Because You Only Turn 60 Once

Jim's cookie cake

Since January I had been keeping a secret from my husband. That was extremely difficult for me. I didn't tell anyone else about it because we have had family surprises ruined in the past by loose lips. Our son and daughter-in-law had booked tickets to St. Louis to surprise Jim for his 60th birthday, much like they had surprised me in New York when we were there celebrating my launch into a new decade. Jim's birthday is March 2nd, and the kids were not flying in until close to midnight that night. I had earlier suggested to Jim that we celebrate his birthday over the weekend since we had just gotten back from our cruise and visiting Katie in LA. He was totally fine with that idea.

SWT Design took him out to lunch on the 2nd, and invited me to come along. They also had a pretty awesome cookie cake made for him, so I didn't feel too bad about not having cake on his actual birthday. The next morning I picked up Andy and Megan at the hotel where they had spent the night since they were flying in so late. I couldn't figure out how I was going to sneak out of the house at 11:30 at night to get them without arising his suspicion, so they decided to go the hotel route. We drove directly to his office and surprised him there. And was he ever shocked! He had no idea the planning that went on behind his back. Tee, hee! We took him to a new restaurant, The Slider House in Rock Hill, for lunch and then dropped him back off at the office.

He was able to take a few hours off over the next couple of days, and we had a really nice visit with the kids. Friday night we took him to Citizen Kane's for the real celebration, and then had cake and ice cream back at the house where he could finally open his gifts.

Jim's 60th birthday

On Saturday, Megan's mom and dad drove over from Indiana. We always have such a good time with them! We are so blessed to not only have a daughter-in-law whom we love, but one who comes from such a fabulous family as well. We chatted and ate pizza, and then brought out the card games. We broke long enough to enjoy the meal Jim and I prepared, and then jumped right back into a hot game of Sequence. One game led to another, and we finally called it quits at 1:00 in the morning. As the kids had an early flight the next morning, we thought it prudent to head off to bed at that point.

Six o'clock a.m. came way too early Sunday, and before we knew it everyone was taking off for home. I think I am safe in saying that we made turning 60 pretty memorable for Jim!

Cruisin' Part 5

sunrise at sea

Friday was the last day at sea as we made our way back north to Los Angeles. One of the (only) benefits of being a poor, light sleeper is that I got to see some incredible sunrises on this cruise. Above is what I woke up to Friday morning. We had breakfast at the buffet as usual, and then hit the morning trivia game where we came in second yet again. Always a bridesmaid... The trivia games were pretty interesting as they tried to mix things up. For example, in one you had to name not only the One Hit Wonder song that they played but also the artist who sang it. Really? My favorite variation was Majority Rules. Only Jim and I went to that one, so we joined another couple to form our team. After each question was asked you wrote down your answer and ran it to the trivia host, where the answers were quickly tallied. The answer written down by the most teams was the winning answer, whether right or wrong. "Name one thing that people do in an elevator that is annoying?" My first thought was "fart", but then I come from the Kubler family. Our team wrote down "talk on the phone." Winning answer? Fart. Go with your gut, people. Har, har. Needless to say, the answers were very entertaining, and it was undoubtedly the most fun I have ever had playing trivia.

After trivia we walked around the ship a bit, and before long it was time to eat. For the first time we decided to try one of the main restaurants for lunch. Normally we just ate at the buffet because it was fast and easy. We joined a table of four other women, three of whom were from California. The fourth was from Austin. The meal was very good, and it was fun to change up the conversation a bit.

Crown Grill

We packed a bit in the afternoon as the large suitcases had to be placed outside our cabin door by midnight. By then it was time for more trivia, and lo and behold we came in first! And I have the Princess chip clip to prove it. No champagne for trivia on the last day - boo. As we had reservations at the Crown Grill that night, we headed back to the room to shower and change. There were three restaurants on board that you had to pay extra for, and this was one of them. We were celebrating Jim's birthday that night, so we wanted to do something special. The service was exceptional and we all enjoyed our meals. The only thing that was off-putting came at the end. They knew it was Jim's birthday, so they brought a cute little special cake for him. And then several staff members came over to sing happy birthday. Badly. Very badly, and apparently on purpose as we heard them sing at another table later. I guess they think it is funny, and it might have been if done in one of the casual restaurants. But I did not think it was appropriate in the elegant setting.

Jim's birthday celebration

Jim and Paul hit one last trivia game after dinner, but I went back to the cabin to finish packing. We had our bags out before the designated time, and spent another restless night at sea as the water was again pretty choppy.

Saturday morning was so foggy in Los Angeles. I had no idea the city got that kind of weather. I always think of San Fransisco being shrouded, but not LA. I have to admit, it made for some fun and interesting photos though.

 Los Angeles Harbor

Vincent Thomas Bridge

We met the Corbins early for breakfast as they had a disembarkation time of 8:00. It was great to have one last meal with them before saying good-bye. We did not have to leave the ship until 10:30, though everyone had to be out of their rooms by 8:00. We were going to Katie's from the port and she had to work that morning, so we were in no rush to get off the boat. We spent time lounging outside and catching up on emails and other messages as we finally had Internet service for the first time in seven days.

Disembarkation went smoothly and quickly, and we were soon waiting for our Lyft ride outside the terminal with our luggage. We hit our first big snag of the trip when the driver could not locate us. I had indicated to him that we had just gotten off a cruise and were at Berth 93. I don't know where in the world he was, but after 20 minutes he gave up on us. When I contacted Lyft the second time, I actually called and spoke to the driver. I asked him if he had ever picked anyone up at the port before, and he said that he had. I told him that we just got off the Princess ship and we were at Berth 93. No problem, he says. Well, he did have a problem - the same one as the previous driver. A Princess employee told me that Lyft and Uber drivers were actually not supposed to pick up in our area (though I saw a couple of Uber pickups going on), due to the taxi contract. He said we needed to walk out of the port and get picked up there. So we schlepped all our bags a few blocks outside the port, and arranged for pickup there. It turns out that there are two Perth 93s in the area. Why? Why would they do that? Thus the confusion. At any rate, we were in a car and on our way to Katie's and ready to spend a couple of nice days with our girl.

My final thoughts on this cruise. This was our fourth cruise and the second time we have used Princess cruise line. This ship is smaller than many others as it was built in 2006. That has its own pluses and minuses. I like having fewer people on board, but that also means less amenities than the larger ships. The Crown Princess is due to be refurbished in 2016, and it will be interesting to see what they can do as they can't change the footprint of the boat. This was our first cruise on the Mexican Riviera, and I would not do that route again. Having only three stops in seven days equals too much time on the ship for my liking. Every other cruise has had four or five stops. I also do not think the ports of call are all that interesting.

There were over 200 kids on our ship! I have never been on board with that many children, and it was not an enjoyable experience. You could never get close to a hot tub as they were all packed with kids, they were running around wild, and the crying in the nice restaurants was just uncalled for, in my opinion. The folks in the stateroom above us had a toddler, and all that child did was whine. We could not sit on our balcony if they were out due to the whining. It certainly wasn't peaceful and restful out there. A woman who had done this exact same cruise back to back - again, why? - told us that the previous week there were 500 kids on board. Why these children, predominantly Americans, were not in school is beyond me. We planned the timing to avoid spring breaks. I sound like I don't like kids, and that is not the case. It is just when I am not traveling with children I don't want my vacation to be marred by other people's kids being obnoxious.

All that being said, it was wonderful to get away, especially with such great friends, and to cruise the Pacific Ocean, which we hadn't done before. Princess knows how to do things right, and the excursions were great fun. It definitely will not be our last cruise.

Cruisin' Part 4

Cabo sunrise

On Thursday we entered the port of Cabo San Lucas around 6:30 in the morning, greeted by another beautiful sunrise. It was interesting to see a U.S. naval ship in the harbor. That would be a nice assignment.

US Navy ship

one of the ship's tenders

Inexplicably, we had the shortest amount of time in this port, which has no actual dock for large cruise ships. All passengers going ashore have to be tendered into port, so you have to build in extra time for that. Due to time constrictions, we booked our excursion through the cruise line. We met for breakfast at 7:15, and then hurried to the meeting place we were assigned to catch our tender into Cabo. We had decided to take a Zodiac tour and snorkel trip. A Zodiac is an inflatable boat that can reach high speeds and thus is desirable to the military - think Special Forces here. None of us had been on one, and of course the guys were all excited about the ride. I wasn't thrilled about being bounced around, but on the plus side the boat doesn't hold too any people so the excursion was small. We had eight in our Zodiac, plus the driver and a guide. A second Zodiac brought several more people from our ship, though we really didn't see much of them once we took off. Below is the other Zodiac.

Zodiac

Paul and me 

One of the main attractions in Cabo is El Archo. Literally translated as The Arch, the three stories tall rock formation is also referred to as Land's End because if you followed a line south from here you would not touch land again until you reached the South Pole. The Pacific Ocean becomes the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) here. The rock formations are incredible, and the boat was able to take us fairly close to them. There were numerous sea lions hanging out on the rocks.

El Archo

pretty fish

After ample time to study the rocks and take photographs, we headed to our first snorkeling location. The water here was a bit colder than Puerto Vallarta, and I was wishing I had the wet suit provided on the tour there. On the plus side, it did get me swimming faster! All was going well, and we were enjoying the variety of fish in the area when the female guide swam up to Paul, Kathy and me and told us to swim to a new area. "Towards the shore?," Paul asked. She nodded yes and said she would go and tell the others. We took off in the direction she indicated. And that is when I thought I was going to die.

The three of us got hit by a humongous wave. I am talking one that expert surfers would have been ecstatic to ride. We barely recover from that, and I turned around and thought, "Holy crap!" Here comes another one, just like the other one. I have never been in that situation before. Do you ride it out? Dive into it? Pray? I saw Paul dive into it, so I followed suit. Then a third one came, and I was growing tired from fighting the waves. When I could finally stick my mask back into the water, I about had a heart attack. I was inches above some coral, and I could only image cutting myself on it.  I swam as hard as I could to the left, not knowing if it was any better over that direction. Thankfully, there were no more huge waves, and I took some time to just float for a bit and rest. I honestly did not know if I had enough strength and energy left to swim all the way back to the boat. I had been sent pretty far away from it. Eventually I made it back, as did Kathy and Paul. I don't think I have been so scared in my life. And we still had one more snorkeling stop to make. The female guide spoke softly in Spanish to the driver when she got back in the boat. She never said a word to the three of us, but Jim said she seemed pretty shaken up by what had happened. As well she should.

I wasn't sure if I was going to even get out of the boat at the next stop, but we ended up in a pretty quiet cove. So I decided to get back in the water, which was thankfully warmer than the last stop. I am so glad I made that decision, because the coral was prettier here, and there were so many fish! It truly seemed like we were swimming in an aquarium.

fish and a whale

On the way back to Cabo we saw a whale. Although this was the migration season, this is the only one that I saw on the trip. I am not going to lie though. The best thing I saw was the cruise ship. After my ordeal, I was happy to get out of the water. Back on ship we showered, played some trivia and had a low key dinner at the grill so we could eat outside. Besides, it was another formal dinner night, and none of us felt like dressing up. Then we watched the movie, "The Martian" outdoors on the big screen, and followed that by seeing the comedy/music show by Steve Moris, who used to play with the Beach Boys. It was a nice ending to the day.

Crown Princess

Cruisin' Part 3

coming into Mazatlan

We arrived at Mazatlan at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 24th. This city was founded in 1531, and has a surprising population of nearly 500,000 people. While it was once a popular tourist destination, in 2011 the cruise lines stopped going to this port due to a huge increase in crime. One of Mexico's largest crime organizations is based in the area. It took a couple of years before any ships returned to Mazatlan, and I am not sure that all lines made the decision to add this stop back on their itinerary. After all, the U.S. State Department still has warnings about non-essential travel to this part of Mexico. So perhaps it wasn't smart for us to decide to do our own thing in this town, but none of the planned excursions really interested us.

entrance to El Faro path

Doing research ahead of time, I had suggested that we take a cab to the area where we could hike up to El Faro Lighthouse. At 523 feet, it is the highest (but not tallest) lighthouse in the Americas and one of the highest operating lighthouses in the world. El Faro cast its first light in 1879. Hiking up to see it takes more than 325 steps and involves more than a 500 foot elevation change, so it is a somewhat demanding adventure. The only paved portion of the trail is shown in the photo on the right. The rest of the path is dirt or stairs. The day was sunny and quite warm, and luckily we came prepared with enough bottles of water. The actual lighthouse itself is not much to look at, though we did climb the spiral staircase inside it to see the light fixture. As promised, though, the views along the trail and at the top made all the exertion well worth it!

hiking El Faro

As suggested on the travel site, TripAdvisor (I don't leave home without consulting this website regarding places to stay, things to do and where to eat, and I don't receive any compensation from them, but am a frequent contributor as I believe in giving as well as receiving), we had arranged for our cab driver to return to pick us up at the entrance two hours from the time he dropped us off. We figured that would give us ample time to walk up, take photos, and walk back down. We actually got to the gate in an hour and forty-five minutes, and sat to wait for the cab. When he hadn't appeared after two hours and fifteen minutes, we took another form of transportation back to the city center. It was a small truck with benches in the bed for passengers. They are innovative in how they move tourists around, that is for sure.

The main attraction in the old town area is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Construction on the cathedral was completed in 1899 and it became the second Catholic Church in Mazatlan. In 1958 it was named a basilica cathedral. I love visiting old churches, and this one did not disappoint.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

From the town center we took another cab, this time a golf cart, back to the touristy area by the port where we saw these two items. You just have to love a Mexican sense of humor!

Viagra

Mexican humor

We stopped at a Mexican cantina for chips and salsa along with a beverage before walking back to the ship. We decided it would be wise to eat a late lunch on the ship rather than having a meal in town.

Paul and Jim

Back on ship we grabbed a quick bite and rested a bit before heading to movie trivia. We did well, getting 22 out of 25 correct. The winning team got 23 correct, but they were cheaters. We had four on our team and you were allowed six people, maximum. The winning team had ten people at their table! I can't believe that people would cheat like that, all for a game and a cheap bottle of champagne. Sad...

It was fun to see the lighthouse from the ship as we left the port of Mazatlan. We came, we saw, we conquered!

El Faro

Cruisin' Part 2

Puerto Vallarta

Our first port of call was Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This was a sleepy little fishing village until John Huston filmed "The Night of the Iguana" there in 1964. The film starred Richard Burton, and his then-lover Liz Taylor flew down to keep an eye on Burton and his co-star, Ava Gardner. The resulting media buzz put the locale on the map as a tourist destination. Resorts and cruise lines followed the buzz. We arrived at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday the 23rd, and because the port is located north of the city there is not much to see once you are docked.

Marietta Island

The four of us booked an excursion through Princess for this port of call. The benefit of using the cruise line is that they make sure you get off the ship in a timely fashion and also, more importantly, back on the ship before it sets sail. If their excursion screws up the timing and you miss the ship, they fly you to the next destination. We grabbed breakfast at the buffet before leaving the ship to meet up with our tour group. We had selected a sailing/snorkeling adventure to Marietta Island, which is a national park and bird sanctuary. As it was breeding season, we saw many of the 72 varieties of birds who make the island their home.

Many on the excursion took the opportunity to swim through a cave to get to a private beach. As they mentioned you needed to be a very strong swimmer due to currents, and that they wouldn't know what the head clearance in the cave was until they got in there, Kathy and I chose not to do that portion. After everyone was back on board, we motored to a new location to go snorkeling.

snorkeling

Once we were all back on board, the crew served us some amazing tropical cocktails and a buffet lunch. Then we were offered the opportunity to kayak or try their paddle boards. As I did not want my first time trying to get up on a board to be in front of 40 of my new friends, I took pictures instead. Kathy and Paul both tried it, and Jim and Paul took a kayak for a spin.

Jim and Paul kayaking

As we headed back to the port, the crew of the boat put on quite a show for us. What a fun group of guys! We have been on many excursions in the past, but overall I would have to say this five-hour cruise was the best in terms of friendliness of the employees, food, drink and boating activities.

the crew

our ship

We all took a nap when we got back to the ship, and then showered before going to dinner. It was lovely to see the full moon as we cruised that night on our way to the second port of call in Mazatlan.

full moon

Cruisin'

beautiful sunset

As my husband's birthday loomed, I was trying to determine where to take him to celebrate this new milestone. He, too was turning 60. (Yes, I am a cougar. I married a younger man - younger by all of 5 months.) Originally we had planned to go to Australia/New Zealand in February, and that was going to be the trip. But due to an American Airlines new route issue, we decided we could not pull off a huge trip such as that one in the limited time we had. Our friends from Minneapolis (who were originally going to join us in New Zealand in February) suggested a cruise to the Mexican Riviera as an alternative. We have been to the Eastern Caribbean as well as the Western Caribbean with Kathy and Paul, so this would definitely be a new route for all of us. As the cruise originates and ends in Los Angeles, an added bonus is that we would be able to see our daughter as well.

We booked the cruise back in January, planning the dates around another birthday surprise that my family had in store for Jim in early March. We flew to Los Angeles on Friday, February 19th, and the security line at Lambert Airport was unreal! In my 37 years of using this airport, I have never seen so many people. When the line finally advanced, I noticed a sign that read "American Priority Access", and there was no one in that line. Lo and behold, our boarding passes had those exact words on them. So we were able to hop over to the non-line. The TSA agent said that probably saved us 45 minutes in line. Yay us! The flight was on time, and the plane was a newer one with built-in entertainment units in each seat. That sure helps a four hour flight pass more quickly. We arrived in LA in the early evening, and used Lyft (similar to Uber) for the first time to take us to the hotel, which was located by the Port of Los Angeles. That worked really well, and with the $10 new customer coupon they gave me, we only paid $17.33 for the ride. Our friends got in a couple of hours later than us, and we waited for them before walking to a nearby restaurant to grab dinner. They took Uber from the airport and paid $60!

Warner Grand Theater
San Pedro

Our check-in time for the cruise was not until 1:30 on Saturday, so the hotel gave us a later check-out time. Following breakfast we walked to old town San Pedro. Located on the southern end of the Palos Verde Peninsula the area was first settled in 1769, though the Port of Los Angeles wasn't founded until 1907. We enjoyed walking through the old town area before heading down to see the USS Iowa. Now a maritime museum, the USS Iowa was originally commissioned in 1943 and served during WWII, the Korean War, and the Cold War. The ship was decommissioned in 1990 and moved to Los Angeles in 2012. Jim and Paul decided to do the ship tour, but Kathy and I thought the timing was a bit rushed, so we took a leisurely walk back to the hotel instead.

USS Iowa

The hotel shuttled us over to the Princess cruise line port, and check-in was a breeze. We checked out our staterooms, which were located next door to each other, and then grabbed a late lunch before touring the ship. Finally we went to one of the top decks to watch the ship leave port, which was around 5:00 in the afternoon.

our stateroom

on our balcony

This was an unusual cruise in that we were on the ship for two full days before arriving at our first port of call. We filled the time with eating (surprise, surprise), visits to the fitness center (to combat the eating), sitting on the many decks, attending shows, and participating in lots of trivia contests. By the end of Monday we were eager to get off the ship the next day.

New York City Day 5

New York City skyline

Sunday was our last day in New York, and it was pretty much a travel day. Our friends had left early in the morning, so the two of us walked to a deli for breakfast before packing up our suitcases. Our flight was not until the afternoon, but one of the cab drivers we talked to earlier said that with the New York Marathon on Sunday, many roads would be closed. He suggested getting out of the mid-town area before 11:00 in the morning. The hotel staff could offer no better information, so we caught a cab to LaGuardia at 10:45. As it turned out, traffic was a breeze and we arrived at the airport with no troubles and plenty of time to spare. Even the security line was light, which figures since time was no problem for us. We picked out a relatively empty gate area and settled in for the duration.

Our plane had been changed from the one seat - two seat configuration to one that was two - two, but our seat assignments were still the same. The plane left the gate just a few minutes late, but once again we encountered severe turbulence during the flight. In fact, they suspended beverage service for a bit. Once they finally gave us drinks, I almost wish they had not. We held our cups up in the air to prevent spills, and even that was dicey. Eventually the air calmed and we had smooth sailing the rest of the way.

I just can't imagine a better way to begin my sixties. Traveling to a fabulous city, surrounded by good friends and family members - well, it just doesn't get much better than that. I only wish our daughter could have joined us as well. That would have been the icing on my birthday cake. But as I get to see her in a couple of weeks, I won't complain. Until next time, New York...

New York City Day 4

High Line

The main thing on our list of things to see on Saturday was the High Line. Located on an old railway trestle, this 1.45 mile vertical park opened its third phase in November of 2014. Jim and I had walked phases one and two last time we were in New York, so we were eager to see the latest section. As it was a chilly morning, the four of us decided to go to a nearby diner and eat breakfast while waiting for the temperature to warm up a bit. We were planning out our day when I looked up from my final cup of hot tea and saw a gal come in the front door who looked like our daughter-in-law Megan. There was a waiter in the way, so I didn't see who she was with until he moved. That is when I saw Andy. I could not believe my eyes! They had driven up from their home outside of Washington, D.C. on Friday, and spent the night with their friends in Queens. As we had met Marty and Daniella before at Andy and Megan's wedding, they joined us for the day. I am not going to lie, they made me cry - happy tears. What a surprise!

at the diner

Following breakfast we took the subways necessary to get to the High Line. This park gets nearly 5 million visitors annually, and I think most of them were there on Saturday - ha! It was quite crowded and congested as people were stopping to take selfies, other photos and to admire the views and plantings along the way. The folks that were in town for the New York marathon were easily identified by their running attire - Italy, Mexico, England and many other countries were well-represented. Regardless of the throngs of people, it was nice to stroll along the trail.

High Line

After that is was time for lunch (yes, we ate our way through New York!) After exiting the High Line, we found the Sugar Factory. Lunch, shakes and candy - what's not to love? The decor is adorable, and the staff dressed for Halloween. Unfortunately there was a table filled with 16 girls celebrating the 13th birthday of one. A group of 6 parents sat at the next table, along with the professional photographer. (And I should add that a stretch limo waited outside for the group. Sheesh - what will she get on her 16th birthday?) So what's NOT to love? Having this group place their order right before us. We sat in that restaurant for 2 hours! Poor service coupled with mediocre food put a damper on the whole experience. We had places to go and people to see, so taking that much time for lunch definitely messed with our schedule.

Once we finally escaped our time in the factory, we went to Mood Fabrics. A guilty pleasure of Jim and me is watching the television show "Project Runway", where clothing designers have all kinds of challenges thrown at them each week. They always go to Mood to purchase their fabrics, so we just want to have a quick look at the store. Unfortunately Swatch, the dog, was not in residence that day.

Mood Fabrics

From there we were off to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This Episcopalian church was begun in 1892 and remains unfinished to this day. It is reported to be one of the largest cathedrals in the world. We arrived too late for an official tour, but we were able to still go inside and have a look around. They say it would take $100 million to complete the church. I am guessing that this will never happen. It is too bad as it is really a beautiful place.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

It was getting dark, so back to the subway station we went to go to the hotel to change for dinner. Due to the fact that it was Halloween, the subways were unbelievably packed! We had to split up in order to squeeze into different cars. It was fun to see all the kids (both little and big) dressed up for trick or treating or partying though. The kids went store to store to receive their candy. How different from the way we do things in the Midwest!

Jim had made reservations for the 8 of us at Benjamin Steak House. Fortunately he had been able to push the time back a couple of hours since we had such a late lunch at the Sugar Factory. Benjamin's was great, and a wonderful way to end up an incredible and surprising day. The kids got back on the subway around 10:30 to return to Queens, and the old farts went to bed. After all, I had taken 18,579 steps for 8.22 miles, and climbed 20 flights of steps. I was pooped!

New York City Day 2

One last airport story before I delve into Day 2. My right armpit alerted the TSA agents at the St. Louis airport. Yes, you read that correctly - my armpit. That meant I qualified for a pat down. What a nice, cheap thrill for my birthday! After she slid her hands up my armpits, the agent told me that sometimes deodorant sets the machine off. Apparently the explosives detectors look for products containing ammonium nitrate, and some deodorants, lotions and make-up contain this ingredient. Who knew? She obviously allowed me to board, but the interesting thing is that I checked my deodorant when I got home (I have a different, travel-sized one that I use on my trips), and it doesn't contain ammonium nitrate. I wonder what set the machine off?

Pershing Square Cafe

Thursday, October 29th was our first full day in New York, and the only thing scheduled with a time was a trip out to the Statue of Liberty in early afternoon. First thing in the morning we walked over to Pershing Square Grand Central Cafe for breakfast. It is located under an overpass, which is pretty cool.

After we ate we crossed the street to Grand Central Station to admire the architecture. Going inside always makes me want to bust into "Don't Rain on my Parade", and strut through the station like Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl". Out of deference to my companions, I restrained myself. It is a beautiful, busy train station, great for people-watching as much as anything else. I held out a small bit of hope that a flash mob would choose that exact moment to sing, dance, issue a wedding proposal - anything. It happens all the time on YouTube. Alas, it was not to be.

ticket windows

Grand Central Station

me with Jim in Times Square

Our next stop was Times Square, because no trip to New York is complete without rubbing shoulders with tens of thousands of your best friends. I don't remember ever being so accosted by hawkers in the past - play tickets, comedy shows, bus trips, bicycle rides - you name it. I guess the big DSLR hanging around my neck pegged me as a tourist. I had better success evading the sales slugs when I put my camera in my purse. But then it was a pain to drag it out every time I saw something I felt was photo worthy, which was often for a shutterbug like me.

We hopped on the subway for a ride down to Battery Park where we stood in a long line waiting to go through security prior to boarding the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It was similar to airport screening with the exception that you could leave your shoes on. And the fact that I did not have a deodorant malfunction with their screening machine.

Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

Manhattan from the ferry

Our tickets to the Statue of Liberty only entitled us to go up to the pedestal level. While it would have been great to go all the way to the crown, those tickets were sold out until January, 2016! We decided to walk the 215 steps from the lobby to the pedestal instead of taking the elevator. Burn, baby, burn! It was quite crowded when we finally exited the doors at the top of the steps. Did I mention that in addition to normal New York crowds, there was the addition of World Series fans as well as New York Marathon participants? There were 50,000 people running in the marathon that Sunday, not to mention the family and friends they brought along with them. To say that the typical tourist spots were packed is an understatement.

Once back on Manhattan soil, we took off in search of some New York style pizza. Taking the advice of a couple of New York's finest, we enjoyed a slice at Masterpiece Pizzeria before working our way over towards Wall Street and Trinity Church. Completed in 1846, the church is a wonderful example of Gothic architecture.

Trinity Church exterior

Trinity Church ceiling

Trinity Church interior

Getting back on the subway at Wall Street we encountered our first (but far from last) taste of rush hour, subway style. Oh my! Squished together and hanging onto a pole for dear life, I got a true sense of what the working class deals with on a daily basis just getting home from work. It sure makes you appreciate the more laid back life style here in the Midwest. After relaxing at the hotel for a bit, we walked a few blocks for a late dinner before retiring for the night. Fitbit counts: 16,289 steps or 7.21 miles including 38 floors of stairs. Yay for the 60 year old me!