Day 273: Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Port to Port: New York City
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Mooring
First Things First: First time walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Mile 146 to Mile 146: No, we didn’t hit bottom of get stuck. We actually had plans today. Our friends Roger and Dorothy on Slow Churn traveled by train, plane and automobile (well, two out of the three) from somewhere on Long Island all the way to Manhattan to meet us and spend the day. We wandered up to the subway station at 79th and Broadway, bought 7 day transit passes for unlimited rides on the buses and subway for $31 each (they were $20 in 2002) and hopped on the 1 train to go to Penn Station to meet them.
They arrived only a few minutes after we got there and we headed for Brooklyn on the subway. Why Brooklyn you might ask? Well, Roger had never walked over the Brooklyn Bridge even though he used to live here. That sounded like a fun adventure so we took the subway across the river and got off just at the base of the bridge. We found the pedestrian boardwalk on top of the bridge – actually over the roadway – and walked back to Manhattan. What a view! We could see downtown Manhattan skyline framed by the suspension cables and off in the distance the Statue of Liberty gleamed like usual. New York Harbor was busy as always with boats of all kinds. Surprisingly, this is a popular attraction as hundreds of other people were doing the same thing. We would never have thought to do this so this was a wonderful surprise.
Battery Park was the next destination on our list. This is at the very south tip of Manhattan below downtown. Normally you can wander along the river and enjoy the harbor views but today part of the park was closed for a special fundraising event and another part was closed for repairs from Hurricane Sandy. We saw some of the park but we will have to come down here again with the kids.
After a late lunch and much needed rest, we stopped by Ground Zero and looked out over the 911 Memorial Park and the Freedom Tower site. This is a lot different than when we were here in 2002. What an amazing transformation. You need tickets to go into the Memorial (free though) and there were long lines so we passed and went to find ice cream.
After a long, hot and convoluted subway ride north we shared a couple appetizers at the Boat Basin Café right next to the marina before walking them back to the subway station for their long trek back to their boat. (We were exhausted and we were only a few minutes from our boat). We had a blast visiting again and hope to meet up north somewhere, someday. (Thanks for more great memories Roger and Dorothy – till we meet again).
