Before heading into the city, I spend a full day back home in Jersey. When you travel mid-winter, you roll the dice with the weather. My two days in the city were cold, but dry. My day back home, cold with a steady rain. Thus, no photos.
Kudos to the folks at Prestige Diner. Jeff and I met for lunch and lingered over coffee for two hours. As always, it was catching up on life, sharing news of friends and telling stories. I met Ann for dinner at a new place in town, Harlee's Tap and Grill. It's in the old space that once housed, Burger Express, Burger King and eventually Chen's. It seems a typical bar and grill. Once again, we lingered for a long time catching up.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
One of the benefits of the New Providence Best Western, is it's proximity to the train station. The NJ Transit website showed trains twenty minutes past the hour, all day. What the website failed to mention, is that trains on this line don't run on Sundays. Fortunately, someone at the station mentioned it to me just before the bus showed up.
The original rail line was built in 1865 for the Passaic Valley and Peapack Railroad. The station was built in 1890 when the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad took over the line.
The bus dropped us off at the Summit station, one town over. It's where the Gladstone and Hackettestown lines converge, en route to New York. I was chatting with someone about my age while we were waiting for the train. The Summit station used to be a bit of a dump. The walkway over the tracks was wooden. It creaked and groaned as people walked across it.
For those of you who've stood here, you might have noticed a structure on the west side of the tracks, just above and beyond the north end of the platform. It looks like a large wooden bay window that was boarded up and forgotten years ago.
That used to be the central monitoring office for these two lines. They would keep track of all the rail traffic, passenger and freight. It was closed and the monitoring for all the lines was moved to a more central location. Now, New Jersey Transit is finishing the process of something called Positive Train Control. Using trackside monitors, trains can automatically be slowed or stopped by remote.
It's an easy ride into New York's Penn Station. Just across the intersection sits the New Yorker Hotel, my home for the next tree nights.
I've stayed here three years running. Last year they upgraded my room to a slightly larger one. This time, they upgraded me to a suite on the thirty-ninth floor. It wasn't a big suite, but I appreciated the extra room. And the view wasn't too shabby, either. That building in the center of the frame comes back in the narrative a little later.
I was meeting my sister for dinner and had some time, so I did what anyone else would do, take a walk and explore a bit. Since I was on the west side, it seemed a no brainer to head towards the Hudson River and then north along the water.
On the way, I encountered this guy, possibly the loudest piccolo player...ever.
I also came across a place called Alice's Garden.
Alice Parsekian lived across the street from this unused Port Authority property. So, she turned it into a neighborhood garden and maintained it for twenty years until her death in 2010. The garden was revitalized a year later as a joint venture with various community boards and neighborhood groups. The Port Authority rents the land for the garden for $1 a year. The gate is locked, but the sign gives you instructions to gain entrance. The one time fee is $2.
While reading up on Alice's Garden, I came across a youtube video made by a guy who has taken responsibility for Plot #9 within the park. You can see his brief tour here.
One block up is the new Hudson Yards subway station, opened in 2015. More on the station later. In the back of the shot is a structure simply known as "The Vessel." I'll visit both, just not today.
Randomly zigzagging my way towards the river, I passed a now familiar site, and one I hadn't seen before. In a small playground sits a creative looking slide. Tom Otterness has sculptures scattered around the city. There was no plaque, but the design was unmistakable.
Note the hand...
Eventually, I did make it out to the Hudson River. There are biking, running and walking trails. I wasn't meeting Mary for a while, so I started walking north and looking for a convenient pace to wait for sunset.
Along 12th Avenue... All politics aside, this made me laugh.
Just off 70th Street, I strolled out on a pier to settle in for sunset.
With a half hour to go before I was meeting my sister, and convinced the restaurant was only four blocks away, I settled into a coffee shop to warm up. Only then did I reread the text. Serafina restaurant was on 55th, not 66th Street. Fortunately, the crossing lights were with me and I managed to make it on time, with seconds to spare. Being a quiet Sunday night, we were able to linger over dinner and coffee before calling it a night.
Just for kicks, I walked through Times Square on the way back to the hotel. There were less people in costume than usual, including a pretty bad Spiderman.
There were even the usual guys trying to sell CDs to tourists. Always one to support musicians, I spent $5 on one by DJ Tank Q. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes it's just not your thing.
As for Times Square, sadly, it smelled like pot.
To each their own, but the smell gets old quickly. So, I kept walking down Broadway. There's an interactive art exhibit that has the block between 37th and 38th Street closed to traffic. The exhibit is called "Impulse" and features giant, light up seesaws.
The view from the room
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