We spent the better part of today (Feb. 28, 2025) in New York City.  We got in on the 27th fairly late in the evening, but early enough to get out to a restaurant for dinner.  On the 27th (Wednesday) we got on a train in Toronto, Ontario CA and rode it all the way to New York City.  I think I said something about the ride through Niagara (where we went through American customs) and all of those familiar upstate New York towns like Syracuse, Albany, Rome, etc.  It was an Amtrak train, but the crew out of Toronto was Canadian and they switched to an American crew in Niagara.

We had a reservation in a Holiday Inn.  Our room was on the 22nd floor and had a pretty good view, although the windows were really dirty.  That meant that my camera with its auto focus wanted to focus on the dirt on the window instead of what was out side the window.  We were focused on getting out of the room anyway and did get out - walked over to Penn St. Station and put our luggage in a storage spot provided by Amtrak for $10 a piece, so we didn't leave everything there.  We just left our roller bags.  We also met David G. there.  The booker for the trip put him in a different hotel from us.  Fortunately the clerk at the Holiday Inn managed to find his hotel and after going out to dinner he took a cab over there, and then met us at Penn St. Station.  

We all went to have a bite to eat at a food court near where we left our luggage.  Then Kristi and I walked out into the streets of New York to find the Hop On, Hop Off bus which was part of our tour package.  As it turned out it was a fairly long walk to get to the place where they confirmed our ticket and got us onto a bus.  

When we first got on the bus we went inside the bus. I realized fairly quickly that we would see almost nothing from the interior of the bus, and we spotted folks going up a little stairway which Kristi instantly knew was the "stairway to heaven".  Well. . . not exactly heaven, but exterior seats on the roof of the bus from which you could see the city as we rolled through it.  They also provided ear buds which plugged into an audio system that briefed you on what you were seeing.

 Of  course many times we were borderline aware of what we were seeing.  The audio threw in a few New York City songs such as "A New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel.  There were a number of musical interludes in the audio program, and some silly jokes too.  Eventually it got cold, was windy, and not as much fun as the initial bus ride, but it was sunny, and the visibility was good.  

At one point it was so windy that I changed my hat from western style cowboy to a cloth cap that would stay on my head a little better and still keep my head warm.  We are now on a train to Chicago where we will catch the train to Seattle and home.  It is Friday and we'll get home on Monday.  We'll see you there.