Monday, August 15, 2011

New York, New York and QM2

NYC and QM2

We knew we’d had a good visit in Maine when we began to get itchy to move on.   As much as it was hard to leave we were ready for the foreign part of our adventure to begin.  Saturday July 23rd we got an early start for the train in Portland which would whisk us along to Boston and then NYC in eight short hours.  Jenny’s stepmom Gray accompanied us to New York for our four days there. 
The way to travel - on the train to NYC
The train was a very good alternative to driving.  We were able to read, nap and chat the whole way without having to deal with the dense traffic on the freeways.    For those of you wondering, we did successfully sell our big gray Toyota Sequoia to a lovely family in Maine.  We hope they are happy with it.
 
Once at Penn Station, we joined the mob coming up to street level and grabbed a taxi for the short drive to the apartment we rented on W. 60th near Central Park.  It was exhilarating to feel the energy of the city.  The apartment was on the 25th floor and had an excellent view uptown.  We got it through Airbnb.com.  Between the information left by the woman who owned the apartment and Gray's experience with NYC, we were never at a loss for things to do or places to eat.

Kate and Grandma on the Circle Tour
Our plan for NYC was quite open.  We did some shopping, as Kate and Jenny needed some fancy duds for the QM2.  We strolled around Central Park where we saw a Peregrine falcon preening itself on a lower limb of a tree on Cedar Hill.  It looked quite plump from its diet of pigeon.  Nearby, a raccoon made its way determinedly down a tree despite several onlookers - another fearless New Yorker.  We also ate at some wonderful restaurants.   Two faves come to mind:  Dawat, an Indian restaurant, and a lovely little french bistro that had amazing quiche and French onion soup.   

We had a great visit and dinner with Lisa Stifler, her husband Ray O'Hanlon and their son Jack, who's Kate's age and a live wire.  Lisa was a classmate of Doug's from Bates.  We met them at a wonderful Irish pub for some great snacks and pints of Guinness.  Afterward they showed us around lower Manhattan and the Financial District.  The canyons of Wall Street and Ground Zero were memorable.
Thank you, Gray for treating us to a wonderful evening out, including Phantom of the Opera! Another of her ideas was taking a cruise around Manhattan.  It was a great way to see the city and get our bearings.  Jenny and Kate got their first view of the Statue of Liberty which was very impressive.   Our last day there we walked down through SoHo to Chinatown, Little Italy and had an excellent lunch at Union Square Café.

Our impression of NYC was very favorable.  The city was cleaner, the people more friendly and getting around was a lot easier than we expected.   Kate has decided she wants to move there for college.  She thought the energy was great, and has already been shopping for apartments near where we stayed.  Now that's thinking ahead!

"I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door"
View of Manhattan from the QM2 in Brooklyn

On the morning of our departure on the Queen Mary, we said a happy and sad goodbye to Gray.  She zoomed off in a taxi to catch her flight and we went back to the apartment.  We started missing her right away.  We gathered all the gear that we’d strewn around the apartment and were dismayed to find there was even more than before!  We hadn’t pinched any of our host Amy’s things, either.  We’d done some shopping but it couldn’t account for the bulging luggage we rolled down to the lobby.  We promised ourselves that we'll REALLY cut back once we get to Britain. 

QM2 in Brooklyn
Kate and Jenny on the Deck 7 promenade

Homer Simpson hidden on a QM2 bronze frieze
Since checkout was 11:00 and we didn’t have to be at the ship until 2:30 we hung out at the Time Warner center on Columbus Circle.  At the big Borders store we joined other book vultures, checking out the sale prices on their liquidation.  Our hearts went out to the employees, who were pretty downcast.  We didn’t have an answer for Kate’s question as to why they were going out of business though our impression is that it was more a case of poor management than the growth of the Internet.  Maybe some of both.


After dossing about for a time we decided to head out early for the ship, as we knew they would be boarding all afternoon.  Our taxi ride took us down the expressway along the west side of Manhattan so we had good views of the city and the huge new structures going up at the World Trade Center.  We zipped over the Brooklyn Bridge, descended into a maze of streets around the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, all the time being teased by views of the mighty ship.



It is big.  Our taciturn cab driver became very excited when we got close, asking all kinds of questions about where we were going and oohing and aahing.  If you can impress a New York cab driver you’re doing pretty well.  We constructed an embarrassing heap of luggage in front of the porters, smiled weakly at them and plunged into a warehouse-type building where we went through a security check, passport check, ticket check, credit card check, photo opportunity and finally toiled up a zig-zag stairwell and ramp to a garage-door sized opening in the side of the ship.  The lighting and the décor made an instant strong impression of comfort and grandeur.  We were ready to be wowed.  The double line of crew members welcoming us aboard was a nice touch.

One half of the view from our cabin
We were directed to our cabin by crew at every turning.  Once inside, we were relieved that it was large enough for three of us.  The outside sitting area was accessed through a large double glass door and had a wide opening to fresh air over a varnished wood railing.  We cracked the Champagne that had been waiting for us in an ice bucket on the coffee table, leaned on the rail and took in a majestic view of Manhattan, Governor's Island in the foreground, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty off to the west.  Sweet!

The ship has 14 public decks and a few more below those.  We were on deck five, so once we were underway we were close enough to the water to hear it hissing past the hull.  The spaces aboard have been designed to avoid an impression of overwhelming size.  The corridors are long, but the public spaces are appropriate to what you would expect in an ocean liner, not a shopping mall.  The dining areas are roomy.  Cunard did an excellent job creating a liner that has the comfort and stability of a very large ship without the negatives of cavernous, unattractively large spaces.  Well done!

Even the guys directing traffic stared at it
I had been skeptical of the distinction that Cunard makes between its liners and regular cruise ships.  Basically, liners are heavy-duty so they can hold up to the rigors of frequent ocean crossings.  There's another distinction, however.  On a cruise, the ship itself is the destination and needs to have a plethora of activities for the passengers, much like a resort hotel.  On a liner, the activities are a complement to the journey.  The ship is transportation – luxurious, yes – but still transportation.  A liner is equipped with quieter activities that accompany an actual passage to another place.  There are lots of deck chairs, lounges for reading, books, movies and music.  The only gizmo that to me seemed out of place was the planetarium until it was explained that it was on the ship due to the connection between seafaring and the stars. We got right into shipboard life.

Spare propeller blades for the ship's drives
The vast top deck

Silliness on the (chilly) promenade deck

The corridors were super long


Our table

On the Grand Staircase

A whole bar dedicated to Veuve Cliquot! 
We spent our days reading, walking laps around the ship and snoozing.  Jenny and Kate took watercolor classes and we all worked out in the gym.  We appreciated the size of the Atlantic Ocean as for six days all we saw was water, seabirds, water, porpoises, and more water.  The seas were mercifully smooth all the way across.  When our arrival in Southampton rolled around we were torn by our desire to continue the relaxing life aboard and our desire to see our friends Paul and Michele, their two fine sons Isaac and Ben, and some of England.   

On Wednesday the third we woke up at around 4:00am to see navigation buoys going by from our balcony.  As the sky lightened we could see land off in the mist as well as some tugs coming out to accompany us into port.  We went up the east side of the Isle of Wight into the Solent, past Portsmouth, the historic headquarters of the Royal Navy.  The great ship made a few sharp turns as we headed farther into the estuary that leads up to Southampton.  We wondered if the crew would be able to tie up by 6:30, the scheduled arrival time.  By golly, the dock lines were thrown at 6:30am sharp after an impressive display of turning the great ship in a very confined space.

Tied up in Southampton
We chose to disembark on our own instead of having the porters help us so we could meet Paul and Michele as early as possible.  We left the ship excited for the next part of our journey but with great memories of the past 2 months crossing the US.  Thank you to all our friends and family who made the beginning of our trip so wonderful.  England, here we come!




Wednesday, August 10, 2011

You can go home again. PA, VT, ME June 25 - July 23


Guy and Jenny enjoying a fine afternoon
Traffic around DC is a huge barrier to getting anywhere.  We therefore waited until Saturday morning to make the run to Doylestown, PA where Jenny’s sister Wendy and her husband Guy live.  We’ve always admired them for their priorities.  They’re that rarest of subspecies of Americans – ones who live within their means!  They have stayed in and steadily improved a small house while being able to travel and play.  We’ve always had a great time with them, wherever we meet up. 

Wendy had a coffee house concert Saturday night that we made sure not to miss.  She’s been pursuing her dream of being a professional musician full time for the last year and is having good success.  Her band is very tight.  Guy was sound man and stage decorator.  The show was a good display of Wendy’s considerable chops as a musician and lyricist.  An added plus was getting to spend some time with our niece Amy, who just got a new position working with at-risk kids in Reading, PA.
 
Sunday we caromed an hour southwest to Doug’s sister Carol’s house in West Chester, PA.  As always, we had a wonderful time talking, walking and devouring Carol’s husband Bob’s fabulous cooking.  They have made a beautiful home of a house Carol and Doug’s grandfather built in the late 60’s.  We had two nice walks with Carol along the Brandywine River on a new section of a rails-to-trails project on an old trolley line that ran from West Chester to Downingtown.

One of the highlights of our visit was seeing Doug’s cousins Sally and George Mohr who live near Carol in Coatesville.  Sally’s just shy of 90 and George is 91.  All Doug’s life and our married time together, Sally and George have been benign and wonderful mentors.  It was great to see them still having fun together.  We had lunch at a little restaurant that has made a name for itself at a local airport.  One of Sally and George’s daughters, Cindy Wolcott, was able to join us along with her daughter Sarah, who’s going to Trinity College in Hartford in the fall.  They were just back from a cruise in Alaska.  Sally and George have always been travelers, so they were excited for our journey. 
The Hudson River at Nyack
 
Our next major journey was to  Vermont, where Jenny’s family was gathering for a reunion.  On the way we stayed at Wendy and Guy’s again and did some shopping for the trip.  Thursday we drove to Guy’s sister Pam’s in Nyack, NY to visit and to shorten up the drive on Friday.  That evening we went out to a good Italian place and drove around town a bit.  Nyack is an old Hudson River town that was nearly wrecked by the building of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Interstate highway approaches to it.  What has survived is a bedroom community for NYC and a sweet collection of beautiful buildings stretched along the river.  

July 1 saw us up early for the drive to Vermont.  We left at 6:00am in the hope of avoiding traffic and reaching the town of Greensboro in the far northeast of the state by noon.  We were struck by how long the drive in Vermont was.  The Green Mountains that give the state its name were beautiful and welcoming. 

Our moss-covered digs at Brown's Circus, Greensboro, VT
View from the picnic spot on Barr Hill, VT
Kate with a rooster sculpture that appears mysteriously all over Greensboro
For the next week we swam, walked, sailed, picnicked and gabbed with Jenny’s  wonderful extended family.  It was the first time since Jenny’s dad passed away in 2003 that the four Bell sisters, Carey, Wendy, Polly and Jenny were all in the same place.  All their kids were there also, with the exception of Ian Lawson who was away at camp.  The weather was superb.  We kept up our record of no rain so far on the trip, the exception being some thunderstorms late at night.  

By the time July 7 came around, we were looking forward to getting to Maine to see friends and family there.  The drive over from Vermont to Maine is slow.  There is no real direct route.  It felt great to make the drive once more and to see that nothing had really changed along the way. 

Silliness on the Lake
The next 2 weeks we stayed with our friend Phil Brown at his house in West Rockport, very close to Camden.  We spent the first several days with Phil and his girlfriend Mary Ellen before Phil headed out on his own trip to Alaska via motorbike.  We house-sat for him for a week after he left. 

Kate was thirsty for more kid time.  She did a three-night camp out on a friend’s island on Lake Megunticook with Elyssa and Rachel Bower, Alissa Eddy and Vivian Priestley.  They kayaked out with all their gear and spent the next two days having a blast swimming, paddling about and just hanging out on their “Haven” island.  They had done something similar the summer before and showed much more ability this time around in taking care of themselves.  They’re growing up very fast, but all are having a lot of fun in the process.
 
On Dick and Ula's trimaran "Flying Circus"


Doug, Bruce, Cathy and Jenny aboard "Heron"
We knew we wouldn’t be able to visit everyone we wanted to see, but had committed to having as relaxing a time as we could.  We managed to get out on a sail with Dick and Ula Cadwallader and their daughter aboard their trimaran as well as a sail on the schooner Heron with our friends Bruce and Cathy Cole from Hawaii.  Cathy lives in Camden while Bruce lives in Waimea.  They get together every several months.  Their family is stretched out even further by their daughter Kate, who lives with her husband and new daughter in Spain.

Another highlight was visiting with Scott Dickerson and Janet Redfield, two friends who bought and protected Doug’s stepfather Clarence’s farm after Clarence passed away in 2004.  Scott and Janet have built a house on the property and have created a garden that is truly awesome.  The vegetables seem like mutant versions of their normal counterparts.  We had a very fine evening touring and then eating the fruits of their considerable labors. 

Visiting Maine after traveling from the eternal summer of Hawaii makes for a very different experience.  When you live in Maine, the summers are painfully short.  Instead of being a time of repose with much time spent on the porch with a glass of iced tea as it was growing up in Pennsylvania, summer in Maine can be a stressful time of getting the garden to bear, getting maintenance done on the house and readying for the long cold time.  We loved our time in Maine this summer and laughed that, if we hadn’t lived there already, we would be saying “Let’s live here!”  It surely is a beautiful place.  If we go back there we will have to do better at embracing every season.