November 17, 2017. West Harlem, New York City to Beacon, New York State, USA.
We were back in the USA again and Ev and Steph had arranged another adventure for us. This involved hiring a car and going to upstate New York for a couple of days.
In the morning Ev and I picked up the Chevrolet Cruze from Hertz and then returned to get Steph and Thea.
Then we headed north, to Sleepy Hollow, on the east bank of the Hudson River.
Sleepy Hollow is best known for ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ a short story by Washington Irvine. This tells of the fictional character The Headless Horseman, who rides through the town of Sleepy Hollow searching for his head. Set during the American Revolutionary War, traditional folklore tells of a Hessian artilleryman who was decapitated during the Battle of White Plains.
He was then buried in the cemetery of the Old Dutch Reform Church in Sleepy Hollow. Each Halloween night his ghost rises from the grave and goes searching for his lost head.
For lunch we visited the Peekskill Brewery and then drove to Bear Mountain.
Bear Mountain is only 393 meters high but we got great views of the Hudson and New York City. It was traditionally known as Bear Hill which is more apt considering its height.
In the evening we went to the Great Jack O’ Lantern Pumpkin Blaze at the Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson.
This is the Halloween event in the Hudson Valley. It runs for 45 evenings, with over 10,000 hand-carved illuminated pumpkins, all in an elaborate walk-through experience. There was even a 6 meters diameter, fully functioning carousel.
This is all set in the estate of the Van Cortlandt Manor. Built in 1665, on a tract of land granted to Stephan’s Van Cortlandt by King William III.
Our accommodation that night was in an Air BnB in Beacon, New York State. It was comfortable, warm and gurgled.
The gurgling came from the very effective central heating that ran through the house.
We were glad of the gurgling as the temperature got to -7°C overnight.
November 18, 2017. Beacon, New York State to West Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
The next day, apart from being cold, was wet.
After a late breakfast in Beacon we visited the Storm King Art Centre. This is an open air museum located near Mountainville and contains what is believed to be the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculpture in the United States.
This is all set in a 200 hectare estate that was owned by a successful business man, Ralph E Ogden and opened in 1960.
It was dark by the time we were on the road back to New York and it was raining.
It was one of the hairiest drives I have ever done.
The roads were crowded and slippery, but that wasn’t the issue. My biggest problem was I couldn’t see the lane markings.
Strangely they don’t use either ‘cat’s eyes’ or reflective tape, so you have no idea where you are.
This combined with the undisciplined US drivers, who pass on either side, makes for a heart-in-mouth ride.
I was glad to reach NYC two hours later.
November 19, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
On Sunday we walked to the Greater Refuge Temple – one of the famous Baptist Churches in Harlem.
It was a random and chaotic service of singing, dancing and a thousand renditions of ‘Praise the Lord’
This total gospel frenzy, at least for us, lasted just over two hours. And it looked like it was set to go on for at least two hours more
I wondered if Jesus of Nazareth could ever imagine how his words were interpreted and delivered 2017 years after his birth.
My photography was cut short by one of the many attendants. I think he felt that my camera was a bit too professional looking.
And I didn’t even have the big lens fitted.
November 20, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
Evan went off to work and we stayed in Harlem and had a planning day.
I worked on organising our time in Florida while Thea had the more daunting task of planning our South American trip.
November 21, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
Another day of planning and for a break, a walk around Hamilton Heights.
This neighbourhood, in the northern part of Manhattan, is bounded by 135th Street to the south, Riverside Drive to the west, 155th Street to the north and Edgecombe Avenue to the east.
The name derived from one of the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, who lived there for the last two years of his life.
This area, like much of northern Manhattan is changing, with a shift of demographics from black to white residence. This is interesting, as back in the 1930s and 1940s the population change was in the other direction.
In the evening we took the subway into into Union Square to meet Evan for a drink and then dinner.
He had planned to go to his monthly Motion Graphics Meet-up but decided to stay with us, as he had worked late.
November 22, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
More planning and a walk to a new coffee shop about 15 minutes from West 127th Street.
Evan finished work at 3pm, as the next day was Thanksgiving. It was a public holiday for the next two days so it was decided it was ‘almost Friday’ so we went to the Harlem Hop House for a drink and dinner.
November 23, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State, USA.
It was Thanksgiving in the USA and a public holiday for many.
We took the C train to 67th Street to watch the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
I remember visions of the Joker’s Parade from the 1989 Batman movie.
Staring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson the opening scene has a similar character to the Pillsbury Dough Boy floating menacingly down the Gotham City Streets.
However they didn’t throw any money at the crowd in this parade.
The parade lasts for about two hours and features many of these floating characters. There’s a combination of cartoon and marketing inflatables.
Interspersed with these are high school marching bands, from across the US, plus representatives from local law enforcement and emergency services.
There are also floats with local celebrities.
I didn’t recognise any of them.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in 1924 and is the world’s largest parade. It has been televised by NBC since 1952. At the first parade there were over 250,000 people watching. It was such a success that it has been held every year since.
The First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims, as a harvest festival, in 1621. It was attended by 53 Pilgrims and, ironically, 90 Native Americans.
George Washington made a proclamation to Congress in 1789 and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln declared the day a federal holiday.
After the parade we returned to E & S’s for a Thanksgiving lunch.
This was a mammoth affair.
Preparation started at 2:30pm and we eventually sat down to eat at 5:30pm.
It was a bit like Christmas Day in Australia.
November 24, 2017. Harlem, New York City, New York State to Orlando, Florida, USA.
This was our last morning in NYC as we were flying to Orlando, Florida in the afternoon.
We caught the bus to La Guardia.
Miraculously my Met Card ended up with just 50 cents on it. Unlike our last trip to the Big Apple, when I finished up with an unusable credit of $20 still on the card.
As usual we were early for our flight so we went to find a snack at La Guardia airport.
There were 41 beers on tap at the Prime Tavern, but unfortunately for Thea, no snacks. I had an espresso.
What a wasted opportunity.
The entire food hall at La Guardia was fitted with iPads. You could order and pay for food and beverages as well as check your flight status.
There were many other ‘buying opportunities’ built into the apps that were displayed on the home page.
Well, we were in the US of A.
The population size of the American east coast becomes a reality when you fly from New York to Orlando. For almost the entire 2.5 hour flight, the lights from the densely populated coastal areas were constantly flickering.
We picked up the Mazda 3 from Hertz and that was relatively easy.
We then proceeded to get completely lost finding our hotel, the Sunsol International Drive.
What should have taken 20 minutes took 45.
Then checking into the hotel was a complete disaster.
The hotels internet was down and had been for four hours. This meant that we couldn’t check-in as normal and they wanted us to get cash from a nearby ATM to pay for our two night stay.
We weren’t about to do that if there was no internet.
It was a stand-off.
In the end we cancelled the reservation and drove around the corner to the Hilton Garden Inn.
By this time it was just before 10pm and their kitchen was closing at 10, so we very quickly ordered a meal, even before getting our bags from the car.
What a night.
November 25, 2017. Orlando and Disney World Magic Kingdom, Florida, USA.
Disney World Magic Kingdom was opened in 1971. It’s based on the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, that was opened in 1955.
It was conceived by Walt Disney but did not open until after his death in 1966.
One of the interesting features of Disney World Magic Kingdom are the ‘Utilidors’ or tunnels that join each of the kingdoms. There were designed so cast members could move from area to area, without being seen by the visitors. Their creation was ordered after Walt Disney spied a cowboy, from Frontierland, walking into Tomorrowland.
He disliked the idea of a character from the past visiting the future.
In 2016 Disney World Magic Kingdom hosted over 20.3 million people, making it the world’s most popular theme park.
To get to the park you can use either the monorail or a ferry boat. We decided to use both and arrived by monorail and departed by the ferry.
Magic Kingdom is divided into six themed lands.
Main Street USA, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Liberty Square and Tomorrowland.
Everything is ‘Ooooooverthetop’
We managed to get around them all and even had time for a reasonable Italian meal at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.
We tried to make it dinner but everything was booked out in the evening.
It ended up being a late lunch at 3:30pm.
The entire park is based around Cinderella Castle, which seems to dominate.
This is surprising, considering it is only 58 metres tall.
It’s grandeur is achieved by the use of ‘forced perspective.’ Each successive story of the structure is built progressively shorter, which makes it look bigger.
