Vacation #7: On to NYC...and and update on current life
On Tuesday morning we packed up and left the Super 8. Somewhere between there and the apartment, Tim realized he did not have his laptop. We rushed back to the motel, wondering whether they would let us back into our room, whether the staff had already cleaned it, and if they had, whether we would ever see the laptop again. But all the worrying was for nothing. They sent us directly to the room where the laptop was exactly where Tim remembered leaving it.
We met at Joseph and Becca's apartment for breakfast. We had waffles with white sauce and blueberries, leftover blueberry pie, leftover apple tart, and various other wonderful breakfast and non-breakfast items. Chuck ate his leftover ice cream.
Then Joseph took us to the train station. Here was another minor change in plans. We knew about this one before we left Newton, but it didn't affect much for us. A bridge between White River Junction and New York City was being repaired so the train no longer went the full route. We rode on a very nice bus with a quite friendly train conductor supervising our ride. We were even given free snacks, which we would have paid too much for, had we purchased them on the train itself. The bus took us to Springfield, Massachusettes. Chuck and Tim took a quick walk to get Tim some lunch because he was a lot more hungry than the rest of us. Becca, Chuck, and I munched on bagels, cheese, and dried fruit while we waited for the train to arrive.
We had discussed our hotel location several times. Part of the rationale for choosing Hotel 31 was its proximity to the train station---only four blocks away according to the hotel web site. The other reasons were that we knew someone who had enjoyed that hotel a couple of years ago, and that it was the most reasonably priced hotel we could find that was also close to the train station. We thought it would be challenging to get our luggage on the bus or subway, and I had not remembered that a taxi was an option.
Chuck looked up the hotel and the train station on google maps and the map directions stated that the hotel was nearly a mile away from the train station. How could that be?
Both bits of information were correct, however. As many people are already aware, the blocks are very long and narrow in NYC. We were four blocks away and we were walking in the long block direction, so it was nearly a mile. Fortunately, this was our very first time in NYC. As we walked those four blocks, we crossed 5th Avenue, Park Avenue, and Madison Avenue. As we crossed one of those avenues, we looked down the street and saw the lit tower of the Chrysler Building directly north of us. It was hard to think about how far we were walking when we were seeing things we'd only heard about all our lives.
We found our hotel, checked in and ordered a roll-away bed for Tim, and then did some walking around the neighborhood. We found the closest subway station where we purchased 7-day passes---a great deal for sightseeing in NYC. The picture above was taken sometime during our walk.
The hotel web site had boasted 15 restaurants within a one block radius of the hotel, so we also wanted to find a place for supper. Just a couple of doors down from the hotel was Vezzo's Thin Crust Pizza. We looked no farther. I did not take pictures there, but here is a link to their photo page so you can see for yourself. Scroll over the photos and they will enlarge for you. Tim had a small meat lovers pizza. Chuck and Becca and I shared a large pizza with roasted baby eggplant, portabello mushrooms, and marinated pork. The pizza was delicious.
We went back to our room to get out our computers and use the free wifi to plan our next day's activities. And...it was time to adjust our plans again. Apparently the wifi was not very good in our room. So we made our plans using tourist fliers and booklets we had picked up in the lobby of the hotel. Most of the fliers had maps that included subway routes, so we managed to formulate a plan that we were looking forward to by the time we were ready for sleep. While we looked through fliers and planned, the tv was on, and Becca and Tim watched the end of Scott Pilgrim. Then we all watched most of Avatar. Well, I didn't. I hate the battle scenes so I mostly read through guide books during the second half of Avatar.
An update on current life---
The weather has finally cooled off and sweater weather has begun. Toward that end, I quickly finished the sweater I worked on last winter.
This is the best I can do at getting the whole sweater in a photo I take myself. For those of you who use Ravelry, I used the Shalom cardigan, recalculated the instructions to match my guage, added long sleeves and cables, and made the buttons go all the way down to the bottom of the sweater, instead of just at the top.
This is just a close up of the ribbing, a twisted rib stitch that really makes the ribbing pop out more distinctly than a normal rib stitch.
Close up of the cables.
In other knitting news, I've begun a sweater for Luke, top down and knit in one piece. He was over today and we tried on the yoke and I think it's going to be great. He's very excited about it.
Also, Andrea and I went to Wichita to choose yarn for their baby blanket. That was fun and I can't wait to start on that as well.
This is the weekend we usually spend at the bluegrass festival. We had decided not to go at all, but during the night on Thursday we both couldn't sleep. We were thinking about going to Winfield. We decided to go for the afternoon and evening on Friday. We took Luke with us. It was cold and misty most of the day and we left the festival at about 8:30pm instead of staying until 10:30, as we had planned. Luke was a trooper, never complained, enjoyed meeting new kids, snuggled when he got chilly, and was generally just great to be around.
And finally, a spoiler. The final and biggest plan that changed, as most of you know, was that Tim did not end up in Bolivia for Radical Journey. He is heading for Paraguay, after having spent over a week in Buenos Aires. His blog is BoliviaBlog 2.0 and you can read more about it there.
We met at Joseph and Becca's apartment for breakfast. We had waffles with white sauce and blueberries, leftover blueberry pie, leftover apple tart, and various other wonderful breakfast and non-breakfast items. Chuck ate his leftover ice cream.
Then Joseph took us to the train station. Here was another minor change in plans. We knew about this one before we left Newton, but it didn't affect much for us. A bridge between White River Junction and New York City was being repaired so the train no longer went the full route. We rode on a very nice bus with a quite friendly train conductor supervising our ride. We were even given free snacks, which we would have paid too much for, had we purchased them on the train itself. The bus took us to Springfield, Massachusettes. Chuck and Tim took a quick walk to get Tim some lunch because he was a lot more hungry than the rest of us. Becca, Chuck, and I munched on bagels, cheese, and dried fruit while we waited for the train to arrive.
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| Our one train photo, Tim and Becca. Notice that there were outlets at every seat, an improvement over our 2009 train trip to Portland. |
Chuck looked up the hotel and the train station on google maps and the map directions stated that the hotel was nearly a mile away from the train station. How could that be?
Both bits of information were correct, however. As many people are already aware, the blocks are very long and narrow in NYC. We were four blocks away and we were walking in the long block direction, so it was nearly a mile. Fortunately, this was our very first time in NYC. As we walked those four blocks, we crossed 5th Avenue, Park Avenue, and Madison Avenue. As we crossed one of those avenues, we looked down the street and saw the lit tower of the Chrysler Building directly north of us. It was hard to think about how far we were walking when we were seeing things we'd only heard about all our lives.
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| Yes, that IS the Chrysler Building behind Becca! |
The hotel web site had boasted 15 restaurants within a one block radius of the hotel, so we also wanted to find a place for supper. Just a couple of doors down from the hotel was Vezzo's Thin Crust Pizza. We looked no farther. I did not take pictures there, but here is a link to their photo page so you can see for yourself. Scroll over the photos and they will enlarge for you. Tim had a small meat lovers pizza. Chuck and Becca and I shared a large pizza with roasted baby eggplant, portabello mushrooms, and marinated pork. The pizza was delicious.
We went back to our room to get out our computers and use the free wifi to plan our next day's activities. And...it was time to adjust our plans again. Apparently the wifi was not very good in our room. So we made our plans using tourist fliers and booklets we had picked up in the lobby of the hotel. Most of the fliers had maps that included subway routes, so we managed to formulate a plan that we were looking forward to by the time we were ready for sleep. While we looked through fliers and planned, the tv was on, and Becca and Tim watched the end of Scott Pilgrim. Then we all watched most of Avatar. Well, I didn't. I hate the battle scenes so I mostly read through guide books during the second half of Avatar.
An update on current life---
The weather has finally cooled off and sweater weather has begun. Toward that end, I quickly finished the sweater I worked on last winter.
This is the best I can do at getting the whole sweater in a photo I take myself. For those of you who use Ravelry, I used the Shalom cardigan, recalculated the instructions to match my guage, added long sleeves and cables, and made the buttons go all the way down to the bottom of the sweater, instead of just at the top.
In other knitting news, I've begun a sweater for Luke, top down and knit in one piece. He was over today and we tried on the yoke and I think it's going to be great. He's very excited about it.
Also, Andrea and I went to Wichita to choose yarn for their baby blanket. That was fun and I can't wait to start on that as well.
This is the weekend we usually spend at the bluegrass festival. We had decided not to go at all, but during the night on Thursday we both couldn't sleep. We were thinking about going to Winfield. We decided to go for the afternoon and evening on Friday. We took Luke with us. It was cold and misty most of the day and we left the festival at about 8:30pm instead of staying until 10:30, as we had planned. Luke was a trooper, never complained, enjoyed meeting new kids, snuggled when he got chilly, and was generally just great to be around.
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| Luke is laughing because he wants to have his eyes shut in all my pics. |
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| but I won by pretending to put my camera away |
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| Mint oreo cookies and juice packs were the favorite snacks of the day. |
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| Yes, after a record breaking number of days over 100 degrees I needed three shirts, a sweater, a wool cowl around my neck, and a woolen hat to stay warm at Stage I in the evening. I also had Luke on my lap and a light blanket doubled up over us. |
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