Steve and Syl in New York July 4th

It was just like the song, "Saturday...in the park...you'd think it was the 4th of July..." And to make it more fun Steve and Syl were coming to NYC to celebrate their 30th anniversary! Once again we were on the subway downtown to meet them at their hotel. While there we took them up on their offer of a shower in luxury, which we haven't seen in a while.
A hot shower and relaxing in Uncle Steve and Auntie Syl's hotel.



Time Square tourists

Having only this one day together before we set sail again we packed in a few more things. A tour around times square and then on the subway to Central park. This time we went to see the Dakota - John Lennon's appartment where he was shot - another day the music died. Across the street from the Dakota we wandered through the section of Central Park renamed Strawberry Fields. After this nice stroll on a beautiful sunny afternoon we headed down 79th street to the marina and stopped at the Boat Basin Cafe for supper. The police presence in the area was pretty encompassing. They were out in full force working crowd control for the big fireworks show.

Catching up on Tiffany Rose before the fireworks.

After supper we hopped into the dinghy and ferried out to Tiffany Rose to take our ring side seats. It was fun to have Steve and Syl back on the boat after spending a week together in the Florida Keys in March. Much different environment hanging out on the Hudson River in NYC!
After dark the show started. At first we were dissapointed as it seemed like it was very far down the river and hard to see, and then KAPOW, as Christopher says, the big show started. Five barges just down from us started sending off what was advertised as "the biggest in the country". It was pretty spectacular and being so close the sound added to the wow. Boats were all over the place and we were treated to one sail boat of minstrals cruising around the mooring field playing and singing, and a wee bit of drinking as well. There are lots of youtube videos of the fireworks at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rqme_pKNeM&feature=related

Then it was back in the dinghy for a night ride to shore and a big goodbye - see you soon! They will be here for another few days while we head up to Catskill to take the mast down in preparation to venture into the Erie Canal.