Triple Treat Tour July 2016 Day 2: Times Square, USS Intrepid, Juniors, Central Park

[WileyCoyote]

Monday 4 July - the previous day is HERE

Today was set to be a scorcher – but they were predicting rain for this evening , right about when the fireworks were due.

Hmmm, tricky. Needs some thinking about.

Not a fan of fireworks at the best of times and the thought of standing around for several hours with New Yorker elbows up my nose AND getting wet – frankly- not appealing

We had got a good nights sleep with all that yomping and getting onto Eastern Time.

Andy was up at 6 and made several trips to the 4th floor for breakfast items – before realising we had a tray in the room which would have made life much easier.

The breakfast was really great , pastries, bagels, coffee, juice , fruit. Pretty basic but enough to keep us going and did I mention free ?

We picked up some muffins and donuts for the boys as well which they stored in their fridge as afternoon snacks.



Today we are off to the USS Intrepid – this was another “must do” for the boys.

Although on arrival they denied all knowledge of this. :angry:

We set off at just after 9 taking the R train to 42nd Street and popping up in Times Square









There is a lot of construction across the city – that’s one thing we really noticed



Definitely a “ pace” issue between generations …





Its the oddest place really – reminded me of Piccadilly Circus







First impressions – loud and grubby – reminded me of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood

We walked for about 15 minutes towards the waterfront to 46th Street to the Intrepid.

Quite weird walking along the residential streets , very typically the sort of scenes you see in the movies with the water towers on the roof and the metal ladders on the outside

We are here around 0945



And spend 15 minutes in a fairly small queue swopping notes with two Scottish ladies who have been here since Friday

Here as in New York that is , not in the queue for Intrepid – that would be insanity

We exchange the citypass ticket with no problems and decide not do any of the extra exhibits.

The boys go straight to get on the Submarine.

We had opted not to do this on grounds of claustrophobia ... and mortification at the thought of failing the “ can you fit through this small hole “ test .

Ahem

We agreed to meet them on the upper deck.







Which is wonderfully empty



Ok . lots of pictures of aircraft ..







Nah, I will spare you – we do have LOTS of them

And its good going early because you don’t get any numptys photobombing the pics and you can read all the info boards in peace – like this





We made our way up – with Andy deciding to assist me with a shortcut on the barriers , forgetting I had the large camera which promptly took a whack and started to play up with a new flashing light appearing on it.

Much tutting and “ have you fixed it” conversations occurred.



Tricked yah, more aircraft



Yep, Cruising economy style ..





We toured round the inside

I have lots of photos of different types of seats, construction materials and other knicker gripping subjects

But I will spare you the utter excitement





I lied …

We went back out the other side – it was really warming up now




My gun is bigger than yours eh !



We spent quite a bit of time exploring the history of the ship , its role in various missions and what life on board was like

It was really interesting

Gotta love a daily plan









I had a look round the lower levels at the eating and sleeping quarters



Just like a room a Uni !



We had caught up with the boys by now who had probably spent at least five minutes walking around and declared they had "done it”

It was certainly busier the queue for the submarine was growing and there is no shade – so definitely one to do early.

One last aircraft pic – good old Concorde

[WileyCoyote]

It took about 30 minutes to walk back to our destination for lunch – Juniors.



It was a sizeable menu to peruse



We had arrived around 1145 and walked straight in . It’s a really cool diner. We had a great server and we liked the atmosphere.

Andy had Something Different

Potato cakes, beef brisket , mushroom gravy and apple sauce





He said it was amazing

Jamie and Nick had bacon cheeseburgers with onion rings



They said better than Shake Shack – at the very end of the holiday , these were rated as best burgers of the whole trip – just edging out Hash House.

Connor had Chicken Deluxe - grilled chicken with cheese and bacon



I had pulled pork with crispy onion straws



Connor and I decided to share so my plate ended up like this



It was all nice - maybe too much cheese on the chicken , but still tasty. I think my pork was the better of the two

I had the strawberry cheesecake



Which defeated me and Andy finished it off ! I would have had it to go but we were off to Central Park next and I knew it would be sloppy goo in nano seconds.

The bill $123 before tip, $143 after



It was 1245 by now and there were murmurings of tiredness

Which I confess to not taking notice of ...

Today was our only chance to see Central Park so I didn’t care if we just set foot in and left, we were definitely going there.

Unfortunately the trip turned out much longer than expected due to our outstanding navigation and lack of signage !

What better way to walk off a belly full of burgers and cheesecake than a yomp in 100 degree heat.

Evil mother

It was really hot – the subway was sweltering

It was sweatier than a camel's armpit

And only marginally more pleasant smelling

We took the subway to 57th Street and it was a short walk to Central Park



Earlier that morning there had been an unfortunate incident with a young man stepping on a bag that had a homemade firework on it – so we were on heightened vigilance

Which meant that Andy couldn't ignore the large blue holdall that had been left outside the toilets and appeared completely unattended.

Yes maybe someone had just nipped to the loo but for goodness sake , it’s the 4 July, some dude was injured here this morning, its been all over the news about possible terror incidents and you leave a naffing big bag unattended ?

The boys laughed at Andy's insistence on reporting it – but he was adamant and he found someone to call it in to be checked – amazing how many people simply walked by

Anyhow, civic duties discharged we set off

That’s Andy in the background in full civic mode








I had a park map but found it really hard to determine where we were

I really thought there would be more signs ( I mean any) pointing the way to the notable landmarks

Eeesh and it was hot hot hot

It was lovely seeing everyone having their picnics and lounging about – although we thought there might be more of a carnival feel with it being 4th July – you wouldn’t have known it was.

I guess we had expected more “ razamatazz” for the holiday



One of The Ghostbusters buildings



We walked for ages , completely missing the path to Strawberry Fields.

We stopped for some cold drinks and were given directions – back the way we had come

Sigh







The troops were flagging



Despite having a long list of things to see around the Park , we agreed we would make it to Strawberry Fields and call it a day – it just wasn’t fun , it was too hot and we were not enjoying it

We finally made it



We exited and found ourselves at a different subway – with it being a bank holiday a different timetable was operating and there was no 3 train which would have been perfect for us.

We took a C train to 39th and then got a D train – but didn’t realise it was an express which didn’t go near our stop

Right about now one of our party needed the rest room – of course

We found ourselves a 4th Street – basically in Greenwich and a damn long walk back to the hotel.

Not good

After a bit of pro crastinating, tutting , cussing and “ you work it out then “ type conversatons, we did the sensible thing- and hailed a cab

And it was only $6 to the hotel – why didn’t we just do that earlier !

The boys headed off to their room while we popped across to the Smith for a drink.



And we pondered what to do about the Fireworks

The teens had already said they were not fussed/ really didn’t want to hang around for hours waiting to see them.

We had been in touch with Andy's cousin who lives in Long Beach and there was a good chance she and her husband would come into the city but weren’t planning to see the Fireworks from anywhere near Brooklyn or the southern port areas.

I had looked up a number of rooftop bars that offered good viewing but they either had a whopping fee or needed to be booked in advance – and you had to get there at like 6pm , some 3 hours before the event

Plus of course they were still predicting it was going to tiddle down.

Andy's Cousin called and said they would be in town around 8.30 – coming in to Penn Station so we agreed to meet in a bar near there and play it by ear.

The teens opted for another McDs and pizza from the place round the corner – they wanted to stay in and watch the spectacle on TV – the heat and walking had definitely taken its toll, they looked knackered.

We made our way up to 34th around 6.30

This was one the more off-putting sights – and meant that many parts of the city just smelt horrible



Just piles and piles of rubbish on the sidewalk, day and night

We wandered around here for a bit



And pondered on which Irish bar to choose from on 37th Street



There were a few to choose from …



We ended up in O ‘Reillys , just at the end of that blurry shot

It was totally dead – as were most places – until after the fireworks when it got much busier

I had a chicken quesadilla which was delicious



Andy’s Cousin and her husband arrived about 9 – they were absolutely drenched just on the short walk from 34th and we felt vindicated at being feeble and watching the fireworks on TV – it did look fabulous – truly worthy of the word spectacular.

We had a few fun hours catching up – her husband is an ex NY Firefighter so he had many stories and was such a funny storyteller – he has lived in NY all his life so was able to tell us about so many places.

It was great fun – it had been very last minute and we left around midnight promising that we must meet again – a definite reason for us to go back.

It was raining heavily as we left so we caught a cab for $10 to the hotel dropping into bed just around 1am.

The 4th July night really had been a washout

I am sure the late night and amount of beverages will have no effect on our early start to see the Highline tomorrow

Which you can find right HERE

[Guest]

We got on an express train in error too, absolute nightmare! I'm tired just reading your day! 😴 Looking forward to reading more!

[MrsBC]

This reminded me of our visit to Intrepid - DH looked at every bit of metal and wood 10 times, I thought we were spending the night there!

[SammyScotland]

Your photos are fab, Amanda. It is making me excited for our trip.

[WileyCoyote]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

We got on an express train in error too, absolute nightmare! I'm tired just reading your day! 😴 Looking forward to reading more!

See more...

Nightmare just when we didn't need it being tired, hot and needing the loo. Happily that was our only real mistake on the subway. It's incredible how the heat drains you. Even with all the shade from the buildings.

Originally Posted by MrsBC

This reminded me of our visit to Intrepid - DH looked at every bit of metal and wood 10 times, I thought we were spending the night there!

See more...

It was nice to have the space and time to wander but definitely more appealing to Andy . I can't believe I took pictures of some of the stuff I did..

Originally Posted by SammyScotland

Your photos are fab, Amanda. It is making me excited for our trip.

See more...

Thanks Sam, I am enjoying looking at them too. It's been lovely remembering each day in so much detail. Not long now for you

[disneywiseowl]

Another great day. Your stamina is incredible in that heat. I think everyone gets lost in Central Park at some point. At least you didn't end up falling out, like we always do!

Was there a lot of construction going on in T.Sq itself? We're staying at the Doubletree in Sept & will be driving in.

[P&S]

Great day apart from getting lost and the rain

Juniors is on our list of places to eat looks good

[Redrach1903]

Another great, but super busy day!

My hubby would love all the aircrafts! It does look interesting.

I couldn't believe just how big Central Park is when I was there! Its huge! So easy to get lost!

Some yummy food today Yum!

Shame the 4th was a washout!
xxx

[Silvercat]

Oh good grief - Central Park. Lovely place but not a jeffing signpost in sight! It took us an hour to find the zoo, I swear it kept moving round while we tried to find it!