Saturday, June 1, 2013

New York City and the Drive to Wilmington

It is 5am and we are entering New York.   The Statue of Liberty is on the port side so we did not get to see it.  Bob is up on deck and will be taking some pictures so I will post them later.  We are renting a car and will be driving to Wilmington, Delaware today.  Our plan was to spend two nights there and then head south.  But both Bob and I are getting over colds so we are not sure if we should expose Mother to us at this time.  So we might just stay one night and head south.  Sort of wave to Mother from the parking lot.  :-)

We will get breakfast in the King's Court and then make sure we have everything and head to the Chart Room until they call us.

They had us off the ship by 8:45 am.  We got our luggage and through customs with no problem.  The line for the taxi cabs was short so we were off to Laguardia to pick up a car.  We got a Ford Explorer.  And we were off.  I was driving.  Just followed 278 West to 95 South and here we are in Wilmington.  There was some traffic on the NJ Turnpike but we made it.  We have checked into the hotel and will be having a birthday dinner with Judy and George tonight.


This is the view from our cabin.  I knew it was obstructed but at least we had a slight view.


The side of the ship.  In case you forget what your ship's name is.


Lots of folks out watching our entrance to NYC.  This pool is on deck 8 but you need to either go up to 9 or down to 7 in order to get there.  The Todd English Restaurant is on deck 8 and they ask you not to go through this area.  Bad design in my opinion.


Early morning in NYC.  The sun was just coming up.  The island of Manhattan.


And Our Statue of Liberty.  A real welcoming site for those of us returning home.



The new World Trade Center.


A few of the many bridges into the city.


And this is one we drove over and sailed under.  Our stack clears the bottom of the bridge by 4 meters.


We were well protected as we docked in NYC.  This flew right over the ship.


And we were protected in the water.


The view as we are now docked.


And my two beautiful grandchildren.  Aiden just got his buzz cut for swim team.  And Gretchen, our little doll.

I put them in to see if they are reading the blog.

Tomorrow we will start driving to Florida after a short visit with my mother.  We do not want to over expose her to our colds.  So no blog tomorrow.

This trip has been wonderful.  I highly recommend river cruising to those of you who have never tried it.  Just ask me.  AMA Waterways is wonderful.  Looking forward to another in a year or so.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog and traveling with us.  Until next time, keep on traveling.