The Big Apple

 5 April 2024 - New York City

We are spending a couple of days in the Big Apple before our cruise.  The only time I have been here was years ago for an afternoon visit with some of my work colleagues. So this is all basically new to me. We pulled our luggage from Penn Station to the hotel which would have been fine, except we made a wrong turn and doubled the distance.  

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  Very convenient for sight seeing.

Huge hotel! But expensive - $27 for eggs and bacon breakfast. 

Treated to an impromptu concert by an Annapolis band. They were in town for a parade.

Times Square.  Lots of people and this isn’t peak tourist season!

Spring has definitely arrived in NYC.  We walked around Rockefeller Center and enjoyed the gardens.

Didn’t realize until this trip that the buildings in the Rockefeller are all Depression era, Art Deco style.

Beautiful artwork on every building.

Right off of Rockefeller Center is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is the largest Gothic Revival church in the U.S.

Many homeless in the area.  This one had quite a following of birds.

Several beautiful stained glass windows. 

There were several side chapels.  Lots of Easter flowers still on display.

The main altar area.  

Ran into the Annapolis band again, marching in the “Tartan Parade”.  The parade honors Scottish clans in NYC and the surrounding area.  

Several pipe and drum bands, all wearing their clan kilts.

Even Nessie made an appearance.  

One group represented Scottish dogs, including these huge guys.

Several Scottish terriers represented their clans proudly, wearing doggie kilts.

The hotel was right in the midst of Broadway theaters and restaurants.  Some had interesting marquees.

Walked down to the Hudson River and spent several hours on the Intrepid.  Russ was in his element.

An A-6 Intruder, the plane Russ was assigned to as a Bombardier Navigator when he was in the Navy. 

The Intrepid museum included a space shuttle.  This is one of four that are on display across the country and, with this one, we have seen them all. This particular one was used as a prototype/test vehicle and never flew into space.

This is a prototype of the one that wandered around the Moon on one of the missions.

This is a mock-up of the A-6 Intruder.  Russ is sitting where a bombardier navigator would sit.  He spent several minutes studying the cockpit, clearly reminiscing about his many hours in that seat.

There were many Grumman planes on the flight deck.  Not surprising given that Grumman was a major aerospace company in New York.  

NYC cityscape behind some very old, but significant planes. Ran into a docent that was a retired Grumman employee.  It was fun reminiscing about Bethpage where I visited many times after Northrop and Grumman merged in the 90s.

Our cruise ship was right next door to the Intrepid.  The museum included a submarine and a Concorde (in the repair shop).

Russ is getting ready for the eclipse!  New York City is not in the direct path but there is 90% coverage, so it should be neat to see.  There are scattered clouds, hoping for clear skies when the eclipse is at its max.

The eclipse has started!

The eclipse at its near max at our location.  Unfortunately, clouds obscured the very closest point, but this is just a couple minutes before max.

NYC as we were leaving on our cruise.

While none of my emigrant ancestors saw this as they arrived in this country long before Ellis Island. But it was emotional thinking about those who had risked so much and endured significant hardship to get to their new future.  If only, we were as welcoming nowadays. We read that the model for the statue’s face was the wife of the man that invented the Singer sewing machine.