Back To The Good Ole' U.S. Of A.!!!
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2007
1
18
20
Trip End
Sep 29, 2007
Cape Liberty,
New Jersey,
United States
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The alarm woke us up at 5am today and we joined a lot of the other passengers on the top decks to watch us sail into the New York Harbor with our final destination of Cape Liberty NJ. It was very humid and everything on the decks was soggy and wet. The Statue Of Liberty was straight ahead of us but because of the humidity haze and predawn hour, we couldn't see her well. The ship finally arrived at the dock and we spent at least half an hour backing slowly into the pier. After a lot of picture taking (which didn't try out well) we went to get our final breakfast.
Then it was back to the room until it was time to make our way to the Rendezvous Lounge on Deck 4 aft to await our disembarkation call. We were Beige 1 group which was the 2nd group to be kicked off. Ship personnel said that it was taking extra long to unload the luggage which then had to be x-rayed by customs officials. Once that was completed, customs had to come onboard and clear the ship. We were scheduled to disembark at 8:50am and finally got our call at 9:35am. Luckily we're staying a few more days and weren't in a hurry. Better to have at least 1 day both pre- and post-cruise to avoid little snafus like this.
All passengers were herded onto a bus which drove us to the immigration building less than a mile away. There we quickly located our bags thanks to them being the same color (except for 1 small black one) and all having red luggage grips. (Future travel tip to remember!) Then we fell into short lines to see a customs official and the wait was only 5 minutes, if that. I told one of the staff how nice it was not to have to wait over 2 hours like we did in London. We handed over our passports, immigration forms, were asked how much alcohol we were bringing in and the friendly official said, "Welcome back!" I noted our passports didn't get stamped for re-entry.
We picked up our rented Cadillac CTS, set up the Garmin GPS and headed out to Long Island. New York City highways have few lanes, heavily traveled and are not in great condition. At least you can't drive fast or the wheels would bounce right off!
About an hour or so later we arrived in Mastic Beach and found the house where John's grandparents had lived. The house was just as he said, only 5 blocks from the ocean. He remarked that the neighborhood had changed quite a bit and the trees were taller, but some familiar landmarks remained. I guess change is inevitable since he moved away in 1972! Next stop was the house he grew up in. Years ago, their house was only one of two on the entire block and they were one of the few families in the area who lived there year-round.
Next stop was Montauk Point to see the lighthouse on the eastern tip of Long Island. We drove through forests and wooded areas, much to my surprise. I had always imagined Long Island as being an all-urban area but I was proved wrong. So this was "The Hamptons" where the well-to-do live in the summer. I would hate to see traffic in the summer as the main road in and out is mostly just 2 lanes with lots of stop lights. At long last the lighthouse came into view but because we were running 2 hours later than planned, and it was $6 just to park the car, we took a few photos and left.
Our last stop was Calverton National Cemetery where we located John's brother's grave. We laid some flowers at the marker, took photos and made note of the exact location. This was another heavily-wooded area and we saw a badger and 2 deer.
After a very long day we finally made it to our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn in Islip. We checked in, dropped off the luggage and went to Red Lobster for dinner. Luckily for John they had the Endless Shrimp promo which he took full advantage of, and I had my favorite, the Classic Fried Seafood Platter. We were both famished because we hadn't eaten since early morning.
Back at the hotel, we used the computer at the business center to download one of John's camera memory cards and burn it to a CD. Now he'll be free to snap as many photos as he wants in the city tomorrow. Then we organized everything for an early wake-up call and went to bed..
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
