2010 - Vacation - NYC Churches

St. Patrick's Cathedral

We were standing in the main aisle of St. Patrick's when this was taken!

There are many churches in NYC but three that are notable for their size, history, and architecture. We saw two of them on our first afternoon - St. Patrick's (Catholic) and St. Thomas (Anglican). Both are on Fifth Avenue. St. John the Divine (Episcopal) is on the other end of Central Park. All three are beautiful but St. Patrick's is the best! You just can't get it all in a photo. Times like this is when I really wish I had a wide angle lens!

St. Thomas

A chapel in St. Thomas

Main sanctuary - St. Thomas

St. John the Divine

2010 - Vacation - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

We'd planned on looking in at this place and I wish we'd allowed at least half a day for this. If you're a kid, ever have been a kid, or ever enjoyed a train ride, or watching TV specials about train rides, or ever enjoyed The Trains at Northpark, then you need to see this place. Glynda wasn't really too hot on going into the museum and we had all we could see in the rolling stock outside so that's where we spent our time. But if I ever go back there I'm going to spend several hours in the museum and I'm going to ride their train (a 45 minute ride). I borrowed one picture from their website (check out the website here) so you can get an idea of the size of the place but even that doesn't do a good job of it. They have restored many rail cars and locomotives and most are inside in the museum. They are still actively restoring others and they're adding to the buildings. If you remember - most of the trains on your monopoly board were from Pennsylvania.

This is the train you can ride.

This is the train at the siding

These are the prices for riding the train

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Inside the museum. Gotta go!!

2010 - Vacation - Ground Zero on 9/11 2010

At Trinity Church - two spires to the sky!

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This is the building known as "1 World Trade Center".

We were at ground zero during the 9/11 remembrance service. The construction is further along than I thought and I realized that I wasn't really up to date on what's being built. Here's what's happening. There was a large crowd but I'd really expected it to be larger. It was possible to get closer to what was happening - and it was happening in several places along the construction site. At one point, they were again reading the names of the people who perished there. I'm afraid that I was too concerned with our itinerary to fully appreciate what we were experiencing :(

2010 - Vacation - Our 30 second friend

He had just posed with Lady Liberty for a photo
for a friend and when I missed the shot we
asked him to do it again for us - and he eagerly consented!
(We don't know what he had up his kilt!)

2010 - Vacation - NYC tour bus

Tour buses - sounds "touristy" but it's a good way to see a lot of New York City in a relatively short period of time. For a modest fee you can get a ticket that includes unlimited hop-on, hop-off for two days as well as a 75 minute harbor cruse. With a little planning, you can use the bus for transportation, particularly for the longer distances and then home in by cab. There is a downtown tour and an uptown tour and both leave from the same area in Times Square!

There was a threat of (and a forecast for) rain on Sunday
morning but it didn't happen - just a little mist. We were
ready for it though with the rain gear provided.
(A pleasant faced lady behind G.)

Taxis and more taxis! Sometimes a necessity!!

This guy on the left - I'd like to get to know him!

One of our tour guides - she loves downtown NYC!

Beautiful weather most of the time!

They say to ALWAYS remain seated. If you're standing up

when the bus goes under the signal light, you become
part of the signal light! Same for trees and signs!

2010 - Vacation - New York Architecture, from the top of a tour bus!

Great and impressive architecture everywhere! And the tour buses expose you to it quickly! Most all of these shots are from the tour bus - downtown, midtown, and uptown!

Vacation - 2010

Why does this picture deserve a post all by itself? The $2.39 per gallon helps but the real reason is the fact that this guy is pumping the gas into Beverly's car - and smiling while he's doing it. A full service station - keep your seat please! (Does anybody out there remember this? FYI - they ALL use to be this way!) It was on the way from NYC to Wilkes-Barre.

As with the Longwood Garden pictures I've uploaded the Biltmore photos to my Facebook page so more of the Master Gardeners can see them. Click here to see the other pictures.

Biltmore is an incredible place!

Is this what old people do -

I've tried to make a map of the Orange Trail in the past but it was mostly guess work. This morning we walked the trail (using walking sticks that I've made recently) and, using the Garmin, making notes of the coordinates of key spots along the trail. It's suppose to be accurate within 17 ft. so we'll see what comes of that. But I had one of those moments as we approached the Treehouse - other people are out in the world working at their jobs and we're out here doing this. Oh well! (I need to do some more vacation posts.)