New York and Train to Chicago

Friday, September 30, 2011
New York City, New York, United States
Well our cruise has come to an end and our family is about to split ways. Marge and Christina are heading back home to the 'real' world. As I have more vacation time at work and have not seen Bev for awhile I am going there by train to see her in Clinton, Iowa. I am looking forward to the train trip and the visit.

I was up at about 5:30 am today as I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty as we entered New York Harbor . There were probably at least a 100 people joining me spread out on the decks and probably more on their balconies. I found out in fact that Marge woke up in time to see the ship pass under the Valparaiso Bridge and see the Lady. The Valparaiso Bridge was actually the first thing that I saw from the decks that I could recognize in New York. I tried to imagine myself on the deck as an immigrant straining to see the Lady and the streets glistening in gold but my imagination at 6 am was not quite up to it. Yet it was exciting to see her standing there strong and for me it was also good to see Freedom Tower rise. We have had a number of shocks these last years since 9/11/2001 but those two symbols still presented a strong symbol of liberty, freedom and strength for me. After returning to the room and seeing our bill I could have wished the streets were paved in gold and picked up a little Actually the bill was as expected and except for the extravagance of the photo package not to bad. We really did have some wonderful pictures .

It was relatively relaxing morning for us with breakfast on the Lido deck and then we waited in the Ocean Bar for our color and number to be called we were Brown 3 expected time for us was 10 am but our call was at 9:45 am. We were glad to get going a little early but we had a good time talking about the cruise and reading. Well I used the last of my internet time to browse the web and look at the new series of Kindle's that Amazon had just released. The journey off the ships and to pick up our bags was swift and easy then we left the nice organized world of Holland America and entered New York. I have not been to many ports or airports where I have used a taxi but I can not imagine that there are many that are more poorly organized than New York's.

They built a large cruise ship terminal that was handling 3 ships this morning with no easy way for taxi's to get there or get away. There was little to no order to the taxi mob as that was what it was there were no lines . They attempted some semblance of order by handing out tickets and they called numbers to say your taxi was ready. Well hundreds of people mobbing around, a person calling numbers in front of a mob that stretches hundreds of feet and you can imagine the mess. Luckily we had 10 wonderful days and were all in a good mood. The wait was probably not so bad given the numbers of people but waiting in the heat with no organized line straining to hear if your number is called all went for an unpleasant introduction to New York.

The taxi ride to the Carter Hotel was quick enough once we got out of Hells Kitchen the area the Port Terminal is in. Nothing much to say about the Carter except it's only a block from Times Square, inexpensive and clean. It suited our propose which was to give Marge and Christina a bed to sleep in while enjoying New York for a day. They were going to do the 9/11 Memorial, American Girl Store, Nintendo Store as well as just enjoy the city. I spent a couple hours with them looking around the Time Square area. Boy is that area packed with people it really is a shock after coming off the cruise. Christina mentioned it was a little overwhelming she never expected anything so crowded.

Well I left for Clinton on the 3:45 Lake Shore Limited to Chicago and then tomorrow it would be the Southwest Chief to Galesburg with a 5 hour lay over in Chicago. I had the two Coach seats to my self until stop past Albany and then had a seat mate on to Chicago. The trip up along the Hudson was really very nice. The woods and wetlands along the way showed the quieter greener side of New York state. Nice way to end the day traveling through the green countryside on the train.
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