Mattapoisett

We left the Hyatt and all the pleasant staff early this morning for our trip to Mattapoisett and to Stu's sisters home. The midtown Hyatt has a great location close to both the Empire State Building and Time Square. It is just a few blocks to either Central Station or Pen Station. The staff were both friendly and helpful. We walked Down to Pen Sation hopped a train to the airport to get a car. The adventure then began. Crossing the George Washington bridge took forever. The traffic makes our California freeways look empty.  It took us a little over 5 hours to drive to Mattapoisett

Mattapoisett ship builders

The old wharfs were tall ships were built in the 18th Century

 

Light House Mattapoisett

Phoenix Rail Trail   

Laurie Arriving, our hostest for the day    

We started our day with a walk on the Phoenix Rail Trail. It is a beautiful trail surrounded by lush greenery. On the trail we met Laurie Stu's nephew's wife . She is a quilter and took us back to her home to show us her hand made quilts. Three years ago she gave Stu a Jelly Roll, precut strips of fabric, that started Stu's and Joan's present day addiction to quilting. 

She was kind enough to show us around Fairhaven, the Unitarian Memorial Church and the Library 

In the evening we went up to Laura and Mikes for a lobster feed  Laura is Stu's neice 

 

Unitarian Memorial Church of Fairhaven

   

 Lobster Fiesta prior to graduation, Eli and Paul 

Hard work in the galley, preparation and clean up

New York City

 Memorial Day visit to One World Trade Center   

Building Plans for World Trade Complex   

Reflection waterfall with names of the fallen                    

Oculus                   

Oculus                                    

One World Trade Center shrouded                                    

One World Trade Center in its glory                         

Hudson River Walk

Hudson River Walk                                     

Hudson River Walk                          On our return trip from the 911 memorial to the hotel we walked the Hudson River Park walk. It is located along Manhattan's west side on the shore of the Hudson River. The park stretching 5 miles is the largest park created in Manhattan since Central Park. It is a combination of old piers that have been renovated into beautiful landscape and bike and walking trails. It stretches from Battery Park to 59 street. We followed this trail to 40th where we crossed over to walk the High Line. The High Line trains were established in 1934 to carry goods to and from the industrial area. It became redundant due to trucking. It was scheduled to be demolished. Residents  of the High Line area wanted to preserve it and that started its rescue for reuse as public open space.         

The High Line                                

Old trestles, they go through the buildings                            

Planting between the tracks                            

New buildings on either side of the tracks            After lunch and a rest, we walked up to 86 street to Stu's old neighborhood where he lived prior to his high school years. Having walked 15 miles, We returned to 42nd street by subway.            

544 E 86 Street                  

Carl Schurz Park were I played amongst the rocks

 

The East River Walk Way

 

Time Square at Night

Night Before

We will be getting up at 0330 to have a quick breakfast and then hoist the packs to our backs; and, walk the 25 minutes to the Bus Station to take the 0500 bus to United Airlines. We have always enjoyed the early morning walks. The Eastern horizon is just suggesting a new day. 

United always sends an email 24 hours before boarding. We await the email with great anticipation. If one is alert enough and reads the page carefully you can purchase an upgrade to business class, which we did.

Now, Joan doesn’t have to make sandwiches.

We will arrive in Newark by 1645 and be interned in the Mid Town Hyatt just a few streets from Penn station. 

Day after tomorrow we plan to walk downtown to the World Trade Center and pay our respects.

Change of plans. We settled in to our very comfortable seats 5A, 5B and were served two mimosas each. Then an announcement was made of an hour delay for plane maintenance and asked to deplane. We are now seated in the waiting area. We look forward to getting back on the plane for the seats are scrumptiously comfortable and we have already pick the movies to watch. Later

As you can guess arriving late ment there was no immediate gate available; thus, another wait. The air train shuttle took us to the NJtrain platform and another wait. Finally we registered into our hotel at 2015. We were spent. Hey, if you want to travel, be prepared for delays. Tomorrow NYC.