Our first task of the day was a short boat tour around Manhattan, which required a walk across the island. We headed straight west from our apartment and walked through Times Square (again), through the theatre district and through Hell's Kitchen to get to the piers. The boat tour was nice and relaxing, with a very interesting tour guide. We got to see the Statue of Liberty, go under the Brooklyn Bridge and see the classic view of Manhattan from the water.
Next door to the pier where we got on the tour is the pier where the Intrepid Air & Space Museum is docked. The Intrepid is an old WWII aircraft carrier that was turned into a museum after it was decommissioned in the 70s. It is practically permanently docked - around 10 years ago they moved it to do some restoration work and had to dredge out 30,000 cubic feet of mud that it was stuck in. As our tour ended right at lunch time, we wanted to get into the museum quickly and hit the cafe before viewing the exhibits. That did not work out so well, as after security, you are separated into two lines - one for people buying tickets and one for people with tickets. Except the line for people with tickets included everyone with a coupon and they were pulling people out of that line twice as fast as our line, which really is not good customer service. After we finally paid, we found the cafe and waited what seemed like an extraordinarily long time for our food. Then it was on to the museum.
We walked through the displays on the hangar deck, which included a massive LEGO model of the carrier before heading up to the flight deck, where there are a number of aircraft parked and on display. I took the boys through some of the restored living quarters and the bridge. It was surprising (though it probably shouldn't have been) how similar they were to the USS Missouri. Honestly, I'm not certain the bridge looked any different on both ships.
At the back of the ship is a large building that houses the Enterprise, the third shuttle we've been able to view on this trip. Unlike Atlantis and Discovery, Enterprise was never flown into space. It was the first shuttle built and it was used for all the testing, including glide landing after being taken up into the air on a 747. The Enterprise looks quite a bit different from the later shuttles, as they did not use the same materials. It was built similarly, but with cheaper materials that had the same characteristics and weight as the actual materials. The result was that this shuttle looked fake compared to the other two.
After we were done at the museum, we walked back to the apartment and had supper. It was then time to find a doctor for Bradley, as his brother poked him in the eye twice yesterday and he developed an infection in his eye (which happens to him with alarming regularity). That meant we got to experience the US health care system by visiting a nurse practitioner at the Walgreens around the corner. No line, $132 and we had a prescription for eye antibiotics. Hopefully the antibiotics work quickly so that he can start enjoying the trip again.
3 comments:
It cost something like $500 for 2 stitches on Grace's lip in Montana! But we had the same experience...no line, cleanest facility ever and in and out in less than 45 minutes.
I would love to go to Manhattan!
Now that's the kind of tour of New York I would like. Except, I'd like to go to Liberty Island and go inside the Statue, etc. Hope Bradley's eye gets better. Poor baby! Maybe if we paid for some of our healthcare, our lines would be shorter and we'd get out faster and get better service.
Em just got over pink eye and we found out that you can buy an antibiotic eye drop over the counter for $23. Don't know if that would be the case in the States but helpful for you when you come back home and he's still getting eye infections.
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