The Big Apple, Again

Pretty much deserted here in the US/International check in area just before 6:00 am. Especially the Air Canada counter is pretty pathetic now after they’ve cut back so many flights from YYC lately. But this all made it super quick and easy to check in.

A few days prior, the Aspire lounge in the Transborder concourse just opened their new expansion area: the Aspire/WestJet Garden. It’s a really, really nice space!

While we were in the lounge, our upgrades cleared – woohoo! I have to say, Air Canada’s system works pretty well – I’d been watching the seat map and the only two seats left together, they’d blocked out the ability for others to select those seats – presumably in anticipation that we would get the upgrade processed.

Phil & Sebastian’s recently opened a new cafe in the Transborder area. Not good timing for them. However very nice to finally have a good coffee option at the airport!

Beautiful morning to fly over to Newark.

Just today, Air Canada has also started rolling out free Wi-Fi on the aircraft in their fleet that have an upgraded Internet connectivity system. It was very good.

The Service Director onboard remembered us from a previous flight and was generous with the mimosas.

Ellie enjoyed the free Wi-Fi to watch some nonsense to pass the time.

After holding just north of the New York area – you may have heard in the news recently that Newark in particular has substantial delays and cancellations due to multiple issues with both the airport itself, the airspace, and ATC – we were still right on time.

Here’s downtown Newark beyond the North East Corridor Amtrak line and the PATH train yard just before touchdown.

We took the awful Airtrain over to the railway station and waited about 15 minutes for a NJ Transit train to bring us to New York Penn Station (not the next stop – Penn Station Newark).

Here we are popping up out of Penn Station at 33rd and 7th on a gorgeous spring afternoon!

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed over towards Bryant Park.

And then a bit further on, by Ellie’s request, for our late lunch.

The New York Public Library on 5th Avenue.

We walk a couple more blocks down 5th to pick up our participant packets for a super fun event that we’re doing on Sunday – the Five Boro Bike Tour.

We headed over to Brooklyn for some fantastic pizza and a calzone on a chilly patio. The blankets were appreciated after the sun went down.

Ellie really LOVED the low hanging signs in the New York City Subway system.

The view from this station back towards Manhattan is iconic.

And being an elevated station, the view of downtown Brooklyn is awesome as well.

More sign jumping back in midtown.

This slender, curvaceous building across the street is Aro, a purpose built rental complex.

And looking the other way, here’s our amazing view and one of the reasons we came back to this particular hotel, the Residence Inn. It’s the tallest hotel in the Americas (we were on floor 58 out of 65).

Looking further east still, there’s 30 Rock where hopefully we’ll pay a visit to the rooftop observation deck. The much taller, mostly dark building to the left is the new headquarters of JPMorgan Chase bank, 270 Park Avenue, which is expected to be completed later this year.

Good morning Aro!

This morning we’re down doing a guided tour of the Ground Zero area. It started at St Paul’s Chapel, which is the oldest church building in Manhattan (1766), and was practically unscathed during the 9/11 attacks despite being basically across the street from the Twin Towers. The Bell of Hope in the churchyard was a gift from her sister church in London, UK, after the attacks.

Turning around the other way from the verdant churchyard, is the new One World Trade Center, and the Mural Project at the site of what will hopefully be Two World Trade Center.

Across the street is FDNY Firehouse 10 which hosts a large mural honoring the 343 members of the FDNY that died on September 11, 2001.

In the 9/11 Memorial Site itself, in between the footprints of the original WTC 1 and 2, is the Survivor Tree. This tree had only one surviving branch after the destruction of the day, but is now flourishing and is a symbol of hope and recovery.

Our tour guide, Dana, had a very personal connection as she had a brother working on one of the upper floors of WTC 1 on September 11th and she shared her story of the day with us. The footprints of the original towers are now pools surrounded by bronze parapets with all of the names of the people who died in the attacks at all locations, and she showed us the location of her brother’s name. The white rose in the other name is to signify that person’s birthday; the flowers being provided continuously by the same florist since installation.

After the walking tour of the area, Dana was able to get us into the group entrance bypassing the huge line to get into the museum. It was a very touching and beautiful place. We spent almost two hours in there and could have easily spent more.

Some of the articles on display included the original support columns, damaged pieces of the facade, a piece of the massive antenna on WTC 1, an elevator motor, a damaged fire truck and more.

It was possible to walk all the way around the bases of the original towers.

Very sombre, there was another space called the 9/11 Historical Exhibition. It was recommended only for 12 and up but we tried it. I really would love to see the entire thing, but Ellie understandably found it too distressing so we left after the first station.

We went back up outside to Liberty Park on the south side of the site which has an amazing view.

And then over to the new One WTC where we’ll head to the top.

I thought the elevator to Edge at Hudson Yards was cool. The one for One World Observatory is unreal. As you go up the tower, the video that totally surrounds you changes as the years go by, showing how Lower Manhattan itself has changed over the last 400 years.

The observation deck was pretty empty. Good for us as we got in some great views and pics and didn’t have to jostle with crowds or anything!

Heading back down, we walked through Oculus, the main station house of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub that also contains a Westfield shopping mall. The central skylight of the Oculus is opened to the elements each September 11, between 8:46 am and 10:28 am.

We really needed lunch at this point and so we had more of NYC’s finest dining on offer – McDonald’s on Broadway close to Wall Street. The Frozen Blue Raspberry Fantas really hit the spot.

Going back uptown to rest at the room for a bit, we got a nearly empty W train. Score!! Ellie was impressed with our luck.

We went out for some streetside pizza during rush hour.

The 42 St – Times Square subway station is decorated entirely with ads for the brand new Stranger Things Broadway show.

And next, that’s where we are – our first Broadway show ever at the Marquis Theater! It was a lot of fun and has got to be pushing the limits of special effects and props for live theater. It was a wow!

After the show we headed over to the chaos of Times Square for the best fast food chicken fingers at Raising Cane’s.

And then just soaking in the craziness and all the people.

Every night at 11:57 PM, every single electronic billboard/screen in Times Square is synchronized to the art project of the month in an event called “Midnight Moment”. It was pretty cool as the ambiance of all the screens displaying almost the same image seemed very calming for the moment. In May, it’s “Man Series”.

Saturday morning started out just perfect. Here’s a look at our hotel from Broadway.

A little outing to Brooklyn for me before breakfast.

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge is of course, iconic, and a fun experience, but the Manhattan Bridge pedestrian path definitely has the better view – because you can see the Brooklyn Bridge the entire time.

There was plenty of colorful graffiti both on the bridge itself and on the buildings in the aptly named Two Bridges neighborhood.

After breakfast we headed to the Intrepid Museum – a retired aircraft carrier docked in the Hudson River at 46th St with all sorts of military and aviation goodies.

There’s a submarine, fighter planes, a Lockheed A-12 (the faster sister to the SR-71 Blackbird), and a Concorde.

You can also visit the tower of the carrier to see the various work stations and controls.

All amongst an awesome urban setting.

Also present is the Space Shuttle Enterprise – it never went to space as it was a prototype only equipped for atmospheric travel.

We tried out the G-Force Simulator, not pushing the limits too much for Ellie…

On the way back downtown for lunch, I noticed that one of the new subway cars on the A train had a super informative display, very similar to the subways and trains in Tokyo. Very nice to see!

No signs in here so we’ll find something else to reach for…

I wanted to visit this small place on the Lower East Side for some of the best chicken shawarma around. It didn’t disappoint.

Down the street was the oldest Irish pub in NYC.

Our next stop was Canal Street for souvenirs. In addition to the usual NYC stuff you could get any kind of Trump hat that you wanted.

Another night, another pizza… this time close to the hotel tucked away in a corridor to a subway station. It was really, really good.

Up at the crack of dawn (5:15 for Ellie), we were waiting for the R train at 5:53 am for the big event of the whole weekend today – the Five Boro Bike Tour that we’d picked up our stuff for on Thursday. 1 day, 42 miles of closed streets, 32,000 cyclists… I first discovered this ride on May 5, 2013 when Blanka and I were walking around below the Brooklyn Bridge and we saw hundreds of cyclists riding down a closed street. Here was the scene.

From that moment I knew that I had to do this ride. 11 years and 364 days later, Blanka is gone, but Ellie and I are going to do it and have the best day.

We were renting a tandem bike and had to pick it up at the very bottom of Manhattan to get to the Wave 1 starting point before 7:30. So, here we are riding around my favorite city in the world with my girl, who balked at the tandem bike initially as it was a bit scary, but after about 15 minutes once we found our groove was just loving it.

We’re hidden in the middle here right under the W 42 St sign.

All the way up Manhattan and over into the Bronx (only for a few minutes, sadly), then back down the FDR to the Queensboro Bridge.

We’re on the left side below 270 Park Avenue 😉

We didn’t stop riding until the (almost) halfway point at Astoria Park in Queens. We had some snacks and drinks at the well stocked rest area and then continued on south to Brooklyn.

Where we had our next break in Commodore Barry Park. It was MUCH less busier here as we were now ahead of a lot of people.

I wish I’d been able to see where the photographers were, so Ellie could peek her head out, but it was tough as there were still a lot of cyclists on the route and attention was critical to avoiding a crash.

I didn’t realize it until now, but I almost recreated the photo from 2013 right here!

Heading up on to the normally jammed Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, we headed onwards to the massive Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island.

We made it !!

Ellie requested and deserved a hearty ice cream at the Finish Festival in Fort Wadsworth Park on Staten Island. She hardly complained at all, except when I knocked her over when picking up the long bike to get over a fence at Astoria Park. All she said that was her “sit bones hurt” and she wanted to take rest breaks to stand up when we were going downhill at the end of the bridges. She did an amazing job! I know that there would be others, but around our time, I didn’t see any other kids her age at the finish line.

Sadly, the Finish Festival is where it is because that’s the only place there’s enough space, but there’s still 6.5 km to ride to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal after that. The rain showers that had been impending in the forecast began in earnest a few minutes after we started riding. We were completely drenched by the time we returned the bike at the terminal, but we were both stoked about how awesome the ride was and how well we did! Almost 70 km in NYC and it’s barely lunchtime!

We were treated to the always amazing and free views from the ferry. And a well deserved empty subway car on the 1 train on the way back uptown (South Ferry is the terminal station for the 1, so the car filled up with other cyclists and their bikes within a couple of minutes).

We took a well deserved rest and shower back in the room, and then Ellie really wanted to go to the Squid Game Experience which we’d biked by on 6th Avenue. It was just how it sounds and a lot of fun.

Not only was it fun, I won! (just by pure luck lol)

We were supposed to go to Top of the Rock in the evening but the showers and fog continued. This was the view from our room from after Squid Game to the time we left the next day. But that was OK. We had such an awesome time the rest of the weekend that it didn’t matter.

My last, delicious stop in NYC was The Donut Pub on 14th Street. Best honey cruller ever.

See you next time, New York. We love you as much as ever!