Sunday, May 18, 2014

Visits to Connecticut and New Jersey

After New York City we took the train from Penn Station to New Haven, Connecticut. Unfortunately as we were walking through the station my left contact came out. We sat down and Rich checked my clothes and my hair looking for it. I walked over to where I was standing when I thought it came out and sure enough I found it on the floor. Someone must have stepped on it or rolled their suitcase over it because it is a little flattened out. So I am back to wearing glasses until I can get a replacement.

The train ride was comfortable and on time. Rae met us at the station and we hopped on the Yale shuttle to return to their apartment. We had a wonderful visit with them. One of the days, Rae joined us at the Peabody museum to see their exhibit of dinosaur eggs which also featured hatching emu eggs in an incubator and a new hatched emu for size comparison. Louise, Rae's mother, came up on Thursday and we all had dinner together and had a chance to visit.

Rae and her mother, Louise
Jesse painting his WOW figures
 
Stephanie and Bill drove up on Sunday to see Jesse and Rae's apartment and to meet Rae for the first time. After dinner we left Jesse and Rae and rode with Stephanie and Bill to enjoy some time with them. During our visit we had a chance to explore the Hudson River area, Red Hook section of Brooklyn as well as a matinee of "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder", which is up for 1ie
different Tony awards this year, and a fun dinner at Becco's with Anneliese, their daughter. Red Hook is an area of urban renewal. Some of the factory and warehouse buildings are being renovated and now house a winery, a whiskey distillery, a factory that makes chocolate, restaurants, glass blowing to help revitalize the area. Unfortunately this area was also hard hit by the storm Sandy. The Red Hook winery was just opening their doors when Sandy hit but they have been able to clean up, repair and rebuild and are open again.

Bill and Stephanie with the Statue of Liberty in the background
 
A door in Red Hook showing the water level from the Storm Sandy
 
On May 15th we flew to Seattle for the summer. We are enjoying the warm sunny weather.

More to come.



Thursday, May 15, 2014

Passenger

Waiting at the gate at Newark airport...

Friday, May 9, 2014

New York City photos

We had a great time in New York City, including walking up Broadway and Park Avenue, seeing the pterosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, and having a great dinner at the Brasserie Cognac, the same restaurant where we had dinner for our 25th anniversary.

Rich grabbing the world at Columbia Circle
Spring in Central Park

Pterosaurs! Glad they are not flying today

Elaine at Times Square

The Chrysler Building

Monday, May 5, 2014

New York City!

Our flight to Santiago was uneventful. From Santiago to Buenos Aires we had seats in first class, even though we paid for economy. It was the first time I had flown in first class. It was nice but it highlighted how awful our seats were for the flight from Buenos Aires to New York. We had two seats on the port side, window and aisle, which is great but... They were next to the bathroom on a A330, and there was a constant line of folks using it, all through the night, and it did not smell good either. But we survived.

Today was a great day in New York City. We walked through Central Park and spent hours in the American Museum of Natural History including a great Pterosaur exhibit. The fact that one of the pterosaurs had a wingspan as big as an F-16, pretty amazing. Makes you feel glad you did not live during that time, imagine one of them landing on your roof. It was a great exhibit and well worth the time. We also went through the Central and South American anthropology areas. It was fun seeing photos and artifacts from places we have visited.

Last night we ate at a great Italian restaurant and this evening we went out for Thai food. It is fun to eat some of the cuisines we have been missing in South America.

Not sure what we will do tomorrow...

Sent from SV Windarra iPad

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Flying north

We have been spending the last few days preparing to put Windarra on the hard at Club Nautico de Reloncavi. On Thursday afternoon at high tide we moved to the ramp for the lift. After discussions with the folks who operate the lift it was decided that we would back into the lift. We had to loosen the backstay, okay, no problem. Then once we were on the lift everyone realized that the items on the radar arch extended too tall so when the boat was on dry land the lift could not back out. So we had to take down the wind generator, the Iridium, wifi, AIS and DSC antennas. In the process the wifi and DSC antennas came apart. Not good. More things to fix. Anyway we did get to our assigned spot in the yard before the winds came up and it started raining. Friday Juan returned with the center fuel tank repaired and we put it back in place. We removed items from the deck and stowed everything below. We are having someone look after the boat and put in a dehumidifier so it is not a rain forest inside.

When the boat went on the hard we moved to the Hostel de Los Navigantes across the street. Pedro and Erika run a very nice place, warm showers, a heater in the room, a simple breakfast next to the wood stove. We will stay there when we return.

This morning Erika called a taxi for us and we took our first of many flights. Now we are at the airport in Santiago before our flights to Buenos Aires and then on to New York City.

We are ready to leave the southern winter for the northern summer.