June 16-20                     Jersey City, New Jersey

Monday was a workday for us.  David had office work and I needed to clean the boat.  A late afternoon thunderstorm was good reason for him to retire for a nap and me to find my favorite place on the sofa and read.  My friend, Jean Andrus loaned me her copy of David McCullough’s epic work, The Great Bridge, about the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.  It is ponderous at times but mostly enthralling.  I thought it was perfect for our stay in New York.

I was ready to do museums.  It had been four years since I had visited MOMA and the Met.  David opted to remain on the boat and work.  By noon, I was at MOMA and enjoyed seeing again their fantastic collection of modern art.  The great Jackson Pollacks were not on view but Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse, and Robert Rauschenberg were well represented. The MOMA is situated in a beautiful building that displays well its large collection and is very accessible to the large groups of visitors that come every day.  I recalled my first visit many years ago in the old building, climbing steep narrow stairs, and being stunned as I immediately  was in front of Picasso’s Guernica, depicting the brutal massacre of a small Spanish village. It’s difficult to describe the emotional impact of that legendary painting, now in Madrid.

A short walk to Madison Avenue enabled me to catch a bus to 83^rd Street and the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I limited my visit to two hours and had decided beforehand which galleries I would have time to visit.  I wanted to see the newly conserved “Washington Crossing the Delaware” in the beautiful new frame that was a replica of the original.  This huge painting occupies a place of honor in the American Art galleries.  The new gilded frame was magnificent and the painting was deserving of its designation as an American icon.  I came upon a guide giving an erudite lecture on John Singer Sargent’s famous painting, Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, which we were told was revolutionary in its portrayal of a “modern woman.”  Next I visited the Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Vermeer galleries.  The Met is so rich in its stores of art that every visit, long or short, always seems inadequate.

A special exhibit on the Civil War presented a surprising number of paintings by Winslow Homer depicting soldiers and citizens during the war years.  I was familiar with his many paintings of the sea and the Maine coast but had never seen these works. Eastman Johnson, one of my favorite artists in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of Art in Fort Worth, was also well represented.  His paintings were beautifully detailed, poignant, and realistic. The exhibit was installed in the large new galleries below the famed Lehman Collection.

Taking the stairs upward, I was again in the unique spaces mandated by Robert Lehman when he left his valuable artworks to the Met.  Replicating the galleries in his New York townhouse, the rooms display an amazing collection of majolica, bronzes, silver, and paintings. Lehman was an important supporter of the Met for many years and the galleries, with the stipulation the works of art would remain forever in place, resulted from a prolonged effort to acquire his collection.  The Met has since decided this capitulation was a mistake and has refused to offer such a “carrot” to other prospective donors.

Rain greeted me when I emerged from the museum.  I took a cab to the subway at Times Square, then the ferry to Liberty Landing and the boat.  David had been on the phone most of the day with the office and clients.  Rain continued through early evening and we had a light dinner on the boat. It had been a good day for both of us.

The Tribeca area near Battery Park seems to be a great place for families.  Pocket parks are interspersed between offices and residential buildings.  There is a playing field, easily converted from baseball to soccer, covered in AstroTurf and a large dog park.  The sidewalks were filled with strollers, children, and dogs.   Across the street from Whole Foods is the new elementary school with its multi-use playground that is open to the neighborhood.  Stuyvesant High School is in the next block and is ranked one of the best in the nation.  Stuyvesant is a specialized school with emphasis on science and math.  In 2011, more than 28,000 students took the exam for the 800 available places in the eighth grade.  The school has four Nobel Laureates in its roster of many outstanding alumni.  Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General and David Axelrod, Chief of Staff for President Obama are graduates of Stuyvesant. Obviously, there is more to the education system here than the horror stories we read in the newspapers. We have enjoyed very much having the opportunity to explore this area of New York City.

A continuing problem with the heads prompted us to call for a repair person.  The new waste pump installed last fall in Baltimore proved to be the wrong kind.  It was a 12 volt pump and our boat required a 24 volt pump.  The present pump overheats quickly and sends erroneous signals that the waste tank is full.  Even though we know the tank has plenty of capacity, it is unnerving to think we could guess wrong and see waste coming from the bilge.  The new pump had to be ordered and we must stay at Liberty Landing for another day to have it installed.  This is not a hardship since the weather and scenery here are outstanding.

Vacation does not mean absence of work.  Wednesday, I spent most of the day cleaning the boat and doing laundry.  David had planned to start a new project but office matters kept him on the phone all day.  He even had to skip his afternoon nap.  Eager to escape the boat, we caught the 6:30 PM ferry to Jersey City, three minutes from the marina, and spent an hour walking through the lovely area adjacent to the Hudson River.

Lined with upscale residential and office buildings, the streets were surprisingly quiet with little traffic.  Most workers seemed to be coming from the city by ferry or the PATH train.  Flowers were everywhere.  We were reminded of Japan where every plot of land, regardless of size, was planted.  Although open spaces were small, Jersey City residents adorned them with plants and flowers. 

The evening was cool and lovely.  We agreed to have dinner in a restaurant where we could dine outside.  Amelia’s Bistro on Warren Street was the perfect choice.  The waitperson was a charming young woman who impressed us with her professionalism and efficiency.  As we often do at a new restaurant with an appealing menu, we order too much food.  We would prefer to have a tasting menu with small portions of many items, but this is rarely offered.

 We shared a salad of grilled octopus and calamari on baby arugula with cherub tomatoes and a delicious light oil and vinegar dressing.  It was outstanding!  We also shared a trio of tapas, brie with cinnamon apples comfit, manchego cheese with fig preserves garnished with those delicious little Marcona almonds from Spain, and sliced Roma tomato with white anchovies.  All were presented on toast points and were wonderful.  Another plate was baked pears and melted gorgonzola on flatbread. After all that food, we barely touched our sea bass on jasmine rice and sautéed broccoli rabe (it would make a delicious lunch the following day).  Amelia’s Bistro was an excellent choice.  We could not have enjoyed more the finest restaurant in Manhattan!

On Thursday, John returned with the new waste pump and had it installed within an hour.  The beautiful weather had continued another day.  We took a long walk into Jersey City and made our last ferry trip back to Liberty Landing.  We made ready to depart on Friday.  David added oil to the engines and I checked to be sure everything was secure.