The End Of Our Trip To N.Y.C

First off I have to congratulate my grandaughter Emma,on her move from white belt to yellow belt. I am stealing a picture that Mandy took, but then thats what you get for using my camera,lmao. Well I think I should finish up on the ups and downs of our trip. After we got back to the motel Friday night, I cleaned up and was asleep before Ivy finished her shower,not as young as I once was,lol. We had asked for a king size bed and ended up with two doubles. And you know you are getting old when you have double beds and USE them,lmfao. Anyhow, we had breakfast in the morning, and headed out. First stop was a huge church called St.John the Divine. This church is sooo big, a travelling circus brought all their animals in to be blessed. We entered Manhatten via the Washington bridge,it has two levels. After the 911 deal they would not let trucks cross using the under pass as they are afraid of bombs. I don't understand their reasoning. If there is an explosion, upper or lower level,both are going to be affected. A fter the church we went into Harlem. Now you have to understand there are two Harlems, Spanish Harlem, and what they refer to as Harlem proper,ya ok,lol. We went to an open market that was fenced in, and the tour guide suggested we stay in the fenced in area. I had to get to an A.T.m which was down the street a bit. Quite a funny feeling being a marshmellow in a sea of black,lol but all turned out fine. Just wouldn't want to MISS the bus. The main product being sold were, you guessed it,PURSES, although I did get a couple of nice leather ball caps. From Harlem we headed to Central Park. The bus let us off right in front of Yoko Ono's building. We saw the spot where Chapman suffed out John Lennons life. Across the street in Central park there is a memorial to Lennon. It is a circle made from ceramic tiles. There is a street person there who refers to himself as the Mayor of Strawberry Fields, as that part of Central park is refered to. He was pretty interesting to listen to tho. We trekked through Central park width wise and caught up with the bus on the other side. Very nice park with a lot of stuff going on. It is about the only green space other than on top of the sky scrapers that there is in Manhatten. From Central park we headed back to the motel where the first instructions were to be back on the bus by 6pm. Ivy and I went to our room to freshen up. I was ready about 5:30 and Ivy pissed around for a bit before getting dressed. I have to tell you I was really looking forward to doing the boat tour around the Statue of Liberty and seeing the skyline from the Hudson river. Well, bout five to six Ivy finds out her jeans wont fit and gets into a tail spin. She wants to change into something else but for some reason gets all upset because she can't find her denim jacket. It is now 6pm and I figure I'll go check the bus, ya. I get down stairs and there ain't no sign of the bus. I find out later that blast off time was changed to 5:45 but both Ivy and I being hard of hearing missed the change. I went back upstairs and told her no need to worry about what to wear. She thought I was pulling her leg ,until I get undressed and climbed into MY bed,lol. Ivy went down and got the city bus schedule but I was finished. We both ended up crashing till about 11pm. We got up and packed up our stuff for the trip home in the morning. Needless to say,everyone that went on the boat tour said how great it was going out in the daylight and returning after dark seeing all the lights of the city in the dark,bah humbug. Guess I'll just have to go back,lmao. Soooo, we stopped a couple of times, had dinner at Cracker Barrel in Buffalo. We loaded up at duty free and got the scare of our lives when they threatened to search the bus. Everybody had way over their limit in booze and purchases over the four day trip. But alas it was a bluff and we got to keep our booty. The bus pulled into Port Dover about 10:30 Sunday night and we were home by midnight. All in all I would do it again and would encourage anyone that wants to see New York to talk to this lady. She has different destinations through-out the year. I would like to do the Chicago tour, but thats next year. Here are a few more pictures, and these are mine Laurie,lol. Nite All . Here are a couple of pic's I got today from an e-mail.