Home again, take three

I'm back in DC with no immediate plans for more travel. It isn't exactly how I wanted it to end - I'm a few hours early because a minor ailment forced me to cancel this afternoon's visit in Philadelphia - but the trip was a wonderful one nonetheless.

Here's a wrap-up of yesterday and today:

I started at Singer's home in a quiet village on the Hudson River - an hour of delightful conversation covering everything under the sun, lots of snuggle time with her 18-month-old daughter, and a second breakfast with one of Michael's yummy veggie fritters. Then on the road again, laden with basil and chard from their garden, a gift to my hosts in Brooklyn, Adam and Kelly. I completely forgot to take pictures - bad blogger!

After a tour of Adam's art studio I caught the subway to hot and steamy lower Manhattan to revive a favorite ritual, the best cheap ride on Earth: the Staten Island Ferry from the Battery to Staten Island and back again. I had abandoned my 40 years' tradition shortly after 9/11/2001 because the following January I found the view of the Financial District without the Twin Towers too painful - the images that come to mind are dental and gory, so I won't spell them out here, but that's how it looked and felt. I was ready for another try after nine years' healing (of the skyline and of my heart).

It was good. The outbound ride was on one of the smaller boats with almost no outside deck space; the returning boat was larger but the doors to the fore and aft upper decks are locked nowadays. So I took dozens of photos hanging over the side railings, very conscious of how easily I could lose my new phone overboard. I should also mention that the harbor is a great place to be when the weather in the city is muggy, and the ride is now free! Here's a view of the Financial District, transformed almost beyond recognition by new construction since I last saw it from this angle.

Here's a small bit of the harbor traffic, which showed me that my comment in this blog after visiting Bar Harbor, about how activity in New York Harbor has declined since the early 1960s, was wildly exaggerated. That's the skyline of Hoboken, NJ, in the background, also transformed with recently added buildings.

From the Battery at the tip of Manhattan I took another subway to Greenwich Village and walked a half-dozen blocks east to visit Rae's and my friend Matt, co-owner of Porchetta, a neighborhood shop doing a land-office business in delicious Italian pork sandwiches and platters (with other choices if you don't eat pork), mostly take-out and delivery but with a few seats if you want to eat in, as Laura, another friend, and I were delighted to do.

Then back to Kelly and Adam's lovely apartment for more great conversation, and back on the road this morning for the four-hours-plus ride home. I forgot to check the odometer, so you can expect another post soon with some facts and figures about the three wonderful road trips I've taken this year.