After the Long Island Regional event it was time for us to begin the trek home - after all, we had been on the road for more than a week. I did, however, manage to sneak in a plan to see a few more lights on the way out of NYC. Roy & Carolyn McBee, Judy Rath & Suzanne Murphy decided to make the Sunday run with us. Saturday we stayed at a hotel up towards LaGuardia Airport so we would be in a good starting position for our Sunday tour.

Traveling to the hotel had the ladies pretty much cracking up as we headed down SR25A, Queens Boulevard, toward the hotel. They were reading the various store signs and road signs – the signs do offer a rather interesting read as you drive past. After checking in, we took a brief walk before returning to the hotel lobby where we sat back and watched our own little old reality series as it unfolded in the lobby. I won’t go into details about the events since this is a family forum, but do ask one of us the next time you see us!

Sunday morning we headed out for our first light of the day, Roosevelt Island. The light is also referred to as Blackwells Island in some lists. On the way to Roosevelt Island I determined that NYC only has about 100 or so names it uses for street names. By the time you cycle through street, avenue, boulevard, place, lane, circle and whatever others they can come up with you can get by with a very small number of actual names. See what I mean?


But, I digress. . . . .

The light on Roosevelt Island is at the north end of the island, which sits in the East River as it nears Hell’s Gate. The 50’ tall light is constructed of gray gneiss stones and cut granite found native to the island. Completed in 1872 the light served as a private aid to navigation for some 70 years. The light was designed by the same man who designed Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. While the area leading to where we parked did not inspire confidence in the surroundings, the light itself was in a very nice little park (Lighthouse Park, strangely enough). There were some walkers and joggers in the park while we visited. If you have the HL piece, it is an excellent replica of the real light.



Leaving Roosevelt Island, we headed back into Queens before heading into Manhattan by way of the Midtown Tunnel ($4). Making our way across the island to its west side and Pier 63. Poor signs and confusing directions caused me to miss the parking for that pier, but we headed into a pay lot for the next several piers. Noticed that the first 20 minutes were free, so the race was on! We turned down the first pier and found absolutely no vacant spaces. Wasted a couple of precious minutes, but we did find space on the next pier (the one advertising the gym – guess no one wanted to work out on Sunday morning). The mad dash was on as we now had only about 17 minutes to make the journey back up several piers to where the Lightship Frying Pan was berthed. We took our photos and retraced our steps to the parked cars. Made it out of the paid lot in just under the allowed 20 free minutes, having had our morning exercise. According to the Frying Pan’s web site, you can have parties and such on board. Maybe we should have a wacko gathering there the next time we go to NY.




Next stop was the South Street Seaport Museum to view the Lightship Ambrose. Turns out the piers were also the finish point for a two day breast cancer awareness walk. We were able to find parking at meters just a block or so away. Both of these lightships appear to be in very good shape.



While in a little gift shop at the end of the pier at the South Street Seaport, there was a man wearing a rather interesting (at least to me) t-shirt:


continues in Part 2