Goin' Road Trippin'

Empire State Building

10/16/2022.

I first saw the Empire State Building on tv as a child because of the movie King Kong. I wanted to actually go there after watching sleepless in Seattle.

Giant King Kong hands you can pose in.. Mitch was trying to save me

They have a video on the ceiling of the elevator showing it getting made as you go up

Actual picture taken when they we’re building the Empire State Building

Our first view of the city from the Empire State Building from the 80th floor

There are three levels..the first is the 80th, it is enclosed and not what I’d envisioned after seeing sleepless in Seattle. The next one is the 86th and that is the one from the movie!

The binoculars are free to use when you get up there

Just some of the crowd at the Empire State Building

To go to the top – 102nd story, it costs an additional $33 per person. Since our time is limited, we opted to see the city from the top and went to the 102nd story.

New York, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Jersey City

The beautiful lobby at the Empire State Building

After we left the Empire State Building we made our way to Times Square! We were not looking forward to the 20 minute walk to Times Square as our bodies were hurting already and we saw these guys sitting with their bikes pulling little chariots behind them offering rides. We looked at each other and said, “sure, why not” I asked how much and I could’ve swore he said $1 a minute and I thought to myself, we’ll, that’s not bad.

We arrive and he says,” ok, that’s $78.00” and my jaw drops, I say, “what? How? It’s a dollar a minute?” And he say’s “no, it’s $7.99 a minute.” And he points to this little sign on the side showing the price! “Oh my gosh are you kidding me? No way!” So he offers a little discount.. ugh the cost of being a tourist, they see ya comin a mile away.

The city sky from the center of Times Square

Got a delicious slice of pizza at Ray’s Pizza

We then headed more north towards Grand Central Station

The first glimpse of Grand Central Station (fyi- it’s only for trains, not subways.. I assumed it would be both)

I’m thinking half of the people were here to see it and the other half were actual travelers

Can you imagine how many people have looked at this clock over all the years

We leave Grand Central Station and begin to head back to catch the subway. After walking just a block we come upon hippopotamus’s.

Can she be any cuter! I just wanna give her a hug

Best juice drink ever.. as it should be since it cost $10

As we head back to the subway to get “home” to New Jersey for the night

If you haven’t notice, a lot of my pictures are tilted and crooked. That wasn’t on purpose, and I didn’t even realize it till days later as I write this. The tourist in me was exited to see so many things, but boy was I spent. Therefore crooked pics. But hey, been there, seen that.. check check.

9/11 memorial

10/15/2022 We all remember the day, where we were and the devastating heartbreak. To be where so much loss, death and ultimately the resilience of the American spirit is defined, brought back all the emotions of that day. I share this post for anyone who may not be able to make it to New York. I posted the plaques describing the photo above.

An officer and his K-9 working at the 9/11 memorial

The cross at ground zero that we all remember seeing, the one that reminded us to keep the faith during the aftermath, is in the middle area of the museum and they don’t allow photos.

Scooters, Starbucks and Subways in NYC

10/15/2022 we made our way to NYC. Let me tell ya, them-there PATH subways are packed with people! Mitch and I decided to take the scooters. Getting off and on a with more than your own two feet is a challenge. People have no patience or tolerance, you gotta get out of the way or get ran over.

The PATH subway system from New Jersey city will take you to the One World Trade Center, (also called the Oculus transportation hub.) Navigating back up to street level was a challenge in itself. (Just keep going up) but again mind you we had 50lb scooters. This is Mitch trying to find our way out of the building after we arrived.

This is in front of the one world observatory

Once we arrived to New York we wanted Starbucks, but where to find it? Siri told us it was there but we couldn’t find it.. finally we saw someone drinking one and they explained it was down below inside the building.

Downtown NYC (the one moment there wasn’t a person)

We got our coffees and now need to find a place to lock up the scooters. We look left, then right, but no bike racks in sight. I suggest up a street, so Mitch heads that way. As I try to hold my coffee and lift my scooter from the sidewalk down to the road from the curb, I see a cop car turn around towards me, and I don’t want to jay walk. I hesitated to continue across the road having to lift my scooter down off the curb with my drink, so I begin to turn the scooter away from the ledge of the road. In doing so, I trip myself up and completely fall backwards, with my scooter and my coffee onto the sidewalk. Of course all of this is in slow motion and as I realize my surroundings, I notice a huge line of people waiting to get into a building, and they are all looking at me. I’m still on the ground and a young man runs over to check on me, asks if I’m ok, I say, “oh yeah, thanks, I’m alright, I was just trying to save my coffee.” He then asks me again , “are you sure you’re ok?” As he helps me up from the ground. I tell him, “I’m fine, but thank you.” I think how sweet he was to be so kind, and then I had to laugh at what I must’ve looked like. When Mitch looks behind him once across the road, I’m already on my feet and he sees the guy helping lift my scooter up not knowing I’d had fallen.

We also rode across the Brooklyn Bridge

There are separate paths for bikes cars and walking

The Brooklyn Bridge is the place to buy souvenirs.
AMAZING PRICES!

After hours of touristing, tumbling and direction rumblings we both had to go!

If you eat and drink too much along the way, you’ll have to look for a restaurant in hopes they have a bathroom. Dunkin’ doughnuts did not. This diner was nice enough let us use the restroom

The view of New York from New Jersey as we head back to Harvey.

We live to drink coffee another day..

The Statue of Liberty

9//14/2022 I can’t believe I am actually writing to say we’ve seen Lady Liberty! To be here, and to share this with you all is more than I could’ve ever dreamed of.

We started our day leaving at 9 for a 9:30 security check in. First, Siri took us to a ship repair spot and we had to ask for directions, then scooted to another location to a little yellow boat and again, it was the wrong spot. Thankfully, Mitch doesn’t have an issue with asking for directions when Siri gets us all turned around.

The Central railroad of New Jersey’s Terminal

If you decide to see the Statue of Liberty from New Jersey, just route yourself to the central railroad of New Jersey Terminal

I drew an arrow pointing to the location you would need to catch the Ferry

New York City from the dock waiting for the ferry

The ride is only about 10 minutes and the first stop is Ellis Island. You can either get off and go through the National museum of immigration or stay in and go to the statue. We opted to get off, and catch a later boat.

The first thing we did was walk around, and I had to touch the top of the torch

This was where people would come in and have to wait to be processed through before coming to America

We learned a great deal about how hard it was for people who traveled so far to pursue the American dream and that at times it became a nightmare, or would not be allowed in.

All of their earthy possessions in a suitcase

Not everyone chose to come. Slave ships.

We caught the ferry at 11:40 to see the Statue of Liberty.

We thought that our pass allowed us to go up halfway inside of the statue but it didn’t. So here’s what we now know.. the island is good size with a few buildings and a restaurant. There are different types of reservations you can make; one is onto the island, another is where you can go halfway up inside of the statue called the pedestal pass and then there is the crown that you can also book online. We found out yesterday that the crown had been reopened quite recently (it was closed in 2020 since the pandemic) and it was booked out into mid November when we looked into getting tickets.