New York OctOBER 2025

We flew from Orlando to Newark and took an Uber to our hotel, the Fairfield Inn on 33rd Street. The hotel wasn't very special, but it was a good location. Our room was ready when we arrived so having settled in, we went for a walk in the local area. The impressive Moynihan Train Hall was just across the street. It used to be a Post Office but $1.6 BILLION dollars turned it into a very pretty railway station.

A couple of blocks away are the Hudson Yards shops and attractions, built over the still functioning train yards where commuter trains go to sleep.  We had a look around the shops and ate a light lunch before heading outside again.

The big attraction is the Vessel - a strange sculpture-like object with steps up from the ground. 

We walked along part of The Highline, which we had done before, but we don't think this stretch was open last time we walked it.

As we were on 33rd Street, The Empire State Building was an obvious landmark

That evening, we headed uptown to see a show "The Queen of Versailles". It's the story of  Jackie Siegel the wife of a very rich man (David Siegel) who wants to build "Versailles" in Orlando.

If you come from Orlando, the story resonates more because David Siegel is well known locally and was not well liked .  He died in April 2025.

Jackie is played by Kristin Chenoweth and David is played by F. Murray Abraham.

It's a musical and Kristin Chenoweth can certainly carry a tune, but the story is based on the actual life of Jackie and David and sometimes gets a little complicated. Still, it was a fun show and we enjoyed it.

Next day, we took the subway down to Battery Park and took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Once you get to Battery Park, it's hard to miss the Freedom Tower - all 1776 feet of it. 

We had a reservation for the ferry and for the Statue, but we still had quite a long wait to go through security and to get on the boat.

Of course, as we traveled across the river, we had to take pictures:

Once on the island, we headed straight for the base of the Statue, as we had tickets for the actual statue itself.

Once we had descended from the statue, we took a look around the island. The highlight is a museum and the main item in the museum is the original torch from the statue, which was replaced in 1986.

There was over an hour wait for the next return ferry, but we decided to go to Ellis Island anyway. It turned out the main building was under major reconstruction. We spent about an hour looking at some the exhibits, but we really needed more time. By now, we were getting tired and we worried we might have another long wait for the ferry.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for a ferry and we were soon on our way back to Manhattan and our hotel.

That evening we met for drinks at the roof top restaurant in our hotel.  The next day, we met everyone again for a boat tour of the Hudson River. Inevitably, our first big stop was the Statue of Liberty again, although we didn't get off the boat.

This time, we sailed up the East River and passed under the Brooklyn Bridge.

We also passed the Little Island Park, which opened in 2021, at a cost of $260 million. 

It looked interesting, so after the cruise, we took an Uber down to the park.

On our last night in New York, we all had dinner together at La Grande Boucherie, a french restaurant on 53rd street.  

The following day, we hired a car and drove to Godeffroy, NY, for a celebration of life for Seth Goldman, a friend of ours and brother of Debbie, another friend of ours.

We stayed the night in a Hampton Inn in Matamoran and next day drove back to New York for our flight home. All went well until Orlando airport closed due to bad weather and we diverted to Jacksonville. After some debate, we rented a car and drove home, getting home around 9:30 in the evening.