New York City (Day 1)

We pulled into Penn station on time, around noon. It was a short walk to our hotel from there: the Madison Hotel, at the corner of 27th. It was a good, clean place, no cockroaches or rats, and not as expensive as you would think for being nearly right at the heart of the centre of the universe ($120 a night!).

We checked in smoothly, and then headed out with the plan to sort of follow Holden Caulfield's day in NYC. It was a pretty rough guess, as we didn't really stay in any bad hotels, or end up in any snobby jazz bars, but we traced an outline. We walked along 34th street, through Macy's (just because it was there) to the New Yorker hotel, which is the closest thing there is to an "Edmont Hotel." It has a 50's-style diner on the first floor, so we had lunch there. I had meatloaf; Miriam had a burger.

After that, we walked up 5th avenue to Rockefeller Centre, but we didn't go up. It wasn't going to be a trip for acending tall buildings. We also had walked past the Empire State building, but we didn't feel like waiting in line to go up. We also couldn't go skating at Rockefeller Centre because, well, it was the middle of August! It would be cool to go back at Christmastime, and see the sidewalk chairity collectors and that stuff, too.

We walked (we almost always walked) up to Central Park, and saw the Carousel up close. I think that the thing everyone says about it is how fast it actually goes! I was impressed! We didn't ride it though. Then we went to the American Museum of Natural History, saw the dinosaurs, and the dioramas. Didn't see any "fuck yous" anywhere. On the way back we did see some ducks in Central Park, as well as a busker/folkie guitarist who had a quite a loyal following it seemed. Over by the fountain there were some guys doing flips and stuff. They built up one really big flip over four audience members. It was cool, but not worth however much money they probably made from it, collecting bills from people in pillowcases.

On the way out of the park, we checked out the Upper East Side appartments that Holden would have lived in (had he been a real person! Ha!). Pretty swank. Nice neighbourhood. Then we took the subway down to Ground Zero, just to see.

There wasn't actually much to see, except that there had been a fire burning all day in an adjascent building, so there were several fire trucks and police lines blocking off several blocks. Unfortunately, because the building was abandoned (as a result of 9/11), there was no water in the building, and two firefighters died.

After wandering through a mostly deserted Wall Street, we went through Battery Park, and waited for the Staten Island Ferry. The idea was to get a view of the skyline, and of the Statue of Liberty. The Ferry is free, so we just took it one way, got off, walked around and took it the other way. Lady Liberty was shorter than I figured, but the skyline was cool. It was just after sunset, so the view was nice.

We walked back up to Soho, and had a late dinner at Lombardi's Pizza, the oldest pizza place in North America. It was pretty good. Then we walked back up Broadway, through Union Square. We had a look at the Flatiron building on the way. We rolled back into the hotel around 1am. Batman Begins was on tv, which I thought was appropriate, since we were in "Gotham." So I watched that, while Miriam fell asleep.

All in all, a good day.

Boston

I went on vacation for the first time in a long time last weekend. I mean a real vacation, not a trip for a race, or a weekend in Toronto. Miriam and I went to Boston and New York for 5 days. The purpose of the Boston stop was to see the Red Sox game at Fenway that had been rained out on marathon weekend. Miriam had already been to New York twice this summer, but she was willing to go back. It was worth it, I’d say.

In Boston we stayed with Chris Payton, a friend of mine from Waterloo Cross Country. Payton lives out in Newton/Waban, what one might call a tony suburb of Boston. His new house was an old 1920s home, with many rooms, and staircases, and even a secret closet. He and Kirsten have more rooms than they know what to do with. Or maybe they are planning a nice big Catholic family! Even Chris was a bit bewildered by the size of it, but the kitchen is really good, and as he said, they won’t have to move if they ever need more room!

Before we arrived out there, though, we walked the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston. Miriam had to drag her suitcase along with us, because of course, post-911, there are no lockers in public places any more. Being in America was a bit annoying for that. It’s almost a point of pride, it seems: we are so important that people might try to blow us up! New York was a different story, but more on that later.

Along the Freedom Trail, we learned about Paul Revere, James Otis (no one ever remembers him) and others. What stuck with me though was the origin of the word earmarked. In Boston Common, in the early days, the Puritans used to torture Quakers on the stock. They would nail their ears to the wood so that when they were released, they could be identified by their “ear-marks” in case they tried to spread Quakerism again. Evil Quakers! Yes, that’s pretty much all I got out of the Freedom Trail. Huzzah!

On the morning of the second day, Chris drove us downtown, and while he went to work for the morning, we went to the Aquarium. It was good fun. We saw the penguins, and the sharks, and some turtles. It was a solid tourist morning. The place was pretty empty when we got there, but by the time we were done, it was crawling with kids. The most memorable thing about the Aquarium: penguin shit. Everywhere. They were actually cleaning it when we got there, but they were like little, cute, swimming, shitting machines, those penguins.

We made our way to Fenway Park for the 1pm start. We settled into our bleacher seats, just as Freddy Canon was singing “Palisade Park”—but he was replacing the word Palisade with Fenway. Very clever. After the national anthems, I went down under the stands and got a Red Sox cap. I figured since everyone else in the city had one, I might as well get one, too, right?



Top of the first and there’s a fly ball to right field. J.D. Drew, the Sox’s rightfielder moves in for the catch…and drops it. The crowd lets him have it. A guy behind us is relentless: “You’re a bum! Go back to wherever you came from! You make me sick!” He actually said all of those things. In the bottom of the first, J.D. hits an RBI triple, the Red Sox score six, and go on to win the game 7-1.

We have dinner at a decent French restaurant, surrounded by people who look like they are about to get on a boat. Boston seems to have been invaded by a hoard of people who look like the two gay guys from Connecticut skit on SNL. We walked through downtown, back to Chris’ car, and went to bed, tired from a long day.

That's Miriam wearing the Sox cap, and behind her to the left (her right) is Payton collapsed on a stone map of the Boston area.

In the morning, we hopped the Amtrack for New York City. It was a pretty smooth ride, and getting in was scenic, at least through the Bronx and Queens, from which we got a very nice view of Manhattan. Then we went underground.