Day 9 - Manhattan Part 2

Some pictures just have to be taken and shared. This would have been better as the dog walker was walking towards us but I was so mesermized by this person walking about 10 dogs that all I could do was look. By the time I activated my camera they were past us. Oh yes, you can hire a dog taxi to take your dog to be groomed. I guess if you can afford a $25 million apartment, you can afford to hire a taxi for your dog.This is the famous St. Patrick's Cathedral. It does seem strange at first to find an beautiful old building in between modern skyscrapers.

Rockerfeller Center was getting a color splash today with all these beautiful flowers being planted. It was literally trucks of flowers being put out. But isn't winter just around the corner?

This is a closer view. The skating rink will be activated later this month until March or April. The flags were all out today because it was a special firemen's day with tons of kids here to see fire trucks and the firemen.

OK, here is another picture that you just have to take. I forget what the building is that the men are delivering to (1st Mercantile?) but anyway those are bags of money. I wonder if I could get a sample??

Day 9 - Manhattan

Oh gosh, how do you summarize 10 hours of touring the island of Manhattan. I took over 100 pictures and probably can't remember 10% of what I was told by our tour guide today. We have never seen so many people in one day - probably at least a million. OK, let's give you a taste of NYC:

We had a 5 1/2 hour tour scheduled as part of the package we purchased for our stay here. We had to take about a 20 minute walk a couple of blocks past Times Square to pick up our tour bus.

We passed this sign and I couldn't resist taking a shot of it. Tomorrow we will be in the theatre to see Phantom.

This is The Dakota and the spot at which John Lennon was shot. It is really a beautiful older building. We would love to live there but the last appartment to sell went for $25 million - just 24.8 million over our limit. Darn!

Central Park, across the street, has an area now designated Strawberry Fields after Lennon. In it is this beautiful mosaic that was given by Italy after his death. BTW - Strawberry Fields has no strawberry plants but lots of beautiful trees and other plants. Lining all the walks are benches that you can place a plaque on for $7,500 - that puts your bench in the park but you can't take it home or even sleep on it at night. (Much more to come.)

Day 8 - Meals

OK - we couldn't resist doing a little "Grandma Betty" blog. For of the day whenever my parents were on the road. I won't do that to you but must mention two.

In Albany we ate dinner at Delmonico's. Absolutely outstanding food buthose who never knew my mother - when she traveled we would have to get a meal by meal review t the waitress didn't warn us about one thing - the portions! We ordered lasagna and after ordering we were reading the walls where charactures of famous people are drawn with captions. One said something to the effect of "We don't compromise for size in our portions." Well they meant it - our lasagna pieces were big enough to feed three people each. It measured at least 9 inches by 4 inches and at least 2 1/2 inches high. We are used to Olive Garden portions and this is at least 3 of them or more.

Below is our first NYC meal at 5 Napkin Hamburger - yes an upscale hamburger joint. Jamie, our bellman at the hotel, knew what he was talking about. - Never had a $20 hamburger before but what a burger. Called a "Hamburger for Two" - it could have fed more. Look closely at the plate - we have only eaten half of the burger. It looked like a small mountain when it came. Flavor? It was outstanding and the company at the nearby table was enjoyable too. We had to walk 5 blocks to get there (35th street) but it wasn't really very far. We must have passed 20 places to eat in that short stroll down 8th Avenue.

Day 8 - Staybridge Suites Hotel

We chose to stay in NYC at the Staybridge Suites Times Square during our visit to the Big Apple. It is one 40th Street between 8th and 9th. That mean we are just a 10 min. walk from Times Square. The hotel is very new and not like a typical big city hotel - there is actually space in our room. Here is the entertainment center with a 35 in flat screen TV with every kind of connection you can imagine.

King sized bed which is really comfortable. View? Well across the way is another hotel and over the tops of the surrounding buildings you can see the upper part of several places.

This is actually an extended stay hotel. It comes with a full refrigerator, stove, dishes, microwave. A regular full kitchen.

The bathroom is even well designed and filled with very plush towels. Just love this place.

Day 8 - West Point

Not the greatest weather to travel. At least this time it wasn't so heavy but it is definitely cooler. With the rain and a time crunch as we wanted to be in to the city before the rush hour so we could only do one thing and chose the one hour tour with just two stops.

The first stop was the Presbyterian Chapel is a beautiful church.

There are dozens of stained glass panes like this one. Each cost $300 and different classes in West Point have bought a panel as a graduation present. (Often they are bought for older classes who didn't have the chance to purchase one.

Here is the stained glass behind the alter. This picture doesn't do it justice.

This is the chapel looking back from the alter.

One pew is roped off and a candle is burned each day to recognize those lost in action who are MIAs or POWs.

This shot shows classrooms with the chapel behind. The green in the forground is the Parade Gounds where the cadets march. No one is allowed to step on that grass except cadets. I thought about it but wasn't about to get sent to the brig.

The location of West Point isn't an accident. It is at the narrowest part of the Hudson River, and the Fort was built here to stop the British from traveling up the Hudson and cutting the colonies in half. Washington had the perfect solution for this. They built a 65 ton chain and strung it across the river - this kept the British to the south..

Day 7 - Cooperstown - Baseball Hall of Fame

Cooperstown is a relaxing hour and a half from nowhere (in this case Albany) through beautiful rolling land. It was enjoyable to drive the highways here. They aren't as crowded as in California. People drive the speed limit - the Highway Patrol enforces the speed limit and the drivers generally obey.

Now we were here on October 3rd so we weren't in the real tourist season of the year but the place was crowded and parking was hard to find. We asked about what it is like in the summer and the natives would only say "crazy." OK, so a life-time dream is about to come true. The size of the Hall of Fame isn't really that big but it can take hours to go through it all. It is a lot more than just the plaques. I have plenty more pictures than we will post here. (Oh, yes, if you are a Yankee fan you will be in heaven here. There is just a little home town bias here.)

I have a lot of pictures but I feel this is memorable as this is the oldest existing baseball ever used in a real game. Used back in 1854 - that is 156 years ago.

Ask me who my all-time favorite player is and I would tell you #4 - Duke Snider - center fielder for the Booklyn and LA Dodgers. I actually met him in Tucson as a youngster and have an autographed picture of his. The above picture is full of momentos of his career.

Did Mom have fun? I actually think she enjoyed this - especially when she ran into a way to get back to Wrigley Field. You name it and they have it here. From Abbott and Costello doing "Who's on First" to tons of baseballs, equipment, pictures, and on and on. In fact they can only show a tiny portion of all that they do have. They can only display 10% of the things they own.


I'll end our tour of the Hall of Fame with this picture. Look at it closely and see if you can find what is wrong here - besides me pretending to catch bare handed. BTW - the last major leaguer to play without a glove played in the 1890's.

Day 7 - James Fenimore Cooper Museum - Cooperstown

Cooperstown has much more than the Baseball Hall of Fame. It has crowds, congestion, no parking, and other sites like the James Fenimore Cooper Museum on the property owned by James' father. It is a mile or so north of Cooperstown so you can actually park here. Right behind it is Lake Ostego and to the south and across the street is a beautiful golf course with rolling fairways and lush green everywhere.


Above are views of the front of the museum, the changing foliage on the grounds and from the back pavillion - the view of Lake Ostego.