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This is from the blog I keep. The retreat was in Middletown, New YorK during the first week in August in the year 2005. I thought that people might enjoy it, as it features many people from the Hangar and from Kevin's Watch. The Fist referred to within is called Highdrake here at the Hangar.
Day One
We didn't get out of Michigan until late afternoon. I was afraid we would get into Middletown, New York, at sometime around 3AM, but we somehow managed to make very good time, despite many, many construction zones on Pennsylvania freeways. From what I saw of Pennsylvania before darkness fell, it is a very pretty state, with lots of heavily wooded mountains. We stopped off in a little town and got gas and a quick dinner. I was glad my Jeep made it from Michigan to New York on a tank and a half of gas. We got into Middletown and checked into our hotel (the Courtyard by Marriott) about 12:30AM, taking about 9.5 hours for the drive (including dinner time and potty breaks, and lots of contruction zones).
Day Two
I had agreed to call my two dear friends Fist (Eric) and Danlo when we got up for the morning. They both knew that we had a long drive and needed to rest a bit. But Fisty called when I was the only one awake to say that he was in Middletown and when could he drop by? And so I called Danlo, and he said he was already in his rental car, driving up from his parents' apartment in Hastings-on-Hudson! Those guys are precious to me -- the big brothers I never had and always wanted!
I got everyone up, and we drove over to the Perkins pancake restaurant for breakfast along with Fisty. Danlo was to meet us there, but he got off at the wrong freeway exit, and needed a bit of extra time to find us. Find us he did, and we all ate hearty breakfasts.
We then spent most of the afternoon splashing around in the hot tub and swimming pool at the hotel (Fisty brought his kids, too, to join us).
In the evening we met someone we'd known for a long time on the internet, but hadn't had a chance to meet before in the real world -- Don from Tennessee (dlbpharmd). He turned out to be a sweetie, a new brother who fit right into our family.
Day Three
We got up early and drove to Beacon, a pretty little town on the Hudson River, to catch a commuter train down to Manhattan. The ride was lovely. There were pools of water lillies the size of football fields. We saw West Point across the river, and when we got down to the Bronx we went right by Yankee Stadium. We met Danlo (who had taken a different train from his parents' home) at Grand Central Station. The big room there was gorgeous. The ceiling of the big room was painted with the figures of the zodiac. We waited for Danlo right underneath Taurus.
We headed down to the end of Manhattan Island via subway after that. Our first stop was Ground Zero. I felt a bit ghoulish taking pictures there, given the horrible tragedy that occurred there.
We then ate lunch at a pizza parlor called Caruso's. The pizza was classic New York style - thin and crispy crust, little sauce, and cut in generous slices bigger than your head. Just one piece was enough for an entire meal.
We walked around lower Manhattan then, seeing such landmarks as Trinity Church, The Museum of the American Indian in the old customs biulding, Wall Street, and the anatomically correct raging bull statue. We ended up in Battery Park, where we could see the Harbor, Lady Liberty, and the World War II Memorial. Afterwards, we walked up to the open air market of Canal Street in Chinatown, where it was great to people watch.
Our last stop of the day was Times Square, where we ate dinner at the world's ultimate sports bar, ESPN Zone. Fisty took his older daughter, who had accompanied us, and who had been an angel all day long, to the huge toy store to ride the ferris wheel. We got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and did a bit of window shopping, and enjoyed the glitter and lights. You could see both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building off in the distance.
We then walked back to Grand Central and caught our trains back. It was a great day!!!!!!
Day Four
Don headed up to Connecticutt to play poker and Fist had all three of his kids all day. So Calibaby and our kids and I headed down to Hastings-on-Hudson to spend some time with Danlo. We met him at his parents' apartment. It was nice to meet his mom and dad, and the view from their apartment balcony was wonderful. In one direction you could see the Tappan Zee Bridge, straight across you could see the Palisades, huge cliffs in New Jersey. Straight down you could see New York City, all wrapped in haze.
We took Danlo out to breakfast in the charming little village where his parents live. Then we headed two towns upriver to Tarrytown, where we toured Sunnyside, the historic estate of great American writer Washington Irving. Some of the vines growing on the charming riverside house were planted by Irving himself, and the home was filled with his books, furniture, and his French china. There was a little water color on the wall, where an incident from his childhood was shown. His Scottish nanny was walking in NYC with him when he was still very young. She saw George Washington in a store, so took young Irving into the store and explained to Washington that her young charge had been named for that great man. Washington was so tickled he placed his hands on Irving and gave the boy his blessing. Irving felt that blessing stayed with him throughout his life. The estate also preserved the varous outbuildings, such as ice house, root cellar, carriage house, and privies. It was a very enjoyable afternoon. But saying goodbye to Danlo at the end of it was horribly difficult.
We drove back to Middletown via the many state parks that make up a huge greenbelt to the northwest of New York City, and met Fist and Don for dinner. We ate a good Mexican restaurant that night. It was pretty bad saying goodbye to Don that night, too.
Steven was pretty happy about visiting a Krispy Kreme that evening, though. They handed out hot donuts right off the little factory line. Fist and Steven danced they were so happy!
Day Five
Fist came by in the morning and drove us over to a pretty little town in Pennsylvania called Milford. It was on the Delaware River, which is the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York in that area. We had a thunderstorm when we reached the river valley.
Fist took us to a great little restaurant called Dawney's. It was in a big, old house and they specialized in soup. I got this truly remarkable broccoli cheddar chowder, that was so good I wanted to lick out the bowl when I was done. The others got buffalo chicken, and also seemed very pleased with their soups. We sat on the covered porch while we ate, and were pretty amused when the power for the town went out while we were in the middle of lunch.
After we walked to a nice little comic book store. What we could see looked pretty cool!
Then came a drive down into the Delaware Water Gap National Park, We stopped off at a lovely area called Dingman's Falls. There were actually several waterfalls in that little hollow. Dingmans being the largest of the lot. It was raining heavily, and walking through the heavy woods next to the rushing streams, with the gorgeous waterfalls was exhilirating. I wanted to strip off my sodden clothing and dance naked in the rain!!! I was a good girl, and didn't, of course.
Fist then drove us by his workplace in Port Jervis, New York,, and we got to meet some of the people he works with. When we got back to Middletown he left for a bit to pick up his daughters, then we all went to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays.
Day Six:
The forecast called for "drenching" thunderstorms, which actually fit our visit to the Delaware Water Gap the previous day quite well! Luckily this day was a beautiful as a day could possibly be.
Fist came by with his three children plus another little girl who was a friend of his older daughter's in the late morning/early afternoon. First he led us to the local Subway, where we got sandwiches, chips, cookies, and bottled drinks. Then he led us up into the beautiful Catskill Mountains. We saw forests and mountains streams and impounded lakes that provide New York City with drinking water. It was a gorgeous drive.
I don't think I could ever find my way up there again, its off so many country roads, which is a shame because there were camping sites that looked lovely. It was off of Peekamoose Road, which made us all giggle a little bit.
We were blown away when we finally reached our destination -- the Blue Hole, a lovely pool in a mountain stream surrounded by a gorgeous forest. The water was as cold as snow melt, and the water was much deeper than Fist's 6'2" height, and so clear you could see every inch of the bottom. It was amazingly beautiful. We all did good - despite how cold it was, we all went in over our heads. If you stayed in more than half a minute the body areas exposed to the cold went numb, and that helped a bit. We sat on the blankets I keep for winter in the back of my Jeep. and ate a picnic lunch, and it was such a beautiful place and time, I cannot even describe it -- other than saying thank you to Fist once again for taking us there.
Day Seven:
The previous night, we had been watching the White Sox/Yankees game at Chili's, where we ate dinner. We left an inning early and missed the biggest news from New York City for the week -- some dumb guy decided to jump off of the third deck of the stadium to see if the foul ball net could hold his weight. That what everyone seemed to be talking about the rest of our stay.
Since this was our last day of the trip, and since Fist did not have his kids, we decided to drive down to New York City. We have room in the Jeep for one extra person, and Fist got to ride shotgun.
It took us three hours to drive the 60 miles down to the city. Traffic was horrible!!!
We parked in Queens, and only had to pay $4 for 12 hours of parking. We parked underneath an elevated subway line, and caught that to Manhattan -- but first came the great Queens potty hunt!
My bladder was very full and very unhappy with me by the time we were able to park. No one had even thought we would take 3 hours to drive down there, since we left Middletown right as rush hour should have been wrapping up. So we went from business to business, crossing busy Queens Boulevard in order to do so -- and all of them said their restrooms were out of order! We finally found a working bathroom at a McDonald's. So my bladder was happy. But Fist and Bill also needed to go by this point. Fist opened the men's room door and there was this guy sitting on the toilet, who had not even locked the restroom door. So they slammed the door shut and decided to wait until we got to Manhattan!
We climbed up to the subway, and purchased one day unlimited ride tickets for $7, which turned out to be quite a bargain by the time the day was done. We caught the subway to Times Square in Manhattan. Of course, the men's rooms in Times Square Station were shut down (probably because of the terrorist threat). Poor Fist and Bill!
We went up to the street level, came out into a lovely, hot, sunny day - and found ourselves less than a block from Cold Stone Creamery. We went in for ice cream, and finally found a working men's room, though the line was long. And the ice cream was great! Afterwards we visited a big sporting goods store across the street, and Bill found some nice soccer shoes on sale dirt cheap.
We then went walking around Midtown. We saw a bunch of the famous, huge department stores. We saw Rockefeller Center and its famous ice skating rink, turned restaurant in the summer. We walked through the Diamond District. We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, where we lit candles for the healing of a sick friend, Tracie. We visited the Nintendo Center, where Fist bought Pokemon stuff for his kids.We caught the Lexington Ave. subway then, and went down to Chinatown.
In Chinatown we window shopped and bought egg rolls and bakery goods. Steven bought a beautiful (real) sword there. We then wandered down to Little Italy, where we got a great dinner at a little sidewalk cafe. The pizza was wonderful!!
We then walked through trendy Soho over to Greenwich Village. We sat for awhile in a little park, and Fist nearly started a pigeon riot by throwing bits of his sesame roll! We saw some naughty stores and naughty leather goods stores, and chuckled at the window displays. We went to a tea/coffee specialty store that had been in business well over 100 years. I bought three teas, Fist one.
We then caught a subway to the upper West Side, where we took the kids to Gray's Papaya, where the supposed best hot dogs in the world are for sale. The adults got chilled fruit juice, but the kids did get hot dogs and they did say they were fantastic!
We walked by the Dakota Building then, and visited the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park. We sat and relaxed in the grass for a long time.
The it was one more subway ride. down to Times Square, then back onto the 7 line to Queens. The Jeep was safe and unmolested. We then drove back to the hotel, with no bad traffic at all. We all swam and soaked in the hot tub for awhile, and then it was time to say goodbye to Fist.
Day Eight
We drove home via the Delaware Water Gap, which was beautiful. We caught I-80 on the southern end of the park. We took that all the way to Toledo. We stopped at a service plaza on the Ohio Turnpike and got dinner at a Panera Bread.We got home to Michigan just as it was getting dark.
Good trip. Good time with friends. Am very glad we went!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 8/13/05 1:30 pm
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