First fully day in New York started with a sleep in after our rather late night. I actually had problems getting to sleep but managed to get a reasonable nights kip and woke in time to work out we needed to get ready for our welcome breakfast with marathon tours at the Hard Rock Cafe. Yvonne was not keen to rise but we got there with 5 minutes to spare, nicely ushered to the "work" elevator that got us to the basement events room. The marathon tours group consisted of about 40 people, both athletes and supporters. I don't think everybody made the breakfast, the late arrival of our flight from Auckland might have put a few people off. After this event we headed back to the hotel and organise the rest of the day. Harry had left New York City the night before, the city is not very car friendly. We decided it was best that Harry head out to where my cousin Karen's son lived with his family at the northern end of the Jersey Shore. Harry meet the cousins and then organised parking and eventually headed back to Manhattan on a ferry. We took off and had a look around mid town for a bakery that was recommended. We ended up at a different bakery that had seating and struck up a conversation with a couple from Philadelphia. Yvonne talked about her wish to buy her grandson a Philadelphia Eagles NFL shirt, his fathers favourite team.
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| New York buses were great!! |
Harry communicated his movements and ferry times and we planned to meet at a Lower East Side pizza restaurant. The Lower East Side is some distance from Mid Town Manhattan, definitely not walking distance. I therefore decided we should take the bus. This is where google maps was brilliant. We put our destination in and choose our mode of transport as bus and bing up came the two buses we needed to catch. The first bus took us straight east and took us to 2nd Avenue. This location ended up being very close to the Queensborough bridge where the marathon route crosses over to Manhattan the first time. This was an ideal opportunity to show Yvonne this iconic location on the marathon route, a very popular place to view athletes. It is here that athletes start the long haul up 1st Avenue, 5,400 metres. The interesting part of this location for wheelchair athletes is the sharp U turn you need to make after racing off the bridge at breakneck speed. Danger for wheelchair racers in NYC marathon is signalled by haybales. The presence of haybales on the course must mystify the runners!! This stop also gave us a chance to marvel at the Queensborough Bridge, now the grand old age of 116 years. |
| Under Queensboro Bridge where athletes start the haul up 1st Avenue |
We headed back to 2nd Avenue and found our next bus that would take us to the Lower East Side. Between these two buses and along the way we got to see plenty of young enthusiastic trick and treaters all dressed up and ready to scare you. Halloween is very popular with Americans. We finally get to our destination and we have plenty of time before Harry is due to arrive so we have a look around. Lower East Side is nothing like Time Square or Midtown. There are no high risers and there are no tourists, apart from us. The part of this district we ended up in was Chinatown. Lots of non-English being spoken and chinese food being sold. There are green areas but the housing is dense with the classic metal fire escapes running down the sides of buildings. We get to the restaurant, Scar Pizza as recommended by Harry's friend from Montreal, and it is like a student hang out. We order drinks, Harry arrives and we enjoy some pretty good pizza. We eventually take a bus back to midtown and head back to the hotel to collapse and go to sleep.
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