New York City, NY in August 2007

Seems like forever since I last traveled and as ironic as this trip to Manhattan was over the course of the past few days, it was still enough for me to feel like I got away from the mundane life I've been living, or rather working my ass off...

The occasion appropriatately enough was my buddy visiting from Albaquerque, New Mexico. I've always offered folks a tour of NYC on the forums and finally someone took me up on that offer I guess, but we certainly had a blast.

First order of business was of course to get his Charger SRT8 out of the trailer and line it up with the New York City skyline for some fantastic early evening shots. One of my favorite spots along the Hudson River is actually on the Jersey side, well there are two of them separated by about a thousand foot cliff drop. So there we were at the new Port Imperial Ferry terminal when the things didn't go as planned. Luckily Arthur's Landing Restaurant was in the same parking lot so we simply brushed the problems off and had a relaxing dinner in an outdoor patio right on the water overlooking midtown Manhattan.


The following day I was up bright and early on my way, fighting rush hour traffic of course, to the Holiday Inn in Fort Lee to take my friends on the tour of the big island of Manhattan. First order of business was to hit Fifth Avenue for some upscale shopping. I took the scenic route of course following Park Avenue from its start on the Harlem River Drive all the way down through the Met Life building. It was neat to show my buddy the different neighborhoods of NY, starting in Harlem following the side of the aboveground Subway all the way until it goes down under and changing the outlook of the city from the Projects into some of the most expensive real estate in the entire boro. Right as we were about to go through the Met Life building and drive over 42nd street we saw a new NYPD Charger cross the street in front of us, for a Mopar fan my friend was impressed.


After a lengthy walk down Fifth Ave and a quick stop at Tiffany and Co, we headed down to the Empire State building via Times Square and past Radio City Music Hall. My friends ran up while I circled around in my Explorer and after a short wait we were back on the road. My friends were very impressed with the views from the observation deck high atop the Empire State building. I still have to do it one day... Its amazing how much us locals take for granted, I think I find it easier to take a trip to Los Angeles than going to New York City right under my nose.


The next order of business was very important, it was dinner time and my Italian amigo had only one place in mind Little Italy! So we headed downtown and found our way on to Mulbery Street. The cobble stone streets were a nice authentic reminder of the place we got to although the pot holes and uneven pavement took us on a rollercoaster in the freaking capital city of the world, I think Mayor Bloomberg should spend a lot more money on road construction because that was pathetic.


After a short walk in the center of Little Italy we grabbed a table at Da Nico Ristorante. The food was fantastic although as usual it took some time before the main courses found their way to the table. But it was great to see some fresh off the boat weighters working the tables with a very distinct and authentic Italian accent. Very impressive, considering since I haven't dinned in Little Italy (even though I've driven through there about a dozen times in the past few years) since I was on a high school field trip back in 1996.


As day turned into night the last stop on our tour was to hit the World Trade Center site so my friend can pay his respects. Surely no trip to the WTC would be complete without a quick detour through the Financial District and I found my way through parts of Wall Street to show them a glimpse of the Exchange building which was blocked off to traffic, and a nice view of the ass of the Bull as we went back towards Battery Park for a quick glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in the distance. We spend some time at the World Trade Center and headed back to Jersey via the Lincoln Tunnel.


Anybody from this area would surely know that taking the George Washington Bridge would be the one and only way to reach Fort Lee, but I had another trick up my sleave. Immediately after coming out of the tunnel, I showed my friend the views of the opening scenes of the Sopranos and quickly turned down onto JFK Blvd to show them my other favorite spot overlooking NYC skyline, the Hamilton park atop the cliffs in Weehawken. The views were breathtaking as cheesy as it sounds, its true. We snapped some shots, enjoyed the views and headed back to Paramus for a quick stop at a local Dodge dealer where we just had to take a peak under the hood of a Top Banana Yellow Daytona Charger for informational purposes obviously...


The following day my buddy followed my instructions to find his way to the Liberty State Park in Jersey City for a ferry to the Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I wanted to join him so bad but since I've taken so many vacations for travel before I had to cover other coworker's days off as she traveled to Mid America, go figure! Thats another place that I wish I would go to more often as I was on the Statue of Liberty last in 1996 on another high school trip. Although I am definitely one of the few civilians who can brag to have driven a vehicle onto the Ellis Island! Yep, its true, while the island is an island, obviously... there is an old military bridge that US Park Police use to get to the island where they have the command center for this National Monument.


Anyway, I should just follow my own preaching on the company web site and become a tourist for a day and explore the magnificent city right under my nose here instead of going thousands and thousands of miles away to Miami, Chicago or Las Vegas... although stay tuned there will be seven new flight segments coming up in the next two months.


Links:

NYC Visit
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Little Italy
Chinatown
World Trade Center
Port Imperial Ferry
Arthur's Landing