Shannon has the best ideas. The way he researches and thinks about planning trips is outside of the box, and always results in amazing adventures. This was no exception!

His idea was to fly into the Newark, NJ airport, and to take the Staten Island Ferry across to the very south end of Manhattan. From there, We’d walk the entire length of Manhattan Island, ending a few days later with a NY Yankees Baseball game in the Bronx. Sign me up! Although this meant that we’d need to carry backpacks with all of our belongings and treat our first day like a hiking trip, I thought it sounded like a good time. A hiking trip in a much different setting.

The day we flew into Newark, was June 8, 2023. This was the day after the huge news story (linked) about the forest fire smoke from Western Canada, which made headlines on June 7, 2023. This enormous and ominous giant cloud of smoky, smoggy irritation, made a temporary home over New York City and most of the Eastern Seaboard, causing tremendous trouble. Yankees games, Broadway shows, and children’s after-school activities were cancelled, and a warning was issued for people to “stay indoors”. We decided to hope for a good breeze to come and blow across the harbor and carried on as planned. There was a scant amount of smoke remaining as we flew into Newark, but as you will see, it was mostly gone when we arrived.

Riding the Staten Island Ferry across NY Harbor was outstanding, and such a thrill! We were fascinated to find that the Ferry can go forwards and backwards, with a pilot station and propellers on either end. (The ferry doesn’t need to turn around – it shoots straight back and forth.) .

Shannon and I both had a saved google map on our phones, marked with things we wanted to see in Manhattan. Here’s a screenshot of mine:

We found a Facebook group called “what to do in New York” that was helpful in getting info about some things we needed to know. I posted a question about the best street food in NY and got some solid responses. More on that later…. Our first stop was Fraunces Tavern (linked) which we were disappointed to find out, didn’t open for another half hour. We still walked in and looked around. It is richly historical. From nylandmarks.org:

“Fraunces Tavern is known as the place where George Washington gave his famous farewell address to his officers in 1783, but the building traces its history to 1719 when it was built as a home for Stephen DeLancey. Over the years it has had several changes due to fires and alterations.”

It is the oldest bar in the city of New York.

As we were in the area, we decided to go over to the famous Trinity church where Alexander Hamilton is buried. His gravesite is a popular tourist location since the musical, and is currently under some renovation. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get a great picture of it, so I left it off of here and opted for better ones. Most of the gravesites in the church yard are from the 1700’s, and we walked through and read as many of the old headstones as we could. Inside the church is incredibly beautiful, with breathtaking stone and wood craftsmanship and intricate details.

From Trinity Church, we walked over to the big bull, Wall Street, and the NY stock exchange. This area was also the site of the 1920 Wall Street Bombing (info linked) , and the JP Morgan building which still stands with the shrapnel marks visible today.

We walked east from the Wall Street area, to get a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge (info linked) . As we’d been watching a “History of New York ” documentary on Prime in the days leading up to the trip, we’d gotten interested in the history of the city, which included the building of the Brooklyn bridge. According to the documentary, construction on the bridge started in 1869 and was completed in 1883. The iconic bridge connects Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Civic Engineering landmark in 1972. The photo below is the only one we managed to capture of it.

• Side note – Back in 2011, my older daughter was in 9th grade, and she marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the Homewood High School band. (Near the beginning of the YouTube video below, she’s on the far right holding the “Homewood High School ” sign! She couldn’t try out for the dance line until 10th grade, and the dance line was ultimately where she landed, but in 9th grade, she played the bass guitar on the sidelines on Friday nights, so that she could call herself a part of this parade!)

My younger daughter was in 5th grade at the time, and she and I went along with the group of parents who got to go through the school tour group. It was one of the most fun trips, being with hometown friends, cheering on our kids in the parade, and shlepping the younger ones around NYC for a few days. One of the places I remembered was the place our group of friends went to eat in Chinatown, Wo Hop. Poor Shannon had to hear me go on about it, but I remembered that it was really good, and also, when I’d asked that Facebook group for food recommendations – someone had mentioned it again. So I couldn’t let it go! Chinatown was one of the places I wanted to see again, and was on our list!

From East River park, we made our way north and a little west to Chinatown. We were ready for a break and some food so the timing was perfect. Our ultimate plan was to sort of “nosh” our way through New York – stopping to try something here and there, and not necessarily going all in on any full meals. This turned out to be a fun idea, and also left us plenty of time to go lots of places.

Besides Wo hop, I was also hot after some Cannolli. The Facebook group was helpful there, recommending the Ferrara bakery in Little Italy. Luckily, Little Italy is a short hop and a skip from Chinatown. We stopped in an open air Italian cafe just inside of little Italy for some meatballs, garlic bread, and Chianti and it was lovely.

From little Italy, we headed in the general direction of the opposite / west side of lower Manhattan, to where the 9/11 Memorial is located. We took our time, and walked up and down streets, taking in buildings, shops, museums, and people. There is so much to see.

As we’d been walking for several hours, with our backpacks, we made one more stop at a quaint and cool bar on Lafayette Street in Soho, Cafe Select, for another quick break, where we ordered Manhattan’s in honor of the day.

From Cafe Select we continued on to the 9/11 memorial. It was late on our first afternoon, and there was a line to get tickets to walk through the pools, which were roped off. We had been walking for a long, long time, and decided against getting in line for tickets. As someone with a very distinct memory of that day, I didn’t need more than a general overview of the area. I’m not sure why I expected it to be quiet here, but there were a lot of people visiting this site.

We were amused by another shorter line of people outside of the WTC mall, waiting to have photos taken along side a statue of circus animals on a tandem bicycle. Evidently, there is an art exhibition known as:

Wild life for Wild life , which is temporarily set up to bring awareness to endangered species. We decided to get in the line to be a part of the photo op as it looked like fun!

From lovethelast.com:

Title
They were on a wild ride to a safer place with Rabbitwoman and Dogman “Have you ever seen an elephant ride a bike? What about a giraffe? Together this unusual crew are riding to find safety. The animals include; a hippo, Masai giraffe, African elephant, chimpanzee, Grevy’s zebra, Northern white rhino, lion, and mountain gorilla. Each is threatened by endangerment, mainly from poaching and habitat loss. Their only chance for survival is if everyone comes together, lending their peddling power to save all species”

We stayed at the understated yet perfect Carnegie Hotel, Situated conveniently between Central Park and Times Square, and across the street from Carnegie Hall, it was one of the nicest places we’ve stayed. An excellent location, outstanding shower, comfortable bed, daily breakfast and happy hour, and a wonderful stay. At this point I was ready to drop my backpack and re-group. Shannon had wanted to walk all the way to our hotel, as part of the adventure. As it was 5pm and another 5.3 miles from the WTC, I hailed us a cab without any regrets. We planned to return the next day to the spot where the cab picked us up – to continue walking the length of Manhattan and I felt totally fine about this temporary short cut. Here’s a glimpse of our room at the Carnegie hotel, which required that you place your room key-card in a slot by the door in order to work the electricity in the room…..

After a short break, we headed back out into Times Square. We were ready for a slice at Ray’s pizza! I’ve heard over and over that there’s better pizza in NY than Ray’s – but it’s so much better than any pizza we routinely have access to at home that I’m not sure we cared. It was pretty great!

Times Square in Shannon’s words, is “a parade of dirty Elmo’s with their costume heads tilted back smoking cigarettes”. It is indeed that and I’d add that it is absolutely alive with colors, sounds, sights, smells, and a bit overwhelming to the senses.

After being adequately overstimulated in Times Square, we decided to walk the 4-5 blocks over to Central Park. With about an hour of daylight left, we wanted to end the day with a glimpse of the park( which we had plans to return to for a full day). The complete and total 180 degree change in surroundings in Central Park, atones for all that waits beyond it. The trees and lush greenery create a gentle barrier and a sense of calm.

On this very full, and wonderful first day in New York City, we logged 13 miles on foot. The least amount of ground we’d cover on any of our 3 days exploring here! The next day we had a lot to see! I’ll tell you all about that next!