Memorable Memorial Day Monday

Memorial Day was a very busy day. Becky asked me what I wanted to do and I couldn't think of anything straight off the top of my head. Then I suggested that we go and see the ships that were docked at Pier 88 in Manhattan. We headed out around noon. We took the Path from Jersey to NYC, then took the metro up to 42nd street to check out the festivities for Memorial Day. We walked a few blocks and I got to see where Hell's Kitchen is in Midtown. While we were walking down 43rd street, we just so happened to walk by a fire station...where a very muscular, tall, handsome fireman came out and walked straight past us. WOW, is all I had to say when he passed. When we got to the the Piers we were standing right near Pier 83. there were masses upon masses of people, cars, and men dressed in white uniforms. Can you say heaven? I sure could. We followed the masses of people, who also had the same idea as we did, to a line for the visiting ships. There was another line, but one would have to pay to see that ship...the Intrepid, which must be station at that Pier. Becky went to get some food and drinks, since we were a bit famished and parched. While she was off getting us nourishing staples, I kept our spot in line. I over heard an officer saying that the wait to get into the visiting ship would be 2.5 hours and that the line was 3 blocks long. And in NYC, 3 blocks is much larger than 3 blocks in any smaller city, township, or village. Becky returned with hot dogs, lemonade for me and water for herself. As I "fast forward" through 3 blocks, we finally saw our oasis, one man in camouflage parted the sea of people like Moses, telling people which side to stand on. "you tow on the right, you three on the left." As we approached the entrance to the visitor's center at Pier 88, we see security posts just ahead. I choose a line and Becky follows. I put my purse in the little plastic rubber maid-like container and walk through the metal detector. I pass with flying colors and turn around to see that Becky has been stopped because she happens to have a Swiss-army-type gadget on her key ring. While i stand and wait for her, I'm told by the security personnel, "you must go into the building and go up the escalator, because whomever I'm waiting for will go up that way too." I do what they say, and wait for Becky's arrival. She makes it up and we head toward the ship tours lines. As we come up along side the ship, USS Kearsarge...it's huge! We toured the inside where they had their firing arms, land cruisers, missile launchers, water cruisers, battle equipment. It was an experience. even though I was looking at all that they had on display, there were a lot of handsome scenery with lots of men in uniforms from what they wear out in the dessert, to their pilot's uniforms. We spend some time on the deck of the USS Kearsarge and the heat up there was almost unbearable. They had their aircraft carriers on the deck and of course they were navy men supervision. We stayed on the boat until about 3:30ish.

Then we boarded a bus and got off a couple blocks before Times Square and stopped at the movie theater...looked at what was playing and Becky suggested earlier that she wanted to see Friends with Money starring Jennifer Aniston. it was 3:50pm and that movie was showing at 3:45pm and I said, "Sure we can go...because there are about 20 minutes of previews." since I forgot what city I was in, I just assumed the usual, that it would only take us about 5 to 10 minutes to get into the movie. Well I was seriously wrong, we got tickets from a machine where you must use your credit card. then we went up a 2-story escalator and got onto another 1-story escalator to where there was a person taking the ticket stubs, this woman told us to go up 4 flights (meaning we had to go up on these escalators.) I was not accustomed to this type of movie theater...it was very strange. By the time we got into our specified theater, the movie had actually started, we found some open seats and watched the movie. Well not to give away the ending, but when it was over, it has to be the worst movie I've seen in the last 5 years and Becky agreed. I couldn't believe that I spent $10.75 to see a movie that was terrible. I do not recommend it to anyone.

After the movie we made our way down to Time Square. looking for the Navy guys. We started out at the Hard rock Cafe bar. there were some awesome guitars there. I had a wine spritzer and Becky had a beer of some sort. Then we sat there, looked around, watched the music videos and finished our drinks. there were no sailor men there what so ever. As we left the Hard Rock Cafe, we tried our luck at Bubba Gumps for some socializing. When we went to that bar, there was only one person sitting there, upon seeing that, we turned on our heals and left. We walked a few more blocks but were very disappointed because we had not seen any bars or men in uniform for that matter. As we turned around the sky grew dark and large rain drops started to cascade upon us. After finding our next target, Planet Hollywood, we dashed up the street, took the cross walk and arrived to another hopeful oasis for singe Navy men. At this bar it was crowded and we had to wait for some stools. After sitting down with our beverages of choice we enjoyed the fun atmosphere. the restaurant had a large pillar in the center and tables formed around it. The place was in a circular shape with the bar and booths on the outer most edges and a "yellow brick" road for an aisle way. there were large TV screens with music videos playing on them and military memorabilia and weapons (my guess...to celebrate for Fleet Week). Long story short, we were drinking in mid afternoon. We took the subway back to downtown and then back to Jersey for an evening in. that sums up my Memorial Day adventures.