Up early today, as we have big plans for our 24 hours on Manhattan Island. But first we waited for the morning fog to clear – again!
Then, when we approached the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, at the southern entrance to busy New York Harbor, fog closed in again. Fortunately, we were early and it was Saturday, so not as many commuter ferries were crossing. Our radar is a very handy safety feature, which we have used a lot lately.
As we entered the Hudson River, the New York Coast Guard hailed us on the radio. They were thinking about boarding us for inspection, but when we told them their colleagues just out of the Bahamas had inspected us last month, they gave us a pass. Jerry called this our “get out of jail free” card!
As we signed off from our radio conversation with the Coast Guard, there was one of our favorite sights.
Just up the Hudson, we docked at the 79th Street Boat Basin. It is a small marina, with a motley fleet – except for Monarch and the big Cheoy Lee just to the right of us in this photo.
This is the harbormaster’s office. Pretty swanky!
We did our walkabout west on 79th Street and then south along Broadway. Lunch was the first order of the afternoon, with a stop at “Big Nick’s” deli, rated as very good by Zagat. We ate in their sidewalk café, and watched millions of people stroll by. We hadn’t seen such crowds in ages!
Next stop was Central Park, designed by the same landscape architect as Belle Isle in Detroit. Central Park is lovely this time of year. The trees were all leafed out, with dogwood in bloom. New Yorkers were thronging here for a first taste of spring, renting rowboats on the lake, reading on park benches, enjoying free outdoor concerts and browsing at the weekend arts and craft fair.
We stopped for a few provisions at the various markets along Broadway; Westside, Zabar’s and Fairway. They have every specialty cheese, meats, fish and produce one could possibly want.
Back at the boat, we unloaded our purchases and rested our feet. That evening, it was off for fine dining at “Uncle Jack’s” billed as New York’s finest steakhouse. It was fabulous, very elegant and tasty, with white-glove service.
Next, on to Saturday night’s performance of the Broadway hit musical “Wicked” at the beautiful Gershwin Theater. We were lucky to get orchestra center seats, just calling the day before! This play is a whacky prequel to the Wizard of Oz, where we find Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, the Good Witch, as chums in witches’ boarding school. Glinda is a Barbie-doll, sorority type blonde, and Wicked is a bright, if misunderstood, plain Jane type with an appalling green complexion. Even with the unlikely plot, the two female leads had wonderful voices and the musical score was good, so we enjoyed it very much.As we returned to Monarch at close to midnight, the “city that never sleeps” was just getting going, with the sidewalks crowded and the cafes filling up.
The next morning, it was back to Big Nick’s (just behind Jerry in the photo, with the green umbrellas) for breakfast and the New York Times. The streets were much less crowded early Sunday morning.
As we bid a fond farewell to New York City, we promised that the next time through we would stop again for a dose of culture and crowds. We enjoyed our brief time here immensely.
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