New York Exploration

Monday: (04/29) We prepared to roll. After breakfast, we checked out and got onto Highway I95. We had to divert onto surface roads through Baltimore to avoid a tunnel where LPG tanks are prohibited. Eventually we got back to I95 past the tunnel. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant near the delaware state line. We took the New Jersey Turnpike most of the rest of the way. Our bill at  the exit was $42, Wow! We arrived at our new home, the Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City about 1500. We relaxed the rest of the day. Lou made gnocchi for dinner.

Tuesday: (04/30) Granola and diced apple for breakfast. Lou decided to rest today so Dawn and I were off by ourselves. We walked over to the PATH train station and rode the train to the World Trade Center station. We looked around the memorial site and shared some pizza bread for lunch. It turns out I bought the wrong transit passes. The Translink cards I bought for Dawn and I are not good for New York’s MTA. We needed Metro cards that would have worked for PATH. I tried using several vending machines to get the correct cards and all went through many screens and ended up telling me they couldn't issue the cards. I tried both my usual credit card and my ATM card, all the same. Finally, I tried a different credit card and it finally worked. With our new Metro Cards we were able to finally catch the subway train uptown. We visited the Jewish Braille Institute where Dawn has an account to audio books and she had problems with the account. The librarian was able to get everything working. We walked the streets nearby including walking past the Empire State Building. We then caught a train back to the WTC for dinner before catching the train back to jersey City where our RV park is located.

 

 WTC One on the left. Empire State Building on the right.

 

 WTC Memorial

 

 The survivor tree that fell with the WTC tower and stayed alive. Our lunch from Eataly restaurant.

 

Old wooden escalator on the 7th floor of Macy's. And on the right one of the many street flower planters.

Wednesday: (05/01) Leftovers for breakfast. We weren’t in a hurry today. About 1000 we walked off to the PATH train station and headed over to the World Trade Center. Lou hadn’t seen it so we showed her the memorial pools, the view of the Statue Of Liberty and such. About 1130, we had lunch at the Eataly market again. After lunch we caught the train up to the New York City Library near Grand Central Station. Interesting place, beautiful building. We got to see all the original stuffed animals that the Winnie The Pooh stories are based on. About 1700 we left the library and went to a nearby Panera Bread restaurant for dinner. We then caught a train toward home. We manage to go past our station and had to return to the WTC station, We caught a PATH train, but it was the wrong one and didn’t stop at our station so we got off a station earlier and planned to take the Light Rail train to our neighborhood. We caught a train and we missed our stop. Either it passed by our station, we didn’t hear the announcement or the name announced was the proper name? We caught a return train and the doors closed before we could get to the door to get off. So, we got off a taion past ours the other direction. We walked back home from there. Enough fun. We were home about 2100. The day was colder with occasional mist.

 

 Eataly market and Library reading room.

 

 Liberty Harbor Marina and lobby of NYC Library.

 

 NYC Main Library.

The Winnie The Pooh inspirational stuffed toys.

Thursday: (05/02) Lou made bacon and eggs with fried potatoes for breakfast.  We headed to to lunch in uptown Manhattan about 1100. We caught the light rail train about two blocks from our RV park. It took us across Jersey City where we caught a PATH train into New York to the 23rd Street station. It was only a couple of blocks from there to the Eataly where we met our friends Egino, Annette and their daughter Joana. Lou used to be the daughters teachers aide. The restaurant is across from the Flatiron building, the odd triangular building at 5th and 23rd street. After lunch we caught the train home for a short day. Lou takes care of me when I’m sick. Back home we took the jeep back to the post office and picked up our mail package. We had peaches and cottage cheese for dinner and Lou and Dawn kept my hot toddy glass full.

 

 Flatiron Building on left, Lou, Joana, Egino, and Anette at our lunch at Eataly.

 

 Madison Square Park.

 

Interesting to look over a Home Depot in the city.

Friday: (05/03) Lou and I headed off to our closest Walmart in Bayonne, NJ, about 5.5 miles away. We did our grocery shopping and got drinking water. In our RV, we used filtered water for cooking and drinking. We carry 10 gallons. We usually refill the bottles in Walmart or other vending machines. This Walmart had no refill machine and we haven’t seen any so we got new bottles. Seems like they would have lots of machines available because the water here is lousy. We returned with our supplies and had breakfast of leftovers. We then drove to the other side of the water inlet here at the marina to Liberty State Park. We caught the ferry over to Ellis Island and then to the Statue Of Liberty. We caught the 1240 ferry out and returned on the next to the last ferry at 1640, nowhere near enough time to see things. Since my cold is worst, I’ll be staying hoe tomorrow while Lou and Dawn return to the islands again for more looking. We had lunch on Ellis Island in the cafe. On the way home Lou stopped to pick up my dinner, some hot and sour soup which I use medicinally when I have a cold. A misty foggy cool day.

 

 The old railroad station near Ellis Island. A back view of the statue.

 

 The Statue Of Liberty and view of the cities.

 

 Ellis Island entrance station.

Nice to see my family fort.

Saturday: (05/04) Soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off to the islands again. Lou wanted be to take the day off at home. So I relaxed and uploaded photos to the blog, a long delayed task. I had leftover casserole and hot and sour soup for lunch.

 

Our campsite here at Liberty Harbor RV Park and the moving boat crane.

Lou and Dawn spent the day at Ellis Island. Lots of displays to read and rooms to see. Their lunch was at the cafe, immigrants lunch. Leftover casserole and asparagus for dinner.


Sunday: (05/05) We had heavy rain all day. We also decided to spend the day at home. My cold is mostly gone now. Lou made a nice sausage hash and eggs for breakfast. We relaxed and watched TV much of the day. We started the recent season of Bosch on Amazon. Leftover casserole with asparagus for lunch. After we finally took showers during a lull in the storm, I dumped the RV tanks while Lou did the wash. About 1900 we dashed off to the Zeppelin Hall Beer Garden about 4 blocks away. We drove over due to the rain. I had a great roast beef nacho and Lou and Dawn shared some BBQ meats. We had plenty of leftovers. I admit I’ve never had a German nacho before. It was only today on Cinco De Mayo. We have extended our stay here another two days.

Monday: (05/06) Leftovers for breakfast. We caught the light rail train to Newport Station to catch the PATH train into New York to the 33rd Street Station then the #1 NY Subway trail to 66th Street. A short walk to Our Destination the American Folk Art Museum. However we decide to have lunch first. Lou and Dane got coffee, Lou bought a gyro from a street truck, I got Pizza at a shop, and Dawn got an eggplant roll. Then we returned to the museum to discover they are closed don Monday’s. We then took a walk in Central Park and the nearby area. About 1630 we started our return trip home. We still don’t get back until about 1830. Nicely crowded trains during the rush hour. Lou made Chili baked potatoes for dinner.

 

 

Tuesday: (05/07) Granola and banana for breakfast. We were off for our last day in New York. We caught the PATH train to the WTC and visited the Farmers Market in the Oculus at the WTC. We then caught the “C” train to Brooklyn. We walked around the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. We had lunch at the Peas and Pickles Market/Deli. We then walked downtown to the Fulton Mall. We then caught the “F” train out to Coney Island. We walked the boardwalk and looked around the area. Most everything was closed but a movie crew seemed to be setting up to film at several locations. We had dinner at Applebees before catching the “F” and “R” trains back to the WTC and home on PATH arrived around 2130. When we arrived in Jersey City and came out of the subway we found it raining. The rest of the day was perfect.

 

 

 

Exploring The Washington Mall

Thursday: (04/18) Breakfast at the RV Park’s Star Cafe. We drove over to take the train downtown agan. We caught the Washington Mall circulator bus for a tour of the mall. We then had lunch at the Department Of Agriculture employee cafeteria. We also looked at a little of the Smithsonian at their visitor center and walked some gardens and say some sculptures here and there. A lot of walking and he day was gone. We were back home on a rush hour train full of people at about 1745. It was a wonderful day today. We noticed the pool at the RV park was full when we got home.

The glam cabins at Cherry Hill Park.

 

A piece of art by the Indian Museum and the Smithsonian Visitor Center.

Friday: (04/19) Leftover PBJ English muffins for breakfast. Because of the severe storm warnings for today we decided to stay home. Mostly relaxed at home. Lou and I did do a shopping run. We got gas at Costco, visited the Post Office, and shopped at Walmart. We all went out to the China Buffet for a very late lunch/dinner. In the evening we took a walk down to the cafe and watch some TV as the rains increased. I ended up walking back to get the car in the rain. I still doubt the lesson to bring an umbrella was learned.

Saturday: (04/20) Leftover rice for breakfast. We caught the train down to the Washington Mall again. We looked at the extremely long lines at the Natural History Museum and decided to go to the American History Museum instead. A much shorter line. We stayed until we were thrown out at 1730 and only did 1.5 of the 3 floors. Lunch at the museum was exciting by being one of our most expensive meals ever and old a slight cut above 7 Eleven food. We then caught the Circulator bus over to the Jefferson Monument and enjoyed the day dwindling toward sunset. About 2000 we caught the train back home. Seafood and lettuce salads for dinner. 

 

 

 

Sunday: (04/21) Breakfast  at the Star Cafe in the park, again. We decided to take a day off today. It is a beautiful sunny day. I wanted to check out the nearby Greenbelt National Park. It’s only a few miles from our current site. It turns to be quite nice. If we return after our New York visit, we may have a much cheaper home. We also visited a nearby mall. We got home about 1400 and I washed the RV and Jeep at our site. Some chicken salad with chips and hummus for lunch. We then played a game of miniature golf on the park course. Chili size for dinner. 

Monday: (04/22) Granola and banana for breakfast. We were off to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum this morning. We rode the train again. We packed sandwiches for lunch. These museums have rather expensive food. Again, we only saw about half the museum. This makes the third half tour, zoo, American History and now Natural History. These things all take time. We visited the Union Station for dinner then caught the train home.

 

Tuesday: (04/23) Granola and apple for breakfast. We caught the train to town again this time to the National Archives. After looking at the declaration of independence and etc we went over to the National Botanical Conservatory.. We then walked past the congressional buildings and past the Library of Congress. We caught the train back from the Capitol South Station. We packed our ham sandwiches for lunch and enjoyed them at the Archives. Dinner at th China Buffet near home in College Park, MD. 

 

Wednesday: (04/24) Granola and apple for breakfast. Again took the train down to Washington DC to the L’Enfant station to visit the Air And pac Museum. Always interesting but not as good as our previous visit. Seems like most of the plans that were there are gone to their other museum. There was a good display of both US and USSR missiles and space technology. This is the first museum we were able to see all of before closing. We actually left 30 minutes before closing. When we got back to College Park we stopped at a Walmart on the way home. Ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Lou made macaroni and cheese with asparagus for dinner. 
Thursday: (04/25) We decided to take the day off. Dawn found an interesting restaurant nearby for breakfast. Definitely Southern home cooking. Mine was chicken with eggs and sauce on biscuits. Dawn had shrimp and grits. Lou had grits and a shrimp salad. We took a walk at the Prince Charles Place Mall. Lou’s leg has been bothering her so we spent the rest of the day visiting Kaiser for a checkup. We had dinner at the Golden Corral Buffet. At home we did the laundry and Lou and Dawn soaked in the hot tub.

Friday: (04/26) Lou made hamburger with eggs and potatoes for  breakfast. We caught the train into ton to the Library Of Congress. Nice tour by Kate. There was a lot  more to be seen here than I expected. We had our lunch after the tour in the basement ending room (employee lunch room. No cafe in this building. We finished up about 1630. We caught the train to the Clarendon station. There was a Cheesecake Factory there and today being my birthday, I wanted a Shepherds Pie and cheesecake for dinner. Even though today was stormy, we managed without rain coats. Just another possible tornado warning. We got home a little after 2000. 

 

 

 

 

Saturday: (04/27) Leftover Shepherd’s pie for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were worn out and took the day off. I headed off for a walk-about in Washington DC. We had clear skies but it was windy. In fact, on my walk I was almost blown away several times. I got off at the U Street station and walked out Florida street past the capitol. I then caught a bus further out and then back into Downtown Ii walked H Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. I was really disappointed at the fact it is so different from our last visit here. The streets within one block of the White House are now off limits. I ended up at Foggy Bottom and caught the Metro trains back to College Park. I had lunch near the capitol at a Whole Foods. I got home about 1700. Leftovers for dinner at home. At home I took a nap which lasted until about 2200. Nice day.

 

 

Sunday: (04/28) Granola and diced apple and bacon for breakfast, We  packed our lunch and drove over to the Metro Station. We walked past the Ford Theater but the line was too long so we just continued over the the Natural History Museum again to finish the second floor exhibits. We almost finished the second floor before they closed. We walked back and caught the train home. On the drive from the station we stopped at Whole Foods for some filtered water refills and for dinner at the Chinese Buffet. This was our last day here, we’re off to New York tomorrow morning.