Where We Have Been - USA - Arrival & New York

We flew into Dallas and once we got to the location of the serviced apartment we had booked online we discovered it was not actually one that was meant to be rented and the chap at the front desk was unsuccessful in contacting the owner. So after having spent nearly an entire day travelling, just the flight itself is around 16.5 hours, we found ourselves on the street in downtown Dallas. Not a very auspicious introduction to the US.

After dragging our bags around the streets to bypass a large parade, the first of three we encountered on our travels, we finally found a hotel to accommodate us. After a quick pit stop and bag drop we went in search of a bar to have a drink, get our bearings and plan the next day. The bar we ended up in reminded us of the one in the old TV series Cheers in that we sat around a large bar. American Football was playing on a screen and the Dallas Cowboys were playing. We got chatting to a young British man who explained the rules to us and told us he regularly flew from the UK to Dallas to attend games. Now that’s a true supporter!

Our first experience of driving wasn’t to bad although we did end up getting diverted off the freeway where we watched in wonder as an American pickup towing a very large laden trailer came off the Freeway above us, bumped at speed across the grass verge between the Freeway and the road we were on, travelled down the road and then reversed the process to re-join the freeway after the incident we had been diverted to avoid.

After a night in Austin we returned to Dallas to fly to New York for a week for Carolyn’s birthday.

In New York we did everything including a carriage ride in Central Park in the snow, went to the Top of the Rock, saw the Statute of Liberty, visited the 9 11 Memorial, took a stroll on the High Line, visited the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History, went to Time Square which was underwhelming after experiencing the neons at night in Hong Kong, and much more.

We also visited Brooklyn during the day for a stroll around looking at the Brownstone buildings finished off with a walk in Prospect Park.

We dropped into the iconic New York Public Library and viewed some of its historical collections including the A Christmas Carol Manuscript, said hello to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends and stopped into the Rose Reading Room.

Carolyn got to visit Tiffany & Co’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue to select her birthday present.

We enjoyed the best of the Christmas displays in the city and also ventured out to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn for the extravagant light show put on across a number of residential blocks. 

David ticketed off a few bucket list items when we visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, an Aircraft Carrier museum on the USS Intrepid which houses an Oxcart (an A-12, the CIA’s sister ship and predecessor to the Air Forces legendary SR71 Blackbird), the Space Shuttle Enterprise and a Submarine, the USS Growler, unfortunately the Concorde was away being refurbished. 

From New York we flew across the US, via Chicago where we had already decided not to stop as it was winter and we had heard about flights getting cancelled due to the weather, to San Francisco.

Tip: We stayed in New Jersey at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Edgewater as we found accommodation costs in New York itself very high by comparison. This accommodation was very close to bus stops where we could easy transit to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. It was a very short stroll from there to access trains on the MTA at the 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station.

Highlight: There were many and it is hard to pick one over the other. The carriage ride in Central Park as the snow fell, while possibly a bit cliché, was pretty romantic. While not the highlight the trip to the Top of the Rock was pretty impressive. They get you off the elevator at the top and do a five-minute presentation on the history of the Rockefeller Center. It has an AV display on screens that at the end show the skyline, they then retract to be replaced with the same view of the actual skyline.

Memory: Being “conned” by the street hawkers selling boat tickets to view the Statute of Liberty. We wandered down to catch the Staten Island Ferry where we were approached by a chap touting for a tour company, “much better views”, “much better …”. Well we purchased tickets and were then led a km or so to a bus where we queued for probably the better part of an hour. Once on the bus we preceded in heavy traffic back through the city to a dock where we were told the boat was full and we would have to wait at least an hour for the next one. Needless to say we, and the dozens of other people caught out the same were less than impressed. The tour operator simply didn’t give a toss as they already had our money. After quite some time we ended up getting our ticket stamped so we could go back the next day.

Closing Thought: New York we’ll be back!