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.

And the Story Continues

First off I will answer a couple of questions posed in the comments section. Yes Mike,the room is included,we spent three nights there.Very nice motel. And yes, Karl I do type this myself...and let me tell you it really pisses me off when I write a long,interesting and sometimes quite humorous blog and it goes "poof" off to never never land.And last but not least,hello Laurie,nice to hear from you. Trust me,the cost is minimal and you will have a ball. Talk your sisters into going and you will all have a great time. The tour is aimed toward shopping. Now, back to my saga,lol. After we did the ground zero tour,we headed back to the motel to clean up and get ready to go back into Manhatten for the evening. We left the motel around 6pm, the comedy club we had tickets for, started at 8:15, so we decided to tour a bit more. My chronology may be a bit off,but you guys will never know,lmao. Anyway sometime Friday we went to the New York City Hard Rock Cafe. First time I have ever been and it was quite interesting. The menu has a little blurb about how it all started. Not sure where the first Hard Rock Cafe was, but London comes to mind. Apparently Eric Clapton was a regular and he suggested the two owners put a metal plaque on his table so he would always have a seat, they in turn asked "why not give us one of your guitars?", the next day a guitar arrived from Clapton . The following week another guitar arrived from Pete Townsand from "The Who" stating his guitar was as good as Clapton's . From then till now they have recieved over 60,000 different peices of memorbilia from celeb's. Just thought I would share that tid bit of info. Anyhow, we checked out the sights from 6pm till 8:15, and let me tell you,it is all just a blur, really over whelming. The best I can do to describe N.Y.C is to think of Toronto on steroids,seriously,the crowds and the traffic just go on and on. We get to the comedy club and the deal is, $5 cover and a two drink minimum, $50 later,lol( but then again it was one of our least expensive ventures), and the comediens weren't that good. The Emcee was pretty entertaining and of course our tour guide has an "in" with the club . I guess she gets a cut for suggesting the place.Being Canadians, we were the butt of many of the comics jokes, light hearted stuff tho. I guess last year they went and of course the language is right up my ally,lol,anyway there was a retired nun on the tour and no one knew. They still talk about it in their act. The last comic was a fag and wasn't too shy about telling every-one. Not really into fag humor. The best was yet to come...don't know if I can do it justice tonight or wait till tomorrow. Ok I won't make you wait. The tour guide, Lee got into the bailies at the comedy club and proceeded to entertain us on the ride back to the motel. Now you have to picture this...there are 50 of us on the bus and some of THEM are a little older than some of US, which made it all the funnier. This girl has been the picture of professionalism up till that night. She proceeds to enlighten us with little about her life and a funny story about her and her husbands life. She starts out with, WE got pregnant and then WE got married, and how thats just the way it was. She tells how her and him move into an apartment her father inlaw owned and how the rent went up $100 and how she wont forget. I believe it was Paris Ontario, and she referred to it as the "ass hole" of the world,lmao. She had a whole story on how she hated being up the stump, how hairy the baby was,and how she was embarrassed to take the little "monkey" out in public for the first few months. But the best was about the two cats mating on the bedroom window sill outside and how the window had been painted so many times, she couldn't open it. We all know the racket cats make when they're in heat. I guess this went on night after night till they fed them some special treats,lmao. To hear her making those noises over the microphone and then telling us about the purring after was hillarious. I told her she should have gotten up on stage at the comedy club as she was more comical than the comics there, I know some of the humor is lost in the translation, one of those times when you just had to be there.. Well I guess that's all for tonight and I will probably wrap this up tomorrow or the next day. You'll just love hearing how, I heard 6 o'clock, Ivy heard 6:15 and the real time was 5:45, remember I told you how the bus don't wait? More about that tomorrow...nite all. p.s these pictures are off the disc I purchased,beat mine all to hell.

New York City Trip Second Installment

And the saga continues...we left Port Dover at 5:am Thursday Sept 14th and arrived in New Jersey, thats where the motel was,about a half hr. drive.For those who are not familiar with the geography of that part of the state, as I wasn'y really aware untill I saw for myself. New York City is made up of five boroughs,Manhatten being the biggest attraction.Manhatten is an island two miles wide and twelve miles long,slightly smaller than P.E.I. Well,when you are in Manhatten you look across the water to New Jersey and visa versa. Anyway,we arrive at the motel around 3:30 in the afternoon having been on the bus for about nine hrs. Not all that bad as there were good movies and free beer. After we got our rooms assigned which was really quick, I guess Lee had it all arranged. After a quick shower we boarded the bus and headed to the Empire State Building. The bus driver took us through the Lincoln tunnel which connects Manhatten to New Jersey and is under the Hudson river. It is pretty neat as they have a dividing line right in the middle of the tunnel showing the border of each. Well,they don't take us right to the Empire State building, but drop us off a few blocks from there. As we get off the bus there is this chinese girl standing there and asks if we are interested in "Purses",well buddy and I aren't but no such luck with the ladies. I have to tell you here that we hooked up with a couple from Hamilton, Nick..black belt in karate and teaches martial arts,and his girlfriend Cheryl who works at St. Joes. This girl takes us about two blocks off the main drag,into the back of a restaurant, down a couple of flights of stairs and into a room that she locks behind her. And all the time we are walking she is talking,chinese of course,into a walkie talkie. The hackles on the back of my neck were tingling. Well,the room as you can see in the picture is full of knock off purses and sunglasses,they seem to be the big thing down there. The girls were in 7thy heaven but Nick and I were itching to get out of there,it was pretty warm. After about a half hour and about 6 or 7 purses later we left, finding our way back to the main drag. Thought maybe the purses were the kind you bye and then they rob you and the cycle continues,lmao. All ended well,for a change. By the time we get to the Empire State Building it is getting datk and the rain is coming down. Seriouslt thought about taking a pass on going up, but it is a long way to go and not do the trek. They charge $16 to go to the 86th floor, and ANOTHER $14 to go up further,we took the $16 one, all you really get to see between the dusk and the rain and fog was a bunch of lights .We didnt stay too long. After we came down we just hoovered around the base of the building as the bus was picking us up at 9:pm,and the one thing you don't want to do is miss the bus. Lee makes it very clear she will not wait as a couple of the husbands found out the next day. The motel offers a continental breakfast from 6am till 10am, the bus leaves at 9am so you have to be up arouind 7am to get some grub and catch the bus. I can't really give you a blow by blow description of all the sights and places we visited as it is very over whelming. We came into the city via the tunnel again and we got dropped off at Battery Park, which is right on the water. From this park you can see the statue of Liberty,the backside anyway. I must say it was really raining about this time. We then made our way up to Century 21, which is acroos from ground zero,and from the pic's Mike posted,right below where Daniell stayed. We then boarded the bus and went to a part of Manahatten they call Soho,(south of houston) which is a street they divide north and south,and of course they call the North,(Noho).Anyway each has its attractions which for the life of me I fail to remember. All I do remember is that Lee found out that day that for the month of September they are allowing people to go up Building 7,which was the last tower to come down Sept 11 and has now been rebuilt. After this month they will be building offices on that floor. We rode the bus back to ground zero,and other than the security check, almost as thourough as that at the airport, we took the elevator to the 46th floor. I must admit, I have a hard time expressing the feeling I felt the whole time I was in Manhatten. There are so many people and so much going on at any time of the day, to imagine the panic and chaos that took place that day and the days following just gives one a reason to be thankful to be visiting and not having been caught up in that terrible tradgedy. Back to the 46th floor. There is nothing on this floor except a table and a poster depicting 911. The veiw is spectacular, I hope you get the idea from some of the pictures I post. You get to look right down on the hole in the ground that the twin towers once occupied. We were 46 floors up and the towers went up 110,which is a whole lot more than what we were and I cannot imagine what those poor people went through when the planes hit. On this floor there were some pictures hung on the walls that house the elevators and I will post some of them.They were tributes to 911. In a little room off to the side a video was playing of a fire fighter that was trapped in a stairwell when the north tower collapsed. They had him listed as missing or dead, and when he was rescued he had to show his badge to proove he was who he said he was. There was a lot more to his story but it something you would have to hear for yourself. I have run out of time again so I will pick up tomorrow where I left off. Just let me say we go to a comedy club called HA,which is kind of like Yuk Yuks, but that for tomorrow. Nite all.