8/10/2017 MANHATTAN borough, NEW YORK

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

NEW YORK

8/10 – 8/17/2017 at Liberty Harbor RV PARK

We have arrived to celebrate Tim’s 61^st birthday in The Crown!  Of Liberty!!!

Yes, we have ticketed reservations to go all the way to the visitor’s top.
We explore the area abutted to Liberty Harbor with a view of the Goldman Sachs building in: NJ! 
Manhattan is peeking up from behind; and the Liberty is to our right view. 

We are in an RV park: alongside Liberty Harbor and the marina in a mix of paved and gravel RV park with water and electricity……in heaven!  

 10 minutes ride on the Ferry from New Jersey to Manhattan for a bike ride up the West Side along the Hudson River--no charge.










Ferry Terminal

We found the ferry dock at our doorstep and the PATH (NJ Subway) is just a short walk to Jersey City……the nice Jersey City!  Sweet, mid-town feel with street venues every evening and a few blocks closed to traffic….and we found appropriate words for Tim’s birthday at the ice cream place “Start every day like it is your birthday” signage. 

8/11 NEW YORK: First day out of the gate we boarded the yellow Liberty Harbor ferry with our bikes and rode 15 miles RT up the West side of Manhattan, past the multi-colored flags of the waterfront at

 Chelsey, and


the High Line community, waterfront bench areas, and cafes to 72^nd thru traffic and entered the sublime Central Park: 

Bike Ride 2017 to:

CENTRAL PARK

Imagine being in a state of relaxation and calm, surrounded by green in Manhattan.

  

We walked some and ate our bagged lunch on a park bench.  We watched the horse-drawn buggies, mothers with strollers, foreigners, and young people, and bikes, and joggers spend their day in a worthy cause.










Outside of Central Park, within the City, the Modern Art Museum: Guggenheim Museum

Some of the Buildings of NYC

Post Office Building and they park their delivery trucks on top of their Post Office! 

 Of Course, in New York!!

Along the Hudson River on the Bike Trail.......and Classic Car Club venue 

TIMES SQUARE
8/12 We made our way on the PATH and Metro using our charge card at the vending machine and made our way thru revolving gates and waited in the plugged areas of the subway station.   

The Metro did get us to Times Square on a Saturday……which is as an obscure scene from a nightclub in Star Wars movie.

Center of Times Square: Everything safe and sound!

We visited Laura Osnes starring in 
Broadway Show: "Bandstand".


The Broadway show: Bandstand was very moving and delightful. We had good seats and the theatre was small and classic.

Best of all we visited with Laura.  She is the Star of the show and is the granddaughter of my childhood Pastor.  My brother, Mike, was able to get us in contact with Laura.

We found (one of my favorite hangouts) Sardis after the show and it was filled with interesting people in respite from the activity outside.  This is a historic, comforting retreat in the bar.  

For old time sake, for each famous star pictured on the wall, raised a glass to their honor.

8/13 We rested at Liberty Park, a Day On The Green: Listening to 
Cuban Orchestra, located next to our RV Park!

8/14/2017 Tim's Birthday

 This is our day to visit the Statue of Liberty by Ferry at Liberty Harbor dock at the Liberty Park right next door to our RV camp.  We made the brief stop to Ellis Island but moved on quickly to Lady Liberty as everyone that was at Times Square is now at Liberty ………and more ferries arriving. 



Since Tim had reserved tickets to The Crown…we could go where few go!  It is quite a
personal, rewarding experience. 
We stayed in the Crown as long as we wanted and there were docents there to allow us to photo thru the crown to the Lady Tablet which has July 4, 1776 written.

ELLIS ISLAND NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IMMIGRATION

What a joy to be there and see the insides of the building and the 
painstaking details for refurbishing each fold and copper inlays. 

Truly a work of art by an Engineer!  

We spent the day in awe and found it perfect in place to honor Tim’s birthday!  Here’s to Engineers…. that made things that people come to witness forever.....

  Made his mark!



DAY at LIBERTY PARK ON-THE-GREEN: 
One short bike ride from our RV Park!

8/15 











Greenwich Village needs to be attended as it comprises a section on Manhattan set aside in its history and forming ... as it is today.  




Washington Square Park is a refuge area here. 
Tribute to George Washington as Commander General and First President of the United States.  

The founding fathers are truly remarkable, dedicated people that persevered for years for what they believed.

8/16 Hell’s Kitchen

Visited Tim’s friend, Neil Kirkwood, from music and boy scouts in Santa Rosa days since 1^st Grade.
Neil Kirkwood grew up next door to Vanette and Nat up in the neighborhood on the Hyland Drive.  Neil has married his high school sweetheart, Eve.  

Neil has lived in NY since he and his wife arrived after graduating from college with a music degree.
He owns an apartment just around the corner from PufCha, the café we met.  He is a Conductor, writer, musical instructor.  They have just purchased a house upstate (south of Albany).  Neil has a music studio at Times Square…. we all nodded an agreement: he’s hit the big time!  

We walked to Rockefeller Center and took notice of all the buildings surrounding the Center.  Only an Engineer would know the notice of all the surrounding buildings contracted by Rockefeller.  Grand Central is undergoing renovation; yet, still grand in an old way.   

And so, too:  Sax 5^th Avenue.

ST PATRICK's CATHEDRAL-Neo-Gothic-style

Walk on Bleecker Street, a bright yellow store that houses the famous Molly's Cupcake in the West Village.

 Private New York University (NYU) centered in Manhattan, this campus in Greenwich Village

8/17/2017 Checked out of Liberty Harbor RV Park to continue our 2017 Travel Tour for a remaining couple of months to: Mystic, Connecticut, and then on making our way to:

 Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and we've decided to include: Bar Harbor, Maine in our

 2017 Travel Tour!

8/8/2017 Atlantic City, New Jersey

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Drove thru the ‘Hood’ with cars parked down the center of the road and on the side with one lane each way for traffic.  Indicating more people are stuck here than passing through.  Walmart was full of needy shoppers (meeting with some sort of satisfaction) and many workers to ‘shore up’ the working economy of this city.  We did our laundry at Scrub and Brush laundry mat.

Now we are set for August:  Atlantic City and the NY Times Tim Birthday!

8/8/17 – 8/10/17  Atlantic City, New Jersey @ Shady Pines RV

We are at the very much alive: World’s Largest Pipe Organ

at a very gone by-the-wayside location:  The seashore playground of Atlantic City. 

This place continues to 'breathe in' the remaining debris of Hurricane Sandy and other money mongers searching for the next best investment.

TRUMP Tau Mahal is not doing so well these days in Atlantic City.  (Liquidation Sale sign).


This "House of Blues" says it all about this down-trodden Atlantic City, August 2017. 

WE DID FIND FUN REMAINING AT MARGARITAVILLE !!!

The purpose of our choosing to go to Atlantic City is:
The Midmer-Losh Organ Company built the largest organ in the world, as measured by the number of pipes.  (33,114 pipes)

The historic organ is housed in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall.  This is a place where people laughed and danced.  Theatre and silent movies brought crowds to Broadwalk Hall.

  

The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ, originally built by the best of the best in the beleaguered times of the depression 1929-1932.  

They came from around the world and the best worked as a team to build this Midmer-Losh Organ.  
  Its grandeur is earnestly being restored. 

We talked to the half dozen gentlemen.  Touching each component, each leather strip, each square of balsa wood toward a complete finish.  They have accomplished 1000 of the pipes and only have another 30,000 to go.  The Restoration Committee, Inc. is intent on the restoration. 

We stayed while the
'PhD in Organs' played to us a recital of songs with half of the organ fully functioning; yet, it filled this huge auditorium!  

 The final Star-Spangled Banner song filled the room and everyone rose.  So very solemn occasion to be in the presence of men that care about retaining a good part of history and the World’s Largest Pipe Organ.  This organ played for Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds; Buster Keaton-The Cameraman; and Harold Lloyd-Stuchman, Lodger.

We rode our bikes 13 miles on the iconic Atlantic City Boardwalk from one end to the other thru defunct casinos, to out of place, glittery casinos that remain standing, and the Hard Rock and Margaritaville now the heart middle of the Boardwalk of what's happening now.

Ventnor City Beach remains mostly homeownership; not small beach casitas: large 2 level second homes beaming onto the beach.  On the West end, the COE has tried to rectify the effects of Hurricane Sandy by fluffing up the sand and only enraging the locals that live there.  Mother Nature is doing inculcating aerobics with the beach sand.........that has stumped Engineers.

8/3/2017 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

Philadelphia, PA @ Campus Park & Ride RV Park 

Customer Service and a happy greeting to welcome us to the ‘parking lot’ here in the skirts of Philadelphia close to the Schuylkill River Riverwalk.

We ventured nearby to the Riverwalk to watch an outdoor movie presented by the “Making the Community Better” committee, sponsored by T-Mobile.  The show was 'LaLa Land': my favorite movie.  I am so happy Tim sat thru its entirety and enjoyed it.  We had the comfort of our own folding collapsible chairs and popcorn sold at the card table on the lawn.

 8/4

The Shuttle from the Park ‘n Ride stopped at General Hospital and then we caught the #63 city bus into Historic Philadelphia!......historic of course. 

Independence Hall sits there fine and impressive hiding the line to enter it doors.  

The cracked Liberty Bell is encased with a building accommodating a line of curious visitors seeking the mystery of the silent Liberty Bell.  

Tim took a closeup, clear-as-a-bell picture thru the glass encasement and caught the charm of the liberty bell without the 2-3 hour waiting line.  I took a photo of the building which housed the waiting line, almost a block long.

WE DID TOUR:

Enjoyed our tour of Ben Franklin’s mark on Philadelphia.  At Franklin Court, his business printing shop, the 1^st U.S. post office, and in the museum which has been built underground Ben Franklin's home remains with a splendid museum devoted to this interesting man.  Perhaps the best lobbyist of all times!

Our guided walking tour will retrace the footsteps of BF and his fellow patriots during the founding of our nation. We had the best handmade ice cream at Franklin Fountain as an old-fashioned soda fountain.  We must return for world-famous Bassetts, Est. 1861.  We saw Carpenters Hall, Todd style houses, and 1790 market sheds.

8/5

We rode our bikes from Park ‘n Ride to the riverfront and crossed the bridge to Bartram’s Garden and estate (his birthplace and his family’s Quaker Meetinghouse, where he was interred in 1777.

Now used by Darby Friends Monthly Meetings.  

The oldest botanical garden in the United States is adjacent to one of the needy neighborhoods of bad behavior.  More “Don’t be a Litter Bug” signs to be posted.  Many remain for example living although on the other side of the river.    

Here are parents and children signing up for a ride on a boat at the Schuylkill River.  

 The Philadelphia community offers 1/2 hour boat ride for families the second Saturday each month.  

Downtown Philadelphia, The Reading Terminal Market is the pulse of Philadelphia and willing to remain for its rich history of independence over the long haul of a century.  75 business keep the Market a compelling place to worship the eatery of the “bests of”.  The local ladies we shared table exclaimed the Italian Pork Sandwich from Dunuiti’s was the one to order.  We had already sat down with our Americano Philly Cheese Steak…. not with the traditional cheese whiz cheese, we opted for the mozzarella.

"Society's Hill", brick row houses for which Philadelphia has become famous.

 Street along downtown Philadelphia where Freedom reigns!

We ventured to The Mint where the money is being made ‘hand over fist’.  Viewed the factory floor with loads of money being sacked into bags for ease of transport to all the US Communities that rely on it as bread. 
This venture came highly recommend by Peter Tellier.
It reminded me of the Bud Light Brewery Experience Tour in Fairfield, CA

Downtown Cheer for mixed-use Philadelphia:

Franklin Fountain Ice Cream!

Independence Seaport - "We're all about water"

 Waterfront Scene

Giving Us Independence!