Day 17 - Submarine Museum in CT

(Catching up on my travel posts. Day 17 is July 2, Saturday)



On Saturday, my mom, Leo and I headed off to the Submarine Naval Base to check out their museum. I haven't been inside a submarine before and they have the Nautilus SSN 571 permanently docked at the museum.



Here's a partial view of the submarine at the back.



Instead of a tour guide, they had this interactive handheld recorder (I forgot what it's actually called) where you can listen to some trivia about the ship if prompted by a sign. Here's Leo listening to the device as he views an exhibit.



The whole ship is so small and cramped. I can't imagine the sailors living in that thing for months a time. Even the sleeping compartments are so minuscule! I pity the guy who gets the middle bunk.



We took lots of pictures. I'll just post them in Facebook once I've organized that day.

Day 16 - Gales Ferry, Connecticut

The first of July, being a Friday, was time for mom and her husband to head off to their home in Gales Ferry, CT. It's easier to get there from Shelter Island compared to the trip that we took from NJ.

We took the ferry to Greenport and we drove up to Orient Point, the end point of Eastern long Island. From there, we took the Cross Sound Ferry services which took us across the channel to New London, CT. Gales Ferry is a mere 15 minutes from the port of New London.

Here's a picture of the bridge that we crossed from the port going to Gales Ferry.



Arriving at the house, we put away our stuff and got ready for dinner at a place in Noank called The Fisherman Restaurant. We managed to get a table with a nice view.



After dinner, we drove around Noank to look at the old houses. I think the oldest one that I saw was built during the early 1800s. The town is a small fishing village where they have more ship/boat yards than churches. Look them up in wikipedia.

I was able to take pictures of the houses but since we were in the car, the shots were not so good. Nevertheless, here they are. Advanced apologies for the crummy shots.





I like the house in the last picture but it somehow reminds me of a haunted house (shudder).

Nevertheless, I wish I was able to take better pictures. I really liked that village. Like a blast from the past.

Day 15 - Shelter Island, New York

On Day 14, Tita Chit took us to do some shopping at Walmart and drove us back to my sister at Avenel. I get to watch TV and watch Man vs. Food (I so love this show).

On Thursday, the 30th of June, we were on our way to my mom's place at Shelter Island. A lot of people don't know where it is as you have to take the ferry to get there. It's somewhere in Long Island and the scenery going there is quite charming. Think white houses with porches. I saw my dream house near Greenport too.

As no one would be able to take us there, my mom previously gave us tickets for the Hampton Jitney which dropped us off at port. The trip took us 2 hours and a half. I called my mom when we were near the Southold and she met us at the bus stop at Greenport.

As it was past noon, we had lunch at one of the places near the dock. I finally had the lobster that I have been craving for since I arrived in the US.



Here I am with the meal. And yes, I finished all of it by myself. :)



After showing us a bit of the town, we then boarded the ferry (which takes 7-8 minutes) to Shelter Island.

Shelter Island is definitely a summer place. During the summer, the population swells to almost 10,000 but during the rest of the year, it's only down to 2,000. It's a place where people spend their long vacations and holidays and definitely a hang-out of the elite, not surprising as it's near the Hamptons.

My mom owns a business there which provides home health care and other personal services to those who needs it in the island (most of the people who live there are retirees).

Here's a sample of the scenery in the island. There are a lot of beaches there although of course, they are nothing like the beaches in the Philippines.





My mom and Rusell took us to dinner at a restaurant in Sunset Beach. The name of the place escapes me now but they swore they won't be going back for the lousy service that we got.

Day 13 - New York, Part 3.2

After Central Park, we tried to see more of New York as much as we can. Still keeping with our gustatory theme, we resolved to taste the best of New York that this wonderful city can offer.

We went to this place called Levain Bakery that according to Carlo, sells the best chocolate chip cookies in town. I just had to try it




This gives you a perspective on how humongous this cookie was.



Next stop was MoMA (The Museum of the Modern Art). Unfortunately, when we got there, it was closed (they close on Tuesdays!). We just contented ourselves on taking pictures of the exterior design and shopping at the MoMA store.



We were getting hungry and it was past lunch time already. Carlo took us to another hole-in-the wall type restaurant called Totto Ramen over at 52nd street. As the lunch rush was over, the line outside the place was not that long. We waited for around 10 minutes before our name was called.

Carlo ordered the vegetarian ramen (first picture below) while Leo and I got the ramen with charsiu pork (second picture below) each. It was absolutely delicious!




With our bellies full of the wonderful ramen, we decided to brave the throngs of Time Square and try to see if we can find cheap Broadway tickets. However, when we got there the lines were so long that we opted not to watch anymore and just see the sights.





If you notice Bumblebee in the background, it was the premier night of the new Transformers movie (or was that the next night).

Wandering around, we decided to see the Statue of Liberty. Since we did not endure the long lines going to Ellis Island (and practically wasting what's left of our day), we took the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Lady from the ferry. So we got on a subway train up to the end of the line. From there, we lined up to take the ferry which left every 15 minutes. Best of all, it was free! Have a couple of nice pictures below.




All tired out from the day of walking, we took the train back to Hoboken and picked up Nicole (Leo's cousin). We all went to dinner to a place called Grimaldi's. Great pizza. Here we are chatting it up. (In our hunger, we forgot to take pictures of the really scrumptious pizzas that we ordered).




From there, we walked the downtown main street looking for dessert and we found a nice ice cream place called Rita's. I ordered a mixed ice with sundae. It was absolutely yummy!



We went to Newport to gaze at the NYC skyline across the river while waiting for sunset. Take note of the St. Scho Swatch! :)



And our photo with part of the NYC skyline. I think that's the Empire State Building in the background.

Day 13 - New York, Part 3.1 (Central Park)

This post will be the first half of our third day in Manhattan. I just have too much pictures and stories to post and Central Park deserves a post of its own.

This is the third time in my trip that I'm returning to NYC. Living in Jersey City is so convenient. It's like Mandaluyong and Makati.

We had breakfast at this place in Hoboken whose name escapes me now. Leo and Carlo had their oatmeal while I had a breakfast burrito.



We parked at St. Christopher's in Jersey City where we caught the Path Train to take us to NYC. This time around, we emerged at the Columbus Circle station as we wanted to visit Central Park.

This is the view of Columbus Circle from the park entrance.



Once you leave the station, you'll be met by this wave of people hawking tours of Central park or NYC. There was even a guy who asked if we were Pinoys and started hawking bicycles in Filipino (yep, he's Pinoy too). I wish we took up the offer though as by mid-day, I was so tired of walking inside the park and we even got lost a bit. You really need a compass to find your way inside that place!

I've always wanted to visit Central Park after seeing it in several movies (Enchanted, You've Got Mail, Ransom, One Fine Day etc). There's this specific fountain/bridge that I wanted to see and I finally got my wish that day.

We entered the park at its southernmost tip. We immediately saw softball fields which according to Carlo, is abounding in the park.



After more walking, we came upon The Mall. I'm sure this looks very familiar as it was in the movie Enchanted.




If you notice, there are benches lining the Mall and actually the whole park. What makes these benches interesting is that each seat has its own unique silver plaque (like the bench in Notting Hill) which is a memorial for someone. It was just pure luck that the first bench that I approached is dedicated to someone famous.



And at the end of the Mall, we see another familiar site. Again, something from Enchanted.



This is the Bethesda Terrace. It's such a wonderful place. Even the underside of the bridge is beautifully tiled.





There were a couple of guys singing Amazing Grace underneath the bridge and their voices sounded wonderful with the acoustics. It sounded as if there were a dozen of them. I had to give some money on the box to show my appreciation for their talent.



And at the other side of the bridge, this is the view. I'm sure this is familiar as well. I clearly remember this fountain in "One Fine Day" and somehow in "Ransom" too.





While trying to find our way outside the park, we came upon a couple of interesting benches. These are placed beside each other which makes it really...sweet.




After the benches, we came upon this bridge. Again, another familiar place courtesy of "You've Got Mail". I could imagine Tom Hanks walking up the bridge to meet Meg Ryan.




And that was Central Park where we spent most of our morning. The second half of our day will be in another post.

Day 12 - The City that is called New York!

We were scheduled to stay with Leo's relatives for the next couple of days at Jersey City. Leo's cousin, Carlo, a student at Rutgers and working part-time at Aldo's, picked us up late in the afternoon.

From my sister's house in Avenel, we drove to Newport and parked near the train station where we took the Path Train to NYC. We figured we can have an early start on our gastronomic tour of the city that enchanted me when I was there on our first week.

We emerged from one of the subway stations at Broadway (near 72nd street). We were hungry already so Carlo took us to the nearest Gray's Papaya.



I mentioned that I wanted to eat a hotdog at NYC. Although this wasn't technically a hotdog stand, it's known to have inexpensive but high-quality hotdogs. Not to mention they were featured in Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. The place is owned by a Filipino and run by Filipinos. That makes it a winner in my book. That's me above posing before the counter.

We walked towards Washington Square Park which is within the vicinity of New York State University. Here we are posing in front of its known landmark.



A few meters down, we saw this:



If you're a movie fan, you'll recognize this as Will Smith's front door in the movie "I Am Legend".

Moving on, we came upon a map of New York University:



I was amazed by the size of their campus. As you can see, it encompasses several blocks. You would really need longer lead time to get to your classes. That's Carlo showing us where we are.

As my husband and I are both MBA graduates, we could not resist having our picture taken in front of NYU Stern School of Business.



As I cried inside the Library of Congress, I knew I had to take a peek inside NYU's Library as well. We could enter the doors but we can go no further beyond that as one needs a library card. This is what you see when you enter and on the left side are the counters with the flags of different NYU Colleges hanging like Hogwarts! :)





After a few minutes of ogling the interior, we set out to find a place that will feed Carlo who's a vegetarian (or vegan...forgot which is which). We came upon Mahmoun's which serves the best falafel in the city.





Take note that they were featured in "1000 Places to see Before You Die" and other accolades.

Here's what my falafel looked like:



Just looking at it makes me crave for it. Wonder if I can get it here in Manila and would it taste as good?

After polishing off our really scrumptious falafels, we quickly stepped out to give other diners a chance to seat as the shop only has 2 booths inside. Carlo took us to another hole-in-the-wall restaurant a few doors down called Kati Roll where they sell Indian Rolls. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures as I was busy observing Leo and Carlo chow down heir rolls.

We then ventured forth towards Greenwich Village where we came upon this nice shop called "Rice to Riches". The place looks nice so we stepped inside. They sell rice pudding or "champorado". In the Philippines, it's just one flavor--chocolate--but in this shop, they have dozens of different flavored rice puddings.

I tasted only the nutella flavored one and got a small bowl. This is what it looks like:



And here's Carlo goofing off in the store.



The three of us shared the rice pudding. Though the container was disposable, I still took it home with me as it was just too nice to throw away.

We then walked towards Little Italy where we saw the "First Pizzeria in the US".



We trudged down (or was that up?) Little Italy which was lined with Italian restaurants. According to Carlo, they don't really serve great Italian food, people just assume that since it's in Little Italy, food is good but it's not that great. We saw the edge of Chinatown and I finally got my picture taken beside an NYPD police car.



I initially wanted to have a picture taken with some firemen that we saw earlier but I was too shy to ask. That would've been nice though.

After more walking (and buying NYC souvenirs), we opted to head back to Newport as it was getting late already. We walked towards Ground Zero where we'll take the train back to NJ. But before we went down the subway, we took pictures of this historical site:



One of the towers is already up. I don't know if it will be as high as the previous one but it does look promising.




It was a tiring day and my feet hurt from all the walking that we did but my stomach was very happy. The trip back to Newport on the Path Train was shorter because we got on the World Trade Center station. I still haven't gotten the hang of their subway station but maybe when I'll live there long enough, I'll figure it out.