Keeping dry!

It had to happen eventually and as the season moves towards autumn the weather gets unpredictable. Most days in the past couple of weeks thunderstorms have hit Manhattan every couple of days. We get a great view of the dark clouds rolling in with claps of thunder then the inevitable lightning, which is amazing to watch, followed by heavy rain which sometimes lasts for minutes and at other times it rains for hours on end. Sunday last weekend, the storm rolled through late Saturday night and it then rained continuously for 24 hours. The reports said New York got the equivalent 2 months of rain in one day. We stayed home!

This type of weather has surprised us as it's nearly tropical and being this far north of the equator we didn't expect it. This changeable weather has curtailed our activities a little, we've spent a bit of time at the movies, out for a meal or just hanging about the apartment. However on the couple of good days Terry's been out walking the various blocks near the apartment taking in the sights. Pam's spent more time investigating the wonderful shopping areas around Madison Ave closer to Central Park which is called Midtown East.

View of downtown Manhattan, Statue of Liberty, tall building in New Jersey to the right with

Staten Island beyond

Fashion District in Manhattan

Macy's Department Store on 34th street 

Madison Square Gardens on 34th street with the Empire State Building to the left

Aircraft carrier parked on the Hudson River at the end of 42nd street

View of the Chrysler Building

One of the main reading halls at the New York State Library

Radio City 6th ave and 47th street

We went to a concert by The Steve Miller Band at a place called Westbury which is on Long Island about 45 minutes by train, west of Manhattan. Westbury is a small town, nothing special but it has a fabulous concert venue set in the "round" style, revolving stage with the seating all around. We had a quick bite to eat at the local pizza cafe before walking about 2km to the venue. Steve Miller is a mere 67 years of age but still sounds as good as he did in the 70's/80's, great concert.

Steve Miller Band

View of the "round" at Westbury Theatre

Think we've mentioned before that Americans can't sit still during concerts or shows and Westbury was no different, people are up and down getting drinks, food, going outside for a smoke all the time it can be very annoying. We moved to a couple of seats further back which still had a great view and being a little higher up with hardly anyone near us meant those on the move below didn't cause such a distraction.
Out this way trains don't run very often so we had to wait about 40 mins to get a train back to Manhattan which meant we spent nearly 2 hours getting home which was OK but it's not an outing you'd undertake frequently.

We managed to pick a lovely afternoon to take a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge connects the financial district of Manhattan to Brooklyn over the East River. This bridge was used by many people in 2001 trying to escape the disaster on September 11. We thought it would be a relaxing stroll for 20 mins over the bridge late in the afternoon with the sun setting. We should have known better, there must have been over a thousand people on the bridge including "mad" cyclists riding far too fast in such a crowded space even though there is a marked divide for walkers and cyclists. Great views back over Manhattan.

Brooklyn Bridge towards Brooklyn

View of Pier 17 on Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

View from Brooklyn Bridge back to the Financial District Manhattan

View of midtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

View to Brooklyn from the bridge

View to the Manhattan Bridge Overpass from the Brooklyn Bridge

Our NY friends, Karen and Paul, came over Friday to check out the apartment and arrived just in time to watch yet another amazing storm roll in. The lightning show was amazing. Once the main storm had passed, about 2 hours later, we took a cab  (as it was still raining heavily) to a great Mediterranean restaurant up 9th Ave called, Medi. It was pretty busy so we just sat at the bar, had a few tapas plates and chatted for hours. Terry and I were able to walk home as the weather had settled (it was now 12.30am) and it was only 10 mins back to the apartment. Karen and Paul live in Chelsea so they got a cab home, so easy to do in Manhattan and cheap.

We'd picked up on the TV that the Senior's Golf Championship was on in a county called Westchester which is about 50 mins on the train north of Manhattan. Peter Senior, an Australian golfer, was in the lead after two rounds so we got a train out to a place called Harrison and then a cab to the golf course, about 5kms from the station, to watch the 3rd round. Senior was grouped with Fred Couples and Corey Pavin, 2 well known American golfers who were in their prime when Greg Norman was playing for those of you who know nothing about golf. We arrived at the course in time to watch this last group hit off and then followed them and others for the next 5 hours. It was a beautiful day, no crowds and a lovely course. Couples was leading Senior by 1 stroke at the end of that day's play and went onto to win the tournament on Sunday. A most enjoyable and relaxing day away from the crowds and concrete of Manhattan.

Peter Senior and Corey Pavin on the 16th hole at Westchester Country Club

Terry at the entrance to the Country Club

This area of New York state is part of a bigger area commonly referred to as Upstate NY and it is picturesque. Lots of green, beautiful houses no doubt worth millions, expensive cars and cute village main streets. We'll be doing a bit of touring around Upstate New York when we travel up to Canada later in October.

There was an Indian parade on Sunday down Madison Ave to celebrate India's independence from Britain in 1947 so we walked down to have a look. As expected it was very noisy, the Indians don't do anything quietly, so after catching up with Karen and Paul we walked down to the park where the parade was to end and had a taste of the Indian food on offer for lunch. It was a very hot and humid day so we headed back to the apartment around 3.

Dancers from the Indian Parade 

Colourful Umbrella's in the Indian Parade

Interesting artwork in Madison Sq Park

Later in the day another thunderstorm rolled in bringing heavy rain. We had tickets to a Chicago concert at the Beacon Theatre uptown on Broadway so armed with an umbrella we walked down to the closest subway station and got to the theatre relatively dry. Close by is a restaurant called Josie's, we'd been there before, so we stopped for a meal until the main act was on around 9pm. Chicago were great and still includes 4 of the original members in their mid to late 60's but great musicians playing very familiar songs. By the time the concert finished the rain had stopped so we could walk easily back to the subway without getting wet.

The tall building in the background is where we live on the 35th floor, the building is 50 floors high.

We've now been in NY 3 months, hard to believe, time's gone quickly...
Nearly at the half way mark so much more to do, busy times ahead

Pam & Terry