set off for the Staten Island Ferry--a free service boating close to the Statue of Liberty.  We stayed on the island for half hour or so watching the Anthem of the Seas leave port.

As we progressed through the day, we all got progressively more and more tired.  Misha took to leaning her head on our shoulders.  First she started with me.  Much too short.  Then Amy.  Still short.  Then Dad.  Ahhh, just right.

We headed back to New York, and much to our girls' delight, headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge to walk partway across.  I was glad that we had waited until later in the day when the sun wasn't quite so hot and direct.  As we walked up the stairs to the bridge, part of the area was under construction and covered.  The stench of urine was rather overpowering.  We plugged our noses and climbed the stairs faster.  

The width of the bridge wasn't huge and was then divided by a white line for a walking side and a biking side.  The walk side was filled with a mass of people coming and going and you just had to watch out for the oncoming traffic while trying to stay out of the bike lane.  As we were making our way across the bridge, a barrel-chested man in a white t-shirt was coming in the opposite direction. I tried to get our of his way but wasn't quick enough as he slammed in to my left shoulder.  I was astounded by his rudeness and callousness.  His wife was behind him and mouthed an "I'm sorry."    He must have had a pretty bad day or he was just a bully.  Shame on him though for behind so rude.

We walked about a 1/3 of the way across the bridge and then stopped for pictures.  Chris offered to take pictures for one couple.  They didn't speak English and the husband hurried back to his wife, put his arm around her, and rushed away.

The crowds weren't quite so crazy as we made our way back to the stinky stairs.  We passed a guy on his bike, riding with one hand while the other hand held his iPhone.  He was Facetiming as he drove.  That takes talent.

We ended up in a quaint area called Fulton Market and found a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner.  Il Brigante.  Kristen and Misha shared a pizza.  Amy and Misha shared a Caesar salad, Amy had gnocchi with marinara sauce, and Chris and I shared a salad and entree of fettuccini in meat sauce.  It was delicious and just the right amount of food.  An entree for each of us would have been just gone to waste.

We purchased tickets for the New York Waterway ferry to Jersey City.  It was the last ferry of the day and the workers must have been in a hurry to get home.  What normally took 8 minutes, they accomplished in 5 minutes at 30 mph.  We didn't mind.  We were just enjoying the beautiful scenery and cityscapes.

We walked along the river walk on the Jersey City side of the Hudson River back toward our hotel.  We came upon a 9/11 Memorial to Jersey City resident who perished.  We came upon our second statue of the common man. This one however had additional items added in bronze to honor the flowers and mementos left at the original statue after 9/11.

It was a much more enjoyable walk along the water front.  We came upon a band and stopped to listen to their music while checking out the NY skyline.  The Empire State Building was lit up in red, white, and blue.

We were happy to reach the hotel and wash our feet from another long day of walking.  We were sad to learn from the 11:00 news that a young boy on the Anthem of the Seas cruise ship that we had watched earlier in the day, had been found at the bottom of a swimming pool onboard the ship and was life lighted back the NYC.  The ship returned to port to off load his family and then left again for its cruise.

Coast to Coast - Day 8

Wednesday, June 29
We were given breakfast coupons for a few days of eating in the hotel restaurant.  After sleeping in, we got everyone out of bed and going for the day.  After breakfast, we realized we hadn't brought any money with us for a tip.  When I returned to leave a tip as we were leaving for the day, our waiter was so appreciative that he offered to make us a to-go box of fruit for the day.  I declined thinking it would just be one extra thing to carry.

Chris had some how discovered that there would be an F-18 flyover at 11 am along the Hudson River.  It had been cancelled the day before and rescheduled for Wednesday morning.  Amy was excited.  That girl didn't usually walk that fast!  We started off for the river walk along the Hudson River and passed cute little Chinese Grandmas doing their Tai Chi in the park.

We got to the Hudson with time to spare.  We headed over to Newport Centre Mall to find a bathroom, but hurried back to the water front.  We waited and waited.  I stood back in the shade of a tree while the rest sat on a bench along the river's edge.  Chris was following a Twitter feed about the flyover and people began asking if they missed it or if it was still going to happen.  Finally, around 11:30 am two F-18's flew along the Hudson between NYC and Jersey City.  They were fairly slow for F-18s and not loud at all.  Well, that was done.

We hopped onto PATH, getting passes to last us for the remainder of our week.  I tell you, transportation in Washington, DC and NYC was spendy.  We took PATH to 33rd and walked a few blocks to Time Square.  It was as busy and crazy as you see it on tv.  I would say that none of us really loved it, but it was full of interesting people or all types and sizes.

We found a Subway for a quick lunch and were lucky to have arrived when we did.  It was small and only had seating for ten people.  As it was, we shared one table with different people as they came and went.

We found that Urban Adventure Quest scavenger hunts were also available in NYC and signed up for the Time Square one.  Some of our stops included the M&M store, Engine 54 Fire Station (they had a fire call while we were standing there so it was fun to watch them leave), Rockerfeller Plaza, NBC Studios with Jimmy Fallon, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Waldorf Astoria, and Grand Central Station where we finished up.

We were standing waiting to cross the street in one location and Misha missed being pooped on by a pigeon by just inches.  Chris was standing beside her and had her move.  Sadly, he should have heeded his own advice as the pigeon next to the pooping one, pooped on his arm.  Yuck.

The scavenger hunt was fun and a fabulous way to see and learn more about the city.  I highly recommend it.  They have the scavenger hunts in many major cities across the country.  We thought about doing the second one in Central Park, but decided to play it by ear and see if we had time in our schedule.

It was later in the afternoon, getting close to dinner time.  The girls wanted to head back to the Newport Centre Mall and have dinner there.  We definitely did not beat the rush on the PATH and had to stand the whole way.  After a long day of walking, standing for so long was not desirable.
 
We stopped back in at the hotel where a worker was in and out of our room working on resetting the safe so we could make use of it, exchanging the tv with one that worked, bringing more towels and blankets, and bringing an extra side table.  They really tried to make our stay pleasant.  Our room in the Double Tree was located on the Penthouse level.  The room itself wasn't anything special over rooms on the other floors though.

Chris fell asleep at 10:00 pm and the rest of us settled down shortly after.  

Let's just say that the fight when on vacation is who gets a single bed to themselves.  Apparently Amy likes to kick in her sleep and hogs the bed and the covers.  Misha and Kristen traded off with the single bed.  In fact, as Misha or Kristen complained about Amy's sleeping habits, they would say, "You were in my half of the bed!"  Her response was, "Well, you were in my two thirds!"  

Coast to Coast - Day 7

Tuesday June 28
I woke up kind of early and just surfed the Internet while the rest of the house slept.  I went back to sleep for a little while thinking that Allie had taken Sawyer to swimming lessons and there was no rush.  Turns out Nolan was the driver for the morning and Allie had been up working on breakfast.  We had planned to leave at 10 am after Sawyer's swimming lessons to tour the area and see more covered bridges.  I urged Chris out of bed suggesting that it would give him time to finish the electronics set up along with Apple TV.  Hopefully they will be set.

We packed the Jeep with all of our luggage, barely squeezing all of it in.  We drove to more covered bridges in the area.  We all had fun taking pictures, especially the older girls.  They were having fun together.  I loved the country side.  We drove on two-lane roads that were lined with trees and lush greenery.  We found two bridges to stop at and somehow passed right by a third without seeing it.  Perhaps it had been moved.

Allie had made lunch reservations for us at Peddler's Village.  It was a cute little shopping area with fun shops--the kids particularly made note of the Candy Store.  We made our way to the Buttonwood Grill for lunch and enjoyed a delicious meal.  Except for Sawyer who was the only boy among six girls, we all had a great time chatting.  Polsons are just fun to be with.  We wish now that we had planned more time to spend with them than just one night.

We had time for a little more meandering through the shopping village before we had to be on the road again.  We said our goodbyes and started on the road to New Jersey.

We arrived in good time, grateful for Google Maps for directing us.  Not sure we would have made it quite so easily following a paper map--especially not if I had had to navigate from a map.

We reached the Double Tree hotel in Jersey City around 4 pm with enough time to drop off our luggage, use the restroom, drop off the car at the handily hidden parking garage a mile away, get PATH cards to ride their metro system, and get to the World Trade Center stop for our 5 pm scheduled 9-11 Memorial Museum.  As bad luck would have it, simply because I am not one to always think about carrying my phone, I left my phone at the hotel.  It had the email with our electronic tickets.  Chris tried to login as me on his phone, but he had security measures in place that would not allow him access.   He was not very happy with me.  I wasn't very happy with me.  We finally thought that a last ditch effort would be to go to the Will Call office and see if they could find our reservation and print tickets for us.  Yes, they did.  What a relief.

We got in line waiting for our turn to enter the museum.  We weren't the only ones using the free tickets.  The museum closed at 8 pm, and we spent every minute looking at all of the displays.  We could have spent even more time as we missed a few displays and a movie. It was a lot of sadness and gratitude for heroic men and women.  

Kristen had not been born in 2001 and I mentioned to her that she probably watched the events of that day from heaven and welcomed these people home.

We took the ferry back to Jersey City where we stopped at a Chili's for dinner.  Chris had read online that the ferry was $1, but it was actually $6 per person.  Oh well, it was a beautiful ride across the Hudson River and much more pleasant than the transit.  Our service at Chili's took forever, but maybe that was because we were exhausted and hungry and ready for a rest.  We had a short two blocks until we reached the hotel room.  A roll away had been brought to our room.  We called down for more blankets and towels.  Our room was much smaller and just divided by a semi wall.  We made it work.  And sleep.