In Love With New York City

It's been awhile...but we're still recalling our road trip, the latter half which was in June, but we figured we'd better get to it before we start writing about our new adventure...as the owner of a 40 acre farm.

After Boston we went to New York City, with a two day stop in Danbury Connecticut. We spent most of the time in the hotel, getting in late and relaxing in the dry conditions of the hotel. The last of the two nights we went to a bar called Widow Brown's Cafe to have drinks with @JJ_Alexande and his girlfriend @twistddreamr who we met on Twitter. We didn't plan on staying out so late but we got along so well, and were having so much fun, before we knew it was last call.

The following day we went to New York City...and IT WAS AWESOME.

We spent about four days total, the whole time in which we spent walking. Walking, walking, walking.

The first night we went to Central Park, walked around new Times Square...it was perfect weather, finally after days of rain, and we were taken in by it's seduction. We fell in love immediately, like we knew we would. We had been dreaming about going to New York City since we first new it existed. It was not the most perfect situation, but it was still...New York City.

New York City is really expensive though, which put a damper on some of the days, getting there by bus was "time-expensive"...taking a cab was just stupid-expensive. Not only do you have to pay cab fare, but you have to pay the fee to pass through the tunnel. We missed the bus the first night, to the tune of $60 ($12 was a tunnel fee), just to go a few miles into North Bergen, New Jersey where hotel fees were extremely reasonable. We cried as we swiped our debit card, already concerned about finances that had been set aside for the trip. We vowed that next time we would stay in the city, if only because the buses don't run all night, and that limited our time in the city further, especially since we did every day on foot.

It was still worth it, even though we didn't go to any attraction that required an admission fee. Walking through the Greenwich Village we passed Matthew Broderick talking to an older man about film, we barely recognized him, but we did, and though we very rarely make eye contact, we did with him, and he could see we recognized him. Turing we whispered to James "That's...". snapping our finger, "I swear, that's Matthew Broderick!" we said. He shrugged it off, but immediately a young man walking behind us pipped us saying "Does anyone else feel like 'Buller, Buller'" quoting a famous quote from Ferris Bullers Day Off, a famous film starring Matthew Broderick, and proceeded to tell us how his girlfriend had seen Sara Michelle Geller (Matthew Brodericks Wife and star of Sex in the City) quite a few times while living in the Village, and he had only moved to the city a few weeks ago, and this was his first sighting.

A moment shared between us and a new-New Yorker.

Sure, it was only Matthew Broderick, but it was the first famous person we had knowingly seen in person. We fell further in love, walking through the famous Greenwich Village, the home of so many great American writers, artists and musicians...like Dylan, Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchele, Nina Simone, Velevet Underground, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Twain, Wittman, Pollock, Warhol...the list is so extensive it's crazy; these were the streets they smoked on, drank on, communicated on, wrote on...lived on. We fell in love with the neighbourhood.

While nothing like it would have been in their day, the city was still just so...alive. We walked at least 10 miles a day in many of the areas (some really...scary) south of Central Park from the East River to the Hudson River, even with bleeding blisters and sore legs and back. We enjoyed observing, taking pictures, taking it all in.

We wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but since portions of it were closed and under construction we decided to save the money, and come back a day we could take it all in. We did go to Liberty State Park on our way out of town on the way to Trenton, New Jersey.

We didn't eat anywhere of note, due to budget concerns. Highlights include a slice of real New York pizza at Two Brother's Pizza (meh), shared a Gray's Papaya hot dog (which James said was the worst hotdog he ever had) that was fine, for the price; ate at a Cuban restaurant called Favela Cubana and had tapas and drinks; had pizza at an Italian restaurant. We also bought food at a Mediterranean market and had a picnic overlooking the East River.

If we had more disposable income by the time we got to New York City we would have done a few thing differently. Next time we'll bite the bullet and pay for a hotel in the city, to increase the hours we have to explore the city, and reduce surprise "bridge and tunnel" fees.

After New York we stopped in Trenton to visit another friend (Nick Twist), someone we had met on Twitter and carpooled with us from Chicago to the Detroit Tweetup. We had lunch, drank some spirits and got a mini-tour of Trenton before we continued on our journey, now heading back towards home, with more friends to visit on the way.

So many pictures, so we put them in a video:

On The East Side...South of Boston...and Beyond.

You don't like reading about our trips, do you?

Here's some very tardy pictures from our June road-trip. From home, to Chicago, to the Detroit Tweetup, to Allegany State Park...the next stop was Boston, Massachusetts, where we spent 3-4 very rainy and miserable days camping at a KOA campground just south of Boston. Here are some pictures of things we did.

But first we stopped at Niagara Falls...(about an hour north of north end of Allegany State Park)

Then we headed to Boston (with a night in Syracuse on the way)

Some views from the interstate...

Sunday at The SOWA Open Market in Boston...
Where we bought some delicious grass-fed beef to cook over our campfire back at our tend, and tasty pestos to take home (they travelled well, but had to be refrozen a few times - no preservatives)...not to mention LOADS of delicious samples that made us wish we had a kitchen to go to, and a reliable refrigerator/cooler to store things.

Mighty Rib and Rosemary Fries from Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese
It was simply amazing.

Sign near a market we thought was humorous 

View of downtown Boston, from inside the  market, 

A Few Hours in Salem, MA...

Fourty-five minutes north of Boston is Salem, where we spent a few hours before heading back to Boston.

The witch village, not too thrilling, and the Salem Massachusetts Witch Trial Memorial were top on the list of the day, it was rainy and miserable, and from what is relayed to us, so were we.

We did have lunch a small out of the way little restaurant called In A Pig's Eye, where we had some a tasty pork chili (chili of the day), and James had a giant burger called The Ultimate Pig Burger.

The Witch Trial Memorial...

A few of the stones at the memorial. We were surprised to have found a couple of men in the mix...

Then a stop at the Marina, where we bitched and moaned about the cold, and the wind...

Then back to Boston...

Where we went to the Cheers bar! (nothing like we though it was going to look like...)

The last day: Bunker Hill Monument...

...the site (but not really, the actual fight was on Breeds Hill, south-ish of Bunker Hill) of the famous The Battle of Bunker Hill, on June 17, 1775. This site was where the first major battle of the American Revolutionary war (was not) fought against the British, and lost. But then we eventually won some, and claimed our independence (at least that's what we seem to remember being told once).

We walked all the way to the top of the monumnet...294 steps. It doesn't seem like much, at first. It was a great workout for our cardiovascular system.

Views from each of the windows/openings...

...and then we headed to Connecticut...

Frinton-on-Sea

Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England, 2012

We have been spending nearly two-weeks moving from hotel to hotel, trying to budget what is left of funds. It's hard to explain without too much detail, but we are not able to return to the United States yet, at least not with James (more is written about that in various entries on our "big blog"). We're going to use some of this time to try to catch up some travel entries about places we're seen and restaurants we ate in, back when funds were a little more flush. As well as some writing about the interesting little villages we have found ourselves in.

These are pictures from a month ago (March 22), when we went to Frinton-on-Sea, in England (the county of Essex).

Frinton-on-Sea is a town situated on the North Sea, in South-East England, the county of Essex. The roots of the town grew in the early to mid-1800's when it had been fairly unpopulated consisting of very little aside from a church, some cottages and dotted with farms. It got big in the early 1900's and became a place for high society types to go to play tennis, golf and stay in upscale hotels. It's a sleepy town now, full of elderly residents and a large golf course adjacent to the coast, which has been partially blocked with a coastal defense concrete wall and giant rocks to limit erosion - some parts of England have a huge problem with erosion of the coasts...more on that later.

That day in March was a warm-ish and sunny day for March in England. In the distance, situated far off in the waters of the North Sea, the turbines of a wind farm turned lazily, generating electricity, but even on the clear day that it was you could barely make them out from the shore.

People rode bikes, flew kites, fished along the shore; couples walked hand-in-hand enjoying the rare March day. Frinton-on-Sea is not a place for high excitement, but a relaxing place along the sea not dotted by gaudy hotel chains; rather apartments overlooking the sea, uninterrupted vistas of the area surrounding it, a beach, and a long walking path along the sea shore.

More: Frinton-on-Sea Tourist Information

Some of the photos we took while in Frinton-on-Sea