NYC

Hello from New York City! I am doing this entry from one of the hundreds of computers at the Apple store at the corner of Central Park.

Yesterday we had a delightful train ride to the Big Apple, with the train running right on time. It was fun for me to see some of the landmarks and sites that I just rode my bike by last week. I was able to give Jim the tour as we travelled along the Hudson River. It was a beautiful day and after an exciting taxi ride to our hotel we went walking around the city. 

We came to the Apple store last night but it was beyond crowded! As we were walking we were keeping our eyes opened for a possible restaurant choice for dinner. Even though it was early (6:00 PM) we were starving-I had misjudged the amount of food I brought on the train, so lunch was kind of thin! Poor Jim! So we found what ended up being a great little Italian restaurant called Fagiolina's. They had a pre-theater dinner plan which ended up being reasonable and delicious. We had a choice of appetizer, soup or salad, 4 or 5 entree choices, and a dessert choice. After our tasty meal we walked around a bit and then headed back to our hotel, The Roosevelt Hotel (a Priceline deal), where we watched some Olympics.

This morning Jim went for a run and I went for a walk before breakfast. We will do some more walking around before heading to the Cruise Ship pier around 1 PM. We are both looking forward to this cruise. The ship leaves at 5 PM and tomorrow is a day at sea. On Monday we will tour Saint John, New Bruswick and Tuesday we will visit Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wednesday is a day at sea and Thursday we are back in NYC, catching the afternoon train back to Rochester.

I don't know if I will write any entries while we're on the cruise. I'll see if I can drag myself out of the casino!!!

Hope all is well.

Back to SU

I made a quick trip back to SU today to deliver a couch to Corey, along with the garage sale purchases that Jim made for Corey. Because Corey has the biggest bedroom in the apartment (apparently he was assigned this room because he was the one who booked the apartment on-line, his 2 buddies have smaller rooms), he had a long empty wall in his room and wanted the love seat from our living room. We have been talking about getting new furniture for the living room so I was OK with that plan. Then last night Jim was with me in basement while I caught up on the ironing and wondered why we didn't give Corey the couch that was in the basement. There seemed to be several good reasons to do that, one of which is that the basement couch is dark green and the love seat is a lovely floral print. From a manly standpoint, the dark green wins! Corey liked this idea so Jim and I took the  seats out of the van and loaded in the basement couch. A week ago Jim went by a garage sale and saw some kitchen appliances that he thought Corey could use. He bought a microwave oven, a George Foreman grill and a toaster oven, all for $8! So I delivered those too!I chose to go today because I was going to East Rochester for a morning of spinning at the yarn store there, and I could just continue on to the Thurway from there. It was a good plan and worked just as planned. I was back in the area by 3 PM, and continued doing errands. 

Tomorrow I am going to school in the AM and try to get some things ready for the start of the school year. I will spend the rest of the day packing things up for our train trip and cruise.

I will leave you with a couple of photos from the boys. The first one shows all the food that Jim and Corey bought to stock Corey's kitchen at SU. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will notice several boxes of Wegman's brand of Honey and Oats cereal. There are actually 20 boxes of that cereal and they now occupy the top shelf in Corey's clothes closet!

This photo is one that Tucker sent us from a recent backpacking trip. It could be used for an ad for flyfishing! 

Hope all is well.

Home, For a Few Days

Catch-up time! I have not had access to a computer until I got home today, so here is a review of the last 3 day of the Hudson River Ride.

Friday's ride took us from Hyde Park to Garrison, NY, a distance of about 42 miles. The ride included 2 bridge crossings, the Mid-Hudson Bridge and the Newberg-Beacon Bridge, a couple of historic homes, a rugged climb up a mountain side for river views, and an off-route search for a waterfall we saw depicted in a painting in an art show. It was all good stuff and the day ended with a wonderful downhill run on a smooth, curvy road ending at the Garrison Market which was the ice cream stop for the day! I got to camp just as the dark clouds rolled in and I set up my tent as the thunder rumbled overhead. The heaven's opened up while I was in the showers, so instead of leaving the building where I showered, I sat in the reception area on a comfortable chair and talked with other riders. Dinner was served in the same building, so we left our "living room" chairs and headed to the cafeteria. By the time we finished our dinner the rain had stopped. I returned to my tent to discover everything inside the tent nice and dry-I love my tent! Another singer was booked to perform that evening, and because of the weather, she played in another building where there was a small gym. When I went in that building, I found an area outside of the gym where there were a bunch of comfy chairs and overhead lights. So I sat there and knit for an hour and a half and listened to the concert!

Saturday dawned with the skies starting to clear. Because we were headed to West Point for breakfast and a tour, a Revolutionary War re-enactor walked through our campsite playing his fife as we woke up and packed up. It was a nice way to start the day. Our 8 mile ride to West Point included crossing the Bear Mountain Bridge ( if you are keeping count, that is our 4th bridge). Our breakfast was served in the Thayer Hotel on the West Point campus and included white, linen table clothes, crystal and china! After breakfast we boarded 4 school buses and took a guided tour of that beautiful site. Our tour included the Revolutionary War site of Fort Putnam. 

Upon our return to the Thayer Hotel, I had to make a choice. There was a 26 mile route to our camp in Nyack State Park or a 40 mile route, which included the road up Bear Mountain. I came to ride my bike so I choose the 40 mile route and worked really hard, but was rewarded with some beautiful scenery. The only disappointment with this route was when I started down one of the decents late in the route and the route made a turn onto a road that had been recently oiled and gravelled! Instead of enjoying a fast downhill ride, I feared for my life as I braked the whole way down around curve after curve. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, I met up with another tour rider and we stood there trying to get some feeling back into our hands and laughed about our bad luck with those road conditions. Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! We encountered one more oil/graveled road, this time for a shorter stretch but on an uphill climb! 

Our ride into NYC was awesome! The skies were clear and I was done riding before the temps really heated up. Our route went through some park high above the river and then dropped down so we could ride across the George Washington Bridge (number 5) and then along a bike path right next to the Hudson River, the longest stretch of flat riding for the whole trip (14 miles). The ride concluded at the South Street Seaport! I rode about 250 miles in the 6 days of the ride, met some wonderful people and saw many beautiful parts of New York State. It was a tour that I would recommend to other bikers.

After a bus ride back to sage College in Albany, I was reunited with my Beetle and I drove to Jenny Lake, arriving by 10 PM on Sunday and then drove home today. I stopped in Syracuse to see Corey in his apartment for this year and took him to lunch. It is good to be home and now I can start to think about our cruise. We leave on Friday!

So here are some photos from the bike ride. Enjoy! The photos are in a random order and I am too tired to rearrange them.

View on sunset boat tour, Rip Van Winkle Bridge

On the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park.

At the FDR Home, Museum and Presidential Library.

Pretty flowers at one of the many gardens.

Inside the chapel at West Point.

View from Fort Putnam, West Point.

One lake on the Seven Lakes Drive.

Olana, home of artist Frederick Church.

Crossing the George Washington Bridge to NYC.

One of the new "waterfalls" in NYC.

Salmon Salad

Dinner with biking friends.

Hope all is well.