CLASSIC TRIP - New York 1999, Part 1

UPDATE: 5-2-11, I had other plans for articles this week, but they'll keep.  It seems like a good week to celebrate the great city of New York instead.

Let's go back to 1999 to our first trip to the Big Apple.  Standard disclaimer, prices, events, and other items are accurate for 1999-things have changed...

In our travels around the country, one place intimidated me...New York. I heard all the horror stories about the crime, the filth, rude people, crowds, traffic, etc. My old boss (from Brooklyn) told me about how he got a flat tire and while he was changing it, someone started to steal the rear tire. You see movies like Taxi Driver and Mean Streets and have to wonder.

My son, on the other hand, had no such emotional baggage. He always wanted to see this city. He wanted to go up to the top of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and perhaps most of all to ride the Cyclone in Coney Island.

A couple of years ago, we decided to take a fall trip to the northeast corner of the country to see the fall colors. Since New York was only a few hours to the south, we decided to spend a couple of days there just to see what it was like, give Tim his time there, and continue on our way.

The short story? My illusions of the city were shattered. None of my preconceptions held any water at all. We loved it and made it a point to come back in the spring for a longer trip. Now the long story...

Our flight into Manchester, New Hampshire arrived two hours late. A rather long drive finally deposits us at the Susse Grand Chalet in Stamford, Connecticut at four o’clock in the morning. Dead tired, we happily climb into bed.

(to see what I think of Susse Chalet, my review is at http://www.epinions.com/content_42139750020 )

We wake up in time to catch an 11:00 Metro North train into Grand Central Station. 35 minutes later, we exit into Grand Central’s beautiful lobby. Being our first time in New York, we can’t help ourselves and quicky run out the door for our first glimpse of Manhattan’s famous skyline. A sense of vertigo envelops us...we have no idea where we are...and we see the familiar sight of the Chrysler building and the Met Life building.

It’s time to head back in to continue on our way to Brooklyn and Coney Island. We set ourselves up for quite a challenge. The MTA’s web site says that 33 of the city’s subway stations are accessible. Armed with our $4 fun passes (a one day pass that gives you unlimited rides on the city’s buses and subways), we feel that nothing can stand in our way.

Plotting this out on the excellent, free subway map we got at the information booth, we see that the B line (which goes to Coney Island) stops at the Lexington Ave. station near Central Park and also has an access symbol on it. The 4�5�6 lines go from Grand Central to the Lexington Ave. station. It’s decided to take the 4 up to Lexington and then switch over to the B.

Two things come up wrong with this plan. First is almost immediate and has to do with looking at our map a little closer. Although the Lexington Ave. station is accessible for the B line, the 4�5�6 line part of the station isn’t. Whoops. We cheat a little and take the escalator up to the B line station.

Once on the B train, problem number two crops up, although compared to the first problem is relatively minor. The B train turns out to be a local, stopping at every station along the way. It will take forever to reach Coney Island. On the other hand, we occasionally see a D train, the Coney Island express, stopping across the platform from us. Quickly, we decide to transfer at the West 4th Street station and continue on.

Eventually, we get to Coney after a scenic ride through Brooklyn (the D line goes elevated here). Brooklyn looks a lot like East L.A. The Coney Island station was built in 1919 and is certainly showing its age. It’s dark, dank, even a bit scary looking inside. But it has that very welcome accessory...an elevator.

We emerge onto the corner of Stillwell and Surf, directly across from our lunch destination, Nathan’s. Nathan’s has been here for eons selling their world famous hot dogs. We grab a few and are not disappointed. They are very tasty. This Nathan’s is also very popular for its seafood. Some of the locals there swore by the fried clams. This bit of legendary New York cuisine sets us back only $10 for the three of us.

Unfortunately, Coney Island’s famous amusement parks are closed for the season. Tim & I were hoping for a ride on Cyclone, revered as one of the world’s top coasters. No ride today, only pictures.

Time to take the D back to Manhattan to the Herald Square station, which is accessible (but the elevators are very hard to find and no one there seems to know where they are). A short walk over to Grand Central and we hop back on the 4 train southbound to the Brooklyn Bridge. This time access works as planned and the elevator deposits us directly across from the walkway over the bridge. Here we get an unforgettable walk with great views over this old, historic span.

The bridge is clothed in deepening darkness. It’s to return to Grand Central and catch a Connecticut bound train home.

Scroll down below for Part 2...
 
-Darryl
Copyright 1999 - Darryl Musick

CLASSIC TRIP - New York 1999, Part 2

Back in 1999, we visited New York for the first time.  The first day, we took the subway to Coney Island.  Now, we head back to see some sights in Manhattan.  Back in the WayBack Machine we go...

Today is our Manhattan day. Maybe we shoulda done it yesterday too, but we just had to see Coney Island.


We retrace our steps to the Brooklyn Bridge station and start walking towards the Battery. It’s Columbus Day and we stumble onto a sidewalk festival around Bowling Green Park. The three of us eat a lot of strange and colorful food and wash it down with some beer and soda.

Arriving at Battery Park, we head over to the water to see the Statue of Liberty. It’s amazingly small. Much smaller than we were prepared for, but still, it’s one of those things you want to see. It reminds me of how everybody has to see Hollywood when they get to my hometown, only to be amazed at how dirty, depressing, and disgusting it is. At least the statue is just small...none of the other bad things can be said of it.

The wait for the ferry is several hours. We already know that the statue itself is not accessible, so we content ourselves by gazing at it from the shore. We do want to get a closer look, however, and NYC’s public transit system again comes to the rescue.

The big yellow boats of the Staten Island Ferry will take you right by Liberty Island on a scenic, free, and accessible cruise over the bay. Even close up, the statue still looks small. The view of Manhattan from the fantail is what postcards are made of though.

Back at the Battery, we walk a few blocks up to the World Trade Center. New York’s tallest buildings are actually a big complex of buildings atop a mall and a sprawling subway station. I am shocked and deeply saddened, today, that a few lunatics could erase it off of the landscape.

The map here shows several lines are accessible. The station master told us only the E line was. Lacking any other obvious signs of access, we boarded the E line to Penn Station, which our map said was accessible.

Penn Station, at least on the E line, turned out to have stairs...no elevator. Doing it over, we would take the E a little bit farther to the Port Authority station where there is an elevator. We work Tim up the stairs in relays with him and his chair and proceed down 34th Street to our next destination, the Empire State Building.

Along the way, hungry for lunch, we decide to try some New York pizza. We find a little hole-in-the-wall called Spinelli’s and have a few slices. Yes, New York pizza is delicious and, yes, you need to fold it to eat it right.

We find the usual handicapped entrance to the Empire State Building on 34th is closed but a maintenance worker quickly directs us around the corner to the entrance on 5th Ave. Although not signed as such, an accessible entrance does indeed reside there between two revolving doors.

A guard directs us to an elevator to go to the basement where the ticket counter is. Like Disneyland, you skip the line here if you are disabled and go right up to the counter to purchase tickets for the observation deck. Adults are $6, kids $3, and handicapped are comped.

Next, an ear popping ride up to the 80th floor followed by a another quick ride to the 86th floor deck. An additional elevator goes up to the 102nd floor but was closed this day. The deck we were on is the one you see in “Sleepless in Seattle”.

The view from here is amazing. On a clear day, as ours was, 50 mile views are possible. Even a jaded kid like Tim was impressed by it. After the obligatory visit to the gift shop for miniature versions of the building, we head uptown (by foot) towards Central Park.

Along the way, we swung through Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and the Today set and then up 5th Avenue by Tiffany’s to the park.

We just did a quick loop through the southern end by Tavern on the Green and Wollman Rink to see what it was like. As it was getting dark, we headed south to Times Square.

Here the lights knock our socks off and the energy of the place seeps in. The the vibrancy of New York is on full display. We also find the only clean public restrooms we saw in the city at the Times Square Starbucks.

We’re only there for the facilities and end up having some drinks, music, and a marvelous time at the accessible Times Square Brewery.

At the end of the evening, it’s a short walk east to Grand Central Station for our train home.

Back in 2011 - This was, of course, only our first trip to New York.  After having had a taste, we'd return again and again.  Those reports will be coming up on future episodes.  

-Darryl

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachussetts

Five days after the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, Fenway Park opened up just south of downtown Boston.  100 years later (as of this week), with a few modifications, the park is still going strong.  It’s the oldest stadium in Major League baseball.

Think of all the history this place has seen.  Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk willing his shot to stay fair, the ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs, the curse of the Bambino and the 86 year World Series drought, Carl Yastrzemski, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling’s bloody sock, and finally…two world championships in the 2000’s.

The current lineup includes such names as David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jacob Ellsbury, and Mike Napoli. The team just couldn't function under manager Bobby Valentine last year so new skipper, John Farrell is guiding the team in 2013.   Maybe there's something there because, as of this writing, they're tied for first place with their biggest rival, the Yankees.  The team also has the record for the most consecutive sell outs, not a hard feat with such a small stadium and a powerhouse team. 

Here are the stats:
Year opened: 1912
Surface: Grass
Construction cost: $650,000
Capacity: 37,402 for night games, 36,974 for day games
Field dimensions: Left field – 310 ft.; left center – 379 ft.; Center field – 389 ft.; right center – 420 ft.; Right field – 302 ft.
Home team: Red Sox (American League-MLB) 1912 - present

Fenway is quirky.  It’s old.  It looks and feels old.  The first time I stepped foot into the park, I saw the rust, the grime, the pallets of beer kegs, the trucks…and I thought I was in the loading dock.  Nope, this is the concourse where you’d go to get food and beer during the game.

It’s most famous feature is the giant wall in left field that is 37 feet tall called the Green Monster.  There’s a street on the other side and the wall keeps the stadium into its lot.  A ladder and a garage door are on the outfield wall.  Both are in play and can make the ball bounce in crazy directions.  The right field foul pole is only 302 feet out.  Weak hitting second baseman Johnny Pesky figured out how to hook a ball just right to get around this pole earning it the name of Pesky’s Pole.

The scoreboard in left field is manually operated.  Not from nostalgia but because it’s just that old.

We have been to the park two times.  The first was on the day that the hated New York Yankees eliminated the Sox from the playoffs in 1999.  We struck up a conversation with groundskeeper Al Forrester, who was sitting in a chair outside.   When he learned we were from Los Angeles, he asked “do you have a camera?”  Yes we did.  “Go on in,” he said.  We did and wandered around the empty stadium to our heart’s content.

Several years later, we came back and took a formal tour because the games that week were sold out.  This time, we got to walk along the warning track, see inside the dugouts and scoreboard, and see the private club behind home plate.

It’s the most time we’ve spent inside a stadium without seeing a game.  With that in mind, here are our impressions of the park.

The Other Side of the Green Monster

On game day, it’s festive outside the park with food booths, souvenir shops, restaurants, and bars.  If you can’t get into the game, watch it at one of the local watering holes across the street.    Even on non-game days, there is still quite a bit of activity in the area around the stadium.  It’s a fun place anytime.

The seats are a bit small.  There are newer seats located on top of the Green Monster and on top of the right field roof.  Wheelchair accessible locations are available throughout the park, although the accessible seats at the top of the Green Monster were built with huge obstructions.  Their website says they’ve been re-designed, I have not seen them since they were.

Tickets a pretty darn expensive and hard to come by at the perennially sold out park.  Disabled fans can call (877) RED-SOX9.  Prices run from $22 to well over $300. 

I have no idea how the food here is but in addition to the usual fare lobster rolls, Italian sandwiches, pulled pork, and our favorite East Coast treat…fried dough…is available here.

Transit for able-bodied fans is great.  The Kenmore Station…the closest one to the stadium…is marked as accessible on the MBTA’s map but on the station list says “no accessible features.”  We had to disembark at another station a mile away and walk the remaining distance.  Also note that this area is served by the Green Line, Boston’s oldest transit line and the most accessibility challenged one.  Maybe they’ve added accessibility to the Kenmore station since we were there, but their website is contradictory on it.

Very limited parking is available near the stadium.

I’d love to see a game here someday, just to see one in the oldest stadium.  Be aware that there may be accessibility issues when you go here and prepare for them.

-Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Updated for 2013