Squatch and Lisa's excellent adventure

May 2 & 3, 2015

      After taking a month off blogging to reorganize and re energize my thoughts, the Lovely Lisa and I headed off on an adventure to the east and I don't mean Chilliwack. We took the red eye to Philadelphia by way of San Fransisco. Why we had to fly 1000 miles south before we could fly 2000 miles east is beyond me. My son in law Christian drove us to the airport. I love the guy but he scared the bejesus out of the lovely Lisa. She had never driven with him before. He drives like a Mexican taxi driver. That's not exactly a stretch. After all, he is a Mexican! The first leg of our journey started at 7:30 pm Vancouver time and took a over 2 hours to get to Frisco. We were panicking as the plane was running late and our connecting flight was at 10:15. By the time we got off the plane it was after 10:00 and we were all ready to run. When we got to the waiting area we discovered that our connection was the same plane we just got off of at the same gate Not only that but the plane wasn't leaving until 10:50. That's good because I run like a girl these days, only slower. It also left the lovely Lisa  time to go find a loaf of sour dough bread. I took our carryons and waited in line 5 to board the plane. I was first in line of the last line to board the plane. I don't want to criticize United Airlines but, wouldn't it make more sense to load the back of the plane first rather than have a giant man with a CPAP a back pack and a large bag of cherries fight his way through the collection of retards who stand in the aisle for the first 32 rows for no apparent reason? I'm hovering around 265 lbs these days. Yes, I'm still living the low carb lifestyle and feeling great! But, and it's a big butt  statistically I am size wise, still in the top 10% of human beings. Also in that 10% was the man in the window seat of our row. That left the lovely Lisa in the middle seat squished like a marshmallow in a smores. The new reality of flying hit us upside the head when the plane was loaded the emergency exit seats were unoccupied. I asked the Flight attendant if we could move to that row. She said we could, for $30 each! Suck it up my little marshmallow we ain't going nowhere! They also wanted $8 for the TV to work and $10 for a sandwich of unknown origin. I read a book and ate trail mix and cherries. The  lovely Lisa put on her black out mask and slept. Oh yeah, I also spit 3 pounds of cherry pits into the pouch in the back of the seat in front of me. That'll teach the greedy bastards!
      I have never been able to sleep on a plane and I have bad knees. I get up and walk around every couple of hours. I read most of a Clive Cussler novel and had cherry farts that could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon! 7 hours later we landed in Philly. Our luggage was there but our ride was caught in traffic. Auntie Janice was coming down from Bridgewater New Jersey to pick us up and was caught in traffic. I used the time to get us coffee from the building next door and to expel the 3 lbs of cherries from my body before I hurt someone or needed to change my shorts. Perhaps that's too much information! Auntie Janice rolled up about 8:15 Philly time which is 5:15 Vancouver time. We stopped at a place in New Hope Pennsylvania for for some breakfast. It was at a place called Freds and it is right on the Delaware river.

A beautiful location but you would never know it because the only windows in the place look out onto the parking lot. American ingenuity does it again. The place was packed and the food was excellent. By the time we got to Bridgewater the lovely Lisa was speaking in tongues!

Auntie Janice and her Cadbury Stash

We went up stairs about noon to have a nap but I couldn't sleep. I had seen the sun and now I was screwed! I finished my book and chatted with Auntie Janice until 5 when I woke up the lovely Lisa to go to Dukes Farm Estate where Auntie Janice and Uncle Charlie have a few beds in the community garden.

They have a lot of lettuce! Uncle Charlie works down near Quakertown PA, about 1 1/2 hours from Bridgewater and wouldn't be home until around 7 pm. When we got back to the house cousin Laura was home from New York city where she teaches fencing to kids. I mean the kind with swords not cedar posts.
      When Uncle Charlie did get home he BBQ'd some lamb chops and a flank steak for dinner. With a homegrown salad and some garden fresh broccoli we had a very nice meal.

We caught up after dinner and unable to keep my eyes open any longer I was down for the count before midnight. I slept a solid 7 hours before my 6 hour bladder forced me out of bed. Auntie Janice was already up and running and Uncle Charlie had already left for work. I made a cup of Instant Joe, I brought it with me because they are coffee snobs and drink fancy coffee they make in a Bodum when they make any coffee at all! Auntie Janice is English and sucks up the tea like an aardvark eats ants! Cousin Laura came down stairs and said she was going into New York again. "We're in!" I said and went up stairs to wake the lovely Lisa. "We're catching the 11:48 train into the city." I told her. It was now 10:00 am and she sprang into action. She was showered and ready to go in no time.
      Cousin Laura made her self a lunch and I packed some things into my back pack and we made the 5 minute drive to the train station in plenty of time. $13.75 each way into New York from Bridgewater and it takes a little over an hour to get there.

The lovely Lisa and Cousin Laura

Cousin Laura is great company. Besides teaching she travels the world both competing and refereeing fencing. She kept us entertained with stories about her travels for the entire time. When we got to Penn Station in Manhatten we went our seperate ways, cousin Laura to teach some kids how to stab each other properly and the lovely Lisa and I on a quest for a slice of New Yorks finest.

We found it at New York Slice on 6th Avenue. It wasn't just good, it was sofa king good! Then we started walking. We walked from there to Times Square. It was packed.

Part of the Square is being redone so the Stairs were half the size they were last year and the same number of tourists were jammed into half the space. Times Square.is also where you line up for half price theater tickets. We thought about seeing a show but the line up was insane. Instead we walked down to the World Trade Center, about 60 blocks. Through the garment district where at every window the lovely Lisa would ask me. "Who the hell would wear that?" I had no answer. High fashion is not my forte! Through the theater District, Restaraunt Row, Grenwich Village, Tribeca and the Lower East Side stopping at a Starbucks to use the can and boost our energies with a cup of overpriced  burnt coffee.
      They have just finished the first of 5 towers going into the same spot as the twin towers once stood as well as the 9/11 memorial. I liked the old towers better.

The new one is 1776 feet tall and 102 floors and really pointy at the top. The Memorial was something to see. Last time we were ther it was just a hole in the ground. I have to say it affected me quite strongly. It's a large square pond with water falling into a slightly smaller pond then down into a seemingly bottomless hole.

What really affected me was the names. The names of every person who died that day are etched into the memorial. Some have a white rose on them.

Name after name, every race, colour and religion represented there. We spent the better part of an hour there contemplating the incredible waste of lives.
      Then we were off again. We , were  going to walk down to Mulberry Street in Little Italy for dinner. Through the Financial District and China Town where we bought some Ranier Cherries from a street vendor for half the price we pay in Vancouver.$2 per pound.

     When we finally got to Little Italy we walked the 3 blocks of Mulberry Street checking out the menus and soaking up the atmosphere. We hit Little Italy every time we go to New York and never choose the same restaraunt. This time it was Grotta Azurra, the Blue Grotto.

We had Clams and a plate of Antipasto to start and the lovely Lisa ordered Cannelloni and I had the Chicken Parmesano.

The food was great but after the appies and a piece of bread we had no room for the entree. We took our time enjoying the food and watching the constant stream of people walking by our window seat. We asked for our bill and to have our leftovers bagged for us. We got the bill, we payed the bill, and sat there for another 5 minutes. "Excuse me sir" I said" Where is our Doggy bag?" The look on his face was not good. He called over the bus person who took away our plates. He turned a little white and ran off to the kitchen. 2 minutes later he was back with our Doggy bag. The lovely Lisa said " This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode were George was caught eating a Canoli out of the garbage" I said" Why did you have to say that?" I'll still eat it but really? Then we went to another place and had a Canoli.
      We were supposed to meet Cousin Laura at Penn Station to catch the 8:48 train back to
Bridgewater. It was now 7:30 and we started walking. How far can it be?

Cigar Store Indians

The lovely Lisa of Liberty

 Way to far is the correct answer! We weren't even close. Of course we made a few photo stops along the way.

And a honker of a Pretzel

 I texted Cousin Laura to go ahead without us and we would catch the next train. It was 9:30 when we got to Penn Station. I took out my phone and checked my pedometer and we had done 28,518 steps. I don't care I love New York!
      Auntie Janice picked us up at the train station just after 11:00 we related our day to Her and Uncle Charlie and then tired and sore everyone went to bed except me. I sat up until 3 am writing this blog.

 I hope you enjoy reading about our adventure as much as we enjoyed living our adventure.

That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace out Y'all