Matt and Lisa's Adventures

28 May 2023

Up early once again for the train to New York. Train left at 6:30am and we arrived in New York just before 11am. We arrived into Penn station and immediately it was a sea of people. We came out the wrong exit and had to walk for a kilometre to our hotel rather than the 300 meters it should have been. We were too early to check in but dropped our bags, it was at this point I realised I had lost my hat…

We set out exploring with Times Square being our first goal of the day.

• Lisa wanted a picture with Minnie Mouse for Emily. We found a group of costumed performers and Lisa got her photo but she didn’t negotiate ahead of time so they all jumped in the photo and then expected to be paid. We only had $4 in cash and so they were not happy people
• I got yelled at by a homeless guy and told I was disrespectful for reasons that weren’t clear. I apologised and we moved on
• I purchased a replacement hat with NY on it. Paid $10 to discover ten minutes later I could have got the same hat for $6. I thought I had a good deal as I’d previously seen it for $15!
• We went looking for cheap show tickets and found a new Seinfeld parody called Singfield which was on off broadway show. The queue to buy cheap tickets was crazy long and it was a very hot day. So we just bought tickets online for slightly more but worth it for the time it saved us.
• Times Square itself was just packed with people and manic with all the advertising and billboards. Not sure it is somewhere we will go back to as it was hard work.

We continued walking and found a deli for lunch where we could get some sandwiches. The food was really good and no fries! From there we slowly walked our way to Central Park. As it was a nice day the park was busy and it was a great vibe of people enjoying themselves in the sun. 

• There were lots of people out on bikes but very few wearing helmets. It did look like a great day for a bike ride
• A few people were getting a tan. Always weird to see people in swimwear when there isn’t any water in the vicinity
• There was lots of great artwork for sale, a pity we couldn’t bring it home
• A few crazy people had bought their snakes to the park. Obviously they were trying to make money but it creeps me out. 
• The park is huge and just really beautiful to walk around
• Lisa was really excited to go theStrawberry Fields for the John Lennon memorial. It was simple and well done with a singer playing Beatles music – which was really the only acceptable option. 

We split up here and Lisa went shopping while I went onto the 911 memorial and museum (as she had been before). The reflecting pools which replaced the towers are very impressive with the names of the victims around the outside. It was nice to spend some time there in contemplation and the area is very nice with trees and an open feeling. 

• The museum had an initial 15 minute video summarising the day. This had interviews from the key players such as Rudy Giuliani, President Bush, Condoleza Rice etc.
• As you walked down the levels there were exhibits of key happenings and artifacts 
• At the bottom was the main content of the museum. They had kept some of the foundations of the towers which was interesting to see how small they looked considering how high the towers were
• There was a room with pictures of all the victims and screens where you could look up a victim to get more details. This really emphasised the human aspect of how many people and who they were. It was very sobering. 
• They had good timelines of what happened throughout the day. This emphasised how hard it was for people to get information and how slow the initial response was because it was such an audacious and unexpected attack
• The Waikato times was included in the section showing how newspapers had covered the attack. Weird to see such a kiwi paper there 

Overall, the museum was good but it did feel like it was stretching out what was essentially one day and I don’t think I learned much that was new. 

I caught the subway back to the hotel, met up with Lisa and we headed off for dinner before the show. We eventually found a pub and shared a burger and a brisket flatbread. The food was very good and the price was reasonable. 

After the show we walked home with the streets still being very busy at 10pm. We bought bananas and milk for breakfast only to discover we didn’t have a fridge – very frustrating! 

29 May 2023

With no fridge Lisa headed out early to find some milk, this took quite a while as she was looking for a small milk container but didn’t have much luck. Eventually she came back with some long life milk which was a good solution. 

As it was Memorial Day we wanted to do something in that spirit and we discovered that Brooklyn hosts one of the oldest Memorial Day parades in the country. It was at the far side of the borough and so it was an hour on two separate trains to get there. I had expected a big crowd but it was very quiet when we arrived at the parade route. After getting a drink (no coffee for Lisa unfortunately) we found a spot and waited for the parade.

• The parade had been very hyped up with it listed as a great thing to do by several Memorial Day lists that we had seen online.
• It started with a set of loud motorbikes. Then a 5 minute gap before the next set of paraders arrived. The gap proved to be a common theme with massive breaks between groups 
• It was slow going at the start but as the parade continued it got much better and more vibrant.
• There were lots of veterans marching and on floats. There were cars as well, some with veterans and some that seemed to have no relation to the military at all – possibly just people who turned down the wrong street and didn’t have a way out
• There were floats for World War 2, Korea and Vietnam but interestingly nothing about the more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan which you would have expected to have had better representation 
• There were sailors, army, NYPD and NYFD who were all marching including the NYPD and NYFD bands. 
• Several schools marched with cheerleaders and flag twirlers along with their marching bands. Also the scouts and strangely the iron workers union. 
• The Grand Marshall was on a car about a third of the way into the parade. You would have thought that, like Santa, he would have been at the end. 
• Politicians also marched although only republicans. Lisa wanted to boo them
• There were probably ten times as many paraders as there were watchers which was weird. 
• At one point Lisa said the Lincoln Christmas parade was better and I did agree with her. Thankfully, it did improve but you felt like there should have been a lot more support for it – where were all the patriotic Americans???

Following the parade we headed north into the heart of Brooklyn and specifically the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area which was meant to be the cool new area of Brooklyn. We wandered about looking for a lunch place before coming across the Timeout Market. We were so hungry we just ordered at the first place without seeing what other options were available. We had a BLET sandwich which was really good (and we were really hungry). The market was fantastic with lots of interesting places to get food, sort of what Little High in Christchurch is aiming to be. There was a BBQ stall that I would have loved to have tried, but I suspect if we had seen these other options it would have taken us an age to decide on what to have! We walked to the top of the market and took some photos of the fantastic view of the Manhattan Bridge. 

We then wandered around the DUMBO waterfront. It was really nice weather and lots of people were about making the area feel vibrant. We spotted some ferries and decided to catch one back to Manhattan rather than yet another subway trip. It was a very short crossing to the Wall Street pier. From there we walked through to Wall Street proper and saw the bull. There was a giant line for touching each end of it and so instead we settled for a few photos from off to the side. 

We meandered our way through the streets to the World Trade Center area that I had visited yesterday. After stopping at the reflecting pool Lisa was enticed by the fancy Westfield Oculus mall and so we went for a wander. Turns out that Westfield Riccarton was a better mall by far! The mall was very fancy with lots of empty space but other than an Apple Store there wasn’t anything to get excited about. 

We continued our walk north up Manhattan back in the direction of our hotel. It was a very long walk and so we stopped at a pub for our traditional 5pm beer. We found a local Mexican cantina near our hotel for dinner and it was fantastic. We shared a couple of tacos and a burrito – good, tasty food without the massive portion size. And we managed a day with no fries! Then it was back to the hotel for an early night. 

30 May 2023

For my fortieth birthday Lisa had given me a three hour guided tour of the Met museum, which she said was the “Louvre of the Americas”. The tour was at 11am which was a tough time as it fell over lunch. In order to avoid a hangry debacle during the tour we decided that we would need a substantial morning tea to tide us over. In Paris we had really enjoyed the Angelina tea room and after spotting them here we decided that would be a very nice treat. We walked to the nearest one on sixth avenue where I had the amazing hot chocolate. We shared their signature Mount Blanc along with a creamy raspberry treat. It was all delicious as expected and an indulgent way to start the day. 

We caught the metro and them walked across Central Park to get to the museum. The museum is huge and we soon caught up with our guide John who took us around. Highlights: 

• Massive building with lots of wings of things to see. Has been expanded many times over the year as they keep acquiring more things to display 
• Massive Egyptian section. Lots of mummies and sarcophaguses. They had several full size tombs that were impressive. 
• They had models of boats and buildings that had been left in an Egyptian tomb to provide those things to the person in the afterlife. 
• Massive temple that had been moved from Egypt to the museum when the area it was located in was flooded for a dam.
• Amazing armoury section with armour for people and horses including Henry the eighth when he was getting very fat. 
• Early American paintings. Initially there were crap as American painters weren’t very good and so there were some comically bad works. Washington crossing the Delaware was very good, even if not historically accurate 
• Lots of Monets and Van Goghs. Sadly the renaissance European art was closed for refurbishment. 
• The modern art was weird. There was a Jackson Pollock work that no one from our group understood or liked it. Even the guide didn’t seem to get the point of it. 
• There was a rooftop art installation done by an black artist from LA. It blended Egyptian with modern culture and street art. Very cool. But it was very bright being up there after the muted light in the museum. 
• A section on Dutch masters, but I don’t get the appeal of Rembrandt so not really for me. 

At the end of the tour we were starving and so had lunch at the cafe in the museum. There was a temporary exhibition about Van Gogh and his painting of cypresses. We joined the virtual line and spent some extra time in the Egyptian section until we were called. The Van Gogh exhibition had lots of his paintings but was on a quite specific topic, cypress trees, which is not the most exciting of topics. We did get to see his famous self portrait and the starry night painting which were amazing. 

Lisa was keen to go to Sacks Off Fifth Avenue so we wandered along fifth avenue on the edge of Central Park which was a very nice walk. The store itself was pretty disappointing once we eventually arrived. We came across Trump Tower and so had to have a look around.

We walked to Rockerfeller plaza which reminded me of the TV show 30 Rock with Tina Fey. From there it was onto grand central station before catching the subway in rush hour back to the hotel. 

We had booked in for a comedy show at the Gotham Comedy Club and so walked in that direction to find a place for dinner. We ended up at Dallas BBQ as I had been looking forward to some good American slow cooked BBQ. Unfortunately, this was not it. It was a family restaurant that served large portions of poor quality food. It was ok in the end but pretty disappointing for the money and calories that were spent. 

The comedy club had a two drink minimum so I had a couple of Brooklyn lagers during the show, it was a decent drop. Highlights

• The host was very enthusiastic and got everyone pumped up. She went around the room asking where people were from. We got called on and Lisa made me answer as she interrogated us on where we were from and how we met. Turns out the US audience isn’t very familiar with the FindSomeone.co.nz site! But we weren’t as bad as the group who were in New York to “make money and research stuff” – she gave them a lot of shit
• First comedian was a lady who had just had a baby so lots of baby jokes. She was actually pretty good and got everyone laughing.
• Next up was a black comedian who didn’t look thrilled to be here and struggled to connect with the audience. 
• We then had a Jewish guy with a lisp. He was pretty funny
• Then we had a guy who was into his singing. Lisa wasn’t a fan but I liked him. He bought energy and was ripping on people for being Scandinavian even though they were German and French. At one point he was singing Seal songs directly at one of them – hilarious. 
• Finally we had a comic who had come second on America’s Got Talent. If he came second I’d hate to see what the rest of them were like. He was just so low energy and his jokes didn’t go anywhere. Lisa found him hilarious though, there’s no accounting for good taste. 

31 May 2023

Lisa was very keen for some more shopping and I had discovered the Intrepid air, space and sea museum – neither of which appealed to the other. So we decided we would have a day to follow our own interests. Lisa was up early for her hour long bus trip to the outlet mall which left from the weirdly named Port Authority. The museum didn’t open until 10am so I had a bit of a sleep in. 

The museum had lots of amazing things to see and was centered around four attractions. 

The Intrepid aircraft carrier. 

• Built during World War Two and saw action in the Pacific. Was damaged by kamikaze planes but repaired. Saw action again in the Vietnam war and did several tours of duty. Was decommissioned in the 1970s
• Essex class and one of the original smaller aircraft carriers 
• Had lots of aircraft on the flight deck for inspection. The spy plane was really cool as was the Russian MIG, such a weird looking aircraft 
• There was lots to explore including crew quarters, anchor room, anti aircraft gun emplacements, the bridge, flight deck and hanger deck. 
• The hanger deck had lots of exhibits. Intrepid had been involved in recovering the first Gemini mission and so they had a Gemini replica capsule you could get into. It was hard work as you had to lie down and it was tiny. Clearly designed for astronauts shorter than me. 

The Growler, a nuclear missile submarine

• Diesel powered submarine built in the 1950s at the start of the Cold War. Carried nuclear missiles, but cruise rather than ballistic. Only served for about seven years as it was quickly made redundant by Polaris and nuclear powered, ballistic missile submarines. 
• While in service it would patrol off the coast of eastern Russia as part of the nuclear deterrent. Each patrol was about two months 
• Missiles were launched from the deck and could only be fired when on the surface which made the vessel very vulnerable 
• Crew of about 100, all of which were volunteers. 
• As expected very cramped and claustrophobic, not somewhere I would want to be serving! 
• Sailors would only get one shower per month if they were lucky as water was at such a premium. They used to store food wherever they could including the showers, which wouldn’t have helped the situation. Would not want to be opening the door at the end of the patrol to let them off!

Concorde 

• They have one of the old British Concordes. We got to sit in the first class cabin which looked about the same as economy today. The level of luxury was not high
• Tiny windows to see out of. Very low ceilings and had to bend down to get through the doors. Space was obviously at a premium 
• While not luxurious, it would still be worth trading that off for a three hour flight across the Atlantic!
• We got to go into the cockpit which had a million switches and dials. Really shows how much computers can simplify interfaces like this 

The space shuttle Enterprise 

• This was enclosed in a pavilion on the flight deck of the Intrepid 
• Enterprise was the first shuttle built and was only used for test flights, it never went into space. 
• It’s absolutely massive particularly when compared to the Soyuz, Mercury and Gemini capsules that were also in the museum. 
• Sadly, could only see the outside with no ability to inside which would have been way more interesting 

After Lisa had caught the bus back to the city (she had a very successful shopping trip, I was concerned about how we will get everything home but Lisa assured me she has it all in hand) we decided to meet up at the High Line. This is an old elevated railway line that runs along north/south route in Manhattan. The railway line had been moved under ground and the elevated area has now been turned into a park and walkway. It is a really cool idea and it was a very nice walk along there. It was a hot day and so we had a gelato and enjoyed sitting and doing some people watching. 

After we walked back to the hotel we went to a bar along the street for a quick beer then back home to get ready for our night out. Lisa had bought a dress and was looking great! I had to iron my shirt in about two minutes, so not my best job. Dinner was at Applebees to continue our mission of trying classic American food. We had mozzarella sticks as an appetizer and then a steak and ribs for main course. The food was only ok but a lot better than some of the recent meals we have had. 

Then it was off to the Broadway musical Six. This was based on the wives of Henry the Eighth. There was a live band and six singers representing each of the wives. They each told their story through a song and competed for who had the worse situation. The music was very upbeat and based on contemporary female musicians – e.g. Alicia keys, Lilly Allen, Beyoncé etc. It was very good and certainly a different take on a well known story. There wasn’t really a plot, more just a sequence of songs.  The singers were fantastic and managed to create a personality for each of the wives. They got a standing ovation and I can see us listening to the soundtrack in the car in the future. 

After the show we wandered through Time Square, which despite being 10pm was still absolute bedlam.

1 June 2023

So far our New York adventures had been contained to Manhattan with the short venture out to Brooklyn on Monday being our only trip off the island. We were keen to get a wider perspective of the whole city and so we signed up for a bus trip going around the different boroughs of the city. Our tour left at 9am and we grabbed some drinks from Dunkin’ Donuts before we jumped on the bus – the drinks were better value than Starbucks but a bit too sweet and not enough chocolate for my taste. 

Our guide Cam then took us for a tour

• First stop was Harlem and the Apollo theatre where many famous acts had performed. We could only go outside but got photos of the famous exterior that has appeared on many TV shows. There are plaques on the ground for some of the amazing people who had performed there.
• From there we went to the Bronx and to the famous Yankee stadium. We got to have a look at the exterior of the stadium and a wander around the area. The Bronx is famous for J Lo (Jennifer Lopez), but she doesn’t have anything to do with the area anymore. Sonia Sotomayor the Supreme Court justice is also from the area and apparently she still goes back to the area to help inspire the local youth. 
• Still in the Bronx we stopped at a bodega which is a Latin convenience store selling a variety of goods and central to the community in the area. The bodega sold amazing empanadas and we had one with corn, chives and cheese which was delicious. There was also some street art in the area including a picture of local rapper Big Pun (used to be big punisher). He was very famous in the 90s but lived up to his name and was a large man which unfortunately contributed to his death by heart attack at a young age. 
• Then it was off to Queens the largest of the burroughs. I always remember it as being where George’s parents (Frank and Estelle) lived on Seinfeld – which didn’t give my high expectations for classiness. It had a lot less big buildings than the previous areas and was a lot more suburban. We drove through an expensive suburb where we weren’t allowed to stop or security would come and kick us out. We stopped at the Flushing Meadows park which is where the US open tennis is played. They had used the park for the World Fair in the 1960s including building large towers that used to host restaurants. The towers were built by New York State but they stopped funding them after the fair as New York State doesn’t like spending money on New York City. The city designated them as heritage structures and so the state is stuck maintaining them even though they are useless and an eyesore. There were famously included in the Men in Black movie. We had a group photo outside the largest replica of the globe ever built. Which was also featured in the same Men in Black movie. 
• For lunch we went to Brooklyn to an area transforming from industrial and that had a lot of amazing street art. We had pizza for lunch which ticked off New York pizza from our food list. It was very good and the slices were massive. Service wasn’t great and so we didn’t get too long to check out the art
• Our final stop was at DUMBO that we had visited earlier. Cool to see again but nothing we hadn’t seen previously. Some people chose to leave the tour there and walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge which would have been hard work in the heat (it was about 30 degrees). 
• Cam was very good at explaining things and giving history as we went about the tour. One theme that came up a lot was gentrification where traditionally poor neighbourhoods would have new buildings redeveloped which would make it more desirable which in turned pushed up property prices (and therefore taxes) and rents which in turn would price out the previous occupants. The new developments would be required to have a certain proportion of low income housing but not enough for the people displaced. Interestingly the projects (government built social housing) tended to be left alone when this redevelopment happened which I can imagine pissed off the property developers
• Brooklyn has a large area dominated by Hasidic Jews who shun the outside works and try to live a very religious life. These groups can be quite insular and avoid modern technology although they do use cellphones but only old models without internet access. We had seen quite a few of these men in the area around our hotel as it appeared they worked in the area. They were very distinctive always wearing a black hat, black suit (a little oversized) and a white shirt. 

We were dropped off in Chinatown and we walked the hour from there back to the hotel. Along the way we passed through Greenwich village which looked like a very cool area. It was a hot day and so we were strategic in choosing the more shaded side of the road along the way. As with all of our walks in Manhattan it was just fascinating seeing the city, how things worked and just generally people watching.

We popped over to Burgerology for a quick beer again (same place as yesterday). Service was poor and Lisa refused to leave a tip so we had to dodge out of there pretty quickly. As it was our eight year anniversary and we wanted to avoid a palaava at dinner time we had booked a restaurant in advance. The restaurant was a Mexican place called Carla. We shared enchiladas and a pulled pork burge, it was delicious – a real highlight of our food on the trip. 

Our show for the evening was The Office: a Musical Parody by the same people (and at the same venue) as the Seinfeld parody from Sunday. The show was really good with a cast of eight playing all of the roles. It covered all of the famous Office jokes and worked through all of the major plot points from across the seasons. Genuinely laugh out loud funny but probably not quite as good as Seinfeld as the plot was a bit looser and they tried to include too many characters and side stories. 

After the show we went for dessert as Lisa was very keen for a New York cheesecake. She got her wish and. I had a chocolate molten cake with ice cream which was great. 

2 June 2023

Final day in New York but as we were flying out in the afternoon we effectively only had half a day. We would have liked to have caught the ferry to Staten Island to get a view of the Statue of Liberty but that was going to be pushing the time we had available. And on top of that it was very hot getting up to 32 degrees and with the flights home we didn’t want to get sweaty. 

Lisa was keen to do yet more shopping (something about Macys) and I found the museum of New York City which looked like a good inside activity. As things don’t open until 10am we had a good sleep in before doing our final packing – it was a challenge to get everything into our suitcases! 

I caught the metro to the north end of Central Park before a 10 minute walk to the museum. Due to time constraints I only had about an hour there. The museum has a good history of the city from the founding of the New Amsterdam colony through to modern times. There were other exhibits but I ran out of time. After the museum I caught the metro back to mid town to grab a Frappuccino from Starbucks, but I screwed up my ordering and ended up with a coffee based drink – which was disgusting. 

Lisa and I met up at the hotel and grabbed our bags before heading to Penn station to catch the train to Newark airport. Getting through security was frustrating as always. We went to the United club which had some good food and we had showers which was fantastic. Our flight boarded in time but we were delayed taking off on the tarmac due to bad weather. We eventually departed three hours late. We made up one hour in the air, but we had a mad sprint through the San Francisco terminal in order to catch our Air New Zealand flight home. By some miracle we made it! My second upgrade had come through and I had a nice trip in business class. After arriving in Auckland we were even more impressed when our luggage also arrived (those baggage handlers deserve a tip rather that most of the poor servers we met on our trip). We then caught our final flight of the trip back to Christchurch and reality.

Some random photos of New York:

New York thoughts:

• Met expectations for general craziness and crowds. Felt like every other city we’ve been to was just practice for New York. Amazing how many people are out at all hours of the day and night
• Plenty of crazy people, but able to avoid them – mostly
• So much to do, so many museums and other attractions. Not to mention all the sports, events, concerts, festivals etc
• Looks crazy to drive in New York. It’s pretty clear that in the order of priority that cars are at the bottom of the pile, which is a nice change. Pedestrians clearly have the right of way and they (including us) all exploit it. The phrase “Hey! I’m walking here!” makes sense in New York
• Despite the number of people and massive sky scrapers there was a lot more light than in Philadelphia. Having the buildings set back and designing for that really makes a difference. The wide streets are particularly helpful for this. 
• Having numbered streets and avenues is incredibly useful for navigating around the city. Having a smart phone is useful but you can do a lot of basic navigation based solely on the street numbers 

The holiday has been fantastic and has felt a lot longer than two weeks. Overall USA thoughts:

• Public transport is amazing. So easy and efficient to get around in each of the cities we went to. However the payment systems did vary wildly. Washington had one card that was used for all transport and worked very well. Boston with Charlie cards and Charlie tickets was just confusing. New York allowed you to use your standard pay wave card which was best of all – every city should just adopt this!
• American food had been very disappointing. Hamburgers and sandwiches dominate menus. There just hasn’t been a lot of variety in menus. Portion size has varied greatly with some places giving massive meals where others have been equivalent to what we would have received in New Zealand
• Service in restaurants and bars has been very hit and miss. But on the whole it’s been worse than the service we would get in New Zealand despite the tipping culture. Poor service really frustrates Lisa and she raised this many times on the trip
• So weird that prices don’t include gratuities and tax. A price looks fine but then when you factor the extras in it can increase the cost quite substantially
• The bill processing in restaurants is so frustrating and inefficient. Having to get them to bring the bill, waiting for them to pick it up, process the card and then return it back for us to add the tip. The staff taking the card away is just bizarre and feels very insecure (luckily Lisa gets a message every time a charge goes against the card). It makes you appreciate being in New Zealand and being able to leave when we want to and just pay on the way out – without needing to worry about a tip. Even Europe was better, they had to come to your table but at least it was a one step process and they bought the machine to your table and do the transaction in front of you 
• And what’s up with signing for things rather than a pin? Seems so much less secure. 

So on the whole a few things for them to improve on…

We both had a great time and are looking forward to the next trip – wherever that may be!