New York City and Pennsylvania 2023

NEW YORK CITY AND NORTH JERSEY



The kid thought New York was overwhelming – first, the walking, and second, the crowds. Times Square the day after the Hamas attack was predictably loud and chaotic.

But even for a suburban kid, NYC has plus sides. Like NYC pizza! And Hamlet, the Algonquin Hotel cat (below, credit Daily Mail)!



And the Natural History Museum! I have to say that the California Academy of Science still beats it. I’m typically suspicious of virtual exhibitions with computer graphics (can’t I see this at home?) but they took advantage of the immersiveness allowed by the use of projectors – walls and floor are all part of the imagery.







The next day, the Statue of Liberty was a big hit, but not as much as the Ice Cream Museum. (Don’t take the edible slime on the flight home with you, it sets off the chemical detectors at security.) Later that day I got my Scotch egg at Fraunces Tavern, where Washington gave his farewell address to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War (interior shot credit Tripadvisor.)










After that, I finally did my run across the Brooklyn Bridge, then back across the Manhattan Bridge, up the East Side past Chinatown and Bellevue to the U.N. Notes: somehow I was surprised at the crowd on the Brooklyn Bridge; I realized my default assumption is that the places I want to see are obscure. The Manhattan Bridge is LOUD when the train goes through to the point where, if I lived there, I would bring earplugs or avoid the bridge. In Chinatown I overheard an earnest young man tell his friends in a crowd "Bro I just matched with that girl on Hinge!" I used a public restroom at Lion's Gate Field which was mumblingly reviewed by the homeless man who entered ahead of me as "motherfucking filthy." Unsurprisingly, less than 2 days after the Hamas War began, there were big protests next to the U.N. Notes:
















Above, evidence that there really is a neighborhood in New York called Dumbo. Below, now going across the Manhattan Bridge. Between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges is Main Street Park, which has an actual beach - would not have expected that.






Above, Brooklyn across the East River. You can't keep going north past the Platform (because of U.N. security issues?). Below, the U.N., and also, due to my extreme metalness, after some light editing, my metal pose is indistinguishable from the album cover. One block in there were opposing Israel-Hamas rallies.










Differences in NYC from five years ago: SO MUCH WEED in Manhattan. On the West Side I smelled weed on most blocks. Not an improvement. Also saw blatant grab-and-runs twice from the same 7-Eleven in two days. Also we had to make reservations for the Museum of Natural History. Like wine-tasting in NorCal, museum-going in New York has gotten less fun and spontaneous.

Also (not specific to NYC) the kid has only ever seen non-streaming television in hotels and refers to it as "channel TV." (As used in the sentence, "Channel TV is stupid" when we couldn't rewind something.)

I looked for 7 different Toynbee tiles and none were still there, although I'm pretty sure that I could see where one had been pressed in then pried off; here ends my quest of trying to find one.

Also note: Google lists Penn Station as being at 34th Street and 10th Avenue. It is not, and there is apparently no way to submit a correction to Google Maps.



During the last day we visited Rockefeller Center (just being set up for skating) and of course FAO Schwartz, some of whose toys I couldn't figure out how they worked. It's like living in the not-too-distant future! I should note that during our time in New York, on two occasions, a German-speaking child approached the kid at the top of something (a sliding board in Battery Park, a rock in Central Park.) This is consistent with the wife’s racist theory of hiking and climbing, that people of Germanic descent are a mountain and forest people who instinctively seek out high places and often find their countrymen there. In North Jersey we enjoyed the Rainforest Café (if you have kids, go). Things we missed: in NYC, One World, and getting a drink at Stonewall. In North Jersey: I STILL have not ever been to Princeton. And, hopefully the Holmdel Antenna will be preserved, so I don't have to be in a rush to get to it. This was the microwave antenna where the cosmic microwave background (the echo of the Big Bang) was discovered. Having recently been in the New York Times among other publications of note, now hopefully it is receiving more attention.


PENNSYLVANIA

On the way to PA, I finally got to Washington Crossing (why isn't this visited more often as a historical site?) and New Hope, which I'd somehow escaped. Northern Bucks County is really pretty, especially in the fall, as is all of Pennsylvania. I actually felt a little homesick flying back this time.


Above, Washington Crossing, credit kids.outdoors.org, and below New Hope, which when you look up "cute little town" in the dictionary, this is the picture they use, credit Grace Paradise on flickr.



And once we got to old Berks Cauwndy, we ate. We ate Lebanon bologna, and ring bologna, and drank cream soda, and ate lebanon bologna, and shoo-fly pie (from Black Buggy Baking Company in Oley - get the moist kind) and finally, the cheese wheel at Mangia! Cheese wheel. Cheese wheel.

Above, Black Buggy Baking Company, below a shoo-fly pie whose charms were such that I couldn't stop to get a photo before I dug in. Below that, the Doghouse hot dog restaurant (note the Berks County dog, though we were just there for cho-chos.)








Above, someone set up us the cheese wheel of doom. (Image credit berkscountyeats.com)


We finally got to the Deitsch Eck, an awesome PA Dutch restaurant in the metropolis of Lenhartsville, along with Motoo the Egyptian (who also made an appearance here). Highly recommended. The staff are warm, friendly and funny (decidedly un-PA Dutch actually but we'll let it slide.) Among many other things, we had scrapple (duh), apple butter, and yet more shoo fly pie for dessert (which I haven't been able to find anywhere in NorCal, nor could I make a passable one myself.) Normally I don't like scrapple (this is why they made me move to California) but this was tasty.



Chakey!



Ah, earthy humor


And this is where I must disclose my shame as a parent, that the kid somehow escaped Berks County without eating sauerkraut, scrapple, funnel cake, or even shoo fly pie. I am being called to the PA Dutch High Council to answer for this omission.

I was grateful to get over to Blue Marsh one morning for a beautiful autumn run, straight out of a painting. Criminally underrated, most of all by me when I still lived in the area! I've done my best to make up for it in previous visits.

























I also, without meaning to, drove through Stonersville. That town is not capitalizing on their name at all, similarly to Cool, California. (Image credit Reading Eagle.)




Other exciting events: my high school was kind enough to let me corrupt the minds of innocent students in exchange for having a good old high school lunch. (In all seriousness, I was honored the school would have me, thanks to the faculty and students who gave me their time and attention.) It was actually really surreal being back there, since I hadn't been back for over 30 years. You know those dreams where you can't find the exam room and you're panicking? Every time I'd been in those hallways for the last thirty years (or my mind believed I was) I was panicking, so maybe that's why I was uneasy. It's also a bit disconcerting how much I've forgotten. Did I ever know we had two gyms? I couldn't even remember where the library originally was.

Yet MORE excitement: finding a leopard frog in a creek at Nolde Forest (the second most underrated trails in Berks County), and driving across Bitzer Bridge (below, image credit Thoughtco and WabbyTwaxx on flickr.) As with so many things, until now I never noticed how beautiful leopard frogs were.





HERSHEY

Hersheypark was a blast. I hadn't been there since 1995 and I forgot that this New Pennsylvania keeps up with the times. That place has grown! There are what, 6 roller coasters? In truth I was kind of glad the kid was with me so I had an excuse not to go on the newer scarier ones. We spent most of our time on kiddy rides but I did get the kid on the Comet, and she was admirably brave though obviously a bit scared when we got to the front of the line. In the end she loved it. She's now the third generation who has ridden this roller coaster, the tamest in the park, though I often joke that it's scary because you wonder if the time you ride it will be when it will finally fall apart. The park used to close in September I think but some marketing person realized they were missing an obvious opportunity with Halloween, a holiday celebrated by giving children candy, and there was a trick-or-treat thing going one where the water park rides were closed but they had a path set to go through and get handed chocolate. Obviously popular! THe professional-grade s'mores were also a big hit. The wife commented that the doctors trained at the med school next door must have excellent education in diabetes management. (I know many doctors who did train there and one is in fact an endocrinologist, famed among other things for his ice-cream scooping ability.)



On the way up to State College there was an ill-advised stop at Gettysburg, which it turns out young children give exactly zero shits about. (And I missed a chance for a bonfire in the backyard of none other than the creator of celebrated tabletop game Maze of Minos!) Having missed this, I consoled myself with a visit to the Red Rabbit.




Make it a habit


Finally we were in State College. As ever, the evening began at the Gentlemen's Club, where we were discussing Wittgenstein over a game of backgammon.


An elevator of historical importance



I'm not sure why I took the above picture, or of many other things I apparently did that night. I do appreciate the gift of underwear from my dear friend Matthew. I will cherish it always.

Morning rolled around earlier than usual, raining and miserable, which probably didn't account entirely for my lack of conversational abilities or indeed any thought at all; I regret this as my friend and former roommate who I hadn't seen since 2003 made the trek up from Harrisburg, and we met at Penn's Cave, which somehow I had missed during my time at Penn State. You take a boat into this cave and it was cooler than I expected.









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Above, this sorry fellow was on the grass just outside the hotel. One of those random images of sadness and beauty that can sneak up on you anywhere.




We then repaired to Beaver Stadium, to view the annual sacrifice of a bad football team at homecoming. (The team was UMass and the final score was 63-0, largely owing to a standout performance by Hingle McCringleberry. The same could not be said for the Ohio State game the following week.) I prefer tailgating to the actual game, and my complaints about going to big metal shows are one tenth of my complaints going to a big football game. I very much felt the attitude of "it's your privilege to be here, so you'll endure whatever discomforts you must" which is hard to find in any other product except maybe Apple. And endure we did. Walking miles around the stadium in rain, wind, cold, and muddy fields for tailgating is especially fun if you have California footwear. The company made it worthwhile but I'm sad to say now that the whole family has seen a Penn State game, it may be my last for a long time, if not ever. But if it has to be, I'm glad to have been with my crew. Long live Ground Zero!


BACK IN NORTH JERSEY

For reasons I won't go into, I ended up spending a day in the charming airport hotel area surrounding EWR. For obvious reasons, I spent a lot of time thinking about the inhumanness of these areas. They're unattractive (see below - picture of the area around the hotel), they're confusing to navigate, and there's nothing to do there - which leads to the feeling of being trapped, if you're without a car. There's actually an interesting neighborhood behind Spring Street (For example Algarves looks great - too bad the only way to get there is a half mile walk in the trashy strip along a busy highway with no sidewalk. Why does this happen? I can't think of any motivation for the hotels or airport to conspire to cause this (to get us to use the snack bar in our room?) There are lots of airport hellscapes but this one has to take the cake. Out of spite I documented it; it's like its own ecosystem or urban zone. Even here, the autumn sky was nice.
























FIN