New York City

Well, here we go again. We're off to NYC. We got up this morning at 3am, got the suitcases and other bags in the truck and we were off by 4am. Let me tell you there's no one on the freeway at this time of the morning except cops. We got parked and shuttled to Terminal E, checked into Continental, had to wait for TSA to open its gates and managed to stop at Continental's President's Club for a quick breakfast. The flight left on time and we arrived in New York City, LaGuardia at 9:30. We grabbed a NYC Cab. I heard that all the cab drivers were Indian, Middle Eastern, Sikh. Ours was from Pakistan. Mohammed, what else would you expect for a first name. He was a friendly guy but I think he went out of the way to make the trip longer and more expensive. It was $31.50. We just didn't tip him like we were going to.

MA made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in Brooklyn of all places. We dare not venture out after dark. We could not check into the hotel until 3pm and our harbor boat ride was at 3pm. So we left our bags in a secure room at the hotel and I grabbed my little Canon G9 because I can put it in my pocket. We got our bearings and walked about 7 blocks to a subway entrance, "Pacific Station" and the "N" Line. We bought a one day Metro Pass for $9 and made our way down the bowels of NYC and got on the subway. I have never seen more weird people in my life! Everyone had a cell phone and if they weren't talking to someone, they were texting, listening to music or taking pictures of their friends. I do wish I had bought some Blackberry stock a couple years ago. The subway ride was not long and we found ourselves in downtown Manhattan, 42nd St. Times Square. Hurry, hurry, cars honking, people shoving, it looked every thing you've ever seen on tv and more. What really caught my senses was the smells; baked bread, hot dogs, Chinese food, vegetables, cooking chicken, and people. Well we were hungry and so we looked for some place we could grab a quick bite of lunch and not get sick. We spied a McDonalds one block south. Two hamburgers and cold water and we were good for a hike down 42nd St. to the Hudson River to the Circle Line Harbor Tours.

The huge boat had about 250 people on board. It left at 2:30 for a two hour cruise down the Hudson to Brooklyn and back. I was wishing for my Nikon but the little Canon did OK. I took some panos of the skyline from the boat and will try and stitch them later. The cruise took us past where the World Trade Center towers once stood and of course the Statue of Liberty.
After the cruise we caught a bus with the same Metro pass and rode up to the subway entrance at Times Square, got on the Brooklyn bound subway and made it back to the Holiday Inn Express while it was still light. We grabbed a pizza at Papa Johns, walked back to the hotel and got checked into the room. The only complaint I have is this TV has no TBS channel and no baseball playoff games. I think I'm going to be sick.

Tomorrow we check out by 11am and board the ship at 2pm. I have no idea what we are going to do so see the next day's blog. So long for now and God bless.