The last day of our vacation: NYC

The final day of vacation

Saturday, September 14

Well, one final entry to this travel blog as we spent our last day in NYC before flying home to Colorado.  We were able to leave the ship just after 7:30 am as we did “Express Walk Off”.  That means we could leave the ship as soon as it was cleared with immigration/customs as long as we carried our own luggage off the ship instead of waiting around for the luggage to be off-loaded and then trying to find it in the port building.

We took a taxi to our hotel, the Millenium Hilton in lower Manhatten.  We were there about 8 am and hoped to store our luggage there if we could not check in so early.  We were lucky—there was a room available so we could check in.  That was great because Terry really wanted to run across the Brooklyn Bridge and that meant he could change into his running clothes and then shower after his run.

The bellhop took us up to the 46^th floor and opened the drapes to this view:

We looked directly at the new World Trade Center building, and down below was the 9/11 Memorial with the 2 pools on the footprints of the former two towers.

We had a full day planned so first order of business was to get Terry over to the Brooklyn Bridge for his run across it.  He certainly was not alone.  The bridge was full of runners!  As Terry ran, I walked across it, stopping to snap photos along the way.

After the run, we next wanted to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  Tickets are free but time-stamped to control the large number of people that visit the site every day.  It is a wonderful memorial to those 2,983 men, women, and children who perished in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and 2/26/1993.  It commemorates thousands who survived. 

Names of the victims are inscribed in
bronze around the perimeters of the two pools.

Survivor Tree

In 2014 the 9/11 Memorial Museum will open in this building.  The museum will be the focal point for preserving the history of 9/11.  It will chronicle the events of the day, the background that preceded them, and the national and international response that followed. 

 

The museum building

This tree is known as the “survivor tree”.  The tree was planted on the original World Trade Center plaza in the 1970s .  After 9/11 workers found the damaged tree, reduced to an eight-foot tall stump, in the wreckage at Ground Zero.   It is doing very well.

Next on our agenda was to go to the Metro (subway) and travel up to Houston Street where we will have lunch at Katz’s Deli.  We visited there in 2003 and declared the pastrami sandwich the best ever!  We wanted another one!  And we still declare it the best!

Yes, it's a very popular place!

Yum

Sign above a table that says this is where Harry met Sally,
from the movie of the same name.

Just as we were finishing our lunch, up walks a guy who says, “Hello, Montana!”  We look up and there stands Jeff Toscano from our former town of Colstrip.  Small world, that’s for sure.  We enjoyed a short visit with him and then it was back to the Metro to make our way to the Guggenheim Museum.

Back in 2003, we only saw the Guggenheim from the outside.  It is a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and we like anything Frank Lloyd Wright.  This time we wanted to go inside as we had seen a story on CBS Sunday Morning about the Guggenheim.  It showed the inside as a spiral walk from the first floor to the sixth floor with art displayed on the walls.  It was suggested that you go to the top floor and then work your way down the spiral, admiring the art displayed as you go.

Once again we met up with “NO PHOTOS” rule so I have a few from the internet to show the inside.

We walked in and the first thing we see is a large mat on the floor with dozens of people flat on their backs looking up at the top of the building.  You could see the spiral all the way to the top and the lighting changed colors about every 30 seconds.  It was cool…but I think some people must have fallen asleep as they stayed there for a long time.

We headed up to the top floor and were disappointed to see that there was no art on the walls and the inside of the spiral was enclosed with a white fabric so we couldn’t see down to the first floor.  There were a couple of galleries that we could browse through but had to pass the main attraction, James Turrell exhibition, as the line to enter the gallery was very, very long.  We wanted to walk through Central Park on our way down to Times Square so couldn’t spare the time.

It was a beautiful day to be in Central Park.  And the people of NYC were out there to enjoy it.

One more castle.....

It was now time to find our dinner restaurant.  From the park, we walked down Fifth Avenue past all the fancy, expensive stores.

We had dinner at John’s Pizzeria in Times Square.  It is located in an old church building.  Our table was directly under the magnificent stained-glass ceiling.

We then made our way through Times Square to find the Gershwin Theatre, where we attended the performance of “Wicked”, the untold story of the witches of Oz.

Leaving the theatre we quickly found the Metro station and headed back to our hotel, wrapping up a wonderful day in NYC.

Sunday we flew back to Denver.  We had been following the news about the horrible flooding that Colorado had suffered during the past week.  Northern Colorado had received 18 inches of rain and the rivers were raging over their banks, taking out roads, bridges, and homes.  We were lucky and had no damage around our neighborhood but others living close to the rivers were not so fortunate.  Fort Collins as well as the towns around us was severely impacted by the torrential rains.  Thousands of homes and businesses have been damaged or destroyed.  As of this writing, 8 people have died; 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The highway I-25 was closed from Denver to the Wyoming state line on Friday and Saturday and it was unknown if we would be able to get home from the airport.  It opened up late Saturday so Jen and Donato were able to come to the airport to pick us up on Sunday.  They said there was water on the interstate and it may be closing again so they had packed a bag in case we were all stranded overnight in Denver.  We were able to get home and then enjoyed a dinner provided by Lisa and Ryan that night.  They, too, packed a bag in case they would not be able to make it back to their home on the other side of Fort Collins.  When the river rises too much, the bridges can be compromised and so they are closed.  On their way home later that evening, they encountered one bridge closed but found another open.  It will take over a year to repair some of the damage caused by the flash flooding.

So now it’s time to unpack, go through the stack of mail, and return to our normal routine….guess that means I’ll be busy planning another cruise….stay tuned!

Transatlantic Cruise: Days 25-27: Sea Days and Newfoundland

Day 25

Monday, September 09

At Sea today.  The seas started to get a little rough today.  At noon the captain announced that our course would be altered a bit to avert a low pressure system.  Throughout the day the seas stayed rough and by 11 pm, our usual Northern Lights viewing time, the doors to the promenade deck were closed and we saw rain pelting against the windows……so no sense going outside tonight!

Day 26

Tuesday, September 10

At Sea again today after a night of rough seas.  When booking this cruise we intentionally selected a stateroom to be a little low on the ship (deck 8 out of 18) and in the center since we knew that the seas could be rock ‘n rolling across the North Atlantic.  We chose wisely as the seas aren’t bothering us at all.

While in the Sports Center in Greenland, we happened to meet a couple from Nevada—Floyd and Judi.  Floyd had an Ultra-Marathoner (100  miles) emblem on his jacket and that sparked Terry’s interest—another runner!  This morning we had breakfast with them and shared stories about marathons and running.  Before we knew it, it was time to go to a Titanic lecture in the theater.   We made plans to get together for another breakfast before the cruise ends as the guys just couldn’t get enough of each other’s running stories.

Next port is St. John’s Newfoundland.  It was off the coast of Newfoundland that the Titanic sank.

Day 27

Wednesday, September 11

We are in St. Johns, Newfoundland.  As Canada's most easterly province, the island of Newfoundland is situated on the North Atlantic, with St. John's as its provincial capital. The city of St. John’s is the oldest city in North America.  It’s been debated whether or not the explorer John Cabot actually sailed into what is today St. John’s Harbor, but it is true that in 1497 he discovered a “New Founde Lande”.  Many Europeans followed and by 1583 it was a flourishing and prosperous village.

As we have sailed east across the Atlantic, we have gradually set our clocks back one hour at a time.  The night before arriving in Newfoundland we had to set our clocks back just 30 minutes in order to be on the correct Newfoundland time.  Never have experienced that before.

 

Village on the mountainside as we entered the harbor

Our plan for the day was to team up with our cruising BFF’s, Stephanie and Gary, and take a taxi to Cape Spear, which is the most easterly point in North America, and then back into town and up Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, where we will then dismiss the taxi and start our hiking.

Cape Spear Lighthouse

Standing at the most easterly point in North America

It is called Signal Hill as this is where Marconi famously received his first wireless transmission across the Atlantic in 1901.

 

Cabot Tower

That's us on top of Signal Hill overlooking the narrow entrance to harbor

The Narrows

Cabot Tower guards the top of Signal Hill where military men guarded the shores through the 1700s and 1800s.  It is here that the French fought and surrendered to the British in 1762 after fighting for centuries to maintain control of this island.

 

Begonias

We hiked down Signal Hill and found our way to Quidi Vidi (pronounced kiddie viddie), a historic fishing village within the city of St. John’s.  It was built in the 18^th century to protect the bay from invaders and today is home to the Quidi Vidi Brewery.

BTW for those of you who have never heard of Terry Fox, he was a young man who lost a leg to cancer.  About 30 years ago he set out from St John's to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He ran the equivalent of a marathon every day for several months. His run ended in Thunder Bay Ontario when the cancer returned and ended his life. Ever since all across Canada, and in many parts of the world, there are Terry Fox runs.  In fact there is one scheduled here for this Sunday! His legacy continues and every year raises millions of dollars for cancer research. 

Then it was back into the city to find this pub we have heard has the absolutely best fish and chips around!  It’s called the Duke of Duckworth, located on Duckworth Street.  We enjoyed a late lunch and agreed that the fish was very good but probably a little over promoted.

Raindrops were starting to hit us so we declared it was time to get back to the ship.  By the time we sailed away, it was raining quite hard.  The ship did a 180 degree turn in the harbor and then headed back through the “narrows” at the entrance to the bay.  We enjoyed the sail-away from Skywalkers, the lounge at the very top and back of the ship.  It looks like a shopping cart handle on the back of the ship.

 

The shopping handle on the back of the ship is great for viewing sail-a-ways

And now there are just 2 days left of our cruise.  Those will be sea days and we will have time for last meals with new friends before we disembark in New York City on Saturday. 

Our plan for NYC is to spend one night there so we can do a little siteseeing during the day on Saturday and take in the Broadway show, “Wicked” at night.  On Sunday we will fly home, anxious to reunite with our kids and grandson. 

It’s been a most wonderful vacation.  Thanks for coming along with us!  Lisa and Jen.....there will be a quiz when we return home to see if you are actually reading this blog!  LOL