Hurricane Williams Hits NYC

Says Drew: “A hurricane hit New York after all.” He refers to Hurricane Williams, which landed at the 79th Street Boat Basin around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 11th and began a whirlwind tour of New York City that wreaked its own, unique path of destruction.

We were happy to get a slip at the Boat Basin, a rickety but charming marina run by the Parks Department, and as such a relative bargain. It’s also about four blocks from the Museum of Natural History. Almost the moment we were tied up, the four of us jumped off the boat and sprinted up the hill for a visit.

That pretty much set the tone for the rest of our week. We promised the kids that we would do all fun things, and boy did we. (When traveling with children it’s best to be an unabashed tourist.) Even better, we were able to reconnect with lots of long-time friends along the way.

Drew started keeping a list of our activities early on, which was wise. Take a gander….

Sunday:

• Lunch at the Boat Basin Café
• American Museum of Natural History

Monday:

• Lunch with Ted and Viv at Dizzy’s in Park Slope
• Brooklyn Bridge Park
• Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Street-dance show near City Hall (with Soren as a featured performer!)
• Dinner at Ivan Ramen in Lower East Side

Tuesday:

• Walked through Central Park
• Lunch at The Plaza Food Hall
• Carriage ride through Central Park
• Apple Store on 5th Avenue
• Walked down 5th Ave to Rockefeller Center
• Grand Central Terminal
• Snack at Grand Central Oyster Bar
• Chrysler Building
• Empire State Building 86th Floor observatory
• Matilda the Musical (fantastic)
• post-show dinner at B Side Pizza Bar

Wednesday:

• Picasso Sculpture exhibit at MoMA with family friend Jane Shea, then lunch
• Walked past our old apartment at 43 E 10th St
• Strand Books (aka Heaven)
• Washington Square Park
• Dinner with Agnes, Ava, Emme, and Adam at their apartment on 13th St.

Thursday:

• Checked into the Sheraton Tribeca (yay Starwood Points!)
• Lunch at Shake Shack
• One World Trade Center Observatory
• 9/11 Memorial
• Century 21
• Belated anniversary dinner at Prune

Friday:

• Lunch at Café Habana
• Nolita shopping
• Watched The Martian
• Dinner at Lombardi’s

Saturday:

• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• Lunch with Kelly and Brian at their apartment on Allen St. (fabulous spread from Russ & Daughters, conveniently located across the street)
• Dinner with Bob, Jen, Abbe, and Zane at La Défense
• Packed up and moved back onto the boat

Sunday:

• Breakfast from Zabar’s
• Provisioned at Fairway Market
• Bob and family visited the boat
• Cast off and waved goodbye around 4pm

That looks like everything, right? Actually we never made it to the High Line and Elsa never got to ride Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park (it was closed the day we went), but that’s ok, you have to leave wanting more. (Elsa now wants to move here, and while Soren doesn’t, he says he’d like to visit for a couple of weeks every summer, so we’ll call that a win.)

As you can see we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on our last day, and sailed past them again when we left on Sunday. I thought, of course, of my dad, who came here by ship from Denmark in 1956 and entered at Ellis Island. He said they rounded into the harbor at dawn, and everyone climbed up on deck and crowded the railings to look at the Statue of Liberty. After weeks at sea and many more months of planning and wondering, it must have been a moving sight.

What would he have thought if he knew we were sailing back out under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge almost 60 years later? It feels like we’ve come full circle. Although this trip is completely frivolous compared to his — he had $50, a job reference and not much else. “I thought this was my chance,” he once told me. I’m so glad he took it.

Anyway, if, like us, you’re left wanting more, here are some photos: