New York City - May 3 - 8, 2015

When I was a freshman in college one of my best friends was from Brooklyn. When she talked about growing up in NYC it seemed light years away from Marshall, Minn. She lived in a rowhouse, with her parents and brother, and her grandmother lived on the other side.  Since then I have always wanted to visit NYC, finally I made it!  I participated in a Road Scholar tour called Five Days Five Boroughs.. The five boroughs (listed because I'll forget if  don't write them down):  Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens. Instead of bringing my camera I decided to use my phone as a camera, a decision I have regretted. The first day we visited Brooklyn and I forgot my phone so have no photos of Brooklyn.  A fellow Road Scholar is going to email me her pictures, so those will be added later.  Brooklyn was one of my favorite places!

Most every neighborhood we visited had rowhouses, the width of a front door and two windows. Here are pictures of several from different areas of the city.

Look closely...someone has a sense of humor!

According to our guide, these buildings have no elevators or central air, and in a historic district no window air conditioners are allowed. The woman who owned the rowhouse pictured below took us on a walk around her neighborhood. I couldn't get the right picture because of traffic, so had to take a couple. She and her husband use the bottom two floors and rent out each of the top two floors as one bedroom apartments. It was just appraised at $2.5 million!

I was surprised at the amount of green space NYC has.  We visited Central Park, where these photos were taken.

This is a large, maybe 10x15 in-ground memorial for John Lennon
in Central Park across from the Dakota Building, where Lennon lived.

An old abandoned railway that ran above street level was converted to green space and is now called the High Line. It contains perennials and grasses, annuals, and small shrubs and trees. The old railway line is still visible, as seen in this picture.

While we were walking the High Line we could see this artistic grafiti.  It's kind of hard to see, but it's the iconic post WW II picture of the
returning sailer kissing a girl.

Any building more than seven stories tall is required to have a water tower, with some of the water available for fighting fires. Once I knew of the rule, I seemed to see water towers everywhere! Count seven in this photo.



We stayed at a wonderful, old art deco hotel in midtown Manhattan called The New Yorker.
It was a couple blocks from Macy's, so shopper that I am I was obligated to check out Macy's (largest in the world). Sadly, I didn't find anything to buy,instead took a picture of their neat old wooden escalator..

I suppose no trip to NYC is complete without a photo of the Statue of Liberty. I took this from the Staten Island ferry. It was misty and the ferry was moving, so this isn't a very good shot.

 

On the other hand, this picture of southern Manhattan (financial district) is one of my favorite, with One World Trade Center clearly visible.

These pictures of the financial district were taken from.the corner of Wall St. and Broadway, a pretty impressive area. The old buildings mixed in with the new was a surprise.

Statue of Geo. Washington 

Trinity Church

 

Wall Street Stock Exchange

9/11 Memorial pool

A sad but beautiful sight is the 9/11 Memorial. There will not be twin towers in the future, instead there is One World Trade Center, currently the tallest building in NYC and visible from throughout the area. It was hard to get a good photo of the memorial pool and names. The names are not listed in alpha order, but rather in groups of people who knew one another, for example, people who worked together are listed together.

We traveled almost exclusively by subway. I absolutely cannot wrap my brain around riding the subway; it's like a huge maze. Give me a car with a GPS, please! (Okay, maybe a car in NYC isn't such a good idea.) Amazingly, there is subway station art! Here are a couple mosaics.

What I learned about New York City: * Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the country, with 46% of its residents being born outside the US.*Subway riders are extremely considerate, often offering their seats to us when the subway was crowded. *That said, during rush hour it was walker beware on the sidewalks! The most dangerous were the bike riders, who didn't seem to watch out for anyone but themselves. *I don't think I saw one obese person, probably due to all the walking people do. *Most New Yorkers do not own a car. One of our guides has lived in NYC his entire life and has never owned/driven a car. *I don't own enough black clothes to live in New York. *Some areas definitely have a bad odor and the constant noise would eventually drive me crazy. And yes, I saw a few homeless people and beggars. *On the other hand, there were many parks and quiet areas, lots of window boxes with blooming flowers and street lamps surrounded by mini-flower gardens. 

A photo journey through New York City wouldn't be complete without a picture of the Empire State Building, which, like One World Trade Center, is visible from most everywhere. Our last night we took an evening stroll through Greenwich Village, where we found this wonderful little park and I took my last picture.

The Empire State Bldg. as seen from a street in Greenwich Village.

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Family Trip to Rincon and San Juan 2015

Puerto Rico 2015 with grandkids

This blog is being written with the assistance of
Mox (age 10), Marty (age 7), Jude (age 5), Annie (age 3)

February 20, 2015: We all met in San Juan, then drove 2 1/2 hours to Rincon where we rented Casa la Tortuga, a beautiful 6 bedroom house. During the drive we stopped for lunch at one of the many trucks along the road selling pollo (chicken), beans and rice. The owner asked if we wanted a quarter, half or whole.  Michael ordered a quarter, so the guy took his knife and whacked a chicken in half, then quarters.  Not much like Kentucky Fried, but very nummy.  We ate mostly with our fingers, sitting outside under a tree enjoying the warm day.

The view from our porch

Sunday, February 22:  It seems to rain for a few minutes every afternoon.  Today's shower left us with this beautiful rainbow!  The air temp. is 85 degrees, the rain is 85, and the ocean is 85, so no matter where we are, the temperature is constant.  Nice!  Not at all like Minnesota...

Yesterday we arrived at the house mid-afternoon and the kids immediately headed for the infinity pool with its swim up bar.

This morning everybody headed for the ocean first thing. This time of year Rincon is a popular surfing spot because of large waves.  The kids not only got to play in the sand but got to watch surfers and jump into huge waves themselves.

Erik and his sons enjoy Domes Beach, a major surfing attraction.

Living area.

Porch

Rincon, which means "corner" in Spanish, is on the northwest corner of Puerto Rico so some beaches are on the Atlantic Ocean, others the Caribbean.  It's know for superb surfing during the winter; February is the tail end of the surfing season with its huge waves. Rincon is laid-back, no need to dress up for dinner,  and shorts, teeshirts, and flipflops are good enough anywhere.

Mi familia at the beach

Oh no!  Annie has been buried alive!

Patch party celebrating that Jude no longer needs to wear an eye patch.

Monday:  

Photos of silly Papa, the steps and Mox were taken by Marty.

This afternoon we went to Steps Beach, where Dave, Erik and Mox went on a guided snorkeling tour. Mox, who snorkeled in the lake last summer, was amazed by everything underwater in the ocean; elkhorn coral, brain coral, fish. I'm ashamed to say the waves were too high for me, so I chickened out.

 

It's easy to see how Steps Beach got
its name. I have no idea how the
 steps got there.

Mox and Marty on the famous concrete steps, sitting in the middle of a beautiful beach.

                                   The day ended with a hot game of Farkle.

Tuesday and Wednesday 

Another beautiful sunrise.  

Followed by a morning swim for the cousins.

Lots of time spent in the water, either ocean or pool, every day.  Rachel and Michael went scuba diving, they had a 15 minute kick-out for each of two dives, which sounds pretty tiring to me.  The important thing is they loved the dive.

The top of Annie's head was sunburned so her mom told her she had to wear a cap.  Annie didn't want to wear it with the bill in front, we thought perhaps wearing the cap backwards would work.  Oh no, the independent 3-year-old knew how she wanted to wear her cap.

The boys loved  playing in the ocean waves, riding the waves on an air mattress they named the "train."

Marty working on a trench to catch ocean water.

After a busy day, the cousins usually wound down with some iPad/Kindle togetherness time. The afternoon rain shower was a perfect time for that.  

Mid-afternoon rest and relaxation.

Mox's favorite corner of our living area.

Another short afternoon shower.

After the rain, this guy showed up.  He/she was probably 5 ft. long from nose to tip of tail. Such excitement he created!  

Wednesday was Fiesta night to celebrate Dave's coming birthday, plus it was the last night Erik, Mox and Marty would be with us.  We had Mexican food followed by a dance party. Of course Dave and I had to show the youngsters our cool moves...which I suspect totally embarrassed Mox and Marty.  

Thursday, Friday Saturday

Last photo op for the whole group.

Thursday morning Erik's family headed for San Juan and on to Minnesota, the Tierneys headed out to check out the nearby waterfall and more beach time.

Trying coconut milk but not liking it much.

 

At about 2 Thursday afternoon the power went out in our neighborhood.  It was a looong, dark evening, but we still had fun reading with the kids on the Kindle, using candles for light.  Note to self:  bring flashlight on next trip. My phone was dead by morning as was the laptop.  Thankfully the electricity was back on by 10 a.m.  The kids immediately got their cartoon fix and the adults got their electronics fix.  At noon Friday theTierneys left for San Juan and a night there before heading home.  

Friday and Saturday Dave and I napped, read books, did some beach walking and took lots of pictures of the area.  There are many beautiful murals on buildings, here are a few, plus some shots of the colorful buildings.

Rachel and I had a girls' night out at the Lazy
Parrot where we had our best meal of the week.

Pretty house along our route.

Local clinic

Decorated stairway.

This is on our street.  The sign at the left says
$20/day or $300/month. 

Certainly the cutest barbershop I have ever seen.

There isn't much zoning.  There are huge homes across
the street from much smaller homes, rentals everywhere, not much parking. 

Desecheo Island, a deserted island offshore.

This little gecko, along with his buddies, welcomed us home most days.

Just getting too and from beaches we drove through beautiful jungle every day.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Our last morning at Casa la Tortuga.

The beautiful foliage around the house.

This is the power pole right outside la Tortuga.
It's easy to see why there might be frequent
power outages. What a snarl of wires!

A 38 minute flight from Mayaguez to San
Juan brought us quickly from the countryside
to the city.  I used to hate the small 10-passenger
planes, but I've learned to enjoy the trip.  Where
else can one hear:  "Hi, my name is Shawn
and I'm your pilot today. There are flotation
devices under every seat.  In case of
emergency, kick-out the red window in the
second row.  Have a nice trip."  No flight
attendants needed!

The ocean seen from the plane.

Puerto Rico is beautiful. The low-lying mountains can be
seen in the distance.

The view from our 17th floor balcony on Sunday. 

We're settled for 3 days at a condo in San Juan.  Quite a change from laid-back Rincon!  Sunday the beach was full of activities:  people beach walking, sunbathing, sailing, para-sailing, driving jetskis, swimming, just about every water activity there is.  Monday there were 1/4 as many people on the beach.

Tomorrow we head for home.  I'll miss the weather here, high of 85, low of 70, for 12 consecutive days.

This was one of our best trips ever, thanks to our terrific family who were with us.  The truly amazing thing?  Nine people made this trip and no one got sick.  We asked the kids what they liked best and they all loved the ocean.

Good-by Puerto Rico!