New York, New York

Saturday, February 14, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 8:  
IN WHICH DELTA DOESN'T DALLY  

Day 8:  Manhattan to Atlanta.  With our flight not leaving until early afternoon, we had the opportunity to return to Central Park (pictured above) to search for a letterbox we had been unable to locate earlier in the week. The park was extremely busy on this chilly Saturday morning (30 degrees) with runners, cyclists, dog walkers, and people just out for a stroll.  But that didn't deter us from finding the elusive letterbox.
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At Columbus Circle, we stopped to admire the 30-foot silvery sculpture depicting the earth's land masses attached to a grid of latitude and longitude.  The globe is encircled by three orbital rings in homage to its inspiration, the 120-foot Unisphere, built as part of the 1965 New York World's Fair.
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Worldly art
Our week in New York has been great fun, especially taking the opportunity to visit all the boroughs.  Manhattan, the original extent of New York City before the 1898 consolidation, will remain our favorite spot, but it's nice to have familiarity with the other areas as well.  No matter how often we visit, there's always more to see and we look forward to our next visit.  
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A final farewell to our home away from home at 150 W 47th Street
On our return home, the travel fairy was more favorable.  We left LaGuardia on time, had no incidents with Delta and arrived in Atlanta as scheduled.
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SATURDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2009

Lessons Learned

Friday, February 13, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 7:
IN WHICH WE HIT AND MISS 

Day 7:  Manhattan.  Another day in Manhattan began with a visit to Carl Schurz Park (pictured above) on the Upper East Side. Home to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the New York mayor (though neither Michael Bloomberg nor Rudi Giuliani lived there), this 15-acre gem overlooks the East River. The park's waterfront promenade is actually a deck built over the FDR Drive freeway.
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This location affords a great view of some of the East River bridges. The Triborough Bridge is a complex of three bridges connecting Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. Construction on the bridge was begun in 1929; it opened to traffic in 1936, with construction costs exceeding those of the Hoover Dam. Factories from Maine to Mississippi provided concrete for the construction, and an entire forest in Oregon was sacrificed to build the casings for the concrete. Behind the Triborough, Hell Gate Bridge connects rail traffic between Queens and Manhattan. Completed in 1916, Hell Gate was said to be the inspiration for Australia's Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Triborough Bridge with Hell Gate Bridge behind it
Ward's Island Bridge is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge connecting Manhattan and Ward's Island. This unique bridge is 12 feet wide and 857 feet long, with a middle section that lifts to allow ships to pass under it. The bridge is open to pedestrians during daylight hours from March through October. During the winter months, it remains in the "open" position and cannot be accessed.

Ward Island Bridge for pedestrians
Later we visited the Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio. The center houses a permanent media collection containing more than 140,000 television and radio programs and advertisements, available both in New York and Los Angeles. Visitors can search for and request specific programs and view them in the screening room. 

Ken watched an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel with Richard Boone and a hilarious Newhart installment.  Dianne opted for Captain Kangaroo's first Saturday episode from December, 1955, and a 1968 special with the Supremes and Temptations. What a great ride down memory lane! Our final dinner on this visit to New York was at Scarlotto on W 47th. After admitting we did not have reservations (which shouldn't have been an issue since it was early and the restaurant was virtually empty), we were reluctantly shown to a table. The server was friendlier but the food was barely adequate, certainly not a place to revisit.

Scarlatto?  Notto again
As we're about to leave, we're finally learning to understand the language of the theater. We've always had good results seeking suggestions from the TKTS "advisors". When we asked about The American Plan, which had received positive reviews, the TKTS person we talked to this afternoon kept saying, "Well, it's Mercedes Ruehl." By the end of the performance we understood what she meant. One star cannot carry an entire performance alone.

The American Plan with Mercedes Ruehl
Our last evening in New York, we bid goodbye to the excitement of Times Square before returning to the quiet of Peachtree City.  Though today's dinner and theater performance left something to be desired, we're chalking those up to Friday the 13th. But the weather was beautiful with a high of 45 degrees. We walked a total of 5.8 miles today.

Farewell, Times Square

FRIDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2009

25,590 + 39 Steps

Thursday, February 12, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 6:  
IN WHICH WE BLOW AROUND MANHATTAN

Day 6:  Manhattan.  Staying in Manhattan today seemed almost like a treat. It's more familiar, it's easy, and the subway goes everywhere. The weather was extremely windy today with gusts to 60 mph. Fortunately the temperature was in the upper forties or it would have felt much worse. We definitely felt the effects of fighting the wind as we walked. Our letterbox search today took us to Central Park where we came across a bench (pictured above) that would seat most of our family and friends.  Plus their families and friends.
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We arrived in the area just as a preschool class from a Montessori school on Central Park West was headed for a walk in the park. These little ones were so adorable as each grabbed their position on the rope in preparation for crossing the street. Later we saw them in the park watching a tree chipper crew at work. They were delighted with the entire process, cheering as each limb exited the machine as wood chips.

Headed to play time in Central Park
Even though the letterbox there turned out to be missing, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial at 89th Street and Riverside Drive in Riverside Park was well worth a visit. Dedicated in 1902, the monument commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the Civil War.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
In the current economic crisis, the city is doing what it can to cut costs. For example, a group of local volunteers was recruited to keep the grass clipped at this Riverside Park ballfield. They don't even need fuel for power equipment.

Volunteer grounds crew keeps grass trimmed.
We again stumbled upon an Italian restaurant for dinner. 44 SW is a family-owned establishment on... yep, W 44th. Service and food were both excellent. The owner was actively interacting with customers, making everyone feel like a "regular."

Serving up traditional Italian food since 1971
After walking more than 25,000 steps today, we finished off the evening with a performance of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Whereas most of the plot points of Hitchcock's 1935 film are incorporated into the play, this is more zany comedy than suspenseful mystery, with the cast of four hilariously playing a total of more than 100 roles, sometimes several roles simultaneously. 
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4 actors portray 12 characters in one scene from 39 Steps

Walked today: 11.5 miles
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THURSDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2009

Speed the ... uh, Ferry

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 5:  
IN WHICH WE ALMOST GO TO NEW JERSEY

Day 5:  Staten Island.  Located in the far southwest of the city, Staten Island is separated from the remainder of New York by New York Bay.  It sits off the coast of New Jersey.  Populated by only about a half million people, Staten Island is considered the most suburban of New York's boroughs. The island is connected to Brooklyn and New Jersey by bridges, but we traveled on the venerable Staten Island Ferry (pictured above), the island's link to Manhattan since the 1700's. The five-mile trip took a little more than 20 minutes and was free of charge.
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Upon our arrival, we headed to Staten Island's Moravian Cemetery, the location of our first letterbox for the day. The cemetery was established in the 18th century on land donated by members of the Vanderbilt family who lived on the island and wanted to discourage the use of family burial plots in their farming community.
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A Staten Island institution for centuries
Our letterbox clue provided the names of a couple of lanes within the cemetery as well as the first names on a pair of tombstones. At first we tried the dummy method-- wandering around the cemetery hoping we'd stumble across the lanes we needed. A half hour later we came across a maintenance worker and asked for help. He couldn't tell us where to find the intersection we were seeking but did inform us that the cemetery encompasses 113 acres, advising that we go to the office and check the map located there. Finding this method far superior, we located the intersection, the headstone and the letterbox in short order and moved on to Willowbrook Park, the site of our next search.

The box is hidden in the tall grass—somewhere.
We were hoping to have a picnic in Willowbrook after finding the box there but the park was so inundated with Canadian geese and their droppings that we decided to move on to Snug Harbor. Once a home for aged sailors, Snug Harbor on the northern shore of the island is now a city park and cultural center, blessedly free of geese and a much more suitable place to picnic.

Snug Harbor gate
On the bus traveling back to the ferry terminal, we encountered a very talkative Staten Island resident. A retired 66-year-old nurse as she informed everyone, she considers herself "elderly" and was quite entertaining. Having polished off her lunch of fried chicken with (at least) one cold Budweiser, she could easily expound for 20 minutes on a one-minute topic, such as what she perceived to be inadequate safety standards on newer public buses. Her conversation was peppered with her two favorite phrases: "Think about it" and "You know what I'm talking about." Her entertaining patter made the 40-minute bus trip seem much shorter.

After a simple dinner in the apartment, we walked to the Barrymore Theater to see the revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satirical look at the Hollywood movie industry. The title is said to come from a traditional English song extolling the virtues of industry: "Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow." William H. Macy and Raul Esparza were terrific in their roles as film producers eager to please the studio head with a new blockbuster. (photo from speedtheplowonbroadway.com)

Raul Esparza and William H. Macy in Speed the Plow
With sunny to partly cloudy skies, the temperature reached 60 degrees today, quite unseasonable for mid-February in New York. Total walking today= 6.5 miles   space    space    space  
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WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2009

Queens for a Day

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 4:  
IN WHICH WE MEET ROYALTY

Day 4:  Queens.  Located on Long Island east of Brooklyn, Queens is the largest borough in area, the second-largest in population, and the easternmost. With a population that is almost 50% immigrants, Queens is the city's most diverse borough. Since subway service is limited in Queens, we changed to bus transportation, which was very frequent, extremely busy and quite efficient. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt in Flushing, Queens, was like a bus terminal with many lines constantly coming and going within a couple of blocks (pictured above).
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Kissena Park, a 235-acre Queens jewel was our first stop. The city purchased Kissena Lake in 1904 from a resident who had been operating an ice cutting and manufacturing company on the lake. In addition to the ubiquitous Canadian geese and mallards, the park was well used by local residents. Even on this cold day (in the low 30's when we arrived at the park mid-morning), we saw a good number of people exercising, walking and running.

Canadian immigrants in Kissena Park
Coming from Atlanta, which is notoriously bereft of public parks, we have been amazed by the amount of land set aside for park and recreational areas in New York. Only two of Atlanta's parks cover more than 200 acres. Chastain Park is Atlanta's largest at a paltry 268 acres, a good portion of which is devoted to its golf course. In contrast, Chastain would not rank in the top 25 parks by size in New York.

Covering 843 acres, Manhattan's Central Park ranks fifth, with each of the top four parks exceeding 1,000 acres. Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx covers almost 3,000 acres-- equivalent to two-thirds of Atlanta's total park and green space acreage. It's not surprising that Atlanta has the smallest park system of any major city in the U.S.

Another aspect of New York that always fascinates us is the population density. We find it quite exhilarating to experience the energy of so many people moving in so many directions in relatively close confines. The incredible variety in the languages overheard in conversations around you just adds to the vitality of the city.

Busy street in downtown Flushing
After finding nine letterboxes in Queens-- thanks mostly to an eight-box series-- it was back to Times Square for theater tickets for this evening. We've heard so much about the effects of the economic downturn on Broadway. Plenty of shows are currently in production, but more of them seem to have empty seats. We have found a significant increase in the proportion of the shows available at the TKTS booth (half-price on the day of performance). Some of the more popular musicals, which were never available at TKTS when we last visited New York in March of 2007, make their appearance on the TKTS board nightly.

Ticket buyer's market at TKTS
Tonight we scored tickets to August: Osage County, which won numerous 2008 Tony awards as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Although we enjoyed the play, perhaps if the original Tony-winning cast were still intact, this three-plus hour performance might not have seemed so long. At 2 1/2 stories, the set was outstanding.  Fittingly for our day spent in Queens, the play was performed at the Imperial Theatre.  (photo from augustonbroadway.com)

 The signboard outside Trattoria Tricolori on W 47th drew us into the restaurant, and we were not disappointed. The meal was excellent.  A pleasant change after our disappointing meal last night.

Today's weather was cloudy with a high of about 45 degrees. Total walking= 7.4 miles
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TUESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2009

Cheers for the Bronx

Monday, February 09, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 3:  
IN WHICH WE GO NORTH  

Day 3:  Bronx.  Home of the New York Yankees, the Bronx is the city's northernmost borough and the only one which is situated on the U.S. mainland.  With a population of 1.4 million in 42 square miles, Bronx County (coterminous with the borough) is the third most densely populated county in the U.S.
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A letterbox at the Cloisters in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park beckoned to us before we could cross into the Bronx. Or we thought it was a letterbox calling. It may have been one of the park's chubby squirrels like the one pictured above, because the letterbox was missing. Maybe this guy and some of his friends confiscated the letterbox to store their winter food. All the squirrels in the park looked as if they haven't missed any meals recently.
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After finding a couple of letterboxes in small parks in the Bronx, we headed for Bronx Park, home of the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo. We entered through the Rainey Memorial Gate on Fordham Road. Created in 1934, the gate is adorned with 22 life-size sculpted animals and honors a zoo patron.
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With all its Art Deco charm, the zoo's Rainey Gate dates back to 1934.
The stretch of the Bronx River that flows through the zoo features double "waterfalls" where dams were built to power the mills that operated along the river in the 19th century.
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Bronx River's artificial waterfall 
Near the zoo we stopped at La Pentola Pizzeria for a much needed snack. In an attempt to support economic recovery efforts, the owners were selling huge slices of delicious pizza for $1 each. Not surprisingly, it was a busy place with a big after school contingent crowding in for their share of the pie.
 
White Plains Road, the Bronx
Back to Manhattan and the Times Square TKTS booth to search for tickets for tonight's performance. With Monday's limited offerings and us still trying to adjust to the increased walking we're doing, we decided to skip theater for tonight.

Since we love pasta, and especially because we wanted something close to the apartment, Pasta Lovers restaurant on W 49th Street seemed a natural choice for dinner. The service was good but the food was just OK.

The weather continues to be unseasonably mild with a high today in the upper 40s. Total walking for today: 6 miles


MONDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2009

Separated and Distracted

Sunday, February 08, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 2:  
IN WHICH WE GET OFF THE ISLAND 

Day 2:  Brooklyn.  New York treated us to a day of mild weather on this February Sunday. The morning temperature was in the mid-fifties, so we were able to leave the heavy coats in the apartment as we headed out in search of some New York letterboxes. There aren't any letterboxes in Times Square, but we caught the 1 train at the Times Square subway station for a ride down to Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan.

Being naive out-of-towners, we didn't realize that you needed to be in one of the first five cars on the train to be able to exit at the South Ferry station-- really just a platform. So we were still on the train after it looped and headed back uptown. We decided to get off at Rector Street, the first station going back north. Our subway driver was apparently in a bit of a hurry. Maybe his shift was about to end. When the train stopped at the Rector Street station, Ken exited, as did a French family. Unfortunately, the doors closed immediately, before Dianne and some other passengers could step through.
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It was sort of like a scene from the movies. Ken was there in the station watching the train zoom away, and Dianne was on the train watching him fade into the distance-- well, more like zip, actually.

Dianne covered the mile back to Rector Street on foot and we were reunited shortly but we were unable to get to the letterbox in Battery Park. The park is undergoing some renovation, and the tree where the box is hidden is in an area that is currently off limits to pedestrians. On this mild Sunday morning, the park was much too busy to allow any stealthy slipping into the area undetected, so we had to save this one for another trip.
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But it was time to get to Brooklyn anyway.  Sitting on the western end of Long Island, Brooklyn is New York's most populous borough.  Brooklyn has a long beachfront, including the famous Coney Island amusement park, which dates back to the 1870s.  Brooklyn is known for its cultural and social diversity.
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The R train took us to Brooklyn's Prospect Park, where our next letterboxes were awaiting us. We stuck very close together when exiting the train. Today's warm temperatures are quite a contrast to New York's recent weather as the frozen lake at Prospect Park attested. There were several signs like this around the lake, each with an ice rescue ladder.
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Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Soon we broke the ice metaphorically and found our first New York letterbox. We left a little North Carolina hitchhiker there to keep it company.

Found the box!
We found a total of three boxes in Prospect Park before heading down to Coney Island, where we discovered that the letterbox at the New York Aquarium was missing. An hour subway ride took us back to Manhattan and our apartment.  

Before going "home," we stopped at Times Square for our daily visit to the TKTS booth. Tickets were available for the play at the top of our "want to see" list-- Distracted with Cynthia Nixon. Described as "a fast-paced and disarmingly funny look at parenting in the age of the Internet and Ritalin" this premiere production was excellent. Casting was perfect, the set was clever and high-tech, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Total walking distance for the day: 7.5 miles
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SUNDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2009
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Josh Stamburg and Cynthia Nixon in "Distracted"
Stop that train!

Stumbling to New York

Saturday, February 07, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

NEW YORK BY BOROUGH, Chapter 1:
IN WHICH THERE'S AN OINTMENT IN THE FLY

Day 1:  Atlanta to Manhattan.  Though we've visited New York on numerous occasions, our stays have been primarily centered in Manhattan.  New York City was originally confined to Manhattan Island and the smaller surrounding islands that comprised New York County.  When the city outgrew the island, it began annexing territory on the mainland.  
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Finally in 1898, all those areas were consolidated under a new city charter.  Under that agreement, five boroughs were officially established.  By action of the state legislature, a borough was defined as a form of government administration created by the merger of city and county governments.  The five boroughs established as part of New York City were Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.  On this trip, we plan to visit and search for letterboxes in each borough.
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With this plan in place, we were pumped as we drove to the Atlanta airport this morning. What a pleasant surprise awaited us when we breezed right through the security line and were at our departure gate only an hour after leaving home! Foolishly, we thought it might be a good omen for the trip. Alas, Delta had other plans.

We boarded the plane on time for our 9:40 flight. After a half hour wait on the tarmac, the pilot announced that maintenance was completing a needed repair to the water supply for one of the restrooms. Once that was done, we had another announcement that some sort of electrical problem was preventing our taking off and that maintenance had been called to check out this new issue.

Needless to say, we were more than ready when the announcement came about 10:30 that we were returning to the gate. With two patches needed after boarding before the flight could leave, this was not the plane we wanted to fly on. The flight was cancelled, and all the passengers were assigned to later Delta flights to New York.

Since we were in seats next to each other and had the same last name, it was not evident to the Delta employees who rebooked the passengers on new flights that we were traveling together. So Ken was put on a 12:40 flight and Dianne on a 2:40. After getting that sorted out, we were each given a $7.00 meal voucher since our delay would take us through lunch. Pretty generous, we thought, until we had lunch at an airport restaurant.

A $7 food voucher doesn't go far in airport restaurants.
We finally arrived at LaGuardia around 4:45 p.m., caught a cab into Manhattan and picked up the keys to our home for this week. It's a very small one bedroom apartment on W. 51st Street near the corner of 7th Avenue. We love the location, and having a "full" kitchen and a separate bedroom is very nice.

A bit of blogging at the expansive kitchen table
After a walk over to the neighborhood supermarket for a few essentials, we were too tired to do anything else but make a big salad, eat, and call it a night.

SATURDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2009

Friday, February 06, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

 
Day 1:  Atlanta to New York

Day 2:  Brooklyn

Day 3:  Bronx 
Cheers for the Bronx  (9 Feb 09)

Day 4:  Queens
Queens for a Day  (10 Feb 09)
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Day 5:  Staten Island
Speed the...uh, Ferry  (11 Feb 09)

Day 6:  Manhattan
25,590 + 39 Steps  (12 Feb 09)

Day 7:  Manhattan
Lessons Learned  (13 Feb 09)

Day 8:  New York to Atlanta
New York, New York  (14 Feb 09)

Letterboxing in Lincolnton

Sunday, February 01, 2009 Road Junkies 0 Comments

The end of January found us returning to North Carolina for another letterboxing gathering. Held in Lincolnton, the Movie Madness event attracted about 75 letterboxers from both the Carolinas. One family trekked in from Oklahoma, and we made up the full Georgia contingent. We had a terrific time and met some new friends. We did some letterboxing before and after the Saturday event.
"Go left on the trail until you find a tree with a chain protruding from it."

In Lincolnton we discovered a wonderful little tavern on the courthouse square. Actually, the clue for a nearby letterbox tipped us off to the Court Street Grille.
Before leaving for home, we drove the short distance to Charlotte for a great visit with Ken's mother Erika.
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