C&MVacation2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Day 13: Sunday

After eating breakfast we went off to church at St. Dominic which was about 3 miles away. Found it on Mapquest and it appeared easy to get there. Well the church and road weren’t there so we turned on the GPS and found that it was actually in the opposite direction! The church was a little difficult to get to and was almost on the border with the ghetto. We got there a few minutes late but really enjoyed the service. The church does a lot of outreach to their neighbors and also has a mission to El Salvador. On the way back we stopped at a Food Giant store and the Whole Foods store and bought chips, guacamole, and sushi for lunch and got some money. Here is a picture of something we found at the grocery store here in Cleveland. Look closely at the sign!

It turns out that there are no Bank of Americas in Ohio and only 6 ATMs, none in the Cleveland area. Regarding the defective lights in our van, I tried to check the fuses in our van but couldn’t pull them out. I then read on the internet that the lights were working as they were supposed to work. Yeah! We pretty much bummed at the hotel for the rest of the day. We later ate at this tiny restaurant called Yours Truly. It was surprisingly good and inexpensive. Here is an internet picture of the outside and inside so you can see how tiny it is.

While we were there a big thunderstorm came through. We returned to the hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow is Michelle’s portfolio review at Cleveland Institute of Art. Hope it goes well.

Day 12: Saturday

Being Saturday, traffic was light, so we ventured downtown Cleveland. We found a parking spot near the waterfront and walked a little less than a mile to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Cleveland Brown's football stadium and the Great Lakes Science Museum are next to it. The Hall of Fame is around the bend and can't be seen in this photograph. Lake Erie is on the other side as well.

Cleveland did a nice job of revitalizing this area. Michelle and I both rocked out at the Rock and Roll museum. I was surprised to find out how knowledgeable Michelle was about songs from the 50's, 60's, and 70's since she wasn't born until the 90's! We saw Michael Jackson's famous glove, ZZ Top's funky guitars made of scrap metal, lot's of Elvis material, Steve Tyler's scarf that he use to wrap around the microphone when he sang, and a special tribute to the Grateful Dead. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed so no pictures of exhibits. It was fun times sharing music we liked and disliked with each other in some of the music stations where you could listen to songs. We munched on some lunch there and left after about 3-4 hours. Here is a picture of Michelle in front of the museum.

The trip back to the hotel was rather interesting as the GPS took us back a different direction from how it brought us. The way in was on highways and rather quick (15-20 minutes). The way back was up a long street (12 miles) that led directly to our hotel, but through the ghettos with about 20 stoplights. What was amazing was that after about 16 stoplights, the ghettos suddenly disappeared and on the other side was what could be upper-middle class homes and really nice shopping strips. While driving through the ghettos, a gentleman in the car next to us at a stop light motioned for us to roll down our car window. He told us that our brake lights weren't working. We thanked him and as he drove off, saw that his license plate was from Pennsylvania. Gotta love it; a visitor helping another visitor! At the hotel we checked the lights and determined that some of the lights weren't working while others were. Think it might be a fuse so will study up on this tonight and check it out tomorrow. I went and picked up a pizza from a local restaurant and stopped at Whole Foods for a drink, salad and dessert. Everything was yummy. This was a nice sized Whole Food, probably like the one they want to build in Little Rock. After eating I caught up on my blogging and Michelle worked on her portfolio that she will show the people at the Cleveland Art Institute on Monday.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Day 11: Friday

Today was driving to Cleveland day. It took us about 8-9 hours. I drove the whole way while Michelle rested. She is recovering from her sunburn and a slight cold she picked up in the Big Apple. We will be staying in Cleveland until Tuesday. It was 97 here in Cleveland; I know it was over 100 in Little Rock. Today’s blog is short as it is after 11 PM and I’m tired and still need to shower. No pictures today.

Day 10: Thursday

Today we had to check out of our hotel. America’s Got Talent is in town and all rooms were taken. We piled everything in the car leaving it in the parking lot and went into NYC for one last time. We went to Brooklyn and started to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, but turned around after about 200 yards because it was just too hot and because construction blocked some parts so the viewing wasn’t ideal. Who is that silver haired guy walking toward the Brooklyn Bridge towers?

We then bee lined to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and ate some of the most delicious ice cream ever. It was creamy and you could taste the real ingredients! Picture below.

We the rode the metro to Chinatown and bought some souvenirs, ironically from some Indian shop owners! We made it back to our hot car about 3PM and drove about 20 miles to another hotel a little more out of the city. This would make leaving easier as rush hour can extend for about 50 miles from NYC! The hour or so out in the morning sun gave me a slight sunburn. Michelle is peeling from her sunburn last Saturday. We rested at the hotel with Michelle eating a Subway and me some Chinese takeout for supper. Tomorrow we have a long drive of about 8 hours.

Day 9: Wednesday

Today we started by visiting MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). I thought this was going to be a quick visit, but it is jam packed with art, again including all types of media. Now I can’t even draw a stick figure, but I came away from this museum with ideas of creating my own personal type of art! So many of the great European artists that everyone knows about have works in NYC. I think half of all of Picasso’s works are in NYC. Name a great artist and you’ll find at least one piece of work here. Here is an artwork from the famous American artist Jackson Pollock.

On a high from seeing all the great art, we visited one of the largest, if not the largest, camera and supply stores in the world, B&H. This is a place to visit even if you aren’t going to buy anything.

There must be at least 100 to 200 workers in the store, of which at least 80-90% are Jewish. By the way, the store was founded by a Jewish family and it is a “family” business. We saw more obviously Jewish people working in the store than we did everywhere else combined. This little visit to the camera store set me back about $300 as Michelle got a wide-angle lens that was refurbished, a savings of about $200. We then ventured to the Apple Store famous for its 3-story spiral, glass staircase. The initial staircase was highly controversial because ladies walking up the staircases were totally unaware that all was visible to the people standing below! Now the step portion is frosted.

Michelle got some new ear buds at the Apple Store. Just down the street is Chelsea Market, home of Food Network. I was really disappointed in this as I was expecting a real marketplace, and instead got a glorified indoor shopping center. Michelle did buy a giant crepe with Nutella and strawberries to munch on. We then went up on the Highline, a mile long walkway built on old raised railroad tracks.

This was really nice, but it was so hot that we only walked about 200 yards and took some stairs down. At the bottom of the stairs we saw a vertical garage similar to the one I mentioned when we first arrived in Newark. Here is a picture of how the cars are lifted up. That young lady in the lower right hand corner looks familiar.

We then made our way down to the docks where we took an evening cruise around the lower half of Manhattan. This was fun and highly informative. We sailed right over the spot where the airline captain landed the jet plane on the Hudson River. You might remember that story from a few years back. The boat sailed from the pier right next to the USS Intrepid which is a museum now and houses the Concorde airplane and the Discovery Space Shuttle. Couldn’t see the shuttle as it was housed inside a giant inflatable building on the aircraft carrier. You can see the "bubble" on top of the ship to the left.

The cruise when right by the statue of liberty where I took the following picture. Look closely and you can see that a sailing vessel and an airplane both were passing the Statue of Liberty at the same time.

It was dark as we landed, so off to the Empire State Building we went. Michelle wanted to go to the top of the building at night since she did Top of the Rock during the day. She took lots of night-time pictures from the top.

We eventually made it back to the hotel after midnight.

Day 8: Tuesday

Today we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We both loved this museum! We started our visit by visiting the roof sculpture that you could climb in and walk around. It is made of Plexiglas and reflective metal and mesh stairs. Only a few people can be in at any time. Everyone was talking about how disorienting it was when you were inside. With the reflective metal reflecting the opposite view through the plexiglass or the open parts, you never knew if you were going to step into a room or walk into a wall! It was fun.

And the view of Central Park from the roof top was the one view that says NYC! The great rectangular park of green bordered by all these huge mason, concrete, and glass buildings! Here is the view from the roof with Michelle in the picture.

The museum had art of all types from all over the world; every continent except Antarctica was represented! It had art from many thousands of years old to recent art. They had photographs, sculptures, musical instruments, fetishes, costumes, carvings, etc. Michelle taught me a lot about American artists such as Jackson Pollock and we both argued over what art was good and which was bad. We both quickly realized that Polynesian art is skewed toward boyhood changing into manhood and we both were a little surprised by how “overly-endowed” the male wood sculptures were. We then went a few blocks north and I went to the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. I wanted to go there because of the architecture; you often see this museum in movies made in NYC.

This was another interesting museum both architecturally and content wise. For some reason, no photography at all was allowed except from the bottom floor. We then feasted on some of the best gelato ever made.

It was so good that we had to go back for seconds! Being mid-afternoon, we decided to hunt down the “LOVE” sculpture in NYC.

We found it! Look between the V and E and you'll see a fruit stand vendor with lots of fresh fruit, most a lot cheaper and fresher looking than you can buy from Kroger! We then decided to visit the “free” Sony Technology Imagination and Creativity Center. It was cool with lots of emphasis on technology used in movies, robotics, games, etc. Afterwards we stopped by The Halal Guys again for supper. It was just as good as the first time around and only $6 for a meal plus leftovers! We turned in early today getting back before dark.

Day 7: Monday

I was excited to go to the world renowned Natural History and Science Museum, where the movie Night at the Museum was filmed. I wanted to go because of all the science stuff. We were both underwhelmed and really disappointed. We paid extra to see a bioluminescence exhibit that talked about glowing fungi, bugs, and jellyfish. We thought we were going to see live creatures, but it turned out that everything was just models with lights that glowed. That put a real damper on the rest of the visit. The planetarium and astronomy portion was nice, and in reality, it is a great museum with all sorts of great skeletons and cool dioramas. If alone, I could have stayed all day. Here's a picture of me in front of a giant sloth skeleton.

The best part was the biodiversity and diorama section of the museum. Below is a picture of the huge blue whale suspended from the ceiling in the great hall.It is over 60 feet long!

A quick respite at Central Park, and back to Rockefeller Center we went. When we got there another big thunderstorm came by. After it cleared, Michelle was to go to the Top of the Rock (top of the Rockefeller Center). However, lightning had struck the top floor during the storm, so she could only go the floor about 20’ lower, still some 69 stories high. See below.

While up there, another storm came in and they were forced to leave. She snapped the following picture of the approaching storm. You can see the Empire State Building in the middle and the new World Trade Building in the far distance with its unfinished black top in the rain storm.

While she was high in the sky, I went to St Patrick’s Cathedral and got there just as mass was starting, so I stayed for mass and a special service afterwards. Nice old cathedral like the ones you see in Europe; lots of history in that cathedral as well.

Tired and well humidified by the storms, we headed back to the subways for our long journey back to Newark, NJ.