Into the city

We headed north from Maryland up I-95.....wait, aren't we suppose to be oriented SOUTH?  Sunshine, sandy beaches and warm salt water?  Yeah, that was the plan all along.....but we got a special invitation to a good friends 60th birthday party at the Chef's table in a chic top-rated New York City restaurant----Barbuto's-----and we couldn't say no.  

Barbuto's--Michael Morrissey's B-day dinner

We had debated whether to even add NYC to our east coast hit list.....but this secured it.....after all, it's about the journey and so down the rabbit hole we went.









Driving into New York City on a Friday morning, gave us the daunting feeling equivalent to diving off the 11,000 ft ridge at Taos Ski Valley into the double black diamond steeps of Stauffenberg Chute.....gulp.

But instead of driving Da-Von into the mess, we found an RV park across the Hudson River from Manhattan in Jersey City, NJ.  Mind you, we have stayed in only ONE official private RV park since the inception of this journey, and this made the second.

It was $60/night (the most we'd spent on any place to sleep)---no electric, no water hook-up, simply a spot in a parking lot next to a marina.....a subway ride plus a few sidewalk blocks to Rockefeller Center......and a long stone's throw to the Statue of Liberty as the picture shows on  the left...see Lady Liberty in the middle? But it was all about the location.....and definitely more affordable than a NYC hotel at $300/night (plus 14.75% tax + fees).

We took a ferry ride over to the big Apple and embarked on our sunny day tourist jaunt.
If there's one thing NYC has more of than taxis, it's tourists....yahoo, here we go!

We opted to play the full tourist gambit, and bought 2 tickets on the "Gawker's Bus"....the double decker sight seeing bus that runs around the city with unlimited hop-on hop-off stops.....it was perfect

....and now I'll subject you to our gawker's gallery of photos :)

Time's Square---the ball (over-rated)

The traffic

New World Trade Center

We weren't ready for the emotions and haunting chills that came with the Ground Zero monument ....words just can't describe it.   There are two of these large waterfall memorials draining into the exact space where each WTC building stood.  The waterfalls flow down the walls.... and to the center into an apparent bottomless abyss.  The ledge around each waterfall is carved with the names of those that died that day....not only at the WTC, but the other two flights as well.  Each person's name on this ledge is coordinated with where they physically were that 911 day.  So hard to believe that the world is still paying for the actions of a few bad extremists.

New and old buildings around WTC sight

Reflections in the monument museum

Good day....bad day.....NYC at it's best.

All in all, we have to say that our trepidation of NYC was replaced with confidence by an unseen and sublime vibrating energy.....upbeat and alive....with a safe feeling.....ok, safe is a relative word here, but there were dozens of beautiful young women and men strolling the NYC nightlife scene....making it feel so Sinatra....and romantic in a bustling sort of way.

Favorite view from a ferry

A New York marina state of mind