My wife joined me for week's stay in New York City after the race weekend. Although she has been a great supporter of my work she does not usually come along on my trips to the races.
From our hotel in Hell's Kitchen we explored the city by foot and subway, as we did last year. There is so much to see and do and this year we were a little bit better prepared.
After moving into the city from New Jersey on Monday morning, we walked a short distance to the Hudson River and toured the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. It was a great afternoon. You cannot go wrong with boats, planes, and spacecraft.
The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid was launched in 1943. Well preserved, it houses a number of vintage military aircraft including a rare Lockheed A-12, predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. There is a Concorde supersonic airliner parked on the sidewalk next to the ship. An ungainly structure on the ship's aft end houses the space shuttle Enterprise. This is the first orbiter built. It was launched in 1977. The Enterprise was used for atmospheric flight tests and never traveled into outer space.
Over the next three days we visited two sites of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we saw Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, the United Nations building, and more.
On one morning we walked along High Line, an elevated railway that runs through the city as a rails-to-trails project. The path starts at Hudson Yards, a rail yard that is being redeveloped. At Hudson Yards we climbed Vessel, a piece of public art that looks like a huge vase and has stairs and landings up and down its sides. There were people all over the thing. That evening we saw the Broadway show "Dear Evan Hansen". This Tony-winning musical addresses issues of low self esteem and teen suicide through catchy tunes and energetic dance numbers.
The food adventure took us from fabulous pizza to an Ethiopian restaurant and Halal items from carts. We had nice sandwiches from a bakery at the Chelsea Market food court. Chelsea Market is housed in an old Nabisco factory building where Oreo cookies were first produced in 1912. We were slightly disappointed not to hit any Jewish delis on this trip. Jewish businesses were closed on Monday and Tuesday of our visit for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
Workers tore up West 47th Street, exposing the magic below.
A long subway ride took us ten miles north to Met Cloisters, a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art located in Washington Heights.
The Cloisters museum building looks like a very old church, but it was actually constructed in the 1930s specifically as a museum. The structure contains some ancient pieces of medieval architecture, such as doorways, that were brought from across the ocean, and the displays of art pieces date to the Middle Ages.
By nature of the times during which they were created, nearly all of the art works are religious themed. Peaceful images of Mother and Child are juxtaposed against gruesome scenes of violence. Beheadings and dismemberment, hangings, blindings, and of course crucifixion are all depicted in graphic detail in paintings, statues, and stained glass.
It was a wonderful time. I enjoy getting deep into a big city as much as I enjoy being deep in the woods on my dirt bike. On the trip back to Oregon we were already making plans for our next urban adventure.