Day 2 in NYC: I Need More Power! And better feet.

by | Oct 12, 2023 | Photography

Pre-dawn photos

Our second day in New York City started early for me (Like, when is that a surprise?) with a two-hour photo walk. But that walk got interrupted before it even began…twice. First, as I was leaving the ship, I looked at my phone (that I use to track my travels, navigate by GPS, call Kathleen if I need to, etc.) and found that it had not charged overnight even though it had been plugged in. Damn! So I walked back upstairs and plugged in. I knew I could get it up to around 40% in under 30 minutes, and that would be enough. Half an hour later, I was on my way.

This time, I got off the ship and through security before I thought, “You should check your camera batteries as well.” (I always have two on me. One in the camera and one in a pouch on my camera strap.) The one in the camera was at about 25%, but the one on my strap was…dead. So, back through security, back on the ship, up 4 floors to grab my third battery, which thankfully was fully charged. Finally, I was on my way. Whew! That was frustrating.

My original intention had been to re-walk the High Line, but since I had done that the day before and also five years ago, I decided to go out and shoot some light—Times Square. On the way, I thought how ridiculous it is that I would NEVER walk in the dark for that distance in Seattle. I would never have felt safe. But here I was in the Big Apple, and I felt totally secure. Working people were everywhere, a friendly cop on most corners and strangely enough, walking three miles around Manhattan, I did not see a single person high on fentanyl, asking for money or doing anything but getting on with their day. What a difference a few years makes. Seattle wishes it was as safe as NYC.

At any rate, I had a fun walk around the Times Square/Broadway area and these are the photos I brought back (and of course they have captions). Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Midday trek

Back to the ship, and after a quick breakfast, and five of us were off in an Uber to explore NYC. Jocelyn was still getting over her cold, and Kathleen felt like it was coming on, so they elected to stay on board. We were first headed to Zabars on the Upper West Side. If you have never heard of Zabars, just imagine the most well-stocked grocery store you have ever been to, where you can get ANYTHING, and it is all crammed into two 7-11s…with an entire kitchen shop on top of it. That’s Zabars. Here are three quick shots to show you what I mean.

All the sections of the store were as well-stocked, with as many choices as the cheese section. Add an upstairs cooking supply store, and for people like me who love to cook, it was magic. We stuck around there, but I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything because I didn’t want to have to lug it around the rest of the day. I am ashamed to say that every product I saw in the kitchen supply shot that I really wanted, I took a photo of with my phone and will be ordering those from Amazon when we get back home. I love to support small businesses but Zabars looked like they will survive (they have for a very long time).

I got done looking long before the rest of the gang, so I went outside to find a mailbox to drop some postcards I had written. Yes, I still write postcards. And then I planted myself in front of the store and did some street photography until everyone else had made their purchases. Here’s a quick gallery of photos from that session of waiting about 15 minutes. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I forgot to mention that this midday foray into Manhattan had totally broken one of my absolute travel laws—never go anywhere unplanned. For me, the worst thing to be when traveling is just wandering around and going, “What do you want to do now?” Just typing those words bothers me. I know. I should just be spontaneous. But more arguments and ruined vacation days have come from those seven words than I want to remember. But there we were outside of Zabars, asking ourselves where we wanted to go. So we checked the map and found out we were just north of the entrance to Central Park, and since no one in our group except me had ever walked through the park, we decided to head that way.

Once we were in the park, the next question was where to go. I had never been to the Belvedere Castle, so we headed off to find that. Hopefully, it would make a good photo-op. It did. After exploring the castle and the views from the castle, we spoke with a park guide who suggested a great walk down the rest of the park to Columbus Circle. I was all up for this, but that’s because I am the walker in the group. The rest of the group decided that what they wanted most in NYC was a pastrami sandwich at a deli. So they headed off to find one on Lexington Avenue, and I headed south into the park on the route the guide had suggested to shoot more photos. Here’s what I got in the park. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping.

After I took the second Belvedere Castle shot, the battery in my camera died, and I had to switch to my partially charged backup. Talk about worried. I knew I had a long way to go to get back to a charger. So I walked through the rest of the park, making sure my camera was only turned on to take a composed shot that I liked. For me, this was sheer torture. I like taking pics of everything (that’s why my batteries keep running out) and then sorting them out later. I probably discard 80% of the photos I take. But on this walk, I only took the ones I absolutely HAD TO HAVE. And this situation put me on another search. I was in Manhattan. There must be a camera store nearby where I could buy a new Nikon battery. Hopefully, they will have one fully charged and ready to go. So I popped out Google Maps on my phone and Googled nearby Nikon stores. I about fell on my face when I saw I was only 1.9 miles from the midtown home of B&H Photo.

For those of you who are not nutso, serious photographers like me, B&H is our Mecca. They are the ultimate camera store. They are only in NYC, but half the serious photographers in the USA buy from them. I had considered going there earlier, but I would have been the only one interested, and it would have been way too tempting for me. They literally have everything! Of course, as it turns out, they don’t have everything. They don’t sell fully charged Nikon batteries. Damn! (But that was OK. I got to spend about an hour browsing B&H and didn’t spend a cent.) Did I mention that B&H was at 34th and 9th? Because now I was way past Pier 88—so off I went to get back to the ship and to rest my feet. My total miles walked on this day in the Square, The Park and B&H was 14.2. To say my feet and legs were mad at me is a huge understatement.

The walk back was uneventful. I didn’t have any more photo opportunities because, by now, my camera battery was totally dead.

Sailing away from Manhattan

My plan (since I had shot our sail-in to NYC) was just to take a few photos as the ship was sailing back down the Hudson to the sea. But when I went up on deck and found that there was almost perfect light focused on the city, I had to stay and take more than a few photos. It was a good thing I had completely charged one of my camera batteries as soon as I had gotten back to the ship. Because, in that 45-minute trip from Pier 88 to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I shot almost 300 photos. Everywhere I looked, there was perfect light on something else. I hope you agree. And don’t worry. I culled them down to a few of the best. And these you really shouldn’t look at on a tiny phone screen. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping.

Other than an evening meal at Ember (another of Vista’s specialty restaurants–That I will review soon along with the other three and all the food), that was about it for this day. It’s a good thing because my feet could not take standing anymore. I was thrilled that yesterday was a sea day, and I didn’t have any place to go except an onboard culinary class—more about that tomorrow. Today, we are in Charleston, South Carolina, and I look forward to a short walk to pick up a rental car, a covered surrey ride around downtown, some of the world’s best Carolina BBQ at Rodney Scott’s and a tour of the Magnolia Plantation. With a 90% chance of rain…this should be fun.

“I get out of the taxi, and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.”   — Milos Forman

 

Whew! NYC wore me out…but it was GREAT!

by | Oct 11, 2023 | Photography

So much to tell you. I hope I get this done before I have to go upstairs to do laundry (If I’m not the first person there on a sea day, I will never get it done.)

So, to go back what is now three days, there will be no report on Martha’s Vineyard. After a fairly bumpy ride on Saturday night, the Captain made the decision that the seas were too rough and the swells too high to use the tenders safely, so we skipped the Vineyard and floated around out at sea for most of a day. But that worked out as early Monday morning, we sailed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into New York Harbor. We got incredibly lucky with the weather for both of our days in NYC. From the sail-in until the sail-away, we had either sunny or partly cloudy skies. Temps in the 50s and 60s, so I was loving it.

Day 1—we sail in

My day started at 4:45 a.m. when I headed up to the Horizons lounge at the front of the ship to watch the city get closer. Then, around 5:45, we sailed under the aforementioned VN Bridge, past Lady Liberty and all the way up the Hudson to Pier 88. We arrived at around 8:00 a.m., and the captain made what I thought was a miracle turn into our berth… I came back in from shooting photos to warm up. Even though the temps weren’t that bad, the wind on the deck made it feel a whole lot colder. But I got some great pics, and here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Day 1–The Whitney and a High Line walk back

After a quick breakfast, the entire group (minus one who was still not fully recovered) set out to the Whitney Museum of American Art. We had pre-purchased tickets to see their collection. We had planned this because we were on the East Side of Manhattan, and the gigantic Columbus Day parade was on the West Side. We would head that way tomorrow. The main reason I wanted to go to The Whitney was that they have the largest collection of paintings by my favorite American artist, Edward Hopper. Sadly, not a lot of them are displayed (BOOH!). But we still enjoyed our two-hour visit. Then we walked across the street to see The Little Island up close and personal.

The Little Island. Taken from the outdoor viewing area of The Whitney Museum

The Little Island is one of the newest parts of the waterfront. It is entirely man-made and very reminiscent of the Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. The entire island sits on what looks like flowers coming out of the water, but once on the island, you would never know it. We walked all over the island. There’s an amphitheater, food stands and some incredible views up and down the Hudson. You will see them in a few minutes when I get to the midday slide show.

After our visit to the Little Island, we grabbed a quick bite of pizza in front of the Whitney, and Kathleen, Mike and Cathy took an Uber back to the ship while Steve and Jamie did a little shopping, and I set off to walk back to the ship via the High Line. If you are not familiar with the High Line, it is an elevated platform that runs from just outside the doors of the Whitney up Manhattan’s west side to just about where Vista was berthed. It used to be an old elevated railway but is now a beautiful pedestrian walkway.

I had previously walked the High Line on our last trip to NYC in 2018, but that was before sunrise when it was empty. This time was midday, and it was jam-packed with people out for a holiday (Columbus Day—which is still celebrated in NYC) stroll. As I walked north towards the ship, I shot a bunch of pics…and here they are. You know the drill. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Our evening—sorry, no pics

After I got back and gave my legs a rest, we all met up at 4:15 to go to dinner at Kellari Taverna. Kathleen and I had eaten there on our honeymoon in 1999. We loved it then, but not so much now. Their menu had gone from traditional Greek to pretty much seafood, and we had all come with dreams of a great Greek feast. The only truly Greek dish on their menu was mousaka, but it was a vegan dish (are you kidding me???). They did have a tasty octopus that I liked and a nice Greek salad. At least their baklava was excellent.

Almost forgot to explain why we were going to dinner so early—we had tickets to a Broadway show! Come on, you can’t come to NYC without seeing a Broadway show. When we booked the cruise, one of the highlights was this overnight stay in New York. But one big problem—most Broadway shows are dark on Monday nights, and we were there…on Monday night. But thankfully, a few still run, and we were lucky enough to snag tickets to Six. If you have not heard of Six, it is the story of the six wives of Henry the Eighth. I know, sounds boring, right? But what a high-powered, amazing musical that turned out to be all about feminine empowerment. Each of the wives sang in the style of two of our current pop stars—for instance, Catherine of Aragon sang in the style of Beyonce and Shakira. And she and the rest of the Six could sing. Grab the cast album from your favorite streaming site and have a listen—an uplifting and energizing show. It is on a national tour currently, so if you get a chance, go see it. You won’t be sorry—we weren’t. By the time we were done with Six, we were exhausted, and it was back to the ship and bed. I needed to be up for Day 2’s predawn photo walk. More about that in my next post.

“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.”    —Ayn Rand

 

Please Stay Tuned…NYC got in the way

by | Oct 9, 2023 | Photography

Taken very early today as we sailed by.

Good morning, all! Just a quick note: your favorite travel blogger will return in a few days. I usually write in the mornings before dawn, but today, I took this photo (and a lot of others) as we sailed into NYC. We will be here until late tomorrow night, so I will be using tomorrow morning for a long walk on the Highline before the sun comes up. Thankfully, we have a sea day after we leave here so that I can catch up. Until then…stand by.

Portland Surprised Me

by | Oct 8, 2023 | Photography

It’s 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, and it has been a very long and bumpy night. We have been skirting the edge of Hurricane Phillipe since we left Portland yesterday afternoon, rocking and rolling like Elvis in his prime. We are still moving a lot, but not as much as last night. Walking down to Martinis, where I write in the mornings, I didn’t see any damage, but they do have fans out to dry carpets…which is interesting. The only thing we personally had happen in the night was the tongs falling off our ice bucket. It made a lot of noise, but that was about it. Happily, our stop today (Martha’s Vineyard) is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s. We shall see.

The Portland Observatory

Yesterday was the exact opposite weather-wise, as you can see from the photo above. So when we awakened in Portland, Maine, I looked out and thought that since our excursion had been canceled, maybe I would just stay in. It wasn’t really raining at that point, just a lot of wet fog. But after breakfast, I decided that as long as it wasn’t raining, I should go out and walk, if not for photos, at least for exercise. So I did. Kathleen decided to stay on board. Jocelyn had checked in that she was going to spend the day in her stateroom, and the other four were already off on a walk around the old port. So I was on my own. That’s OK, as I tend to walk much faster than anyone else because they like to stop and browse windows, but I like to search for photo subjects. When I had finished the day, I was truly surprised at what I had found, from some street photography pics to a few churches (I could not get inside to see the stained glass) to a wonderful tower—the Portland Observatory.  There, they let me pay them $8 to climb 104 steps and take pictures from the top. There were docents on every level doing a great job of telling the history of the Observatory and greater Portland. I took the photo at the start of this post from the top of the Observatory.

So here are my best pics of the day. If you had told me I would be getting this many that I liked on this walk, I would have said you were nuts. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

BTW: We had been here in Portland almost five years ago to the day on Celebrity Summit (before they went to the dark side), and it has been sunny, humid and ninety degrees, so to be honest, I prefer this weather.

The moment they pulled the pilot off the ship.

After we sailed (around 3:00 p.m.), I got the balance of the shots of the lighthouses and the pilot boat. I love shooting pilot boats. If you don’t cruise, in every port, the local officials send out pilots who are totally knowledgeable about their respective ports, and they take over from the ship’s captain while sailing into and out of a port. The most dangerous part of their work is that they have to come out on a tiny pilot boat and literally jump from the moving boat both on and later off the ship. It is a fantastic thing to watch. The pilot boat maneuvering to get close to the boat, the two pilot boat crewmen reaching out to grab the pilot, and his getting pulled on board and off the ship was a thrill to watch, but even though pilots are VERY well paid, that’s not the occupation for me ?.

See you tomorrow after Martha’s Vineyard…and yes, an hour later, we are still rocking and rolling but less like Elvis and more like The Beatles—a little softer.

I felt like I’d been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine.  —Terry Goodkind

 

We made it into Bar Harbor and got to see it all!

by | Oct 7, 2023 | Food Experiences, Photography

The headline says it all for our group. When we did a New England cruise in 2018, we could not get into Bar Harbor due to sea conditions. The winds and the waves were really blowing. And when our buddy Mike went earlier than that, it was in the middle of the last government shutdown, so he was not able to get into Acadia National Park. But this time…calm seas and a fully-funded federal government (at least for now). Starting next year, Bar Harbor is limiting the number of cruise ship passengers that will be allowed to disembark all vessels to 1,000 per day. Many cruise lines have taken Bar Harbor off their itineraries. Can you imagine being on a LARGE ship (like Caribbean Princess with more than 3,000 passengers who was in port with us yesterday) and being told you couldn’t get off the ship until someone from the first 1,000 came back on board? So, yes, we were thrilled to be able to visit Bar Harbor.

Our day started with an immigration line. We had been informed the day before that Customs and Immigration agents would board the ship at 8:30 am when we arrived in Bar Harbor (Our first US port) and that everyone on board would need to come up to the Horizons Lounge on deck 14 forward and meet with them face-to-face. We had to bring our keycards and our passports. We had a tour of Acadia National Park with Oli’s Trolley booked at 10:30, and rather than be late or miss it entirely, Mike called and rebooked us for the 12:30 tour. From past experience, we knew this could be a long slog. The letter about the inspection stated that we would be called in deck by deck but that Oceania shore excursions would go first. We imagined long lines in the hallways when they announced a deck could go, followed by long lines at the elevators.

Happily, that is not what happened. First, we got into Bar Harbor early and they were ready to start the inspection at 8:00, so we gained half an hour then. Then we went to eat breakfast at Baristas, which is also on deck 14. They started with the lower decks first, so Jocelyn, being on deck eight, was the first one of our group to be called. My brother walked her over to the line and texted us back that there was no one there (Decks 7 and 8 were just about over) and that the young crew member supervising the line said that we could come right through.

So we jumped up from breakfast and walked over, expecting at least a small line. And there was a small line for some of the people on board—the US citizens. In fact, there was NO line for us. We were in and out of the entire thing in less than five minutes. It was amazingly organized and totally efficient. The Immigration office had sent a number of people, and they just looked at our passport, looked at us, we got a green dot on our keycard, and we were good to go. I should add that there was about a 15-20 minute wait if you were a non-US citizen.

Now we were done and ready to go, and we realized that we could have easily made that 10:30 tour. But that was OK. Mike, Cathy, Steve and Jamie headed into the village on the first tender, and Kathleen, Jocelyn and I waited about an hour and then took the tender in.

One major rant about some of our fellow passengers—when a cruise line tells you that there is a MANDATORY immigration interview that you MUST DO before you can get off the ship in any port on the rest of the cruise—BELIEVE THEM! Do the interview. As usually happens, right around 10:30, when everyone else had gone through the interview process, the cruise director started making announcements asking those who had not come up (about 30) to please come immediately so that the Immigration officers could get off the ship. They not only had to make this announcement three times, they had to call out individuals who had not shown up. I heard people talking later that they thought because they weren’t going to get off in Bar Harbor, they didn’t have to do the interview. But this interview cleared them not only for Bar Harbor but for Portland, Martha’s Vineyard, NYC, Charleston and finally, Miami. People, please—get with the program.

We met the early tenderers (is that a word ?) for lunch at a really great place right at the end of the pier—West Street Cafe. I need to say a word here about this place. The food was great, the service superb, it was clean as a whistle, and we had a great time at a big round spot on the end of the bar, just about a perfect port lunch. We all highly recommend it. Mike and Cathy had the clam chowder and blueberry pie and said it was a great New England culinary experience.

I should also mention the tender ride into the harbor. Being the first of three ships to anchor and be ready to start tendering meant we got the prime landing spot right at the base of the village. It also meant Vista got the prime anchoring spot. The other two ships that were anchored were much further out, and while our tender trip was under 10 minutes, theirs was at least 20 or more. And because the Immigration inspection was faster than most thought it would be, it was easy just to walk down and get on a tender.

Once done with lunch, it was on to Oli’s Trolley (using that word in a singular fashion makes you think there is just one trolley—don’t worry, there’s more) for our tour of Acadia National Park. We had chosen the 2.5-hour tour. They also did an early morning tour that lasts 4 hours, but it is basically the same tour with longer stops. Ours had 15-minute stops, theirs 30. To be honest, 15 minutes sounds like a long time, but it isn’t. I just about had to really run at every stop to get the pictures I wanted. The stop where I also used the restroom was a mad dash.

Our guide was a very nice man named Fred, who got us on board and off right on time. The roads were PACKED, but he kept us moving, and we did the entire tour and returned only 10 minutes late. I would detail the tour for you, but my photos will do a better job. I think I did OK with them, considering two things. First, we had fog yesterday, and it was a bit cold. That meant that instead of using the open-air trolley, they used one that had windows. By the time we got there and the fact that almost everyone had a jacket or coat (that they quickly shed on the hot trolley), they could have used the open-air variety. Which, for me as a photographer, would have made for a lot more photo opportunities. Shooting through glass is not fun. Your biggest enemy is reflections from the glass. Or if the glass is dirty at all, the camera focuses on the glass window and not on the subject that is far beyond it.

The windows on this trolley did open a little bit (just enough for me to stick my lens out), but I couldn’t get low enough to see what I was shooting through my viewfinder. So when we stopped for just a minute or two so our guide could point something out, I got very few shots. But I am happy with what I did get. My best fall foliage photo was shot while the bus was going around 35 miles an hour, and I just pointed at the scene I was seeing and clicked the shutter a bunch of times, hoping that one of the shots would turn out to be a good one. I call that photography by pure luck.

You will have to judge for yourself. Here are the photos I got yesterday. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That was just about the end of our day. After the Trolley ride, everyone except Mike and I went back to the ship. Mike went to take a photo of the ship, and I went to roam the streets of the village. I got a few shots, as you saw above. Our day finished up with an amazing meal in Toscana, Vista’s Italian specialty restaurant. More about that in an entire food post coming later.

One last note: while I was coming back on the tender, I got a call from our tour company in Portland, our next stop. We were supposed to do a small boat tour around the islands off Portland. They informed me that because Hurricane Phillipe was headed to Portland, they were canceling all tours. That made me both sad and apprehensive until I got back to the ship and looked at the National Weather Service website, and then I was just perplexed. Here’s the map from this morning.

As you can see, the hurricane (now a tropical storm) is not scheduled to be near Portland until 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. We are currently in Portland Harbor, and we have had no bad weather as of yet. Oh well, they gave us a full refund, but now we have to find something to do in Portland today. I guess I better get on that—more tomorrow.

There’s a quality of life in Maine which is this singular and unique. I think. It’s absolutely a world onto itself.  —Jamie Wyeth