East Coast Cruising - New York City

September brought a cruise to the East Coast for Annette and I. We started in New York, visited two cities in Maine, then sailed over the International Boundary into Canada and visited several cities in the Maritime region. The cruise ended in Quebec City and we ended our holidays after spending time in Montreal.
I'll divulge the full itinerary over several posts - today we'll just talk about New York city with a few pictures to back up the tale.

ALL PICTURES OF NEW YORK CAN BE FOUND HERE ON MY FLICKR PAGE 

We had one of those early morning flights were you have to be at the airport even before the Starbuck baristas wake up. In the past we have stayed at a local hotel to save some time as it is an hour from our house to the airport as long as there are no traffic problems.
Better to spend the night close to the airport and safe some time and stress in the early hours.
We checked the airport hotels and they were all almost double what they typically cost - oh yeah, it is the September long weekend and every one us travelling.

The Fairmont Hotel at the Vancouver Airport is pricey, but today it was only $40.00 more than a Best Western room, so deluxe accommodations here we come.
We were able to get a room overlooking the airport terminal which was just ideal for Annette as she is an air plane junkie - she just loves flying.

I think this is one of the sweetest photos I have of Annette - seeing her spell bound like a little kid with the airport at her feet melts my heart. Annette sat for hours at the window watching the coming and goings of the various planes until it was time to go to bed.

Up early, we got dressed, checked out, took the escalator down to the check in gates and we were there! 8 minutes from hotel room to the check in counter, that even includes checking out of the hotel - that was an awesome commute. :)

We stayed in Newark across the water from New York city. As luck would have it our hotel room had a view of the Newark runways so I lost Annette to another night of her watching jumbo air planes take off on their way to somewhere only she could imagine.

We took a 25 minute train ride into New York and found ourselves at Penn Station. This put us in good walking distance of the Empire State Building which was the only must-do on my list of things to see.

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO SEE IT AND THE OTHERS FULL SIZE

The view provided from the outdoor viewing area on the 86th floor is amazing, you can walk around the perimeter and see in all directions. The skylines of the buildings below, and in some cases above, was varied and you could almost see the generation of buildings as they progressed from the 1940s right through until today which includes the new ones that are currently being built.

To provide a rough idea of the island, we were on the west side about 1/3 of the way up the island. The collection of tall buildings in the distance is the south end of the island. This is where the twin World Trade Centers stood. As well, Wall Street stock market with it's large bull statue is located in the area.
After a trip up to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building we wound our want back to ground level and tackled the subway system.
Surprising, during our days in New York we had several people randomly stop to help us traverse the ins and outs of the system as well as suggest subway stops to get off at to put us closest to our destination.

We headed south to the 9-11 memorial which consists of two large fountains that now take up the footprints of the original towers It's still surreal to think at one time there were two sky scrapers here and over 3,000 people lost their lives on this spot.

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On day two in New York we were joined by my brother Ken and his wife Linda who would be joining us on the 10 day cruise to the East Coast, as well as joining us on our travels in Quebec City and Montreal.
Linda has visited New York several times, for the rest of us it was our first time in town. Our first stop of the day was Grand Central Station. For many years we have all seen the train station in movies, films, and on TV shows - so naturally we had to see it in person.

First thing you think is - it's smaller than I thought.
The "grandness" is there, if somewhat overshadowed by your unmet expectations of the scale of the building.
Still, had to come see it after hearing about it for so long.

The Rockefeller Center with all of it's associated attractions of Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller Tower, NBC News studio, Radio City Music Hall, and more was high on the "must see" list.
We went up the Rockefeller Tower to the 70th floor open air observation deck and were rewarded with more stunning views of New York City. "chic-chich" went the cameras non stop as we all took loads of pictures from our vantage point on top of the building up on the roof with the antennae and satellite dishes.

Back on the ground we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, wandered past the British Empire Building with it's gold plated figurines, past the Waldorf Astoria, which surprisingly was closed as it was being renovated, and found ourselves at Tiffany's and Company. A dangerous place to go shopping for sure.

 
That was the end of day 2 in New York. We took the train back to our hotel in Newark for the night. The next morning we would be a 20 minute cab ride from joining another 3,200 people on the next part of our journey.

First point of call on the cruise - Bar Harbor, Maine.
Picture and story for Bar Harbor are on tap next time.

I PROVIDED JUST A TEASER OF THE NEW YORK PICTURES, THE TOTAL SET, COMPLETE WITH COMMENTARY, CAN BE FOUND HERE