From there, we headed to the green and sat on a park bench for a bit, when thirst prompted us to wander over to the main drag in town. We settled on a frozen fruit smoothie while sitting at a patio table. It was a perfect morning. The weather was cooperative, and the scenery was beautiful. When it was time to head out, Greg reappeared and drove us for a moment to his house to say hello to Jackie. They’ve got a very old, very sick dog, and neither of them is comfortable leaving the poor old guy unattended. Nevertheless, Greg, Jackie and Cas went to school together, so I had to get this photo:
The Cape Air flight from the Lebanon Municipal airport to White Plains Westchester County airport was the very most bumpy flight I had ever been on. I was actually starting to feel a little unwell, and that’s so rare that I only remember that feeling on one other vessel before in my life. I figured out the trick that day- it was to look at a spot outdoors, far away and breathe slowly. Hey, you have to figure out what works for you, right? There were two women on the row in front of me, and I could see both of them were having a tough time. One was gripping the edges of her seat very hard while the other one was hanging on to the side of the window. I suspect that I wasn’t the only one having a less-than-optimal flight. Still, it was nobody’s fault. We had lots of clouds to fly through, and that made the airplane into a roller coaster. We landed five minutes ahead of schedule, and everyone was pretty happy to be back on the ground.
Cape Air had a complimentary shuttle that took us from the far flung airport in White Plains to Penn Station in the city. That was a bumpy ride, too, but really, our threshold for bumpy was a little skewed at that point. From Penn Station, we picked up a pair of seven day MTA metro cards. Unlimited subway and bus rides- seems like it would be totally worth $33. We already took one ride from there to our hotel, so it’s a good start.
Our hotel is in Manhattan, steps away from Times Square, and it’s incredibly small. This city is full of places that make good use of space, I’m guessing. The end of the room that faces the street is all window with a sheer roll down shade and an opaque one, both of which are controllable by the iPad that came with the room. It’s really bizarre. The thing that is most striking, though, is that the mattress is poked into that space. You can only approach the bed from one side- the way they’ve got it set up, that would be the right side. It’s a big king mattress, though, so Cas and I have decided to put the pillows on the left side (heads toward the window) so neither of us has to disrupt the other too much if we need to get out. It’s kind of funny. There’s a measurement app on the iPhone, and it told me the room width is eight feet. The bathroom is strange, as well. The shower and toilet are in sort of a capsule. The sink is outside that capsule, where you walk by on the way from the door to the bed. The whole thing is highly efficient, and kind of bizarre, coming from Texas. I would need more space than this to put my living room furniture in here and make it usable.
Nevertheless, we’ve got a bed and the place looks clean. Not a whole lot more we could have asked for. We did go for a walk that took us to Times Square for the absolutely necessary tourist photos. After that, we walked until we located a spot for dinner. We went to a dim sum place and had the very best dumplings I can remember eating. They were either superior to all other dumplings, or I was really hungry. I’m willing to guess it was both.
We headed back to the hotel by way of a decent neighborhood bar where the music was slightly too loud, made plans to meet up with Scotty, the last piece of Cas’ college-buddy-puzzle on this trip and made it back to the tiny room. We have an early appointment with a tall, French lady tomorrow morning. She’s been on Ellis Island since 1886. It looks like we may get a little rain on our way to the Statue of Liberty, but honestly, after Boston, we’re pretty acclimated to that sort of thing. Anyhow, it’s all good. We made it here, like I said, so I suspect we can make it just about anywhere.
Here are our photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6
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