March 17th - St. Patrick's Day

It was a date!  It was a gathering!  It was an excuse to eat Corned Beef and drink Irish car bombs.

Our son, Alexander was in town, and we arranged to go sightseeing with Francine and France and included some time with Alex.

There had been an Irish festival in Balboa Park, but it was the previous weekend.  Still, the couple from Colorado hadn't been there, so we met them there outside the famous Air & Space museum. We took a tram to the plaza and walked around a little.  From there, we called a Uber for a ride downtown. Our driver, Michelle, was stunning.  Tall, in a great dress, and very polite as well as having a french accent and quite obviously a male.

GEOCACHING ; While waiting for the UBER, we picked up a quick find right there in the parking lot. "Balboa Park and Cache", GCQJMH

Once downtown, we walked down the street to The Field.  A local Irish Pub.  One of he oldest in San Diego with furnishings and such brought over from Ireland itself.

The Field

There was a 40 minute wait, so we walked a couple of doors down to The Blarney Stone Pub for a quick pint of Guinness.  By then the table was ready and we were seated.  Yes, the place was very crowded as you can imagine any place connected with Ireland on St. Patrick's Day would be.  We immediately ordered Irish Car Bombs from our nice Dubliner, Garrett.  For a meal, Laurie and I decided to split the mixed plate.  It was plenty of food for two.  It featured Shepard's pie, Guinness beef stew, corned beef and cabbage, and rasher and cheese.  For appetizers we had sausage rolls and Irish potato skins.  

When we were done, we walked down the street to a place called The Neighborhood.  There, we had great service from Jealous who had more tattoos than I did. We sampled some craft beers as our awesome dinner settled.  Then we caught another Uber back to our cars.

The Neighborhood

We drove up to Mira Mesa and visited the Green Flash brewery for a very informative tour.  We had samples and enjoyed the company of friends and family.

Green Flash Brewery

Finally, we said goodbye and left for home.  Just about the best St. Patrick's Day ever.

San Diego Air& Space Museum

Friends and Family

There was no way I could get to an area for a better shot, but  I loved how the Coronado Bridge just runs off into the fog

Plaza Del Mundo

Canyon area with walking trails.  Laurel street bridge in distance.

Balboa Park, at 1.875 sq. miles is larger than NYC's Central Park of  1.137 sq. miles.  The San Diego zoo uses 99 acres within the park.

Gaslamp District of Downtown San Diego

The Barney Stone Pub 

Down the street, the back of Petco Park, home of the SD Padres, showing the historic Western Metal Supply Company building which was the foundational corner of the ballpark.
http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/07/21/ballpark-quirks-san-diego-petco-park-western-metal-supply-company

The moon says hello

The Neighborhood

Jealous

Green Flash main brewery Check out the old Chevy panel truck

Our Tour guide, Mike

November 3rd - Second day of two. NYC.

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say
I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow
In New York City

Until you've seen this trash can dream come true
You stand at the edge while people run you through
And I thank the Lord
There's people out there like you
I thank the Lord there's people out there like you

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light

This Broadway's got
It's got a lot of songs to sing
If I knew the tunes I might join in

I'll go my way alone
Grow my own, my own seeds shall be sown, in New York City

Subway's no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown
And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say
I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow
In New York City

Subway's no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown
And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light
They know not if it's dark outside or light

Songwriters
JOHN, ELTON / TAUPIN, BERNIE

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisas_and_Mad_Hatters

(I think this song is more representative of Taupin and John's impression from their first trip to NYC than any reality especially today's, but it's a favorite song of mine and my all-time favorite Elton John tune)

Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez
Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there
- Songs like this never meant as much to me as when I found myself two years ago in Washington Square looking up at the surrounding hotels in SoHo.

Our second day this trip to NYC. Our foremost focus was to go up the Empire State Building.  I knew it would be great and I'd want to take pictures of everything.  Yeah, that's what happened.  There's a great introduction when you go in that tells the history and significance of the building as well as how it's become a model for modern energy efficiency.

When we came down, we stopped for a snack at the restaurant in the front of the building called the Heartland Brewery.  Sitting in the window, we got to watch the city go by and spend time just seeing the amazing architecture surrounding us.  From there, we caught the Uptown tour bus. We've never been up past the lowest part of Central Park, so it was all new to us.  Our guide was totally into the architecture and building styles.  Informative, I thought, but dry.  We passed the Dakota Hotel, residence and property of Yoko Ono among others.

Our tour took us up into Harlem, and past the historic Apollo Theater and was filled with the city's history.  It turned dark by the time we landed back downtown near Times Square.  We finished our day and headed home.

New Jersey across the Hudson

Concrete Jungle

The Chrysler Building

Tourists

Everybody always looks down.  Ape perch.

In the distance, The Highline Park

Manhattan - Business as usual.

Light and dark. Sunlight and shadows

Old and new

The entrance to the Dakota. Where it happened December 8, 1980

Who do you think is buried here?

The Apollo Theater - Harlem.

Street performer

A foine Irish lad.

ESB it ends where it began.  Goodnight New York.

November 2nd A couple of days in NYC.

We had to make sure while we were out here, that we got some time in New York.  There were a few specific things we wanted to make sure we did or saw.  In the two days we did some of them and put the rest back on the list for the next time we come out east.  In the morning, we drove to Morristown and caught the train to New York.


We bought into a tour package to take a couple of the different tours to see parts of the city we hadn't seen.  On that first day, we toured lower Manhattan, took the bay tour, and the Brooklyn tour. 


I found this trip different than last time, not only because we had a better idea of what we were doing, but because we are better plugged into trying the more local varieties of food. Of course, just driving around town on the busses there are so many great buildings and I love how old and new mix together.  Parts of the town are so designated as historic and no new buildings can be constructed there though you can still see newer buildings in the skyline.  We took the tour bus down to the Battery and boarded a boat to go from the dock in the lower end, around to the Hudson River that gave us a view of New Jersey and the after a short dock, up to the upper side before going back around to the East River and docking in Brooklyn.  We got off there and looked around a bit. We stopped into a small pizza restaurant where we had an incredible lunch that included two local Brooklyn brewed beers, and a charming conversation wit a couple of young tourists from the U.K.


From there, we boarded the Brooklyn tour bus that took us around Brooklyn, and past the Brooklyn Zoo before going across the Brooklyn Bridge, (the only bridge that allows foot traffic) back to Manhattan. We spent the evening walking around and found the only Scottish Pub in Manhattan.  What I found interesting, was that in the Irish and Scottish pubs, the customers are primarily from that region.  In other places, though it is an Irish theme, the customers are just the same ethnic mix as the surrounding town.


Since all the pictures people take in NYC look the same, I'm trying to post more unusual pictures or pictures of details not usually show.

The Flatiron Building

Little gargoyle

Originally, subway entrances like this one were in the middle of blocks.  Now they are on street corners.  This is one of the few originals left.

Underside of the elevated highway known as the FDR

The three east river bridges, BMW. Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg

Jersey from the Hudson

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan bridge and past it, the Williamsburg bridge

Manhattan from Brooklyn

Two locals, War Flag and Brooklyn Brewery

A cute young couple from the U.K. we met and had lunch with in a famous Brooklyn pizza parlour.

Civil war memorial

Inventive parking

Spider

Roosevelt Center

Times Square