Travel Diary

Day Two

Sunday, I woke around 10am and then set the alarm to wake up around 11am. No use rushing things. The city would still be there when I checked out. Plus, it had been raining so the longer I stayed in the better chance of keeping dry. But finally, I woke up, took a shower, packed everything up, and headed out. My destination would be...west. Yeah, I just walked west for a while, but quickly reached Grand Central Station. I hadn't planned on visiting there, but I went inside and once again saw the impressive main atrium. Okay, it’s not an atrium; I just can’t think of the word to describe it. But it’s the huge middle area where the clock and ticket booths are. I took photos and videos there and then got some shots of the great chandeliers. I also went down to the tracks to watch a train coming in. Just a fun place to wander around. Highly recommend it.

When that was done, I again headed west, but then came upon Bryant Park. I took photos of the ice skating and took in the atmosphere for a while. Then headed west again.

Soon, I reached the Hudson river. There are jogging paths along it and bike paths. It’s a great place for New Yorkers and tourists to meander along. I headed south. Along the way, there were piers to explore. Some even had trees growing on them. Near Chelsea Pier, there was a golf range area where people would practice their golf swings. Huge nets kept the balls from going into the river—or into people. I never knew all these places existed on the river.

Moving along, I reached Little Island. It’s a fairly new place that is essentially a park on a large pier. Nice place to walk around and they even have shows there, though none during my visit. Paths led up to nice vantage points; however, the views were not terribly photogenic.

Then I directed myself towards lower Manhattan. I had yet to get a photo of the Wall Street Bull. Along the way, I reached the 9/11 memorials. They consist of two massive ponds with waterfalls in remembrance to all that had lost lives that day. I believe the ponds are the size of the lost buildings, which really shows how massive those structures were.

From there I headed to the bull. Alas, there were crowds there. A line formed for people to be in the picture with the bull. It wasn’t organized, but organically formed from just the orderliness and decency of people wanting to be fair. Since I didn’t need to be in a photo, I just waited for people to exit their picture and quickly snapped a few shots.

Then I headed south a little more, but I was now at the south end of Manhattan. I sauntered around a bit more and finally just summoned Uber. Then I was on my way back to Liberty Airport.

I checked in and waited. To my dismay the flight was delayed, but not too long. I did want to board first to ensure I had overhead space, although it would turn out to be not necessary as my bag fit fine under the seat.

Once on board, I found my business class seat. It was..sweet. A large seat with two windows. This would do just fine. I settled in and in time we were headed back up into the air. Since it was night, I didn’t get any good photos outside. And It turned out I was on the wrong side of the plane. I had selected seat 3A, but sat in 3L by mistake. The person who did have the seat came over but just decided to use mine instead of having me switch. Perhaps if I were in the other seat I could have gotten photos of downtown NYC, though hard to tell from our flight path.

In time, they offered food choices. We could have either the lasagna or Thai chicken. Since the former dish can be very hard to make well, I went with the chicken, figuring it would be easier to do it right. But it was not done right. It was edible, though bland and not any better than a TV dinner. The salad was good. The bread was bland. I like my IPA but they of course didn't make that. Overall, the meal was decent, but certainly not a competitor to those international meals from other airlines.

Since the entertainment system was nice, I tried it out. They had a good selection of movies and shows. I watched a little fv, but finally just wanted to sleep. The seat slowly turned into a bed, and with the blanket and pillow, I soon dozed off for about an hour or perhaps two. It was quite nice.

In time, we touched down in San Franciscos. Being in the front, I exited quickly and had no checked bag to claim, so I was soon on the shuttle and back in the parking garage.

I then began the long drive back home. My very short vacation was completed.