Garfield hates Monday mornings. Sometimes, I do too, but this Monday morning was quite special.
We started out the day bright and early. Dad and I donned our fancy clothes for the NYSE, and then proceeded to haul Greta out of bed to get her dress on. Greta isn't exactly a morning person.
Dad led us to the Times Square subway station, where we boarded a train to Rector street. Rector street is right next to the site of the World Trade Center; the site of ground zero is still completely empty. Construction is currently in progress for making a handfull of new skyscrapers and two fountains at the foundation of the destroyed towers.
We walked away from the site, and to our delight the next street we saw was.... Wall Street! However, these days Wall St. is not so much of a street as a large pedestrian path with permanently placed police officers. There even was an K9 officer playing with his dog. It's not very often that you see an off-leash attack dog chewing on a toy!
Dad took us to the guest entrance to the New York Stock Exchange. Our reservations and IDs were checked, and our chaperone (One of Dad's connections from Blue Capital) came out to lead us in. Inside, our photos were taken, and we tried to explain our names to the ID manager. My ID came out as 'Marlow Durbin' after the man almost put me down as 'Low Durbing'. Greta wasn't so fortunate; she came out as 'Grenda Durbin'. We all joked about that as we walked onto the trading floor.
I can't explain how amazing it is to be in, essentially, the center of the world economy. Even before the opening bell was rung, men in suits were rushing around asking questions to other men and women stationed at stacked screens, typing furiously. I'd bet money that this floor has collectively over an acre of LCD. Maybe two.
The floor is divided into four rooms. Each room has a handfull of 'islands', each with about a dozen traders on the inside and outside staring at screens. I learned that the traders at each screen are assigned a handfull of stocks. They are in charge of meeting the buy and sell requests and determining prices. I didn't know that there is only one designated person for trading several companies' stock!
The next stop was a smaller, calmer room. Dad told me this is the new site of the AMEX, which is basically the Options trading area of the NYSE. Options, in a nutshell, are a type of derivative where you agree to buy or sell something in some amount of time for a certain price. However, unlike other derivatives, Options also include the ability to back out of an agreement.
After this amazing experience, we left the NYSE with many thanks to Dad's connection who let us in. We headed back to the hotel to change our clothes, and went back downtown to see the Statue of Liberty. Once we arrived at Battery Park, we headed over to look at the tickets for the Statue ferry ride. The tickets would have costed about 40 dollars total, had a 2-hour line and would only allow us to walk the grounds of the statue. Dad decided to opt out.
The rest of the afternoon was spent touring lower Manhattan, including seeing parts of SoHo, NoHo, Greenwich Village. Nothing can really top seeing the Stock Exchange, so we headed back to the hotel to chill. I took a nap for a couple hours, theb headed to dinner at a sushi restaurant. We finished up the day at the Columbus Circle mall. The reason Dad chose this mall is because it has a very famous statue in the front of a man with his, erm, southern region rubbed shiny. After this highlight of the evening, we chilled in a Borders, and headed back to the hotel to catch some Z's.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
I <3 NY!! (Day 19) 9/27/09
On Sunday, we groggily arose from bed and packed up for the Big Apple. After I finished my very delicious omelette and fruit, Dad and I headed out to Sara's. We picked up Greta, who was amazingly awake, and left our car with Sara and were chaperoned to the train station to New York City.
Our reservations in the train were for Business class, so our car was incredibly comfortable for a traincar It was the same quality as coach in an airplane, except there was about twice as much legroom. We got some work done, and before we knew it we were in the Big Apple.
Dad realized right as we boarded the train to New York that we forgot to bring our large Nikon D40 with us. It was still in the car.
He pointed out the fact that we are taking less pictures because it's rather tough to haul around a camera that large everywhere. He suggested the idea of getting a small pocket-camera.
We stepped out into the train station, and grabbed a taxi to tow our junk to the hotel. The first thing different about New York that I noticed was that the streets are lined with taxis, as normal, but they are all the same brand; NYC Taxi. Hmmm....
My first good view in NY was as we passed by a street running perpendicular to us. Dad told us to look out the window, and sure enough you could see probably 20 blocks down the street into a cavern of concrete. I then realized the sheer size of this city.
As if New York wasn't amazing enough, our next stop was our hotel in Times Square. Times square is by far like nothing I have ever seen before. The whole place is a cavern of advertisements, some massive billboards and some blaring electronic M&M ads. I think I was in a state of shock.
We quickly went into our DoubleTree, checked in, recieved our complimentary chocolate chip cookie (mmmm... still warm) and went up to our hotel. It was slightly larger than the Residence Inn in Boston, and Dad explained to us how this is incredibly large as New York goes.
After we put the bare neccessities in our room, I practically dragged Greta and Dad kicking and screaming out into the street, where I gawked at this canyon of cathode. (Well, these days the ads are all LCD, but alliteration must have its way.)
We then walked our way down to the other end of the square, and began heading North. Dad walked us past the Rockafeller building, where we speculated as to whether 30 Rock is filmed here or in Hollywood.
The street near the Rockafeller area is scattered with several shops which sell cameras and such. Dad walked into one and nearly bought a camera until I told him that he should comparison shop and preferably sleep on this investment. Of course, we walked past another shop where he was determined not to let me hold him up, and bought a camera. *Sigh*. We ended up with a 10 Megapixel Nikon Coolpix, which fits easily into a pocket.
Dad, Greta and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the north side of Midtown. We saw the glass Apple store, the southern end of Central park, and got chicken gyros on pita from a street vendor. These were actually quite tasty!
We then returned to the hotel and rested our feet for a bit. The last excursion for the day was going to Union Station, the New York cathedral (I can't remember its formal name) and dinner at an Italian place in that area. We finished up this amazing day at Times Square, which is all the more stunning at night.
As we were heading back to our hotel, we passed by a street painter. He was using paint-spray cans to paint a canvas an amazing night skyline of New York. His second painting was also of the skyline (he includes the World Trade center in remembrance) and he included the moon, stars, planets (layered before the blue night sky and protected with bottle caps during the overspray) and the Brooklyn Bridge. He sold them for $20, so of course we snatched it right up. I will put a pic of it soon. Quite incredible.
Our reservations in the train were for Business class, so our car was incredibly comfortable for a traincar It was the same quality as coach in an airplane, except there was about twice as much legroom. We got some work done, and before we knew it we were in the Big Apple.
Dad realized right as we boarded the train to New York that we forgot to bring our large Nikon D40 with us. It was still in the car.
He pointed out the fact that we are taking less pictures because it's rather tough to haul around a camera that large everywhere. He suggested the idea of getting a small pocket-camera.
We stepped out into the train station, and grabbed a taxi to tow our junk to the hotel. The first thing different about New York that I noticed was that the streets are lined with taxis, as normal, but they are all the same brand; NYC Taxi. Hmmm....
My first good view in NY was as we passed by a street running perpendicular to us. Dad told us to look out the window, and sure enough you could see probably 20 blocks down the street into a cavern of concrete. I then realized the sheer size of this city.
As if New York wasn't amazing enough, our next stop was our hotel in Times Square. Times square is by far like nothing I have ever seen before. The whole place is a cavern of advertisements, some massive billboards and some blaring electronic M&M ads. I think I was in a state of shock.
We quickly went into our DoubleTree, checked in, recieved our complimentary chocolate chip cookie (mmmm... still warm) and went up to our hotel. It was slightly larger than the Residence Inn in Boston, and Dad explained to us how this is incredibly large as New York goes.
After we put the bare neccessities in our room, I practically dragged Greta and Dad kicking and screaming out into the street, where I gawked at this canyon of cathode. (Well, these days the ads are all LCD, but alliteration must have its way.)
We then walked our way down to the other end of the square, and began heading North. Dad walked us past the Rockafeller building, where we speculated as to whether 30 Rock is filmed here or in Hollywood.
The street near the Rockafeller area is scattered with several shops which sell cameras and such. Dad walked into one and nearly bought a camera until I told him that he should comparison shop and preferably sleep on this investment. Of course, we walked past another shop where he was determined not to let me hold him up, and bought a camera. *Sigh*. We ended up with a 10 Megapixel Nikon Coolpix, which fits easily into a pocket.
Dad, Greta and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the north side of Midtown. We saw the glass Apple store, the southern end of Central park, and got chicken gyros on pita from a street vendor. These were actually quite tasty!
We then returned to the hotel and rested our feet for a bit. The last excursion for the day was going to Union Station, the New York cathedral (I can't remember its formal name) and dinner at an Italian place in that area. We finished up this amazing day at Times Square, which is all the more stunning at night.
As we were heading back to our hotel, we passed by a street painter. He was using paint-spray cans to paint a canvas an amazing night skyline of New York. His second painting was also of the skyline (he includes the World Trade center in remembrance) and he included the moon, stars, planets (layered before the blue night sky and protected with bottle caps during the overspray) and the Brooklyn Bridge. He sold them for $20, so of course we snatched it right up. I will put a pic of it soon. Quite incredible.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Mark Twain's House (Day 18) 9/26/09
Today, we got to go to the house of Mark Twain and the house of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Two seperate houses, of course.
We started off with Mark Twain's house. It's a quite an enormous house, and believe it or not he built it even before he published his hits Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The house has 11,000 square feet, 3 floors and beautifully exquisite decorations. Unfortunately, he lost his fortune and had to move out when he made a bad financial investment. Ah, too bad.
After the Twain house, we decided to go to Taco Bell for my first time! I got a burrito! It was awesome!
The next destination was the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. Stowe's house sits probably no more than 100 feet apart from Twain's, and it's less than half the size. We had a funny and informative tour guide, and we listened while we filled out the scavenger tour sheet that was given to us. It consisted of around a dozen pictures of objects in the house, and Greta and I found all of them. Actually, I found all but one and stole the answer off of Greta's answer sheet. Classic me.... =P
The day was wrapped up with Luna's Pizza at our second night at Sara's house. Greta ended up sleeping over there, to Dad and my delight.
We started off with Mark Twain's house. It's a quite an enormous house, and believe it or not he built it even before he published his hits Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The house has 11,000 square feet, 3 floors and beautifully exquisite decorations. Unfortunately, he lost his fortune and had to move out when he made a bad financial investment. Ah, too bad.
After the Twain house, we decided to go to Taco Bell for my first time! I got a burrito! It was awesome!
The next destination was the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. Stowe's house sits probably no more than 100 feet apart from Twain's, and it's less than half the size. We had a funny and informative tour guide, and we listened while we filled out the scavenger tour sheet that was given to us. It consisted of around a dozen pictures of objects in the house, and Greta and I found all of them. Actually, I found all but one and stole the answer off of Greta's answer sheet. Classic me.... =P
The day was wrapped up with Luna's Pizza at our second night at Sara's house. Greta ended up sleeping over there, to Dad and my delight.
Traffic Jam!! (Day 17) 9/25/09
Today, we woke up to do some driving and visit Plimouth. We hustled out of Providence, eastward towards Massachusetts.
Plimouth plantation is the site where the settlers who had the 'first thanksgiving' settled. We first watched an orientatoin movie, and then headed towards the Wampanoag village. This was a period correct village that featured several canoes, a firepit and a shelter that resembles a longhouse of sorts. The natives who were there did not pretend to be from that period, and they answered our questions in normal language. They were very informative.
The next stop was the English settlement, which included actors who pretended that they were in fact from the 1600s. They explained the tasks of the day and we got to watch a blacksmith forge metal into staves. There were a couple funny moments, like when one actress from the english settlement was asked for a picture by a tourist. She replied 'Pitcher? The pitcher's on the table. Would you like some water?'
Our last stop at Plimouth was the Mayflower II. This is an accurate representation of the Mayflower, staffed by both modern day and period-correct actors. We went to this, learned a bit (It finally stuck for me that the poop deck is named for the old french world for 'highest', and not for practical reasons). After, we left for Hartford.
We drove back through Rhode Island (picked up a postcard) and then drove to Connecticut. We unfortunately got stuck in an hour long traffic jam on 95. Thankfully we were assigned Johnny Tremain on tape so we had something to do. After what felt like a lifetime, we finally made it to the bridge that was causing the delay. It always amazes me how when just one lane is closed off, you get stuck in it's traffic for sometimes a dozen miles.
Finally, we arrived in Hartford at the Courtyard Marriott. We quickly checked in and left for Sara's House (Dad's friend from High School) to visit. Her kids are are 13 (Julian) and 9 (Emma) and we spent the night playing guitar and Guitar Hero. Julian also plays classical guitar, as is just a couple months younger than me, which is a pretty nice coincidence.
We left, and went to bed. Another fun driving day, except for that darn traffic jam.
Plimouth plantation is the site where the settlers who had the 'first thanksgiving' settled. We first watched an orientatoin movie, and then headed towards the Wampanoag village. This was a period correct village that featured several canoes, a firepit and a shelter that resembles a longhouse of sorts. The natives who were there did not pretend to be from that period, and they answered our questions in normal language. They were very informative.
The next stop was the English settlement, which included actors who pretended that they were in fact from the 1600s. They explained the tasks of the day and we got to watch a blacksmith forge metal into staves. There were a couple funny moments, like when one actress from the english settlement was asked for a picture by a tourist. She replied 'Pitcher? The pitcher's on the table. Would you like some water?'
Our last stop at Plimouth was the Mayflower II. This is an accurate representation of the Mayflower, staffed by both modern day and period-correct actors. We went to this, learned a bit (It finally stuck for me that the poop deck is named for the old french world for 'highest', and not for practical reasons). After, we left for Hartford.
We drove back through Rhode Island (picked up a postcard) and then drove to Connecticut. We unfortunately got stuck in an hour long traffic jam on 95. Thankfully we were assigned Johnny Tremain on tape so we had something to do. After what felt like a lifetime, we finally made it to the bridge that was causing the delay. It always amazes me how when just one lane is closed off, you get stuck in it's traffic for sometimes a dozen miles.
Finally, we arrived in Hartford at the Courtyard Marriott. We quickly checked in and left for Sara's House (Dad's friend from High School) to visit. Her kids are are 13 (Julian) and 9 (Emma) and we spent the night playing guitar and Guitar Hero. Julian also plays classical guitar, as is just a couple months younger than me, which is a pretty nice coincidence.
We left, and went to bed. Another fun driving day, except for that darn traffic jam.
Polls, my friends, Polls
Hey, if you're one of the 2 people who reads my blog, give yourself a pat on the back! One thing that I am having trouble doing is thinking up things for the poll that is probably to your right ---->
If you have any ideas whatsoever, I repeat, *any* ideas, please post a comment to this post with them. I can even put up multiple polls, so feel free to share your ideas, nomattter how goofy they might be!
Thanks,
Marlow
If you have any ideas whatsoever, I repeat, *any* ideas, please post a comment to this post with them. I can even put up multiple polls, so feel free to share your ideas, nomattter how goofy they might be!
Thanks,
Marlow
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Fun Driving Day!! (Day 16) 9/24/09
On day 16 of our journey, we awoke, packed up and left the Residence Inn at Boston. We then left for Salem.
Salem, in a nutshell, is the maritime town that dates back to the 1600s and has a history of killing people that it thinks are witches. Well, not exactly. The whole witch scare happened only in 1692 and never since then, but you get the idea. Lately it has become a tourist attraction with many shops and wax museums.
We arrived, and went to the highly touristy Salem Witch Museum. We got there just in time for their creepy witch presentation. The presentation was in a completely dark room, and started out with just an illuminated red circle with the names of those killed on the floor. This light went out, and then a spotlight pointed at objects on the wall (ie, a wax-figure diorama of the trials, hangings, and the devil) as a narrator told the story. It was done quite decently as it did actually scare me. After the presentation, the curator took us through a small exhibit with the stories of how midwifes ended up being blamed as witches, the history of witches and modern day witches.
Once this was done, we left for the historical maritime area. We watched another video presentation explaining the trade ships of different eras. The height of Salem was after the Revolutionary War, as privateer ships were converted easily to well-armed trade ships. It is said some people thought Salem was a country, for as many ships as it had. Sadly, the shipping was frozen during the War of 1812. When it re-opened, the ships of the day became too large for the harbor and the major shipping business shifted to Boston. The business slowly declined, until the last ship of an era tied finally tied up for good in the early 1900s. Salem's economy switched to mills, and is now a prominently tourist town.
After this visit, we went to the House of Seven Gables. The actual story of the house is somewhat different from that of the book, so when a woman bought the house in the early 1900s to save it from demolition, she altered it a bit. She also added a small ‘cent shop' (which were typically mad e by middle-class families in the day to make a little profit) in one room. This is somewhat innacurate as the family actually had no financial need for it. They also added a secret stairway to the third floor of the house, which was also in the book. The house reminds me of something between a maze and Hogwarts!
After visiting this, we drove down to the tiny state of Rhode Island to meet Jon and Daniel. We had dinner at Angelo’s which is a great Italian restaurant. I would recommend it for it’s high quality food and surprisingly low prices. After this, we went to Daniel’s dorm, which is a lot bigger than mine was in CTD. He actually got a shared room with three girls that has a kitchen and living space; not to mention that it is right next to the entrance. It's a nice dorm.
Apparently this building was designed in the 70s to be ‘riot-proof’ after the crazy riot era of the 60s. He showed us the parallel stairways, confusing walkways and many a feature that I’m sure would have befuddled the average hippie.
Daniel then showed us around the Dining Hall, Library and where Emma Watson is rumored to have her dorm. En route, we saw two college students climbing a statue for unknown but presumably mischievous reasons. Ah, college life.
We wrapped up around the Science building, and left for our hotel. Pretty good for a driving day!
Salem, in a nutshell, is the maritime town that dates back to the 1600s and has a history of killing people that it thinks are witches. Well, not exactly. The whole witch scare happened only in 1692 and never since then, but you get the idea. Lately it has become a tourist attraction with many shops and wax museums.
We arrived, and went to the highly touristy Salem Witch Museum. We got there just in time for their creepy witch presentation. The presentation was in a completely dark room, and started out with just an illuminated red circle with the names of those killed on the floor. This light went out, and then a spotlight pointed at objects on the wall (ie, a wax-figure diorama of the trials, hangings, and the devil) as a narrator told the story. It was done quite decently as it did actually scare me. After the presentation, the curator took us through a small exhibit with the stories of how midwifes ended up being blamed as witches, the history of witches and modern day witches.
Once this was done, we left for the historical maritime area. We watched another video presentation explaining the trade ships of different eras. The height of Salem was after the Revolutionary War, as privateer ships were converted easily to well-armed trade ships. It is said some people thought Salem was a country, for as many ships as it had. Sadly, the shipping was frozen during the War of 1812. When it re-opened, the ships of the day became too large for the harbor and the major shipping business shifted to Boston. The business slowly declined, until the last ship of an era tied finally tied up for good in the early 1900s. Salem's economy switched to mills, and is now a prominently tourist town.
After this visit, we went to the House of Seven Gables. The actual story of the house is somewhat different from that of the book, so when a woman bought the house in the early 1900s to save it from demolition, she altered it a bit. She also added a small ‘cent shop' (which were typically mad e by middle-class families in the day to make a little profit) in one room. This is somewhat innacurate as the family actually had no financial need for it. They also added a secret stairway to the third floor of the house, which was also in the book. The house reminds me of something between a maze and Hogwarts!
After visiting this, we drove down to the tiny state of Rhode Island to meet Jon and Daniel. We had dinner at Angelo’s which is a great Italian restaurant. I would recommend it for it’s high quality food and surprisingly low prices. After this, we went to Daniel’s dorm, which is a lot bigger than mine was in CTD. He actually got a shared room with three girls that has a kitchen and living space; not to mention that it is right next to the entrance. It's a nice dorm.
Apparently this building was designed in the 70s to be ‘riot-proof’ after the crazy riot era of the 60s. He showed us the parallel stairways, confusing walkways and many a feature that I’m sure would have befuddled the average hippie.
Daniel then showed us around the Dining Hall, Library and where Emma Watson is rumored to have her dorm. En route, we saw two college students climbing a statue for unknown but presumably mischievous reasons. Ah, college life.
We wrapped up around the Science building, and left for our hotel. Pretty good for a driving day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
