Day Trip - Staten Island

Wow, it appears things have changed.  Blogger has a new look.  Anyway, sorry for the delay with posting.  Yep, I'm on vacation.  And yes, I'm basically doing what I do every vacation.  I sleep.  The only saving grace this time around is that I've been doing my morning jog most mornings.  No, I didn't run this morning.  No, I didn't run yesterday morning either.

Back on track.  I planned an event for my social networking group.  I asked members for a day for the event...I got one reply, so I posted the event for July 14th, thinking at least one person would show.  Well, over the course of a few weeks, another member (who lives on Staten Island), suggested a restaurant that the group would enjoy.  And he said that he was going to join us on the Staten Island exploration.  Well, the day of the trip, I called to confirm a meeting spot.  Unfortunately, Staten Islander was busy.  He told me that his car wasn't working for an appointment that he had to go to...but moments later said he cancelled.  I decided, I would do the Staten Island Day Trip on my own.  Everything went according to schedule.  I enjoyed the ferry ride over.  The ferry ride was free.  There wasn't much to see at the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial.  Snug Harbor was enjoyable for its botanical gardens and wide open feel.  There was a 9/11 educational center located in Snug Harbor.  I thought the educational center should have been located nearer to the 9/11 memorial.  The Staten Island Zoo at $8 was a bit pricey for what was there.  The place was very small.  In my opinion, it wasn't so much a zoo as it was an exhibition of animals and animal facts.  The Staten Island Museum was also small.  However, the $3 price seemed right. Beso's?  It was a very nice restaurant, but it really didn't fit in with the overall theme of the "Day Trip".  It was very pricey!!  But since it was recommended by a member who I thought was going, I included it in the scheduling.  Although it didn't seem to fit, I didn't want to seem like an uncultured cheapskate, so I went to the restaurant.  I paid $30 for a pasta and meat dinner with an extra side order of spinach and two 12oz. glasses of water.  Both the vegetables and the water were extra.  Although the water was free, I had to ask for it.  After I left, I wanted to go to Burger King, but I needed to catch my train.  So, I settled for two donuts and a pint of Haagen Daaz.

I took about 200 photos.  I will post some of them here.  The attached photo above was taken from the Internet.

Back in NYC

Sorry, I guess you figured out that I've once again allowed myself to be overwhelmed at work. I started posting over the uncompleted blog entries in my draft folder. I thought I would take a couple of minutes to try to clear out my draft folder. Below is one of the entries that has been sitting incomplete in my draft folder.

Thursday, August 6th

I'm back in NYC. the bus was about an hour behind schedule for the final leg of the cross country bus ride. After finally arriving in NYC, the bus driver had a minor accident with a Mercedes. While the bus company reps dealt with the accident, we sat and waited...and waited. We were waiting about 45 minutes. While waiting, the first sight I saw was a pregnant woman sleeping on the sidewalk outside a building. In the window right above the window was a sign that read, "Congratulations, it's a boy!". I tried to get a picture, but cars kept driving past the idling bus. Next, was the sight of police (or emergency service workers) rounding up the homeless. All I could think about while waiting on the bus was wow, I'm back in New York City.

Finally, the bus resumed. I was expecting another 15 minutes before we would arrive at the bus depot, but it turned out my sense of direction and time was off. The accident happened right around the corner from the bus depot.

I arrived home about 3PM and slept until about 9PM. I didn't even read the Harry Potter book. I was however, very happy with my DVD player. I was able to watch 3 movies on a single battery charge. I watched:

1. Journey to the Center of the Earth (with Brandon Frasier)
2. Pan's Labyrinth (wasn't a good movie)
3. Epic Movie (it wasn't funny)

The attached photo is the one I took while waiting on the bus (the homeless round-up).


Post Date - Sunday, November 1, 2009 1:50AM

Venice Beach

Monday, July 20th

I took the two-hour "Homes of the Stars" Tour. After, while I was thinking about what to do, I decided to call the only pen pal from LA who kept in contact with me after I placed my ad in the "looking for a platonic friend(in L.A.)" ad on an online personals website. It turned out he was free and wanted to meet. The person who arrived was not what I was expecting.

The guy who arrived was tanned, slim, and driving a black convertible. I've never been in a convertible before. My LA epal (electronic pen pal) suggested we go to Venice beach. When we arrived, LA epal spent about 10 minutes driving around looking for a parking space. We walked along the beach for about an hour. We had pizza for lunch, it was on me. Since my epal drove us down to Venice, I thought paying for lunch was the least I could do. The pizza shack looked a bit ratty, but the pizza was surprisingly good. We walked a bit, then we had to return. Unfortunately LA Pal (in wanting to save money by not going to a parking lot), ended up receiving a parking ticket for $50.

On the way back, LA Pal had to do some quick banking business "Upper-Class" style. He has an account at a private bank where customers have to be buzzed in. There was something very "Hollywood" about the exchange he had with the bank person. On the one hand they both did the hugs and squeezes with the cute names, but every once in a while they would cast a quick "glance". It was almost like they were checking to see who would drop the falseness of the situation first. Neither did. Oh, and one more "Hollywood" moment. While riding back to Hollywood Blvd. Janet Dickerson said hello to LA Pal. I didn't recognize her until LA Pal told me who she was. She stuck her foot out of the window.

On the way back, LA Pal offered to take me to dinner later on that evening. At first I was going to say yes, but after I thought about it, I wasn't in the mood for expending so much mental energy stressing about dinner, so I cancelled.

I spent the evening walking about the Hollywood neighborhood. What I found a bit strange was that once I walked off the Hollywood Blvd. There was a plainness about the place I wasn't expecting. Both New York City and Tokyo seemed to have a "big city vibe" that seemed to be woven through various neighborhoods that let you know you were in a big city. LA didn't seem to have it. I took a picture standing in the middle of the street of Hollywood Blvd (the heart of Hollywood), other than a few flashing lights, it was relatively quiet. Where New York and Tokyo stay on all night, Hollywood, seem to have a bedtime.

Well, instead of going out and exploring, I decided to take some time to update my blog. For the last couple of days, I've too exhausted to do any blogging when I return to the hostel, so I thought I would do it early this time. Today is the last day of the GO LA Card. I'm going to try squeezing in three activities today. If I accomplish these three activities, then I will feel like I got my money's worth. I'm going to head over to one of the "Hollywood" museums I missed. I then want to visit the Japanese American Museum. I will try to then squeeze in Universal Studios. However, if I don't do anything but wondering around the neighborhoods, I don't think I'll be too upset. This is after all a vacation. I should be relaxing not stressing myself about schedules and deadlines.

The attached photo is one I took on the way down to Venice Beach. I will upload a slideshow of my other photos at another time.
Completion (first draft) - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:30AM
Post Date - Saturday, August 8, 2009 1:00PM

Baltimore, Part 2

Below is a continuation of my adventure in Baltimore, Maryland. If you remember…yes, it has been a while ago since I went to Baltimore. Just a quick summary:

Back in April, I was chosen along with a couple of other teachers to accompany our principal to a literacy workshop in Baltimore, Maryland. We left from school Tuesday afternoon. The workshop was two day and a half (beginning Wednesday morning and ending Friday afternoon). In order to make the most of my Spring Break Vacation, I had my return train ticket changed to a later date. Instead of leaving on Friday, I would be leaving on Monday. Below is a continuation of my time in Baltimore; it picks up on Friday the day the other teachers and our principal left Baltimore, but I stayed:

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Friday, April 18th.
Friday morning gave us one more workshop to attend. Although our reservations said that 11am was the check out time, we were told that we had until 12pm to check out. I was a bit worried about what to do with my luggage. I didn't feel like bringing my luggage to the hostel, only to have to return to the pier area. I was happy when I was told that I could leave my luggage at the hotel and pick it up later that day. While I was getting my luggage checked into the hotel holding area, The others immediately took a cab to the train station. Our principal wanted to try catching an earlier train. My first stop (baggage free) was at the National Aquarium.

The Baltimore National Aquarium entrance fee was $28. At first I was not impressed; the dolphin show was identical to the dolphin show in NYC. They showed the same moves and the same tricks. I was also not impressed with the beginning of the fish display. But later, I realized that the aquarium was actually nice. The Baltimore Aquarium is much bigger than the little NYC aquarium. The Baltimore aquarium was housed in two buildings with one being about 4 or 5 stories high.

Next stop was the Marina Museum. I toured a submarine. There were 3 other types of ships to see, but it was about 5PM (closing time). However, the ticket I had is good for the life of the museum. As long as I keep my ticket, I can return at another time to see the remaining ships(even years later).
Another trip to Barnes & Nobles in the PowerStation shopping center, a walk around the pier, then it was time for me to head to the hostel.
About 7PM, I picked up my luggage from the hotel. I was planning to walk to the hostel, but I was too tired, so I took a taxi. After getting my room and bedding, I went to a nearby restaurant. The music was blasting, and the air conditioning was directly over my head blowing directly on me. I thought it was such a waste to have the air conditioner on with the floor to ceiling windows in the front of the restaurant wide open.
My first night in the hostel was nice. Basically, the way a hostel works is that you are renting a bed for the night with the understanding that you will leave the next day before 10am and not return until 4pm. Different hostels have their own rules, but they are all basically the same. I was happy that they dropped the “Youth” from their name, now, they are just known as hostels. With the hostels, you can find sleeping arrangements in most of the main cities around the world. The rental fee is about $25~30 dollars per night plus taxes.

Saturday, April 19th
I started the day with a quick tour through the famous Cathedral across the street from the hostel.
I had breakfast at a tiny basement restaurant called "Cozy Corner". The place was empty. The owner/cook was an older Asian lady, who seemed a bit nervous when I first walked through the door, but once I ordered and paid, she became much nicer. For breakfast, I ordered a heart attack on plate (eggs, bacon, and toast with butter).
My plan was to go to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum [or (Wiki)] in the northern part of Baltimore. I walked about an hour through the poor area of Baltimore. It was a bit depressing to see so many gutted and abandon houses and apartments. I thought the museum was very interesting. I felt I got more out of the (much smaller, and less financially supported) wax museum than I did out of the bigger (and obviously better financed) black museum downtown.

Next stop was to ride the light rail back to downtown Baltimore. I then walked west to the B&O railroad museum. I didn't know how far the train museum was from the light rail, but I was in a walking mood, and did not want to wait for the bus. Usually buses here in NYC are extremely irregular in terms of their arrival times -- in Japan the buses were just as punctual as the trains...most of the time. Anyway, the walk which I thought would only be a few city blocks turned into about a 45 minute walk. I finally arrived at the museum, but I arrived with about 10 minutes before the museum was about to close. I didn't think it was worth the admission for 10 minutes, so I didn't go. This time I decided to wait for the bus. I took the bus back to the pier. I went to Baltimore's World Trade Center (27th floor) observation.
I was planning to eat in the mall, but it was too crowded, everyplace had a line of customers waiting to eat.

The attached photo at the beginning of this blog was taken from the Baltimore World Trade Center building (27th floor). The photos shows the (two building connected with a bridge) National Aquarium in the lower right edge of the pier. The Marriott Hotel in the upper edge of the pier was the hotel where I stayed with my colleagues.

Below is the same slide show from my "Baltimore, Part 1 entry, but I'm reposting it for those that have not see it yet.



To be continued...



Completion Date - Saturday, July 12, 2008 6:15PM
Post Date - Post Date - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:53AM