Category: New York & The East Coast

Rosie has always fancied the romance of the East Coast in the fall.  The beautiful colour of the autumn leaves, the stateliness of the area first settled, discovered and fought over to become the cradle of the United States and all it stands for….Rosie will need to read up alot on her history and cannot wait.  It took Rosie awhile to plan the journey, it took The Operator just as long to pick the car…..

We only had a couple of hours in SF before hitting the hay and rising early to catch a flight to New York, we had done all the sightseeing we wanted to do last visit so we planned on doing abit of shopping and revisiting some of our favourite bars and restaurants from the last trip.

We were driving into Manhattan at 6.45 pm, the sun was setting and the traffic running smoothly, over all 4 lanes of traffic each way.  New Yorkers love their horns and are very forceful using them if a fellow road user cuts you up or hesitates too long.  The city skyline from the taxi was beautiful, you could pick out uptown and downtown and the buildings soared up into and illuminated the sky  Through the midtown tunnel we entered the canyons of the city, the buildings soar around you and the people immediately swell around you.

Rosie got lost, She still blames it on the million people jostling all around her on the footpath. Rosie took the wrong turning, didnt understand how the streets worked and 20 mins later was gonna stand there and cry like a lost kid when she was rescued by her darling Operator.

 New York New York what a wonderful town, the Bronx is up and the Battery is down’.

Under the vaulted ambiently lit ceiling we finished off our lunch with a dozen local Blue Point Oysters….believe me there are more than a ‘dozen’ types of oyster available here.  It was a great place to have lunch…..did Rosie say lunch….well it was more like 3easies……we wandered back to the hotel through the daytime crazyness of Times Square 

From the middle of this 843 acre park it seems like you are in the middle of nowhere, no cityscape can be seen at all.  Then you get windows like this one that introduce the skyline back into your horizon and you realise how lucky New Yorkers are to have this open green space.  This is a precious place to city dwellers, all of you 20 million park users per year….crazy eh.

Did you know that there is a four year waiting list in the UK to go see Jeremy Kyle….they were giving these puppies away here…..so, we went through instructions from the floor manager of when to stand up and cheer and clap, watch his signals to sit down, don’t watch the camera if it swivels in front of you as they get audience reactions to what is going on….it was getting exciting! 

Lets just say, there are NO bad seats in Yankee Stadium!  This is the view from Section 213 Row 22 seats 17 and 18 – we were right on the isle, perfect for Rosie and her frequent toilet breaks, the leg, elbow and but room on the seats were good too.  The photo looks quite faraway, but believe me we were close to the action and could see every move.  This photo was taken about 30 mins before the game, not too may taking their seats yet…..there was so much to see and do behind us on the concourse…..

It was quite surreal in some places, walking along a track that is overgrown and weedy yet you can still see the city highrises around you gives the air of an end of days scenario…..where you are the last survivor in an empty silent city that is being taken back by nature.

Sandwich is the Capes oldest town, established in 1637, its small historic centre wraps itself around the picturesque ‘Swan Pond’ Rosie certainly didnt see any swans, but, there were plenty of huge geese basking in the sun and Rosie stepped in plenty of goose shit picking her way across the minefield of grass.

There is a bylaw for sameness in this area, all of the houses whether they be new or old must be in the Cod style and of a limited colour palette, the letter boxes must be the same and mounted on the same style of post, no one is out of the ordinary or different here.  There is alot of retirees and middle aged people living here and believe me, they have the ‘Cod’ look too. Longish, tucked behind the ear grey hair is in vogue with pearls and twin sets accompanying.  They were all middle – high class white Americans here, not a negro in site!

Union Street is the oldest commercial row of shops in town, get this ‘it was at the Oyster House est in 1826 (to the left) that a man for the first time used a piece of wood as a toothpick’….what the….I really thought the caveman would have a first on this one….come on Boston, you cant be the first at everything!  Apparently this was JFKs favourite restaurant when he was in Boston…. 

Isnt this a beauty picture, see what a little liquid sunshine does, keeps the people away.  Take away the yellow PVC wet weather gear and you have stepped back in time.  This is a snapshot of Salem Harbour with a replica of the chebacco schooner Fame that was originally a fishing vessel until drafted as a privateer in the war of 1812.   Now it gives tours around the harbour.

It was Saturday morning, driving through the small towns were hand written signs pointing to church carparks advertising their ‘Flea Market’, on the roadsides tables were set up displaying wares and signs red ‘Yard Sale’….Rosie was in second had paradise watching all these beautiful potential treasures flash past.  Then we arrived in Woodstock, Oh yes, the original summer of loving Woodstock.  They had a flea market set up in front of the church and were raising money for something or another, Rosies not sure, she was already scoping the tables.

The Operator was chaffing at the bit, we had been driving around the back roads of Bird in Hand and Intercourse for awhile and had not seen one Amish!  There was plenty of evidence of their existence, the sides of the road had horse shit all over them!  Also around the homesteads we had seen plenty of untethered buggies parked in the front yard just like you would a car,  horses roamed out in the field.

The Colonial architecture, cobblestones flickering gaslights and brick and wooden row houses are worthy of Dickens and the effect isnt artificial, the city has actually preserved its heritage rather than re created its heritage.  Everything is wonky and cables and trunking weave down the front of buildings.  

Washington was a purpose designed city built by freemasons…everything has a meaning and purpose in their ‘religion’.  It truely is a Dan Brown novel alright and gets abit deep and meaningful for Rosie.  So Rosie will welcome you to the National Mall, described as ‘The Nations Backyard’. 

From Arlington we drove to Mount Vernon which was the home of George Washington and his good wife Martha, they lived on the property for 40 years until his death in 1799.  Washington was a  farmer, politician, leader of the armies and First President of the United States, he was well aware he was setting a precedent for future generations of leaders and strove to lay a good foundation of leadership.  

The wig maker was the most amusing and interesting occupant of Williamsburg!  She made and maintained all of the hairpieces for the  local dignitaries.  No one of any standing had their own hair, it was all cut off and the ladies wore mob caps around the house when in private and had at least 4 wigs for differing social occasions.