The trip to NYC

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Yesterday morning brickhousewench got to our house just after 6AM and we headed down to NYC to see a couple of museums.
It is a 3 hour drive from here and I like to get going early to avoid traffic and highway issues.
That doesn’t always work.


I hope no one was hurt in the accident. The truck seemed pretty totaled and they were hauling the stuff it had away.


It seems like the truck must have lost control, crossed the median and hit the hill.


As it was very early in the morning, the traffic at the crash wasn’t bad. But, I’m glad we got past it early.

That was the only problem we had and a few hours later we were driving into NYC along the Hudson river.


brickhousewench had not visited the city before and said it was more green then she expected.

But, we were right near Central Park, which is the maximum green area of the city.

We parked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but only went in long enough to take a picture of a bench.

(We were coming back later.)

Then, we popped out front and caught a cab. The addition of TV screens to the cabs is not something I think is a good addition.

Especially as it appears to be a loop tape of a Jimmy Kimmel comedy show that goes over and over and over and over and...you get the idea.
You can set it to show you a map of where you are. But, after 30 seconds it decides you really wanted to watch Jimmy Kimmel and puts it back to that.
I was happy when brickhousewench found the volume off button.

This section of NYC has lots of embassies and consulates. We spent some time playing “Identify that flag.”


I’m not sure what was up at the Indonesian consulate. Lots of police barriers around it, but no people trying to go in.


One nice thing about NYC early on a Saturday morning is that the traffic is light. That doesn’t stop pedestrians from diving in front of you, but it gives you someplace to go around them.


Along Park Avenue are these big metal flowers with big metal bugs on them.

There was one on every major cross street for quite a while. No idea what they’re about.

But, I have even less idea of what this is:


There are lots of nice buildings with all sorts of interesting architecture. Just driving around looking at the buildings is pretty fun in that part of the city.


But, the Warldorf-Astoria could use a cleaning.


There is one point when the road goes through a building.

Yep, through those big arches and then up over some other roads.


But, we got to where we were going.


After that museum, we headed out to get some lunch and go back to the Met.
In a very rare case for NYC, there weren’t many cabs around. So we walked for a bit and played more ID that flag.


I do think there is much less honking then there used to be in the city. But, this law does not seem to be applied very often.


We watched a cab honk at someone with a police car behind them. No ticket was given. Sad.

We walked a couple of blocks north of the museum and ate lunch at Burger Heaven.
It was OK, but I don’t think I’d say Heaven.
We did seem to be there for their food delivery. Our entire meal there some guys were hauling things in the front door and down to the basement storage area.
This only became a problem when I wanted to use the mens room in the basement.
They let me go past without problem. While in there I heard a lot of bumping and what must have been cursing in a language I don’t know.
When I came out the stairs and the landing at the bottom were covered in mushrooms. I don’t know how many boxes of them spilled down the stairs, but it was enough that I couldn’t find a non-mushroom place for my feet. So, I waited for them to sweep them up and then headed up again.

Coming out of the burger place we caught a cab without problem and set off again.
It looks like one of the troupe members has a cafe with their stage name there.


Last time I saw the Blarney Stone it was on top of a castle in the rain.

I still didn’t kiss this one, but it is a lot easier to reach.

I thought of some folks on my friends list when I saw this really big glass of Guinness.


Then, we found out that Madison Avenue was closed.

I’ve never encountered that before. The cab driver seemed just as surprised.
Even he didn’t know what was going on down there.


This cab driver is one of the ones who knows the timing of the lights and does his best to keep moving all the time. There was a lot of dodging and weaving. It made NYC a bit of a blur.

My wife was in the front seat and said was very “exciting” watching him do the calculations for what gap the cab would fit.
I have been on amusement park rides that bill themselves as “exciting action rides” that are smoother than this trip.
But, we got back to the Met without hitting anything.


After a quick stop to drop off the books I bought, I rejoined the others and we went into the museum.


Eventually, we were museumed out and pushed through the crowd for the exit.


At 4:30 in the afternoon there is a lot more traffic then 9:30 in the morning.


But, we got back to the Hudson Parkway without too much trouble.


Of course I still had to find the right parkway for Connecticut. That was harder. Getting into NYC is easy as they all come together and you just keep going and you end up on the Hudson. Going back you have to pick the right one to get off on out of a dozen or more.
I picked the wrong one and we got to tour the Bronx.
But, with the help of my wife navigating on the iPad, we found 95 and beat it out to CT.
Just after New Haven, we stopped for dinner.


Then, we set off back home.


We got home about 9:30 and I was very tired. I feel back for brickhousewench who had another 40 minutes to go after that. But, we were happy to wish her well on that and go upstairs and collapse.

It was a very fun trip and I’m glad we did it. But, it does take a lot out of us.