Breaking away in Central Park

It was a fun week in New York City! This morning, as we prepare to leave, we finally have calm water because it's a weekend and there are no ferries scooting around the Hudson River causing wakes that rock-n-roll us. So far, there also are no huge ships and barges going by. So, now that it's calm, we'll leave. hahaha One of the photos shows how exposed we are out in the river tied to our mooring. Pretty spot, huh?

As you can see from the photos, we did a variety of sightseeing this week. In the same afternoon, we took the D Train all the way to its endpoint at Coney Island (most southern part of Brooklyn) and saw their boardwalk, Nathan's Hot Dogs (since 1916!), the Cyclone roller coaster (see photo), and then hopped back on the D Train and traveled 1:35 to almost its northern terminus to see the new Yankee Stadium. Eventually, we learned that we weren't the only ones going to the stadium -- there was a game that night. So, we decided to take it in. We bought tickets from a scalper, and they were in the VERY top-most row (see photo from the stratosphere). But still they were good seats and I enjoyed watching the damn Yanks lose (to Tampa Bay).

My blog title today, breaking away in Central Park, was NOT meant to say I navigated my boat into the lake in Central Park. Yesterday I rode my bike there, and WOW, what a "race". It was so great to see at least 2000 people jogging, walking, skating, and cycling in the park so early in the morning, and many of the cyclists were serious and moving! My competitive nature caused me to ride the fastest and hardest I'd done in a long time, and now I have sore leg muscles! I rode three of the 6.5-mi loops around the park, and we were trying to see who was strongest (four I could not stay with. All the others I broke away from!). We went past the concert area where Good Morning America was broadcasting and the Jonas Bros were there, which I found out later when I returned to the boat and Bruce was watching it live. The two days before, I rode the bike path right along the Hudson River - the first day north to the end of Manhattan, and the next day south to Battery Park at the southern end.

Every time I rode the bike, and whenever we ever wanted to go anywhere, we had to climb in the dinghy and take it to a little dock at the marina. Luckily the bike fits in there nicely. The difficult part was landing the dinghy back at the boat when the river current was strong, which was most of the time. We could grab the swim step okay, but to hold on and pull the dinghy up against the swim step and attach it was HARD with the river pushing against us.

I loved being out on the Hudson, despite my gripes of the wakes rocking us. We got to see the Queen Mary II departing (see photo), a day after it arrived and docked a couple miles south of us. We've enjoyed the scenery at night too, with the lights from both sides of the river lighting up the skyscapes and reflecting off the water. Gigantic barges and ships went by, and this morning there are outrigger canoes and others in kayaks getting their exercise in the calmer water w/o the commercial boats churning everything up out there.

This week we did all the touristy things, like the Empire State Building, walking all the way to Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge, Battery Park, Wall Street, Twin Towers Memorial Museum, Rockefeller Center, seeing West Side Story on Time Square, the Native Am Museum, walking some in Central Park.

This morning we'll cruise back down to the tip of Manhattan and up the East River, all the way out into the Long Island Sound. We're docking tonight at the boat club of my Nestle colleage Eileen Madden, and then staying with her and Paul tonight!! I wonder if we'll be able to sleep without the rocking. hahaha Tomorrow, Eileen and Paul will join us for the cruise up the Connecticut coast and back, and then on Monday morning we'll go back to NYC and take the Harlem River over here to the Hudson River, and head northward (the Harlem River is the northern boundary of Manhattan, which makes it an island).

This incredible adventure continues...see ya soon!