After decompressing (from the long drive from Washington state) for about 11 days at Adam’s parents’ home in Pennsylvania, we headed out on a 10 night loop through the Northeast USA. Then we returned to Adam’s parents home for our final two weeks in the USA. On Aug 23rd we will head out on the first long international leg of this journey – please see Our Schedule page for details.
This particular Blog post is Part 1 of the “Northeast USA Loop” and will cover just New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. Part 2 (the next Blog Post) will cover Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Part 3 (another Blog Post) will cover Burlington, VT, and the Niagara Falls area.
A visual map of the 1800 mile loop we drove from July 29 to August 8.This is a view of the main terminal at Grand Central Train Station in New York City. You can see in the middle of the room a clock on top of the information booth. If you have ever heard the famous phrase “Meet me at the Clock”, now you know where to go.We arrived at Grand Central Station in the morning via the Hudson train from Greystone Station, which was close to our hotel in Yonkers. The train ride was comfortable and on time. At the end of the day, we returned to our hotel the same way. We bought the train tickets on a very easy to use App called MTA TrainTime.We were walking to Rockefeller Square from Grand Central Station when we noticed we were really close to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It wasn’t on the list when we started the day but decided to add it in.We took a moment to step inside Saint Patrick’s Cathedral to take in the beautiful architecture and stained glass windows.We continued on to Rockefeller Center where we enjoyed its fountain and drank a coffee. Then we went into FAO Schwartz, just a few steps away.
Just around the corner from Rockefeller Center there is a Lego Store on 5th Avenue in New York City. The Cadwallader Family is notably crazy about Legos. And yes, that is Adam sitting inside a life size taxi made entirely out of Legos.Times Square, which is pretty much a blanket of jumbotron screens all playing different video ads. If you stare too long you might have a siezure. So we departed down Broadway Street on our way to the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building has several observation decks, including one on the 102nd floor that you can pay extra for. We paid about $100 for both of us to just go the first two observation floors (80/86), and those had great views. Additionally there are quite a few displays about the history of the building throughout the ground and observation deck floors.The view from the Empire State building looking south toward lower Manhatten. You can see One World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty Island (barely).It was a really warm day in New York City (97 degrees Fahrenheit; 36 degrees Celsius) so we stopped into the Apple Store on 5th Avenue to enjoy their air conditioning. You enter through this glass cube structure and immediately head down some stairs or step into the elevator to go down one floor. It is by far the largest Apple Store I have ever seen.
From New York City we headed east to Newport, Rhode Island. This is “The Breakers”, which is one of the big Newport, Rhode Island mansions that can be toured. The Breakers belonged to the Vanderbilt family for decades but now belongs to the Preservation Society of Newport CountyThis is the Library room in the Breakers mansion. It felt like we were touring a palace in Europe.The Preservation Society of Newport County owns several of the mansions in the Newport area and you can tour them for a fee. We also drove down a few streets past many others that are privately owned.This is the view from the outside deck of the Officers’ Club on Newport Naval Station in Rhode Island, which is the home of the US Naval War College. We had arrived in Newport a few hours earlier via the bridge in the background.It was “Lobster Night” at the Newport Officers Club. … they provide bibs…. and beer….
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