Playing Tourist

Even though I live in NY, and have been around the city countless times, I still like to play tourist now and again. By tourist I mean, do the things that are set up about the city to show visitors the sights and sounds of our fair island. Every year they come out with new and inventive ideas and I hope to do more in seasons to come. Last year, or perhaps the year before, I decided to do one of the Double Decker tours. It was nice so I recommend it, especially hop on hop off. Just make sure you listen when they tell you where to catch the next bus. This year however, rather than go by street and get stuck in any grid lock, we went by boat through the NY Water Taxi C.O.
http://www.nywatertaxi.com/tours/hop
They have several packages out but again, Hop On Hop Off is the way to go. You can either stay on the boat the whole trip or get off at all or a few of the hop off locations. We got a decent deal and were able to purchase our tickets in advance through the kiosk on 42nd street (by kiosk I mean a person wearing a giant yellow flag and a fanny pack with a ticket machine inside- THERE IS NO STORE FRONT- we learned that the hard way. So look out for the flag and don't be fooled by the wall/window they have that has a "take your picture" thing in it. That wall will not get you tickets).
New this year, the company now uses Double Decker buses to bring you to the Pier where you will meet the taxi. They are still ironing out details with the buses, such as getting them to run as long as the taxi tour is running, but to grab it at least one way is decent. If you miss it, the walk really isn't that bad, but you might still like to hear what the guide on the bus has to say.
The bus meets you at FoxWoods theater (presently showing: Spiderman The Musical - Great special effects in the show BTW) and takes you down to Pier 84, home of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

With purchase of our tickets we were given discounts to go into the museum, but forewent the offer knowing the taxi would take up most of the day, and it did.
Pier 84 is a lot nicer than I remember. There is a mini water park for little kids, a dog run and a grassy knoll on which people can lay or picnic on, if one is so inclined, and if you are no in the mood to go by boat then you can rent a bike and go your own speed. Just be careful driving and watch our for cars and pedestrians.
This day at the Pier I was lucky enough to catch the annual Tug Boat Races and boy, it did not disappoint. I have never seen so many tug boats in one place before and though I missed the spinach eating contest I'm sure that was alot of fun too. http://workingharbor.com/tugrace_home.html

Reaching the finish line

The Meagan Ann-First place!

The Bronx- Last Place but still graceful and full of pride and cheer!

A bystander tug watching the race, just in case a tug needed a tug of its own.

And all the rest.

The boats showed off a bit, a harbor fire boat put on a water display, showing the power of its hoses and a speed boat with harbor patrol close in tow put on a short show. Then came the real games.

First the tugs made a big circle

Then they filled in the circle coming nose to nose with each other. Then with a puff of black smoke, it was on!

TUG BOAT WRESTLING!

And that was all she wrote- My taxi docked and I had to rush off for the rest of my NYC adventure.

See the tall netted structure in front of the freedom tower? Had the Titanic finished her voyage and made it into harbor, that is where she would have docked. The netting now represents the height and length of the ship and keeps the spot open "should she ever dock". Well really, the spot is now a driving range (golf) and the net is meant to keep balls from hitting boats and business' but it's symbolic enough, I guess.

Our guide was quite informative though most of the people on our boat didn't speak English. He tried and I think he got his points across as everyone rushed to whatever side he pointed out something interesting on, and took pictures excitedly.

One of our first stops was pier 17. It too had a very nice park, though I still don't really get the mushroom theme. *shrugs* from there we went to Battery Park to visit the 9/11 memorial, for more info see my previous post: http://tobynooler.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-day-of-remembrance.htmlThe walk was a bit long but still very nice. I never knew there were so many parks and gardens in the city, many of them very new by the looks of them. Our tickets for the memorial were included with our taxi tour tickets.

The Turkey of Battery Park. Every time I come down here I have to see if I can find it and take its picture. I don't know how many there are but its still a lot of fun to know we have wildlife beyond stray cats/dogs and pigeons running about.
From there we went to South Street Sea Port, walked across the bridge to Brooklyn, waited on a grueling long line for ice cream and ended up not getting any because the boat came before we got inside the tiny building.

Then we were off to cruise past Ellis Island and Liberty Island (we could not stop at either because it would infringe upon tour boats set specifically for those two spots) If you plan to go to Lady Liberty know in advance the line with be VERY LONG and you might be waiting A VERY LONG TIME. so get there early!

Lady Liberty, given to us by the French as a symbol of progression. What you can't see is that the statue is actually on motion/ posed as though she were on a march, ever moving forward. Immigrants are who gave her the image of all that means freedom. To them she was warm and inviting, yet strong and firm. A symbol of their futures in America.

I just barely remember the time you could get up close and personal with Lady Liberty, not you can just barely get up close.

Then we were well on our way back up to pier 84.
There are alot of water related activities you can do while you visit NYC. If a water taxi isn't your thing then why not try A circle line cruise, The Beast Speed Boat, A catamaran, a Sail boat, a kayak, a cruise ship, or even try your luck with swimming (in specified areas to keep you safe) Hey, they say the water's clean enough now...