The boat ride.

It was a tour boat with lots of seating on two floors; the downstairs if you want shade and the upstairs if you want to be in the sun.  We went up top.  Even though the heat was sweltering, the breeze was lovely.

The pier where we caught the boat had a large wall of windows which had translucent photos of the rescue from a couple years ago of Cap'n Sully's landing on the east river.  Turns out these are the very boats that raced to the rescue of all those passengers.  Cool!

The ride was wonderful and very informative.

We saw where the World Trade Center is being rebuilt.  The new Tower I is currently half as tall as it will be at completion and it will once again be the tallest building in the country.  When construction is finished, there will only be six Trace Center towers but they'll be numbered one through Seven, with the missing building commemorating what was lost on Sept. 11.  Ground zero will remain the memorial of all those who were killed and those whose remains...remain.

We went all around the southern end of the island, seeing down town and wall street and the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn and the Manhattan bridge and DUMBO and it was all fascinating.  On the return, we went up close to the Statue of Liberty and were told that these cruises offer the best view of her, since if you actually go onto the island upon which she sits, you're actually too close to get a good look at her.

I believe it.

After our boat ride, we hiked back to Times Square.  the first two tour buses were too filled for us to get on and we'd had enough of Times Square so we walked back to Rockefeller Center and hunted down that darned golden Statue.  We found it, took some photos and hopped on the tour bus.

Back to Times Square.

But we weren't getting off the bus; we had the best seats up on top and there we stayed.  Soon the bus left the square and off we went on our tour of Down town Manhattan.

We'd spent so much time wandering around that it was the last tour of the day so if we hopped off, we were warned that there wouldn't be another bus along to hop back on.

Not a problem; we just wanted to see everything.

We saw enough to make us want to come back, get a hotel in downtown and have a whole different trip next time.

We all loved Greenwich Village.  It's very much like our Uptown neighborhood; old apartment buildings with funky shops on the ground floor, sidewalk cafes, narrow tree lined streets that all converge on each other at strange, haphazard angles.  Except our Uptown also has parks and OH, LOOK!  Lake Calhoun.

But they have Soho, Wall street and Battery Park and OH LOOK!  the river.

We loved it.

We had been on the bus all of twenty minutes when the sky, which had been hot and hazy while we were on the boat, turned gray and heavy and descended on us.  As we approached Bleeker street it started to rain.  The tour guide passed out plastic ponchos and we all put them on just in time of the skies to open and the downpour to hit us.

It was wonderful.

We all ignored the rain and the puddles forming in our seats as we drove through the village and into the financial district.  We drove close enough to the giant Bull on Wall street to touch him.   By the time we got to Battery park, we came out from under the downpour.  By then we were all soaked to the skin but no one seemed to mind.  I certainly didn't.  Looking back uptown, we could see the rain still pounding the city and the tops of the skyscrapers had disappeared in the clouds.  There was thunder and lightening.

We drove along the Battery and under the Brooklyn Bridge and into China Town, where the tour guide blared on his microphone how it's not a good neighborhood and you never want to get caught there alone at night.  We wondered how the residents liked hearing that sort of commentary every twenty minutes.  I'm surprised no one threw anything at us.

Then the bus turned and headed back up into the storm.  We pulled the cords tight on our plastic poncho hoods as though we could actually get any wetter and soon were being freshly watered.  We hopped off the bus where we picked it up; Rockefeller Center.

Then, soaking wet and thoroughly exhausted, we hiked the four blocks back to the Hilton and took hot showers and put on dry clothes.

We asked the concierge where a good, close Italian restaurant was and she recommended Pazza Notte, a block and a half away.

Holy Canolli was it good.

Again, it busted the myth of the expensive New York eatery.  Four dinners, two glasses of wine and two desserts was well under $150.00.

And did I mention that the food was out of this world??

Josie got bow tie pasta in a pesto sauce that was fabulous.  Meg got penne in a red sauce with cheese that was even better.  I got a barbecue chicken pizza that was delicious (although not as good as Frankies.) and Katie got a salmon that was insane.

For dessert we got a molten chocolate cake and a lemon raspberry cheesecake that Josie declared the best thing on the trip so far.

We ate until all the food was gone and crawled back to our room.

Wake up call at 4:20 a.m. and a taxi to the airport.

Turns out it's a lot easier to get out of Manhattan at 4:30 Saturday morning than it is to get into Manhattan at noon on Thursday.  The ride took twenty minutes.

The line to check in at the airport took much longer.

But while standing in line we got to see one of the rare instances of Rude New Yorkers and I don't even think the rude guy was from NYC.  It was a fat old man who yelled and screamed at the gal trying to check him in because he was in the Continental line and his flight was with United.  He seemed to think she could magically check him in anyway, since he'd spent so much time in line.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle and I half expected everyone to applaud when she had him escorted to the proper check in place.

Our glee lasted until we got to the check out and a young man who looked like Don Juan DeMarco's not so hot younger brother told us our flight had been canceled.

What?

WHAT?

It all turned out okay.  He found us another flight that was only three hours later out of Newark and called a car to take us there.  Not only that, but the new flight was non stop, rather than our original flight, which included a connection in Cleveland.  In the end, we got home only two hours later than our original itinerary planned.

So, we didn't get to see Cleveland; we got to see Newark!

The car was a big, luxurious Lincoln and on the trip, the sun rose behind us.  Out the rearview window, we got to see the Empire State Building framed in the rising sun.

It was inspirational.

All in all, the trip convinced me that we are still the folks that built the Empire State Building in thirteen months.  We can still do amazing things if we would just get out of our own way.

What this nation needs is nothing more than a little creative destruction and I think that's exactly what's on the way.

We had a wonderful time but as always, it's nice to be home.

 

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