Back Like Crack 3

Well I’m going to summerize a lot here since work has been killer.

Days 5 – 8 of my trip to NY.

Well when you last read I was arriving in New Jersey. I’m a bit more familiar with this area since most of my visits have been to stay with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins in New Jersey. Now bear in mind that my last trip to that part of the world was almost 10 years ago so things look different. On Sunday night I spoke with my cousin who now lives in Arizona and my other cousin J who lives in NY. I didn’t catch up with cousin P until maybe Tuesday. He now lives in Maryland.

My uncles place is fantastic. Wonder if I can throw him out and move in?  It’s a great day for a revolution. I’m glad I made the effort to go see my family. I was a bit hesitant because of the travelling on the trains but what’s life without a few adventures and getting lost a couple of times in the big US of A. Uncle is as animated as ever and as always, fun to be around. Monday morning bright and early we were off to Manhattan. Hey, but I just came from here!!! We took the NJ Transit train back to Penn Station and decided to do a bit of sightseeing. We decided to walk instead of the buses or cabs. I can’t even begin to tell how far we went.

First stop was at a Barnes and Noble to try to find some text books for wifey. She teaches and we can’t get the book notes back home. Turns out we can’t get them in NY either. I’ll have to resort to internet ordering. We dropped in on Ronny McDonald for lunch and made our way to Rockefeller Plaza. Too late to get on the Today Show but interesting none the less. A tour of St. Patricks Cathedral followed and lots more sightseeing. i missed quite a few photo ops since my rechargeables got cooked by a stupid Sony charger. I vow never to buy any more Sony equipment. I’ve had too much bad luck with their stuff and their customer service sucks big time. 

We stopped at a few more places on the way back. Where do so many taxis go. Damn. The streets are just painted yellow. The Empire State Building stands majestic over the city. I’m not paying a lot of attention to the details around since I figure New York is a frquent stop to most people. What is important is the time I’m spending with Uncle J.

We had some great conversations and although we differ on many issues the argument and disagreements are interesting. He sees stuff from the eyes of history. My view is all about what is happening now. He longs for a time past and remarks on what could be and should be. I tend to see it from a more simplistic perspective. We argued about the train service in Jamaica which was discontinued many years ago. His view is that the government should never have allowed it to fail. He’s probably right from one perspective but from another it was an ailing expensive and under utilized system for many reasons. Violence is one. The train service was designed when the need to get from other parts of the island to Kingston was paramount. No amount of foresight would have seen the decay that would take place along its path. Winding its way through dangerous communities and the advent of our highway system saw to its demise. Light Rails may be the way of the future but the expenditure leaves many questions in my mind. These were the type of thought provoking discussions that followed for my visit with him.

On Tuesday we were around Orange County and East Orange. For lunch I order a fish sandwich from the local store. Trust me, I now understand why some people are so fat. The sandwich could easily serve for 3 meals. Tasted good too. Strangely enough I had not been able to find my favourite fish in either NY or NJ. Nobody sells parrot fish. Tuesday evening I met up with my cousin J whom I hadn’t seen in more than 15 years. We chatted for quite a while catching up on past eras and times missed and the happenings of each. We walked the mall in Jersey City and I was lucky enough to find a set of rechargeables for my camera on sale at half the price. So later I’ll upload a few photos of the rest of my trip.

Wednesday was back to NY to the Museum of Natural History. By now I can more than handle the trains by my lonesome (had Uncle not been there with me) but he was The museum has changed quite a bit in ten years and I only managed to visit a few of the exhibits. You’d need at least 2 days to get a full impact of the exhibits. I have a few photos of my museum treks so later I’ll post those too.

Wednesday evening was dinner by my Aunt M. I haven’t seen her in soooooooo long. The dinner was nice but we had to leave early since I opted not to do any car rentals and Uncle J doesn’t drive. We walked back to Uncle J’s place just as dark was coming down and it dawned on me that my visit with him was also at an end since Thursday was all about packing and heading back to Brooklyn.

Thursday was spent packing and another short walk down Main Street, to the bank and then off to the train station for the trip back to New York. The ride took about 1 1/2 hour and was quite boring. Whatever happened to all the subway psychos we see in every movie? Cho :S

I can honestly say though that although my time with Uncle J was so short it was by far the best part of this vacation.

Rest of the trip will be posted by the end of this week.  Till then you have some photos to look forward to.