Day 89- August 9

Off to the Races

By Al

Today was our day to head off to the New Jersey Motor Speedway.  It was an interesting drive across southern New Jersey.  Open land and farm fields.  This is the area that I assume gives New Jersey the nickname of Garden State.  It certainly is not Newark or Jersey City.

Anyway, I was scheduled to start at noon.  We got there about 11:40.  At noon, the classroom part of the experience started.  Mainly, the instructor told us about the track and generally how to drive.  He also gave us the rules on passing.  There were to be multiple cars on the track at a time.  Next, I was able to ride along with an experienced driver.  It was a chance to see the track and to experience a drive faster than I was likely to do. 

When people are driving around the track, there are corner workers.  These people signal if there is a problem around a corner.   The track is a road track with right and left turns and hills.  So, sometimes you have a blind turn.  When I finished my ride along, we found that the corner workers had gone on break until 2.  This gave us over an hour to wait.  We decided to drive into Millville for lunch.  We found a pretty good Chinese restaurant.

We got back to the track about about 2:30.  Then we had to wait for about one more hour before they got me onto the track.  You had to have a driver suit to drive a car and most of the suits were very large.  So, I had to wait until somebody wearing a smaller suit had finished driving.  There was a lineup of people because even though the workers went on break they did not stop scheduling people. 

Finally, I got my chance to drive.  It was really fun.  But, just as I was starting to get comfortable with the track, my time was up.  Basically, I got to drive for 10 to 15 minutes.  Not much for all the time it took to get to that point.  But, it was fun to drive a real race car.

Here is a video.  Sally will post pictures. 

On the way back from the track we stopped at the Hobby Lobby.  Sally can tell you more about that.  While she was there, I called Naomi.  She and her husband Jessie were to arrive in New York to stay with us that day.  I wanted to check and make sure they made it and were able to pick up the key were we left it.  They were in our apartment, so all was well.

We headed back to Philadelphia.  Pennsylvania really needs to do a better job at road signage.  I don't think I am deficient in map reading, but Philadelphia and Pennsylvania befuddled me.  We drove through downtown Philly to see where we could park the next day when we wanted to go to Independence National Historic Park.  Or, more commonly called Independence Hall and surroundings.  We figured that out and then ended up on a one way street with only one way to go.  It was over a bridge to New Jersey.  No turn around, and no escape route.  So, over to New Jersey we went.  To add injury to insult, it was free to go to New Jersey, but it cost $5 to get back to Philadelphia.  All bridges from New Jersey to Philly cost $5.  So, we paid $5 to drive about 5 miles out of our way.  Once we got back to Philly, we decided to drive through North Philly to get to our hotel which was in the Northwest part of Philadelphia.  It was miles and miles of vacant buildings, dirty streets, and poverty.  I thought it far eclipsed anything in New York.  After many miles, we got close to the area of our hotel.  We saw a Mexican restaurant that looked good and stopped for supper.  It was good, not spectacular, but good.  By the time dinner was over, we were ready to go back to the hotel, watch a little Olympics and go to bed; so we did.


By Sally

As you can tell, Al is quite unhappy with the Pennsylvania streets and roads. 
My major activity today was to photograph Al with the race car.
My reward was a trip to Hobby Lobby.  We don't have HL stores in MN.  I had never been to one, but have seen people post comments about the stores on the web.  HL is a cross between Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics.  They had a good selection of Kona cotton- so I added to my stash for modern quilts.  And since I am now knitting, I also bought some yarn.

Who is this?

 

It's Al Zdrazil- ready to race.

The staff spends lots of time making sure the racers are safe and settled into their cars.

  The first thing Al said when he got out of his car--- "I want to do this again."  So off to Brainerd we will go next summer.

Sally

Day 88- August 8

New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania

By Al

Today was our day to head off to Philadelphia.  The back story is that last year I bought a Groupon to race a car at the Brainard Raceway.  Not in a real race, but a chance to drive a race car around the track.  I was half way to Brainard when I got a call that it was raining too hard and the experience was cancelled.  The company that does this thing does not give refunds.  They just say you can book another opportunity.  Unfortunately, the day at Brainard was the last day in Minnesota for the season.  So, now I am living in New York.  The same company runs this opportunity at the New Jersey Motorsports track in Millville, NJ.  So I had arranged to drive a race car on August 9.  We decided to visit Philadelphia at the same time, since it is not far from Millville.

We researched renting cars and found that we could save about $300 by renting the car in New Jersey over renting it in New York.  I found a good deal in Jersey City at the Newport shopping mall.  this involved taking a PATH train from the World Trade Center Station.  PATH trains are not part of the New York subway system.  They are nice, but we have found that they are confusing and there is almost no information available at stations on what to do.  You kind of have to figure it out yourself.  Also, our transit passes do not cover a PATH train, so it is an additional expense.  Still, it was worth it to save the money. 

The shopping center is very big and it took us a while to find the rental desk.  It is actually in the middle of the mall.  Once you get your key, you go to the parking lot to find your car.  The employee at the Avis desk was very helpful.  It was a really easy time getting the car, once we found the desk. I didn't see the Avis sign at first and thought it was just an information desk.  I went up to him and asked him if he could tell me where Avis was.  He said, "Right here."  I was confused.  Then I noticed the sign.  A little embarrassing.

Anyway, we had reserved a compact but they ended up upgrading us for no cost to a very nice Nissan Altima. 

I had done a mapquest to get to Philadelphia.  It was a good thing that we had a map app. on my cell phone, because the road signage in  New Jersey and Pennsylvania is ridiculous.  It was very difficult to know when to turn or go straight because the roads where either not signed, or the signs were obstructed.  We found places where signs had been put in front of other signs, so that they could not be seen.  There was one freeway split where the sign telling you which way to go was at the split.  So, if you were in the wrong lane, you had no opportunity to get over.  I hate Pennsylvania roads. 

Nevertheless we made the two hour trip in three hours and got to our hotel.  It was a very nice hotel.  The Chestnut Hill Hotel.  The room was large and well appointed.   There was a very good restaurant in the hotel.  We had a very good dinner.

We saw this older lady on the bus as we were going to the subway.  She had a walker, which she had decorated with angels- it was completely covered.  She consented to having her picture taken.  If I need to use a walker someday, she will inspire me to make my walker into a fashion accessory.

 
Here's our room.  I would like to bring the bed back here. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to get it into our apartment, much less into our bedroom.  Our room and bath were 2/3 the area of our apartment. 

Sally

Day 87- August 7

Music, Trash, Knitting, and Basements

By Al

I visited the Chinatown Rotary Club today.  Good food as usual.  The people were as welcoming as usual.  There had two other interesting guests.  One was a Rotarian from Bali.  She talked about how Bali generates a large amount of income for Indonesia because of the tourism, but all of the tax money gained goes to the government in Jakarta.  Very little of it makes its way back to Bali.  She also talked about all of the good works that her club is doing.  You can read about it at their website, www.rotarycanggu.org.
The other guest was a high school student from Brooklyn.  She was representing the Interact club at her high school.  She talked about a project at http://www.restorationofhope.blogspot.com/ to help girls in Uganda. 

That evening I went to a concert in Central Park. WQXR was sponsoring Lara St. John, Pablo Ziegler & Friends in Central Park. Pablo Ziegler was the pianist for Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla. Mr. Piazzolla was a pioneer in Nuevo Tango, a combination of tango, classical, and jazz. He played the bandoneón. The bandoneón is much like an accordion. In 1987, he gave a concert in Central Park. Today was the 25th anniversary.   Pablo Ziegler has kept the Piazzolla tradition alive.   I have long been a fan of Astor Piazzolla, so I was excited to be able to hear Nuevo Tango.  About 1,000 people were also excited to hear this music. 

The band shell at Central Park.
The music lived up to expectations.  I really enjoyed the concert.  Just another wonderful thing about living in New York.

Sally's Day
Rather a quiet day.  I went to a knitting meetup in Brooklyn.  And spent the evening at home.

 

Here's something I will NOT  miss about NYC.  Many of the small stores have metal doors to their basements, and the doors are on the sidewalk.  The one on the left is closed. When they are open, they typically do not have the orange cones and ropes around them.  I have not heard of anyone falling into an open door.  They are QUITE noisy when you walk over them going down the sidewalk.

 

Here's another thing I will not miss- bags of garbage on the sidewalk.  This is a small group.  The pile outside of our building on Monday morning is at least 20 bags plus another 10 bags of recycling.  When it is hot, it smells.  A problem of not having alleys.

Front window of the yarn shop where I go to knitting group.

The window display is an underwater theme- knitted shells, fish, starfish.  Quite fun.

 

A wonderful buscar (sp?) playing classical violin.  What a treat- to come down the stairs into the hot waiting area for the subway, and hear some good music.  More than worth the $1 put in her collection box.

 

Sally                                                                                                 

Day 85 August 6

By Al

Sally had bought discount tickets to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Discovery Center at Times Square.  We decided this would be a good day to do that.  Monday before noon seemed to be a good day, because there were not a lot of people there.  The exhibit was better than I had expected.  They had several warriors, but also had other artifacts from the tomb.  They also had good displays showing the timeline of ancient China.  They explained the different kingdoms and periods that led up to the Emperor Zin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.  The Terra Cotta army was part of his tomb.

It was a very enjoyable presentation.  They will be at the Minneapolis Institute of Art from October 27, 2012 to January 20, 2013.  We recommend it to our friends in Minnesota.  Here are some pictures without comment.

After the display we got a Groupon now for Angus' Cafe Bistro.  The food was acceptable.  The service was really slow.  There was only one other table with diners in the place, so I don't know what the wait staff was up too.  Anyway, it was okay with the Groupon discount, but we would not recommend it at full price.

 

On the way home, our bus stop was by the 200 West 57th St.  The Gothic-style Landmark building also known as the Rodin Studios after iconic sculptor August Rodin, was designed by architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed the Minnesota State Capital building. It opened in 1917.  I took some pictures and the guard invited me in to take more pictures, but our bus was coming and I had to go.  Perhaps some day I will go back for more pictures.

The ceiling in the entrance.

Likewise.

By Sally

I have little to add to Al's comments.  I inserted the picture of the horse's tail because I liked the effort the sculptor made to make the tail realistic. 

The exhibit appeared to be set up to assure that we would take nice pictures. 

I agree with Al's restaurant review.

Sally

Day 84 August 5

Exploring Mid-Town

By Al

I had another day of rest.  Sally brought me food from Mee Noodle.  We both recommend their food.  I wanted to rest my knee because of my up coming race in New Jersey.  More on than on Wednesday.  Anyway, that night I needed to get out and Sally agreed to go see Ice Age 3.  It was amusing, but not as good as the first two.  I feel like they are stretching for stories.  The acting and animation is still good, but they really stretched metaphors.  For example, they sail ice bergs like pirate ships.  I know the whole movie is an unbelievable metaphor, but they just seem to be getting more far out as the franchise goes along.  Nevertheless, it was entertaining.


By Sally


.  

 

After attending Christ Church Methodist Church, I needed breakfast. I happened upon Delissimo Deli (39 East 60th Street). Manhattan is full of deli's with seating upstairs. This one offered a Spanish omelet, American fries, and toast for $4.50. A real bargain- good food, freshly cooked, and cheap.

Then over to Central Park to look at the statue of William Tucumseh Sherman by Saint Gaudes. His design and construction of this statue was discussed at length in The Greater Journey by David McCullough, which I just finished reading. It was exciting to read about his life in Paris and making of this statue, and then immediately see it. He was a perfectionist- close to the end, he felt that one of the horse's back legs was a bit longer than the other. It took him six months to fix this problem. Winged Victory is in front of Sherman. The model for WV was an African-American woman

 

Sign outside of church on 5th Avenue.  If I walk home after 9 p.m. in the evening, I see many people (usually men) sleeping on the steps of churches in our neighborhood.

Where is this?  I've seen this statue on TV many times.  It is outside of Rockefeller Center.

No blog about New York would be complete without a picture of Times Square.  Every time I go there is it crowded and noisy.  Unfortunately, if we want to go to a Broadway show, we need to go through or close to Times Square.

I had never noticed this statue of George M. Cohan until I stopped to take a picture of Times Square.  I would have chosen George and Ira Gershwin or Rogers and Hammerstein.  Who would you choose?

Sally

Day 83- August 4

Sally Goes to Brooklyn

Al stayed home and rested and read.  Iced my knee.


By Sally

I had heard good things about the Brooklyn Art Museum, so I crossed the East River to explore it.

The museum is next to a subway stop. It has a plaza in front, large windows, and another large open area inside with a coffee stand. There were lots of people in both places. A much more welcoming place than the Metropolitan Museum. It's a smaller museum, with exhibits grouped by theme, rather than by period. This made my visit a bit difficult- I wanted to see paintings by Sargent because I had just read about him in The Greater Journey. In order to find his paintings, I had to go through all of the rooms with American paintings, and check the label on each painting that looked like it might have been painted by him.


This museum would be a greaet museum for a family outing. It doesn't have the pieces you would easily recognize that you see at the Met or the MOMA. It is 1/4 the size of the Met; second, the admission is much less; the food in the cafeteria is much cheaper; and the kids I saw there were enjoying themselves. It reminded me of the differences between the Minnesota Zoo and the Como Zoo.

The Museum is across the street from Prospect Park- I would have returned to the park for another visit if it weren't so hot.
Sally

I have posted a Gilbert Stewart painting of George Washington before.  I think he painted about eight of them altogether because people kept commissioning him to paint them.

These two paintings are by Singer, a 19th century American painter.  He studied in Paris, along with a lots of other Americans.  The stream reminds me of lots os streams in southern MN.

This mask was part of an exhibit of African masks.  I don't remember the country.  It was painted shortly after Elvis died.  It was used by the tribe as a teaching mask for their youth to teach the bad outcome of a life of drinking and drugs. 

This mask was from a tribe in which the women had the power and money.  The men made masks.  In the 70's the masks became quite marketable, and suddenly the men had money, and there was a shift in the power. 

This mask was HUGE.  It was worn only by strong men.

Sally

Day 82 August 3

Visit to the Whitney; Fela!

By Al
My leg was better today.  Still, I didn't want to push it too much so I spent most of the day watching the Olympics.  That evening, Sally and I went to see "Fela".   This is a musical about Fela Kuti.  He was a Nigerian musician in the 1970's and 80's.  He was always criticizing and fighting with the military dictatorship in Nigeria.  They kept putting him in jail several times.  Soldiers raided his nightclub and recording studio in 1977.  They killed his mother, and raped his female singers and beat him viciously.  Rather than being stopped, he delivered his mother's coffin to the government headquarters and wrote several songs about the raid and government.  These songs became very popular songs of protest. 

I have been a fan of Fela for over ten years.  His son, Femi Kuti, is now a very popular musician.  Sally, Amy and I were able to see him perform at the Minnesota Zoo last summer.  He has his father's talent. 

This play was very well done.  Fela's music is very intense with fast rhythms, horns and electric guitars and back up singers.  So, the musical started out intense and stayed intense.  The actor who plays Fela did an excellent job.  I really liked his portrayal. 

By Sally
We walked over to the Whitney Museum to see an exhibit of work by Yayoi Kusama.  It must have been "the place to be" because the line went out the door and around the corner. We were lucky to be able to use our Walker membership to skip the line.

She is an interesting artist.  Came to New York from Japan as a young woman, stayed here for ten years, and then returned to Japan.  Her early paintings are bright colors, kind of "pop art" .  She then did a whole series of sculptures where she made fabric egg-shaped stuffed objects.  She used these to cover a couch, fill shoes, cover a dress, and a lot of other things, and then painted them silver.  I puzzled over this for awhile. My speculation is that she was thinking about our material excess.

A gallery of Edward Hopper paintings was much more fun.
The Whitney doesn't allow pictures, and there were no postcards to purchase- so little to show from the museum.

Windows on the outside of the Whitney Museum.

Poster for the exhibit.  It looks like she is covered in snakes.  She uses a lot of polka dots in her paintings.

In poster for Fela!  His music is wonderful, but the play was constantly at a high level of sound and energy.  I like more variety- some quiet times, a buildup to a climax, which this play lacked.The actor was better-looking and a better singer based on my viewing of Fela performing on  you tube.

Here is our subway stop - where I spend at least a few minutes every day awaiting a train.  Most stops

 have wonderful mosaic signs identifying the stop. And, yes, there is subway tile on the walls. (When we tiled our bathroom, our choice was "subway tile," so it is fun to see its first use).