Raincharm’s Weblog

Friday was our (Carl & I) last day of vacation.
The plane left early enough on Saturday to not really count.

The first part of the day was driving back to the city from Cooperstown.
We generally rested and ate in the afternoon. Some good greek food if I recall correctly.

Then it was off for a walk along the East River to an ultimate frisbee game.
Rey and Ashlan ran to the game, while Carl & I stolled.

This is looking North with Manhattan on the left, Brooklyn on the right. There is a small Coast Guard boat speeding down the river. When it got closer you could see the gun mounted on the bow. [This is the same type of boat we see on the Puget Sound.]

We saw more than one party boat plying the river.

Jogging on the path is apparently the thing to do. We also saw fisherman, bikers and strollers.

The Williamsburg Bridge is visible past Carl (waiting for me to take yet another picture).

Ashlan plays in two leagues. The Friday night league is the “NYC Social League.” The teams are formed rather randomly from those that sign up, and you are expected to go out together after the game. We did cramp Ashlan’s style a bit on this Friday night, since she did not want to either dessert us or take us along.

Rey played as well, an unexpected treat. He made an impact, scoring a goal(?), and passing to help set up a few others. [Ashlan played well too, but they expected it of her. Rey was an unknown.] I did take some action photos, but the field lights were the portable work-light variety. They provided a bright light, basically horizontal to the ground, and directly into the eye of the camera. Not the best for photographs.

We walked back along the river again and got this view of the Williamsburg Bridge again, this time with lights.

The Empire State Building on the left. The vertical lights near the top are the same that I took a picture of looking up from the 86th floor a few days earlier.

Looking North again, with the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge connecting the boroughs.

It was finally time to head home (away from home) for final packing and setting the alarm to leave.

Our great New York vacation also took us out of The City.

Upstate New York.
The Catskills. From Wishbone, although perhaps not quite correctly, “I don’t know why they call it the Catskills, cats don’t have skills.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame!

The drive up to Cooperstown took about 3-1/2 hours. I am still not quite sure what the mileage was from start to end.
This side trip involved renting a car.
This meant actually driving said car in New York City, on the way out of town on Thursday, and then back in on Friday. We survived, without a ding or dent. [On our way out of town on Saturday AM, our cabbie said traffic on Friday was the worst he had seen in a long time.]

Once we got out of New York City, and then through much of the New Jersey segment, we had a very scenic trip. I had not researched this part of our trip, or even looked at a map. And since the rental car office near Ashlan’s apartment did not have any maps, we were dependent upon our smartphone information.

I believe GoogleMaps was the basis or our directions.
There may have been a route with fewer road changes, but the route provided was fun to drive.
2-lane roads, winding through the countryside. (Very little traffic once we hit these sections.)
Beautiful fall colors. (No pictures. I was driving.)

We finally reached Cooperstown about 1:30 PM. Saw our motel on the drive into town, but continued on to the Hall of Fame Museum. The hours were 9-5, so we did not have a lot of time to waste.

Carl had somehow found out that if you had ticket stubs from a major league game on “Induction Day” (July 22nd) you could get free admission to the museum. As luck would have it, we were at a Detroit Tiger’s game on that day (in Detroit), and had the ticket stubs in hand. I think I had tried to recycle these ticket stubs more than once, but Carl stood firm on saving the tokens of the game.

First stop – the Ron Santo exhibit. Santo was one of the inductees for 2012, so he was displayed outside as well as in.

A fond memory for our family is listening to Ron Santo on the radio as an announcer for the Cubs. I don’t remember who he partnered with, but they were providing the play by play. Much of Santo’s color consisted of, “Ohhhhhh”, or “Arghhhhh”, or a very excited explanation for a play that went the Cubs way.

The Gallery was our first stop. The plaques are displayed in order of induction year. An example of how they are mounted, and then some individual favorites.

For the close-ups – Santo first.

Roberto (don’t call me Bob) Clemente Walker

Gaylord Perry – the first Mariner player in the Hall of Fame.

Stan Musial – for our St. Louis connections.

Bill Veeck (Veeck, as in Wreck). On owner with a gift for showmanship.

Veeck is the man who brought in Eddie Gaedel, at 3’7″ the shortest player in the game. At least for one at-bat. He was walked, and then pulled for a pinch-runner.

Carl Hubbell. Note the Carl H. connection.
Funny story with this one. Carl wore a uniform one year that said “Carl H.” on his back.
One of his teammates took to calling him “Hubbell.” Several years later Carl ran into this teammate again. He said he had been trying to look up Carl’s phone number in the phone book, and why was he not listed. Carl asked him what he was looking under. When he said, “Hubbell.” Carl said, “My name is HARMS.”

The announcer’s are in a different wing. The Mariner’s past announcer, Dave Niehause, was inducted by winning the Ford Frick award a few years ago. There was really only a small amount of information on display for any of the announcers.

We sat through a short film on baseball history. The film was shown in a grandstand style theatre, with a backdrop of old Comisky Park.

I was intrigued by this display of old baseballs. There are even more that do not show up in the picture, I am sure they are kept dark to keep the printing on the balls from fading.

A close-up of my favorite. (Carl and his friends have been complaining for years about the practice of stamping “Practice” on the sweet spot of balls often used for batting practice. The sweet spot is where you want to get an autograph, if that is your thing.) Apparently this is not a new practice.

From the smallest (Eddie Gaedel at 3’7″) to the tallest (Jon Rauch at 6’11”). I still think Randy Johnson (6’10”) stands taller.

The Museum does try to keep up with recent events. Here is Felix Hernandez’s uniform from his Perfect Game on August 15th. The story is that his uniform almost did not make it to the Hall of Fame, as the Mariners had to order a second to replace this one, and get it to the team before his next start. [Each player has two uniforms, but they are different materials, and Felix only likes the heavier material.]

There was a small Baseball in Art collection. Many different art styles. Even a Mariner, with a photograph of Ichiro. Actually a photograph of a plastic Ichiro figurine, with the exposure done so that it was hard to tell it was not the real person. I particularly liked the Leroy Nieman print, although my family did not share my opinion.

An outdoor sculpture of some little leaguers.

Pitcher to Catcher.

As it turned out, the approximately 3 hours we had to spend, was just the right amount of time for the museum. They have much more information than is on display (would they be considered hoarders?), and you are allowed to do research in their library. But that was not our plan, or task, so we left to find some dinner.

Being the off-season, the stores on main street had turned into pumpkins by the time dinner was over.
Carl & I did window-shop in the dark. It was fun. The stores seemed vaguely familiar to those in Sault Ste. Marie, if you substitute balls and bats for freighters and lighthouses.

A t-shirt I found humorous. [It might not make sense if you don’t know the Most Interesting Man in the World commercial for Dos Equis beer.]

We did stop by briefly in the morning for a few postcards, coffee and some pastries, before hitting the road back to the big City. The trip back was similar to the trip up, except that it rained for a good portion of the drive. We have been fortunate on our trip to generally be inside when the rain was falling, whether it was a building or a car.

Hall of Fame at Night

Wednesday was our most touristy day in NYC.
It really did go from lows to highs.
Starting at the 9-11 Memorial, with the fountains going deep into the ground.
Ending at the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building.

When Wednesday started depends on your point of view.

Rey & Carl actually started Wednesday in Baltimore.
Their first hours were on a bus, dozing.
They arrived back at Ashlan’s apartment just before 6 AM.

Ashlan’s day started with letting them in.

Everybody’s morning continued with a bit more slumber, until timed events beckoned.

Our first stop of the day was the 9/11 Memorial.

Entering the site everyone is subjected to airline type security, minus the full body scan. A group of secret service folks entered (from a separate gate) about the same time as we did. This show of force did not seem to attract undo attention from the crowd. Perhaps this is normal for New York, especially when the UN is in session.

The South Pool – try to use the people for scale.

The North Pool

I found the water intriguing. (But I always have.) The fine edge at the top seemed indicative of I.M. Pei’s windows design for the World Trade Center.

The sheer number of the names can give one pause.

There is one tree known as the Survivor Tree. I am not sure it is in its original location, but is meaningful none-the-less.

The 9-11 Museum – not open just yet.

One of the new towers under construction.

After we left the memorial, we took a walk along the waterfront. I believe this is the Hudson River. Lots of boats, but no airplanes.

The day was cloudy, but we did manage to skip the rain showers.

We had lunch at the Chipotle next to Battery Park.
The line was long, but met Ashlan’s prediction of 10 minutes until we had food in our hands. (Yes this is chain food, but it was fast – and basically healthy, and filling.) Carl wondered if the Seattle version of this restaurant would match them for speed. We actually dined in Battery Park. With the pigeons.

Next stop was the ferry, first stop – the Statue of Liberty.

I just found the different views of buildings interesting, throughout this trip.

Manhattan.

The boat was fairly crowded. The trip started with most people seated, until the statue came into view.

Statue herself.

The last time I was at the Statue of Liberty was in 1964.
I am sure we went to the lookout, and I seem to remember climbing up to the torch.
Spiral staircase? Can I get a confirmation on this 48-year old memory please.

The statue itself was closed to the public, so after a walk around the island we moved back to the ferry.

Next stop – Ellis  Island.
I do not remember Ellis Island from 1964, so perhaps we did not make this stop.

We spent considerably more time here, enjoying the exhibits.

Back to Battery Park, and home for a brief breather and refresher.
We had Avocado Pizza for dinner. It was delicious (which I spelled delishis initially), but also a bit deadly.

The evening’s primary entertainment – a show on Broadway.
We saw Wicked, at the Gershwin Theater.

It was fabulous.
At the end I really felt like I had checked something off of my bucket list. Which is funny, because I don’t have a bucket list.

We set out on foot after the show. New York’s finest Mounted Police at Times Square.

Next up was the Empire State Building.

Apparently this is a popular stop for 11 PM on a Wednesday.
The line for the elevator from floor 80 to 86 was so long, they said those that wanted to take the stairs instead, could. So we did.

Looking up from the 86th floor observation deck.

The leftmost blue spire is where the New Year’s Ball drop is done.

Another view from the 86th floor, with the Chrysler Building.

Last 86th floor picture.

We splurged and bought tickets to both the 86th floor and 102nd floor (1 floor from the top). The 102nd views were, well, higher.

Another view from 102.

And one more.

My attempt to get both the family and the city lights.

The attendant took a picture of the whole family together, using his handy light source, which helped with the interior/exterior contrast. (I felt like I was at the optometrist.)

Finally home, or rather Ashlan’s apartment. On the Q to the L.