Day 100- August 20

By Al

Today we decided to take the Staten Island ferry.  Just because it was there.  It is free.  It is a pleasant ride over to the Island that takes you near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  It is a good way to see the harbor between Staten Island, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.  We didn't have a plan for what to do when we got to Staten Island.  Once we got there, we decided to ride a bus around the island.  There was a gentleman at the bus stop that gave us some very helpful advice.  It was an interesting trip.  We got to one bus transfer 15 minutes before the next bus.  It did not come.  We don't know why.  Anyway, the next bus was in another half hour.  So, the 45 minutes we sat waiting for the bus was a down side of the trip.  However, we got to talk to Amy and to read .  We always carry  books with us.

Staten Island was very different from other parts of New York that we have seen.  it reminded me of the Area of St. Paul between Lake Phalen and White Bear Ave.  Kind of mid 1940-50 houses, with intersections with businesses.  The houses were pretty firmly middle class.  It was a nice change, but it did not feel like New York City.  Of course, Staten Island is huge and we only saw a small portion.  So, who know what else lurks out there.

The ferry trip to Staten Island gives some good view of the harbor and New Jersey and Manhattan.  It was night when we came back.  This is the time to take the ferry.  The views of Manhattan are almost as good as the ones you get from the Brooklyn Bridge.

A Staten Island Ferry.

Unloading.  It is just passengers.  Cars have to drive through Brooklyn and over the Varrazano Narrows bridge.

Residential Staten Island.  Very different from Manhattan.

View at dusk from Staten Island.  New Jersey is on the left.  Manhattan is on the right.  Statute of Liberty is in the middle.

 

Varrazano Narrows bridge.

New Jersey on left, Manhattan on right.

Manhattan from the ferry as it approaches the dock.

Sally's Day

I wanted to see Staten Island because it was the one borough I had not visited.  New York City incorporated the five boroughs into the City in 1898- this surprised me, as I had assumed the city had existed for many years before that. I had heard of the Staten Island ferry many times- wonderful views, a free site in NY, etc. 

We walked through Battery Park to get to the ferry, and bought NYC caps to take with us to Japan. (If you ever want to buy a NYC cap, the best price I have seen is a vendor at the near end of Battery Park).

We had fun giving a commentary on the city and sites to a woman and her daughter from Toronto- made me feel very New Yorker. 

I felt like Scotty had beamed me up to West Saint Paul when we got to Staten Island.

As Al said, the best part of the trip was coming back to Manhattan after dark (an experience we would have missed if we had not had to wait so long for city buses on SI).  The Statue of Liberty is lit up at night.  The ferry passengers carried people from many countries.  As we came upon the Statue,  I heard three or four languages be spoken around me.  It brought to mind our ancestors arrival- coming into the harbor, seeing that flame in her hand-wow.  Left me speechless.  Unlike those immigrants, we had full stomachs, clean clothing, and no vermin from three months at sea.

And then there was the Brooklyn Bridge.  It is spectacular at night. 

Sally

Day 99- August 19

By Al

Today we went to the Greenwood Cemetery.  It was founded in 1838 in what was at the time rural Brooklyn.  It is now very much in the city.  Wikipedia describes it thus,

" It was a popular tourist attraction in the 1850s and was the place most famous New Yorkers who died during the second half of the nineteenth century were buried. It is still an operating cemetery with approximately 600,000 graves spread out over 478 acres (1.9 km²). The rolling hills and dales, several ponds and an on-site chapel provide an environment that still draws visitors. "

It is a very beautiful place to just walk around.  Many of the monuments are works of art in their own right.  Also, it is very hilly, so you are constantly getting new views as you walk around.  Of course, it is also fun to visit the graves of famous people.

The entrance

Louis Comfort Tiffany's grave. These tombstones intrigued me because they are square- an unusual shape for a tombstone. He outlived two wives and two children.

A monument to George Catlin.  It was only put up two years ago. George Catlin was an American painter. (He appears in The Great Journey,  the David McCullough book I have talked about.  Catlin spent two years travelling through the Great Plains, living with and painting portraits of  45 tribes of Native Americans. With the tribes soon to be forced into reservations, it was a task that was accomplished just in time. He produced more than 500 paintings of Native Americans, which he took to Paris to exhibit.  He was quite a hit there.

Catlin's actual grave has a  very simple marker.  This statue gives him some of the honor he deserves for his work.

Samuel Morse's grave.

Boss Tweed's grave.  After years of running New York politics, his corruption was discovered and prosecuted.  He ran off to Spain, but was brought back to New York, convicted, and imprisoned.  He died penniless. Apparently, he still had some friends with money to pay for this monument.  I learned that I share his wife's birthday.

The Steinway crypt. When I saw this, I wondered if the Steinways have an actual Steinway Grand Piano inside because it is HUGE.

Horace Greeley's grave.

The Soldier's Monument.  Dedicated to the soldiers from New York who fought in the Civil War.  It is on the top of Battle Hill, the highest point in Brooklyn.  It is here that the battle of Brooklyn was fought.
The Battle of Brooklyn (August 22-27, 1776) was the first major battle after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the largest battle of the conflict.  The British knew it would be important to capture New York City and the Hudson, thus dividing Washington's army.  After the attack on Patriots in Brooklyn Heights, Washington retreated by boat to Manhattan.  On September 15, the British captured New York City

Sally at Leonard Bernstein's grave.  It is on Battle Hill. I like to contrast this marker with Boss Tweed's.  One of our best-known composers and orchestra conductors has a very small, simple marker, while a ruthless criminal has a large and grand marker. I was happy to see Bernstein's marker covered with stones and flowers.  As with many people my age, he introduced me to classical music with his TV series of concerts for young people.

The Statue of Liberty from Battle Hill.

The Minerva monument.  She is the Roman goddess of wisdom.  She faces the Statue of Liberty from atop Battle Hill.

The chapel at the cemetery.

Closer.

A window in the chapel.

Parakeet nests in the top of the entrance gate.The cemetery has a large parakeet population who are descendants of parakeets which were released in the park by their owners many years ago.

After the cemetery, we went to a very good Austrian restaurant nearby.  It is called Der Kommissar.  The have several excellent sausages. 

Sally's Day

(As I write this, I am getting all choked up watching a tribute to Edward Kennedy from the DNC.  I hope someone writes a biography of him soon.  It seemed that after his "wild" years, he spent his years redeeming himself in fearlessly pursuing legislation that we needed.  Too bad he didn't live to see the signing of the Affordable Health Care Act.)

Rather than writing a separate entry, I will add my comments to Al's pictures in italics.

Sally

 

Day 98- August 18

Al's Day

Today we started out by going to the Brooklyn Flea Market.  It was a pleasant mix of jewlery, antiques, unique food offerings.  There were several things I might have been interested in except that we are at that stage where we are divesting ourselves of things, not adding new things.  But, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours.

We then walked about a mile to Washington Avenue Rocks.  This was a block long street festival in the Prospect Heights area of Brooklyn.  We went because Kaoru Watanabi and some of his students were going to be performing.  This was a really nice street festival.  On Manhattan, most street festivals are simply an opportunity for the same vendors to sell the same things.  They just seem to move from one street to another.  Washington Avenue Rocks was local businesses.  All the vendors were from the area.  All the performers either had studios or lived in the area.  It was a refreshing change from the sort of street festivals we have seen.  Kaoru was amazing, of course, and his students were very, very good.  There was also a group of women doing a dance style from the Congo.  There were two guys doing break dancing.  There was a tango band.  It was fun.

Evan and Kaoru

The Congolese-style dancers.

We then walked down to Prospect Park.  Sally has already blogged about Prospect Park.  However, to summerize, it was designed by the same men who designed Central Park.  It is in Brooklyn.  It was my first time there.  Prospect Park that is, not Brooklyn.  At the North East entrance to Prospect Park is the Brooklyn Library.  It is a pretty imposing building.  They don't build them like this anymore.

The Grand Army Plaza is at the top of Prospect Park. This has a huge arch dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic from the Civil War. After several visits to the South whith all of their old statues to Confederate soldiers, who fought to destroy the United States and defend the right to enslave fellow human beings, it was nice to see a monument to Union soldiers, who fought to save this country.

Anyway, we had a bit of a lie down in the park.  It was nice to just lay on the grass and enjoy the sun.  I don't do that enough. 

There was a green market at the top of the park, so we bought a little food and headed home.

Sally's Day

Al has given a good summary of our day.

My favorite part was laying on the grass in Prospect Park and taking a nap.  In my 64 years,  I had never just flopped down on the grass in a public park, and slept.  Listening to various sounds of people, dogs, kids, sun flickering through the trees, a little breeze now and then- a real treat for the senses.

In the evening, we saw Robot and Frank.  Frank Langella's portrayal of a man slipping into dementia was another treat.  I remember him as the chief of staff in one of my favorite movies, "Dave," and then his portrayol of Richard Nixon in "Nixon."  I think he may be an under appreciated actor. 

It was sad to see a robot replacing care by humans,  but the robot seems to give him more emotional support than his own children.

Fun to see another movie for the "mature" audience.

Sally

Day 97- August 17

By Al

There was a Festival of Indian Dance at One Battery Park Plaza.  This sounded interesting, so I went.  It was interesting.  There were several companies representing several different styles of dance.  This was the last day of a week of dance performances.  I wish I had been aware of this earlier.  There was free dance every day this week.  There is just so much to do in New York.  A lot of it is free or cheap. 

Different styles of Indian dance.

At four, we were to meet a couple of our friends to see Richard III done by Shakespeare in the Park.  This is the same organization that does the plays in Central Park.  However, this part of the company is much like Ten Thousand Things in Minnesota.  This group performs in the round, with no lighting or sound.  They take their plays to homeless shelter, prisons, jails, and halfway houses.  They try to make theater accessible to those who might not otherwise have an opportunity to go to the theater.  The also do a few paid performances so the paying pubic can see their work.  They did a good job .  The person who played Richard III was excellent.  Those of you who read my review of the Shakespeare in the Park know how it was the first time that I saw Shakespeare where I thought the people were talking naturally as opposed to repeating words that were alien to them.  The actor who play Richard was like this.  The language seemed natural to him.  Everybody else was posturing. 

This is the set up.  The play takes place in the middle.  The lighting doesn't change.  The brown chairs are for the actors to sit during the play.


From there we went to a restaurant in the East Village called Gnocco.  It was quite good.

Sally's Day

I went to an exhibit about the life of  Noel Coward at Lincoln Center.  Noel Coward was a playwright, director, actor, singer, and painter.  His lyrics are very witty and creative.  We saw a production of "Anything Goes" this summer.

Pictures were not permitted in the exhibit, so all I have to show is the poster on the building.  The exhibit was at the public library at Lincoln Center.

 



 

 Sculpture at Lincoln Center- looks to me like a giant fork.

Lincoln Center has a large pool- with the sculpture in the center.  There is also a large plaza with seating and trees- a pleasant place to relax, eat lunch, etc.

Columbus Circle is located at the southwest corner of the Park, and just south of  Lincoln Center.  There is a tall statue of Columbus in the middle of Columbus Circle.  You can't see it in this picture because it is surrounded by the metal structure. A room will be built at the top.  The sculptor (whose name I don't remember) will be in the room.  You will be able to obtain a ticket to climb up to the room, see Columbus, and visit the sculptor.  Anyone interested?  I believe it will be open from September 15- October 15.

Manhattan has lots of public art- this is the latest.  I don't understand a lot of it.

Sally 

Day 96- August 16

Musicals, A Walk in the Park, and Back to Brooklyn

 

By Al

Butler Park has a very good noon time series of performances.  Today they had an edition of
'Broadway at Butler Park."  They had performers from an upcoming play based on the movie "Christmas Story."  You know, Ralphie and his an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle.  The musical will come out this winter.  If anyone is interested, they are still looking for an actor to be Ralphie.

The composers of the upcoming Christmas Story show.

The song about the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle.


They also did selections from "Avenue Q."  I want to see this one.  They did one of the songs from the play called "It's a fine line."  The money line of the song is that "It is a fine line between being in love and a waste of your time."  I am glad I haven't had to worry about that for close to 40 years.

They also had cast members from :Bring It On:  The Musical" and "Rock of Ages."

Bring It On

 

 

 

Bring It On

 

 

 

Rock of Ages

 

 

 

 



Sally's Day

I spent the afternoon in Central Park.  In the evening, I went to a meetup knitting group in Brooklyn.

Meetup is an online service.  It allows people to post notices of social groups, and organize gatherings for those groups.  I reserved a spot for a meetup knitting group, which was scheduled to meet at a restaurant in Brooklyn.  I went on the subway during rush hour. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to get there- between walking to the subway, and then walking around Brooklyn looking for the location.  When I arrived,  there was no place for me to sit,  and when I stated that I was there for the knitting group, the women who were there ignored me.  I decided this was not a group where I wanted to make an effort to try to find a place to sit.  I wrote an angry note to the organizer of the group- if one reserves a seat for an event, one assumes that there will be a seat available.  So I went home- a 2 1/2 trip wasted- but for the fact that I got in a couple of miles of walking. 

 

Back to my favorite place- Central Park.  I realized I had spent little time in the upper third of the park- 86th Street and above.  So time to explore.

 

Central Park is surrounded by a 3-foot stone wall interspersed by 20 gates for entry.  Central Park was designed by Olmsted and Vaux on the principle that it was to be a park for all people- rich and poor, immigrants and citizens, young and old.  It was the first major urban park in the country (perhaps in the world) designed with that principle.  Previous parks had been designed for the wealthy. 

As part of the design, they named the gates for groups of people- some of them are girls, boys, miners (the 79th Street Gate where I usually enter), women, and farmers.  Many of the gate names have been obscured.  I took a   picture of the Engineers Gate at 90th Street because it is still quite visible. 

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir- looking towards Central Park West. The Reservoir is 106 acres, and was designed by Olmsted and Vaux to distribute water to Manhattan.  It was named for Mrs. Onassis in 1996 to honor her contributions to the City.  She liked to jog in the area.  The reservoir could be seen from her 15th floor apartment at 1040 5th Avenue.  (Perhaps this illustrates "park for all people" idea- that a farm girl from Minnesota can walk around the same reservoir as one the most famous women in the world).

 The Reservoir looking east and south.  It reminds me of Como Lake in St. Paul- with the difference being the tall buildings in the background.  The Reservoir is encircled by two walking/running paths.  One is back from the water, and is tree-lined.  The other is next to the reservoir.  There are places where you can go from one path to the other. 

A beautiful walking bridge over another path.  The upper part of the park is much quieter than the lower part.  At times, one can walk 100-200 feet without meeting another person.

The Central Park Tennis Club.  I counted 30 courts- all in use.

Yoga class.  The northern part of the park seems to be oriented to providing people space for a lot of sports activities- although Olmsted and Vaux probably didn't envision jogging, yoga, and frisbee in their park.

Sally

Day 95- August 15

We have no recollection of what we did on August 15, nor do we have any pictures of the day to remind us. 

If something comes to mind we will update this post.

Al and Sally

Day 94-August 14

By Al

Today was the day for Naomi and Jessie to head back to Minnesota.  In the morning, we went on a walk up to Carl Schurz park and the Gracie Mansion.  This is about 5 blocks north of us along the East River.  It was a chance for them to see more of the river.  Then we went to Goodwill.  As we have said before, the Goodwill here has some pretty high class stuff.  I assume it is mainly stocked by cast offs from people in the neighborhood.  They have some pretty good cast offs.

We then had a lunch of New York pizza and headed to the airport.  They made it home safe.  It was good to have them visit.

That evening, we had tickets to "Jersey Boys."  This is a play about the Four Season.  It was fun to hear their music again.  I didn't know what a checkered past they had.  The acting and singing was excellent.  Sally said she thought they were better than the original group. 

In New York, the stage doors are usually near the main entrance to the theater.  So, people stand by the stage door to see the stars when they come out.  We have never stayed for this, but this time we were a little delayed taking pictures of the front of the theater and we were there when some of the stars came out.  They were very gracious, signed autographs and talked with the fans.  They kept moving so as to be able to leave, but they did so respectfully.  It was nice to see.

This is the actor who played Bob Gaudio.

This is the actor who played Nick Massi.

Sally's Day

I went to my knitting group in Brooklyn while Al accompanied Jessie and Naomi to the airport.

A friend of mine gave us tickets to Jersey Boys.  Her niece had planned a trip to New York, and  purchased tickets to see the play.  The trip was cancelled, and she was looking for someone to use the tickets. Thanks, Luci.

I loved the play.  I plan to see it again.  The whole group were better singers than the original Four Seasons. It was great fun to hear all of those old songs. 

 

Sign in the lobby.  We heard "authentic" profanity. None of that fake profanity you might hear in Connecticut!

The actors were also better looking than the orignal group.

The play provided me with "head music" (is that what you call songs you keep hearing in your brain?) for a couple of weeks.

Sally