Friday was our last day in New York City, and it was about the busiest. We started by walking over to Rockefeller Center and going to “The Top of the Rock”, 70 floors up. Here we are, clockwise from the bottom, Jamie, me, Terry, David, Renee, Tia, Jacey and Sean.
The views were spectacular. This is looking north across Central Park.
A great photo op.
The winter sun made it hard to get a good picture towards the south. The density of buildings in central and lower Manhattan is staggering. That’s the Empire State Building with the tall spire.
I tried to find St. Patrick’s Cathedral; there it is, visible through the Art Deco fretwork on the edge of the observation deck.
Here we are recreating one of the most iconic photos taken during the construction of the Rockefeller Center. Except those guys didn’t have little hidden back rests, safety belts, or an over width beam. And they really were dangling over nothing and not 15 feet above the deck.
Tia, tough as she is, does not like heights. Since the beam will only hold seven people she volunteered to video our photo session.
After that we had no time for lunch; instead we hurried over to Radio City Music Hall and our backstage tour. Our tour guide was from Texas and on learning that this was a group from Arkansas let loose with plenty of “y’all”s. She was fun and the tour was, too.
My favorite part was going up into a private viewing room. That stage is a city block wide. They’ve had a full sized basketball court in there. The theater is built so there are no pillars to block the view.
That is a real bus the Rockettes are in, and before it made its entrance in the show it was hanging in the wings. Many parts of the stage can be raised or lowered for effect, including the orchestra pit, which when I took this photo was lowered. The stage is moved with a hydraulic system, still the original built in the 30’s and still in good working order. In WW II the navy studied it and used the same technology to lift planes to the fight decks on aircraft carriers.
I also enjoyed learning about the Rockettes. This is Ellen, who talked to our group and then posed for pictures with us. Terry and I fit right in the dance line, ha, ha, ha.
The Rockettes, as a dance troupe, predate Radio City. Some of their routines are as old as the original Christmas Extravaganza. This wall mural is a composite of photos taken decades apart, but the routine and the costumes remain identical.
Everything about Radio City Music Hall is elegant, from the hanging Christmas tree made of Swarovski crystals,
to the wood veneer friezes in the elevators,
to the chairs…
tile floors, and turquoise sinks in the Ladies Lounge. All of this was restored in 1999 following original plans and matching the original colors and fabrics.
Radio City Music Hall embodies the spirit of New York City at Christmas.
We grabbed a bite to eat from the food carts and then headed over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
A huge and beautiful space.
There was just about enough light on this cloudy day to show off the stained glass windows.
We came out of the relative hush of the cathedral into the Black Friday mob of shoppers and a pro-Palestinian protest.
Shopping along 5th Avenue on Black Friday is not for the faint of heart!
Our day was far from over. Next up was a dinner cruise for all the members of the band, the directors, the chaperones and the friends and family group. We had the whole boat, The Spirit of New Jersey.
Adler said he tried to save a table for us, but his friends just came and sat down. You’ll notice in this picture with Jamie that the friends are all girls. Not sure how hard he tried to keep the seats for us.
In any case, it was a beautiful cruise. We saw Lady Liberty at night,
The Empire State Building,
and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The cruise ended across the Hudson River in New Jersey where the seven tour buses were waiting for us.
One last look at Manhattan and we were off.
We drove all night and all the next day. We only stopped to get off the buses twice. Can you imagine what the other folks at Buc-ees thought when seven buses rolled in? The place swallowed us up with barely a blip. A typical Buc-ees is a hundred gas pumps with a convenience store the size of a Walmart and bathrooms the size of most convenience stores. Their food is pretty good, but no tables at which to eat.
We finally got back to the High School at 10 PM Saturday. That was one long day. I spent the rest of the night on Jamie’s couch.
On Sunday Bud came to get me. Now I’m back at Lake Catherine State Park, and happy to be where the ratio of trees to people is pretty much flipped from New York City. It was a great trip, but I prefer traveling at a slower pace to quieter places.
The band will not be doing that parade again while Adler is a member and he and I are both fine with that.
On the Roam Again 