Category: USA2014

Gracie has been coming up with some clangers, particularly misinterpretation of signage. Yesterday she topped it off. NASA announced that they’d found the Beagle – an old probe that got lost more than 10 years ago. Gracie asked “Is it still alive?”

This evening we saw The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper (Hang Over, Limitless, Silver Linings Playbook) & Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off, Goal) & Patricia Clarkson (Green Mile, Friends with Benefits).

Truly amazing performances from all. Unlike the original movie, Cooper wasn’t wearing any form of prosthetics, he just contorted his body & mouth.

As discussed at the end of The River, the sign of a great performance is when the audience leaves speechless – still mulling over what they saw. That’s exactly what we had. Applause & stunned silence at both intermission & ending.

Something as simple as a handshake between John Merrick (Cooper) & Mrs. Kendal (Patricia Clarkson) had the audience mesmerised.

Grace was in awe.

The USS Intrepid is an old decommissioned aircraft carrier that served from 1943 to 1974. It is now permanently docked at Pier 86 on the western side of Manhattan.

Also on display as part of the museum is a Concorde, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the submarine Growler, and many planes.

We pretty much just wandered about. Continue reading “Day 21 – Intrepid Museum”

This cruise started at Pier 83 on the western edge of Manhattan. It travelled to Liberty Island, then up the eastern side of Manhattan passing underneath the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, then back to Pier 83.

I took my position on the bow of the ship and wondered why I was on my own. I soon realised when my frozen hands started to sting again – but I wasn’t going to let the opportunity go by and miss the photo ops.

The Manhattan skyline viewed from the river absolutely impressive. It just goes on forever.

Western side of Manhattan (looking east):

Seen it before, but always good:

Southern tip of Manhattan, looking north:

Brooklyn:

The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Manhattan & Brooklyn – built in 1883 & was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed:

Eastern side of Manhattan, looking west:

Manhattan Bridge:

The concrete/rock pillars in the Brooklyn Bridge took 12 years to build, whereas the steel pillars in the Manhattan Bridge only took about 4 weeks.

Looking south back down the East River to the bottom of Manhattan:

 

The show this evening was On the Town – a real song & dance performance. It had a little too much slap-stick for my liking, but it was still good.

After emptying our bank account at the jewellers, we had to make the most of our close proximity to Central Park. It was cold, but worth it. We navigated our way through a myriad of horse-drawn carts and horse crap to the Park.

We crossed Sweet Charity’s bridge, frozen lakes, watched an amazing number of birds and squirrels, and then some ice-skating.

I’m sure we only covered about 5% of the park, but time wasn’t going to let us go further.

When you think of New York, you typically picture 2 landmarks – we did the statue yesterday and the other is today.

The Empire State Building tour starts by winding the visitor through a little museum, with information about its construction, history, etc. All good, but the primary purpose of the visit is to get to the observation deck. Looking south over Manhattan – the new World Trade Center building is the tallest in the distance; Statue of Liberty visible at the right in distance; Brooklyn over the river to the left…

Looking north over Central Park:

 

Communications tower on top:

 

It’s just astounding how big this place is… then again, it’s also small – I walked around a corner of the observation deck and bumped into someone that I used to work with 6 years ago.

The internal corridor on the deck is lined with mirrors – never miss an opportunity to check the eyebrows:

Another item ticked off the bucket list.

Grace has a school ball in April, so a visit to the nearby “Garment District” was necessary to buy some fabric for her gown – of course, cos – you know, you can’t get fabric in Australia.

Then, we were on the train again to visit Tiffany’s jewellers. At this point my stress levels began to rise and after a quick 15 minute walk around their floor (wearing daggy, beggar-looking, tourist clothes) I had to vacate for a coffee to keep my heart-attack at bay. Ellie and Grace could both show and explain their purchase later.

We then grabbed a coffee and a doughnut, so Grace could have a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” experience, or rather, “Afternoon Cuppa in Front of Tiffany’s”.

This 90 minute play called The River is perhaps the only reason we came to the US in the first place. Well, not really, but it could have been.

Why? Because it starred Hugh Jackman.

It was a good play, but if there was a meaning to it, I’m not sure what it was.

A special treat for the audience was included: Deborah had passed the script to Brene Brown (PhD studying vulnerability) who happened to be in the audience for her first viewing of the play. After the play, the cast, director, playwright, and Brene took to the stage and did a Q&A with the audience, which was quite entertaining in itself.

Ellie of course had to get an autograph afterwards, but also had a very quick conversation about being friends of WAAPA. The restraining order wasn’t quite required, but an ambulance was.

Landing back at Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan from Liberty & Ellis, we walked (really freezing now) to the World Trade Center site and visited the 9/11 Memorial. The new World Trade Center – one building only:

We all agreed, the memorial was really well done: beautiful and respectful. It was a sombre visit.

They have build two huge water features on each of the 2 buildings’ footprints – they had no intent of ever building on those sites again. Around each feature are etched the names of all of the lives lost. It’s a cascading waterfall into a pool, with another inside.

We then entered the new museum adjacent to the site. Retaining wall and footings:

A fire-truck caught in the collapse – all fireman gone.

I’m really glad we went and paid our respects – we would thoroughly recommend it to all.

We boarded the ferry at the southern tip of Manhattan near Battery Park (an old fortress). It continually rotates between here, Liberty Island, and Ellis Island throughout the day. You can jump on and off at any time leaving you to spend as much time as you like at each site.

Approaching – Liberty Island (L) & Ellis Island (R):

We landed at Liberty Island and grabbed the player for the audio tour. This led you through a display/museum in the pedestal underneath the statue – very interesting indeed. The foyer contains the original torch – restoration wasn’t possible so they replaced it:

The statue is essentially constructed like a modern steel-frame building (revolutionary for its time) with a thin copper shell – hence its green colour. The face and foot below are examples of how they were cast – not exposed to the air they retain their original colour.

A model of the internals:

Once we’d finished in the museum, we started to pay the price for the super-sized portions we’d been eating since we arrived in the US – we faced 377 steps to get to the crown – 146 of which were in an extremely tight spiral within the statue itself. It seemed like 10,000.

We stopped at the top of the pedestal to grab some photos – but OMFG – it was cold. This is the time when you realise you should have bought fingerless gloves as smart-phones don’t work with regular gloves. By the time I had finished taking photos my hands were stinging. However, the views were worth it. Looking north to Manhattan (R) and Ellise Is. (L):

The staircase up the statue is actually a double-spiral staircase that allows a continuous flow of visitors up and down without having to pass. Even without this it was a little claustrophobic for some – barely wide enough for my girth.

We got to the top, noting the internal impression of the beaten copper skin of the statue. From the inside, it didn’t look that big. Inside the head showing the hair (it’s been painted here):

The inside profile of her face:

Brooklyn:

We then headed to the outer-most reaches of the island to take some more photos of Lady Liberty. 

Hmmm, perhaps an updated sign might be in order:

Ellis Island was the landing point for ships with 12 million arriving immigrants and was in use from 1892 to 1954. It has since (not sure when) turned into a museum. When hurricane Sandy (2012) went through the place suffered quite a bit of damage. As a result, there was still a fair number of artefacts missing from the exhibit as it is still undergoing repairs. Nonetheless, it was still a memorable visit.

It doesn’t really “celebrate” the birth of a nation, etc., but rather makes the visitor aware of the hardship faced by immigrants. They were subject to some fairly in-humane treatment from medicals to isolation. It reminded me of present-day asylum seekers trying to land in Australia.