A day or two=a week or two

Well as usual .... I intended to get back to the blog a day or two after my last post and almost three weeks later I'm trying.......
I am happy to report that we were EXTREMELY lucky that the hurricane jogged a bit west and missed us...for the most part. Watching the radar throughout the night it looked like most of the heavy rain bands seemed to be north of us. For whatever reason the storm bands seemed to break up a bit near us. We still had strong winds and some rain bands....but nothing terrible. We were boarded up tightly and it was actually kind of quiet inside our house. Also we never list power....which was even luckier. I was able to watch the storm's progress all night ( when I wasn't sleeping) and keep track of what was going on. We were so thankful that we did not have any major problems afterwards...some tree branches down,etc but all in all we we extremely fortunate. I ended up with a few extra days off due to power outages and closures....so it was a wacky but okay week for me.🙂
Two days later it was like a big reunion at the local spot n town.

 It was like a party atmosphere at LongDoggers....everyone was there enjoying the fact that the storm was past and we were all okay. Some were there because they did not have power.....and just wanted a hot/fresh meal. you can only eat so many granola bars<|strike> it was nice to see everyone and enjoy the craziness,/strike>
As I mentioned, we had just returned from being away for a week. We were on a cruise that sailed from NYC to Newport, RI, then Boston, then Bar Harbor, then St.John and then Halifax...before sailing back to NYC.
John and I and my sister Martha and her husband Tony went. We arrived in NYC on Thursday so we would have a couple of days to explore before sailing on Saturday afternoon.
Our first port was Newport, Rhode Island. It was a beautiful,  actually kind of warm day. Brenna and Josh had flown up for the weekend...so we had a plan to meet up with them on Sunday.

We met up with them in town and then went to walk along the cliff. It was 3 1/2 miles each way. The path goes along the beach in back of some lovely old beach "cottages"...aka mansions. We kind of did a power walk...hahaha and I got one heck of a blister by the end of it.

We passed Salve Regina University...kind of a nice spot on the oceanfront  for this small  Catholic school. (Turns out one of our friends' mother went to school there.)

There were some good waves breaking that day and we watched a group of surfers down on the beach as we were walking along. One of the mansions belonged to Doris Duke...according to the history she used to host Surf Contests down on the beach behind her house.. Duke Kahanamoku (sp?)was a guest there.It looked like a decent surf break.

This was part of the way through the walk. While we were walking on these rocks...Martha actually saw someone she knew from the hospital in Hawaii. Turns out the woman and her husband and a group of friends from Hawaii were all on the same cruise as us! They came down to dance with us a few different times.

After lunch we all stopped at a local bar and grill for a bite to eat. I had a delicious cheese, fruit and nut board.

Before long it was time for us to head back to the dock to catch a tender back to the boat. We said good-bye to Josh and Brenna and hopped on the boat.

That night on the ship we had a really great steak dinner, a few drinks and this special dessert.

our waiter brought Tony ice cream, peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate brownies

Then it was time yo go dancing! Our first night on board we made our way to CLUB 6 after dinner. The DJ was playing some pretty good music...enough to get us going anyway. We danced and encouraged other people to get up and dance. We had fun and everyone who danced with us did too.
We met three ladies from NC. They had all worked together as Medical Technicians...although two were now retired. Tony was chatting away with them and eventually they all came out and danced. The funny thing is we ran into those ladies at every port...hahaha Over 3000 people on board but somehow we always managed to cross paths.We had a fun time and stayed out until almost 1 am before we called it a night. Our plan was to give the DJ a list of requests and a good tip the next night and see what happened. Our plan worked! hahaha He played every song on the list and others that were similar. The three ladies came back to dance again...and we rounded up a few other dancers each night. I think we were getting a bit of a reputation...hahaha people would spot us the next day and give us a smile or a thumbs up. hahahaha One young girl came to the club on Thursday night and told us her Mom had been dancing with us the night before and  had told that she ought to come down and join the fun.we were tlike "motivational dancers" every night. We were having so much fun any one who wandered in to the club eventually had to get up and dance! Naturally there was wine (or champagne) involved (except John)...and that may have loosened every one up a bit. hahah There was one guy on the ship who showed up every night as well. He acted like he was a "Ladies Man" ...he always seemed to be lurking around the single woman. He'd ask them to dance and then get up close and run his hands up and down them or start booty dancing with them. He steered clear of Martha and I...which is a good thing because Tony was about ready to jump him!!! It was funny...but we were afraid Tony might get really pissed and throw a punch at the guy. He came slinking up to one of our friends "Katrina" from NC and Tony went right over to him and told him to get lost. Her two friends were cracking up while they watched the whole thing from the side...hahaha Tony told him he couldn't come across the halfway point on the dance floor...and "Don't come near my wife or her sister!!!" It was like an ongoing soap opera at times....every time "Michael" appeared I'd say..."AhOh Here comes Tony's nemesis...kryptonite or whatever. It kept things interesting...that's for sure."
But the DJ liked us...because we gave him tips every night...and we liked him because he was playing all our music...and the other guests liked us...because we livened up the place! We  would be saying "Maybe we won't go out tonight...we're kind of tired"...but by 11:00pm when the music started in the club...we always got a second wind. We usually stayed out until it closed! We also had a great waiter Dominic (?) who took care of us every night. He especially liked Tony( the tipper) hahaha. He really did take care of us...and he and Tony had a few dance move exchanges....hahahaha

                                                            John and Martha dancing to the music.
Next up...on to other ports.....

It's time.....(in more ways than one)

For several years I have wanted to "someday" take the cruise that sailed to ports like Boston, Bar Harbor Maine and Canada. Well...last year John decided that "someday" should be this year....for an early 60th birthday gift for me.

 We started planning last summer. Once we decided which cruise we were going to take we "put it out there" to see if anyone else in the family wanted to join us. Martha and Tony were on board (pun intended) immediately. There was some other interest ...but in the end it was just the four of us. We decided to tack on a few days in NYC

 before the sailing date...and that worked out great. (the day we disembarked I over heard several people who were getting off  the ship and going directly to a booked tour...and all of  the four of us agreed that we were sooooo glad we did not have anywhere we had to be !!!!)
Elizabeth had recommended a hotel in midtown NYC.

 We booked that first thing. It was a perfect place to stay. It's an old place that a lot of stars used to stay/live in. Nice.

old mailbox/slot in hotel

We could walk to Central Park...to Broadway shows, shopping...everything we wanted was right near by. Also...since we weren't sure which port we would be sailing out of...we were kind of in the middle...which was a good place to be.
As it turns out...the UN was meeting the week we arrived. Just outside our hotel there was a checkpoint for all vehicles going to the site. I was intrigued by the activities involved with clearing any vehicles entering the area.. It was also fun to watch the pedestrian traffic....who seemed to not care at all about the bomb sniffing dogs, etc that fascinated me.Sirens would sound....flashing lights and lots of black limos would zip past on the street...whisking some diplomat to the meeting(s).
The traffic from the airport to our hotel was interesting.....hahahah Thank goodness we weren't driving our own vehicle... (otherwise...we might still be circling around the city). Our driver kept having to pass streets that were temporarily marked One Way and our 18-20 mile trip took us over two hours!

 Good thing I was entertained....and John was just happy to be riding not driving. We both agreed that Indialantic traffic was just fine thank you very much....no plans to live in the city!!!
We managed to do a little bit of sight-seeing while we were there. Enjoyed walking through parts of Central Park. Made our way up to Macy's...just because...NYC...Macys...why not. Walked past Rockefellar Plaza (smaller than it seems on TV)....network studios...Stephen Colbert's show, 

St' Patrick's Cathedral. Also took the ferry to Staten Island so we got a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. We went late at night, so it wasn't very crowded. It was a beautiful night so we got a nice look at it. We rode over...hopped off, walked quickly around and boarded the ferry going back to Manhattan. Easy!
Thursday afternoon...we arrived before Martha and Tony...so we had some time to explore a bit. Our friends from Indialantic were in town...leaving later that day...and we had made contact with them. They were riding around the city on bikes. We decided on a place for lunch and wouldn't you know...right as we sat down at our table...they sent a text saying "We decided to stop at Rue 57".

 I thought it was a joke...that they were riding by and saw us enter...but no they were actually there. Funny out of all the options...we both chose the same place to eat! We joined them after John walked around and found them on the patio. 
Met up with our nephew Ryan and his girlfriend Thursday night at a place called Flute.

 We enjoyed meeting Callie and and had some good laughs. Ironically I did NOT drink anything at the place that specialized in champagnes! (saving it for the cruise).

 We also went to see "School of Rock" on Friday night. When we first decided to go on the trip there were a few shows I had in mind. I love Peter Pan...so I thought about that...but figured John, Martha and Tony might have other ideas...hahaha A few of the shows I mentioned M & T had already seen...so they got scratched off the list. "Hamilton" would have been great to see...but tickets if by some remote chance were available...were waaaaay out of our price range! (did hear a rumor that one of the group of diplomats in NYC reserved the first two rows of seats for that one. Interesting! Not sure if it's true....but seems plausible. Any way when I was watching the Tony Awards...I saw a clip from "School of Rock". I liked the fact that the kids played the instruments...and so many were in the show...also figured the movie was funny...so the show might be fun. It was! It was great! Very lively and energetic...good music and just a lot of fun. We all enjoyed it. Kids in the audience really seemed to like it. Turns out Ben Stiller was in the audience that night...so we heard that the director invited parents of the performers to fill some empty seats in the theater. We happened to be next to two dads. One had a daughter in the show that night...the other's son was behind the scenes that particular night. It was interesting to listen to them chatting. They were fine...another mother stopped by during intermission...we all agreed...she was a little too much...hahahaha But they were understandably very proud their children. Before the show we had a great dinner at a nearby steakhouse. It was early so not very crowded. Good food, nice quiet setting that slowly filled up as we finished up...perfect.
After the show we took an Uber ride down to the dock to take the ferry ride...since that was one of the things I really wanted to do.

So our trip was off to a great start. Saturday morning we took our time packing up and getting a bite to eat.

 John and I took a walk around the neighborhood and had a really tasty buttered bagel...because...it was New York after all!

at the port...acting like the tourist that I definitely was!

view of the docks from our room...getting settled in.

And I will follow up with more in a day or two. We got home last Saturday night around 11:30pm...so it took a day or two to get reorganized after being gone for 10 days. I had asked for Monday off. Ended up that I also was off on Tuesday. Then yesterday the Hurricane started heading up and everything shut down at noon. No work Wed-Thurs_Fri. IT's now 7:15 Thursday and we are boarded up and hunkered down. Have a plan in place. Have checked in with all our friends who are also staying...and we are waiting. So far we've had some rain...but not much Very quiet...quieter here than in Orlando and Kississme where a few strong bands have moved onshore. Watching to see which way Matthew is going to go and hoping it stays offshore till it passes us by...that would be the best case senario. One hour it jogs slightly east...then slightly west...so we won't know till early this am...probably sometime between 3-6am. We will certainly lose power at some point...for how long....that's another question that remains to be answered. We do have a generator...everything is charged up and our emergency back-up plan is in place...so right now I'm feeling okay. I'll check back in a few days.