New York

Time: September 18th - 20th 2009

Place: New York

Company: Wife

Album: Click here

Highlights:

Day 0:

After a long delay, finally made it to New York for the 1st time with wife and 6th time overall! Started Marlborough at 7 pm on Friday in car and took just one pit stop. Had a nice hearty conversation with wife and before I knew it, I was in Brooklyn, at my cousin’s place. Strangely, did not miss the route even once. I was known to miss the roads in NY during my last car-trips to NY. This part of Brooklyn is known for its mugging and is really a very hostile area to stay or move around. Chatted with cousin and her hubby till 1 am and finally slept.

Day 1:

Left at 9ish and visited Statue of Liberty first from Battery park. Temp was coldish although sunny. Spent considerable amount of time in SoL and then walked through the world financial district of New York. Took snaps with the Bull, the Wall Street and at the World Trade Center. Then, took Path to 34th street, where we went into Macy’s, one of the biggest Macy’s store ever, covering one whole block. Shopped for about 1-2 hours and had lunch at Burger King.

Then, went to Empire State Building. Had a longish queue, and by the time, we went to the 86th floor, it was the perfect time: the sun was setting, which meant we had the view with Sun and had the view of Manhattan in lights. Took a goodish number of snaps and also saw the sun set.

Then walked to Times Square, sat amidst the ever-present crowd, then walked to Rockefeller Center, had dinner at a bakery and finally took the subway back to Brooklyn. Spent some nerve-racking minutes waiting for the taxi at 11 pm amidst a scary looking population and finally reached safely. Came to know from cousin later that subway after 9 pm is not at all advised at her part of NY!

Day 2:

Had a long chat with cousin and her hubby and saw their snaps. They had been to LV, Hawaii, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Kenya and snaps were amazing. And I thought, I traveled a lot!

Had lunch and left their place at about 2 pm. Since it was unplanned and we hadn’t taken mapquest directions nor did we have GPS, we took the help of AAA map to chart out a route to Flushing where I had heard was Sri Raghavendraswamy Mutt. We made it in less than 20 minutes without missing a road. The Mutt was very calm and peaceful, very much like Bahai temples. Also, the Ganesha temple in front was very nice and extremely grand. The cafeteria in the basement catered to many of Indian delicacies!

Wanted to go to Central Park next and hence, once more charted out a route from Bowne St, Flushing to Central Park, Manhattan using AAA map. We made it, once again in less than 30 minutes without missing a road nor getting a honk via Queensboro bridge! Searched but couldn’t find a parking space near Central Park and hence, just went around the park and made our way to I-95 and thence onto Marlborough.

We were back in home by 10 pm after a delicious Pizza at Lake William’s. It was the first time I was driving in Manhattan without a mapquest direction. In fact, it was the first time we were driving with AAA map! This trip was our first trip with our new digital camera Samsung SL420, and boy, is it a nice camera!