The first set of photos are from Friday Aug 1st. My DB (deaf-blind) friend Martin asked me to SSP (service support provider) for him and his friend Mussie visiting from San Fransisco California that day. He wanted to show Mussie the city and booked us reservations with cirlce line cruise to take a 2 hr tour around Manhattan. So we met up that day at 2pm and took the bus across town to go to Pier 83 (off of 42nd st). Once we arrived, we met up with two more of Martin's friends, a couple name Liz and Randy and they both have Usher Syndrome. Liz is a born and raised New Yorker. Randy is from Alabama. They've been dating for 2 years now and make the cutest couple I've met in a long time. They both have some limited vision and use canes. They did not need me to lead them but help facilitate communication between themselves and the coordinator at the circle line cruise. Liz told all of us she wanted to do the 3 hour boat tour not the 2 hour one. Which was kinda good and kinda bad. Kinda good because I didn't think we would be able to board the 3:30pm 2 hour cruise in time since the bus took a long time crossing from east to west on 42nd st. The 3 hour cruise departs at 4 30pm but would be a heck of a lot longer ride. I decided to let majority rules and voila we were booked for the 4:30pm 3 hour cruise. They also gave us 1/2 price discounts. The woman (who's name escapes me) was a sweetheart and let us cool off in the conference room of their main office and even brought us cups of water.
Here's a picture of Liz and Randy chilling and killing some time till we board.
The coordinator also arranged for the ship crew to let us board 1st too, well technically not 1st. It was weird when we boarded the ship it was all empty except for the top deck, stern there were 2 redneck ladies already on board waiting. I could see over the side of the boat to the boarding dock a LONG line of people waiting and wondered how they felt about the 2 woman who boarded on 1st. I mean in my case, there was no confusion, deaf-blind go first, period.Here we are waiting for the others to board, Martin and Liz chatting about the cruise tour itself.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day as you can see, nice fluffy clouds!
We sat in the back (stern) part of the boat, where there was no roofing. Yep we were at the mercy of the sun goddess, oh ye please do not burn thee! (and luckily I wasn't!)
And away we go, here's a small sail boat, the horizon is NJ (got it Gabriel?)
We neared Ellis Island (the closest I've ever been) and due to the sun shinning and the sunlight direction, this was the only good shot I snapped of Lady Liberty, but you betcha my heart swelled some to see her with my own 2 eyes. What was odd to me about Lady Liberty is she isn't really very tall. Living in the heart of NY, I'm surrounded by tall buildings all day long and it was a surprise when we neared to see how short she really is. I was told she's the "tallest statue" in the world. Every time you see her in any Hollywood "end of the world" movies, they make her out to be much bigger than she really is.
Here's a picture of Martin & Mussie (Jack can you name which bridge is behind them?)
Here's me, while it was HOT, it was breezy too!
Here's the famous Domino Sugar Refinery Building in Brooklyn.
Here's the famouse Long Island City Pepsi Cola sign from their bottling plant.
A shot of the Chrysler Building, which I always confuse with the Empire State Building, but the top of both buildings are DIFFerent despite my inability to remember what they are ;-)
A shot of what I think might be the UN building but I can't be sure. Just a cool-ass looking building if you ask me, deem worthy of snapping a picture of.
This I believe is a shot of Roosevelt Island but I can't be sure...
I have no idea what this old structure is (Jack do you know?) It was taken on the east side, facing Queens or NJ I think?
FYI when you're cruising along the east side River you past under a thousand and 1 bridges. Seriously, Manhattan has a major love affair of bridges. I can't begin to identify below which bridge is what? (I leave that up to Jack to post under the comment section if he thinks he can identify them all??? I dare you *grins*)
This was one of the last photos I snapped on the tour, a shot from the west side I think its a view of the west end highway (am I correct Jack?)
All in all, it was a good experience. But too LONG for me. 2 hours would've been enough. By the time it ended, I couldn't wait to get off the ship. I felt cooped up and over heated by the sun. We all went to a dinner on 23rd and 9th ave. All in all, it was a wonderful day, that night we went to DPHH where I snapped photos there too. You can view those photos here. My next post will have photos from my birthday party 2 weeks ago. It was one of the BEST birthdays I've had in quite some time.
2 comments:
I can see why you're in love with NYC. Seen from a distance, everything is clean and pure and exciting. I think I recognized the Brooklyn Bridge, but I'll wait until someone more knowledgeable than I, identifies them.
Baba
Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. Back in the day there was a debate voer which was better, car travel or mass transit so many bridges and roads were being constructed back then. Originally 34th and 59th streets were planned to be highways (along with even more bridges and tunnels) but by then they realized that mass-transit was the way of the future.
Yes, that was Roosevelt Island. The old building was part of the medical complex back when it used to be called Welfare Island. Welfare Island originally only had a jail called Blackwell's Prison which opened in the 1850s and then later called Welfare Penitentary (when the island name changed to Welfare also since it used to be known as Blackwell's Island). It also had a mental institution and then eventually when the jail moved to Riker's Island they still had a hospital/nuthouse complex open. The island still has a hospital and fire department while the rest of it is now residential.
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