Planes trains and automobiles - USA summer, are we mad?

[bPeteb]

Happy 4th!

A little worse for wear we headed out into the madness that is the Fourth of July. Our heads (or stomachs) just weren't in it and after a very late start ended up catching a ferry to Vallejo. Got talking to a really nice nurse who let us know we were actually going to end up only 30 minutes from Napa. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but at the same time we had no desire for any further alcohol consumption.

Instead, after a very picturesque 75 minute fast ferry ride we got off and had a wander around the local Vallejo celebration/fair before taking the ferry back to the city















some 'bill post'art in the local neighbourhood

 

[bPeteb]

The thought of joining the throngs watching the fireworks just did nothing for us (we've been out on Sydney Harbour for NYE) so instead we had a quiet dinner at Mangrove, a Thai restaurant straight across the road from the hotel. Ok, but not great.









Fireworks were going off constantly all night. At one point we opened the blonds and some were going off someone near the Painted Ladies.

And so endeth San Fran visit one.

 

[bPeteb]

San Fran to Boston

Uber out to SFO for our flights to Boston. SFO-ORD-BOS. Al wanted to leave plenty of time to get to SFO in case the traffic was bad and security lines long. Neither was a problem and we were in the really very nice American Airlines Admirals Club lounge not much more than 30 minutes after we left the hotel. Three or four very cool ‘trees’ in the centre of the lounge like the ones that grown down near Carmel.



We flew AA First. Priority line policed.

A United plane in retro Continental livery



Seat and service was pretty good. We both had a ‘scrambled eggs benedict’. It was tasty but the bagel underneath really soggy.



We were slightly delayed into ORD as there were thunderstorms in the area that we were able to see as we came in.



Crazy long taxi at ORD – nearly 30 minutes!! Rain was just clearing as we pulled up at the gate so hopefully our bags wouldn’t get too wet as they’re taken out and transferred to out next flight. The 'wings' at ORD are super long and we were in the last gate arriving and different wing and last gate departing so it was a hike to and from the AA lounges.

ORD at Chicago has an American Airlines Flagship Lounge. We were given passes to the lounge at the reception desk. It’s a really nice lounge. Crazy huge selection of food, crazy huge selection of drinks, all free pour! We had some champagne (can’t remember what). Should have tried some of the American gins they had.

Flight to BOS delayed by 10 minutes then we sat at gate for ages as queue of planes delayed by the weather cleared behind us. First again through to Boston. Bowl of nuts (warmed) served



craft IPA x 2 with offer of third (refused!)



dinner roast chicken with an odd mash potato and ? sauce on it



Arrived into BOS 30 minutes late. Ordered Uber as second of our bags popped out. Walked out into the very hot and very humid Boston evening.

It’s a really quick trip into Boston to where we were staying at The Boxer Hotel North End Boston Hotel near TD Garden | The Boxer Boston. I’d been sent an offer to upgrade for $10/night to a King Deluxe room and accepted the offer. The picture on the website sure wasn’t what we got. The room was nice, but a super awkward design from which I still have a wound on my leg healing from smashing into the stupid bed frame multiple times.



Sampled a craft beer and cider from the minibar (that we ultimately weren’t charged for)

 

[bPeteb]

The room itself – comfy king bed, excellent minibar including half size bottles of spirits (!) and great lollies and nuts. Bathrobes, umbrella, full sized L’Occitane bathroom products on sink and in shower.









Room 602 is down in bottom left. Avoid!








Lobby ceiling



Finch, the hotel restaurant, was closed during our stay. The hotel provided a free continental breakfast in lieu of. I only wish the bowl of fruit had made it out again after the first morning.

 

[bPeteb]

We usually have everything so well planned but for this holiday it’s a bit more wing it and Boston suffered for that. Another really hot day. Such a contrast to San Francisco. We walked a fair bit of the Freedom Trail, saw Granary Burial Ground (Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere and Sam Adams)

















Boston Common



the Public Garden where the swan boats were definitely not what I was expecting



then around the edge of Beacon Hill (beautiful)

 

[bPeteb]

before eventually (and finally) to the naval yard where we visited the USS Constitution, USS Cassin Young, the Constitution Museum (more based for kids but still interesting) and had our first lobster roll (Boston is all about the lobster!).

 

[bPeteb]

Being very foot sore we caught a very cheap ferry back into the city



where we ended up at a bar beside the aquarium. After some nice coughtails and a decent antipasti platter









we decided we’d try to get back to the hotel before the looming thunder storm arrived. We failed. We got soaked. We surrendered about half way back and stepped into The White Bull Tavern to wait it out.



Sat next to a super lovely couple and their wee baby who had been up to Maine to hike a bit. Had a great conversation. Both scared at the direction America is heading and we expressed the same about Australia. Discussed holidays, as always happens when we say how long our holiday is. People in the states have such a short amounts of holidays. These two had added three days onto the Independence Day public holiday. All up they have two weeks each.

The rain let up so we made a break for it and went back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes.

The hotel is on the edge of an area of renewal where lots of restaurants, bars and clubs are opening. From a proximity perspective we had a choice between a giant sports bar or a more ‘local’ looking small bar and we chose the latter – Causeway Causeway. Had ribs that were smoked – not like anything we’ve had before. Delicious!





Lots of craft beers on tap and we had a few



They cleared every table from around us and it was pretty obvious it was being turned into more of a nightclub so we eventually gave them our table and called it a night.

 

[bPeteb]

An ex-colleague from work has moved to Plymouth after marrying his US partner and they came up from Plymouth to meet us for lunch. Before that we went out to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum We had to catch the train there and somehow ended up with transit cards with way more on them than it actually cost to travel.

The Gardner was just amazing. An amazing building, amazing collection, amazing story, amazing Renzo Piano annex. Isabella Gardner lived in private rooms on the fourth floor (not open) but the lower three floors were museum (kind of).







These two empty frames, and a number of others around the house, were left to symbolize the dozen or so paintings stolen in 1990 (I think). These two large frames were Rembrandts.





The Renzo Piano annex



We had lunch with the boys then wandered down to the ‘Cheers’ bar to try to have a drink but not surprisingly it was packed



The boys decided to head home and we did some more wandering and ended up at the Boston Tea Party Museum https://www.bostonteapartyship.com

Maybe if we had done this earlier in the day, with a much larger group, it would have been more fun. Or maybe not. We had no idea it was all about audience participation and that really isn’t our thing. It was an interesting way to spend an hour or so. Kids would love it, maybe.



Me getting that tea into the harbour



They have replicas of two of the ships that were involved in the tea over the side episode that sparked the war of independence. The aim is to eventually have all three

 

[bPeteb]

Before I go on I’d like to mention that Boston is very proud, and into, it’s history. There are people dressed in historical (18th century) clothing wandering around leading walking tours or standing along the Freedom trail offering help. It was REALLY hot while we were there. Poor people must have been roasting.




Carousel seen during our early evening search for someone where to eat



We had dinner at McCormick & Shmick’s. It was an interesting evening. The food was ok but there was some crazy cough going on with our waitress. Attentive wasn’t the word. Upsold to a meal I really should have said no to



do not pour the whole bag of crouton things into your clam chowder...



salmon starter



more salmon, my original choice. Partner said it was delicious



completely defeated by this, and surprised when I said no to taking home the leftovers





and then when it came time to pay we were given the wrong bill and then for the next 30 minutes, us, and the tables around us, watched a decent into comedic farce as she got more and more confused. We got three other people’s bills, got some money given to us (that we said no it wasn’t ours), watched the table on one side of us ask for water about 10 times, the table on the other side get the wrong drink and the one across from us, who’s money it was, go through the same mess as us. It was quite an experience…

 

[bPeteb]

We wanted to walk our dinners off so went on search of the Paul Revere House. It is in Boston’s Little Italy that is in itself the most beautiful area and in the middle of it Paul Revere House and next door an equally beautiful Georgian house. We stuffed this one up. I’m not a researcher and for some reason my partner thought that it wouldn’t be open to the public. So we missed seeing the oldest house in the US. Very sad we mucked this one up.

Little Italy



Paul Revere House



Georgian House next door



It was within 15 minutes walk of the hotel. Damn.

With that our first brief visit to Boston came to a close.

 

[bPeteb]

Boston to NYC marked the first proper train trip of the holiday. The first Uber driver for our ride to Boston’s South Station dropped us after driving away in the opposite direction (I was watching him on the app) but a second picked it up soon after.

We caught the Amtrak Acela from Boston to NYC. Acela’s are the US’s only current high speed train and saying that they’re no Shinkansen or TGV. The seats are business or first only with seat reservations only available for first. The views on the trip are all out of the left of the train (heading forwards).



No platform assigned when we got to the station so we just stood out near the platforms and watched the huge double decker trains disgorge thousands of workers coming into the city for their daily grind.

First on best dressed for seats. I’m glad we joined the queue straight away it as the train literally filled up around us. It was a completely sold out trip and after each stop (there was about a dozen) there would be families and groups wandering through the carriage looking for seats together.



The seats themselves were comfy and had acres of space. Huge overheard lockers and luggage storage at the end of the carriage – a small rack at the end of one carriage and the carriage immediately behind with a much larger rack. Powerpoints at each seat and due to the amount of space when they reclined it was without bothering the person behind.

The Amtrak site indicates that there’s supposed to be free ‘non-alcoholic beverages’ offered for business but we saw no offer of this.

The train left on time and we travelled down along the coast for most of the way through Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.









Bloody horrible







Just as awful as the coffee...



We love trains, and high speed trains especially, and this train did go decently fast every now and then but a journey that would take a couple of hours in China or Japan, or France took close to four. Nevertheless we really enjoyed and would recommend it.

 

[bPeteb]

We arrived into Penn Station on time at 12.47pm, found the right exit and were straight into a cab down 8th Avenue to our NYC home for none nights – The Caledonia. We’re very privileged to have an amazing friend who has an apartment in the building that we’ve been able to stay in. We can’t say thankyou enough times to our friend.

The Caledonia is in West 17th St between 9th and 10th and is literally attached to the Highline. Chelsea Markets is literally across the street and the riverside walk one block away. It’s an amazing location.

We opened the door into the apartment on level 18 and just went wow. If you love cities then you have to love NYC and the New York skyline just can’t be beaten. To the right out of the living room is the Empire State, straight ahead the Hudson Yards complex and to the left you can see the Hudson.





You can lay in bed and look straight at the Empire State. Just wow again. This is from the bed...



The aircon units (in pic above) are huge and hugely noisy. The compressor is inside. I can't imagine living constantly with the noise these create. You'd have to have ducted, somehow. First world problems...

However nice it would have been to just stare out the windows we’re in New York baby and needed to get out there. Despite it being 30+ degrees Al left his long duds on so after not too long he was super hot walking down the shadeless riverside walk

One of the numerous Google buildings in the Chelsea neighborhood



not sure what this will end up being



so we headed back into the more shaded, but equally hot, streets of the Village.

We ended up at the Stonewall Inn





It’s 50 years since the riots at the Stonewall started the gay liberation movement. We sat with a couple of ladies our age who’d driven in from Connecticut for the afternoon (two hours!). They both worked in education (one a middle school teacher the other a school deputy) and were on their long summer break. If want lots of holidays in the USA, you’d need to work in education.

It was a very mixed crowd, obviously some locals, plus the usual tourists who’d some in to kind of ‘pay their respects’. Wandered the streets back to Chelsea and had great pizza at Artichoke Pizza



mmm.... pizza

 

[bPeteb]

Then we decided to walk the Highline for a bit and ended up at Vessel at Hudson Yards. Not sure if we’ll bother returning to climb it but we’ll see.













there are dozens of 'goldfish bowl' apartments all along the Highline. This one below is a new, empty, apartment that you could literally see right into the loo (colour blown out on the right)!





night view from the apartment

 

[get me outta here]

Thanks, great TR, and you I enjoy your eye for design in the photos, and the descriptions.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Really enjoying this TR and your photos as well, BPB. And that apartment -- location, location, location! Wishing I was in NYC despite the heat.

 

[bPeteb]

Really enjoying this TR and your photos as well, BPB. And that apartment -- location, location, location! Wishing I was in NYC despite the heat.

Going to be over 30 all weekend. Heat ok, humidity not so much. Thinking of going over to Brooklyn for the Formula-E. Maybe

 

[bPeteb]

NYC day 3

We got out of the apartment way too late, but that was the whole point of this long stay – relaxation, no rushing.

We took the subway right up to the very top of Manhattan to visit The Met Cloisters. We get on the subway at 14th and for The Cloisters we got off at Dyckman St although we should have got off at the previous stop – 190th St, considering it was also called… The Cloisters. Doh!

The Cloisters is a recreation in the style of a medieval monastery



built in Fort Tryon Park with a view across the Hudson to the Jersey Palisades, and houses an incredible collection of medieval art and bits of medieval buildings. It was funded by John D. Rockefeller and opened in 1938.

Beautiful building, lovely medieval gardens















and the collection, just like at The Met, is amazing. Some humungous tapestries.

Unicorns are real!

 

[bPeteb]

Medieval playing cards. The only full set in existence







a spectacular gobletty thing covered in monkeys stripping off a merchant (it was on the other side, gotta keep this pg)



We spent a long time trying to get photos of bees making themselves busy in the gardens.

 

[bPeteb]

Another couple of pics from The Cloisters before I move on









and maybe some more bees and flowers





I wanted to try to find the ruin of the Billings Mansion to take some pics but Al was on a bit of a mission to get back downtown to go across to Roosevelt Island before the rush from 3pm. Without realising it when we’d stood on a walled platform looking out to the river it was the roof of the arched colonnade below, all that’s left of the mansion.

With a subway app and the internet NYC is really easy to get around. Before we left we bought a T-Mobile 30 day unlimited data SIM for about $100 with a $10 add-on for unlimited calls and SMS home. It also allows pairing at same 4G/3G speed, that some don’t. This was from SIM Corner. It’s worked a treat since we arrived in San Francisco.

We’re on and off at different stations getting to places. It’s a great system, especially now that it’s air-conditioned.

We used our seven day metro card to get on the Roosevelt Island Tramway.

 

[bPeteb]

14,000 people live on the island that also has a subway stop towards the north of the island. Great views of the East River across to Manhattan







and right across to the UN



The ruins of the old asylum buildings





Four Freedoms Park at the southern tip in memory of FDR









Straight out of the tram station and to the left are the first few buildings of Cornell Tech, one of which is the first net-zero building in the city, only using electricity that it generates.