3/17/03 Julia Arazi visits me and I take her to the Post Office and on the Taxi Ride of a Lifetime, then Louie, the Pier, and the Night:





I had an absolutely wonderful day with an absolutely wonderful girl. Perfect from the weather to the conversation and company.


I woke up at about 11:00am as I was expecting her to call for directions to my place around noon.


The only errand I had to do today was put my taxes in the mail. So I figured that when she arrived, I would have us swing by my post office quickly. Midday on a monday... noone should be there yet, right? Wrong.


I know Julia from High School. She was a freshman when I was a senior, and the same holds true of college, except that I graduated early. She goes to Tufts in MA. She is on her spring break.


So after she saw my apartment, I suggested we walk through BPC, get bagels there, and sit on a bench by the water and chat.


After... of course... we go to my post office. At which there was a huge line. HUGE. But it moved quickly. I guess everyone's paying their business taxes today. All at once. At Bowling Green Postal Station.


Julia will kill me for this, as she is photo shy...


But here she is in the Post Office! Yay! I'm so much fun to visit!




Then we walked, and it was absolutely beautiful! 65 degrees. So nice for this frozen soul.


We got our bagels and sat on a bench as planned, and I was having such a good time, I forgot to take any pictures... which is the first time that's happened since I got my camera. So... no pictures. Fast forward:


We are sitting on the water, and as we're talking, we see lots of ferries going by. And I'm explaining what they do and where they go. And then she gets a phone call from her friends who she's meeting up with a little later. Apparently the plans change in such a way that she needs to be at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in about an hour. And I get an idea.


"Let's take the Water Taxi!"


A little history of ferries:

Ferries were the only way to get to Manhattan until they built the Brooklyn Bridge in about 1884. And even as they built many more bridges and tunnels... ferries were very common. But then they built the rail tunnels to New Jersey and Long Island in 1910. And within about 20 years, most of the ferries were struggling.


By 1968, only the Staten Island ferry was left, and that remained the case until the mid-80's, when Arthur Imperatore got the crazy idea of running ferries from New Jersey to Manhattan, to help people commute without using the entirely-congested alternatives. And everyone thought him to be crazy. But he had gotten wealthy from the shipping business, and invested his own money. Slowly and surely, his ferries gained popularity, as people, one by one, discovered how pleasant ferry travel is as opposed to sitting in traffic in a car or bus, on a train, or being jammed onto the PATH trains.


This ferry system was called New York Waterway. Now it's famous. And when the WTC fell on the path tubes to downtown, their business literally doubled overnight. They now have a fleet of 20 ferries, and serve over 10 places in NJ, 4 terminals on Manhattan, and two in Brooklyn and One in Queens.


So, the crazy idea wasn't so crazy afterall. Soon there was Seastreak, Fast Ferry, and a few others, though NY Waterway is still the king.


But then a horse of a different color came along: A company that wanted to have a Water Taxi service. Instead of competing with NY Waterway for NY to NJ traffic, they thought they might be able to make a living, shuttling people to various places on the waterfront of Manhattan. They stop at 42nd St, 23rd St, Battery Park City at the World Financial Center, Pier A at Battery Park, Pier 11 at Wall St. on the East River, and Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side. And then they go back. To go one stop it's $4. To go further than one stop, it's $8.


So, I thought! Hey, it's a lovely day, let's take the Water Taxi to 42nd Street from right here in Battery Park City, and walk to the Port Authority Bus Terminal a few avenues inland. Julia loved the idea and it was a plan. All smiles. All smiles.


But closed eyes:



And the water taxi pulls in within 5 minutes of waiting.



You thought I was kidding when I said Water TAXI? It's more checkered than the checkered cabs... which aren't checkered anymore. And I want to know why. It's so perfect. This little ferry pulls right up, and it has an electronic display on the front touting the next stop as 23rd St/Chelsea Piers. That is the right direction. One couple gets off. And we get on. We're the only passengers. I ask the "conductor" if business is good, and he was quite emphatic that it was. At $8 a head, I guess they do just fine, even with low mid-day traffic.


Julia and I were tickeled the entire ride.



This is the inside. Plush comfortable seats. All for us. I almost felt silly sitting right next to Julia as if on a crowded subway train. I guess New Yorkers just get used to certain things. :)


Here's the driver. NOT PAKISTANI. NOT A REAL TAXI. Yeah, I said it.



It was some ride. It's like a ferry crossed with a speed boat. It bounces up and down quite a bit. And then, I saw us about to pass through the large wake of a big NY Waterway ferry... and I grabbed on to Julia for dear life. She must have thought I was being a little forward... but only for a moment... because a second later, the "Water Taxi" goes flying up, then down, then up, like a roller coaster, as we hit that wake. It was AWESOME! I don't like roller coasters, but this wasn't nearly as violent. But it definately got the innards sloshing around.


We stopped at 23rd st, but nobody was waiting there, and we weren't getting off there, so they didn't open the doors, or even complete the docking proceedure. We were pulling in, and all of a sudden we were pulling out, on our way to our stop, at 42nd street.


I've wanted to do this for a while, and it was great to share it with someone who had as much fun as I did. It was an excellent trip, if not a little pricey, but good to try once as a tourist. I don't know who uses it on a daily basis, if anyone?





And we found ourselves at 43rd st. and 12th Ave. So we started walking in to 8th ave, which took almost 10 minutes.


And along the way, Julia was pretty sure that we had come upon Mr. Mumma's apartment. He was both of our AP European teacher. I think she's stalking him:



And then we were at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. From so much beauty all afternoon to one of the biggest blemishes on NYC infrastructure's map. So we went to Duane Reade. I wanted Cadbury Cream Eggs. Shouldn't they be out by now? I haven't seen one in the city yet. What's the deal Cadbury?



This picture was an attempt to get a good one of Julia with her eyes open. She kept hiding from the camera. I'm posting this one because it kind of looks like she's delicately holding the display rack that the kid in the background is looking at. Kind of like an M.C. Escher?


Fabulous afternoon. Thank you Julia!


I decided to ride my bike again today, so I took the subway back to my place, and hopped on my bike in time to be on the Pier by sunset.


Louie was on IM before I left, and I alerted him that I would be in his neighborhood on my bike, and told him to meet me on the Pier. He did!








CLICK HERE FOR SUNSET PANORAMA









The Empire State building and one tower of the GWB were all green because of St. Patricks day. The other tower of the GWB was dark because of construction. They only light up the insides of the hollow steel towers for special occasions... and it looks amazing when they do.



Empire State building pointing to the moon. Kids playing ball in a new field across from Chelsea Piers bound triangularly by 24th St., West Street, and 10th Avenue.


Once again, almost every time I'm on my bike I see something weird or different. This time it was one of those Hondas that has a hybrid electric/gasoline engine. It's a "clean car" that is being used as a security vehicle for patrolling Hudson River Park!: