Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Chelsea peers
People of the T&V country who are concerned with their health and look for pleasant opportunities of walking a mile or more, with varieties of views and experiences, are very fortunate. Just consider the well-known varieties: Stuyvesant Town, with its circle of gardens and varieties of pathways; Riverwalk to the north, along East River, Riverwalk to the south, to xxStreet, also suitable for bicycling.We also have parks suitable for circling or traversing, Madison Square Park, Union Square, Stuyvesant, Gramercy.
If an East Side resident is willing to cross the island and enter new territories, there is the new park south of 16th street, all the way down to World Finacial Center and the Cove, a basin for ferries and pleasure boats. You might be hesitant, to travel on along the Battery City Promenade, to the Battery; believe me it is all right, not going there is giving in to the terrorists. We must conquer fear.
Today I'll stick with a really pleasurable plan, crossing the island along 17th, 18th or 19thStreet, on foot, or on 23rd, via the M23 bus, to visit Chelsea Piers, our local luxury resort. We went on foot, through through the above pleasant streets, stopping at the bookstores on 18th and Bed, Bath etc and T,J. Maxx on 6th Avenue, then past Ajax School, with its dreadlock and big pants crowd of students peacefully having lunch on the street, then the neat sidewalk gardens of the neatly rehabilitated Anglo-Italian brownstones and their high stoops and iron tracery railings, then the industrial/garage/warehuse area, until reaching 11th Avenue. The traffic was thick, but the crossing button at 18th worked miracles, and we were inside the Piers, passing a boatmarina of yachtclub proportions on the 16th Street side.
Chelsea Piers is a sports and entertainment area, housed on the four piers, 59 through 62, and their administrative and garage facilities in the sheds west of 11th Ave. We walked in thpough a gara and shop area, past a Chelsea Brewing Company, classy microbrewery and restaurant, looking gor the Golf Club. That was a four-story building, overlooking Pier 59, a 200-yard driving range with over 50 hitting stalls. Intrigued, we invested $15 for a card that, inserted into the stall's computer, would automatically send up 89 balls, one after the other, from a hole, neatly placed on a fat rubbet tee that can be elevated to a height from 16 to 30 milimeter, the only such tech facility known to man, in the US anyway (I suspect it is a Japanese invention). The balls seemed strangely lethargic, and flew low, but that might be our imagination, and a denial not uncommon among high-handicap players. You can also stop and come back to use up the balance of your card at a time of your choice, bringing clubs that you trust. Golfers are superstitious mystics.
Exhilarated by the experience, we walked along the riverside padded path nortwards, past major millionaires' yachts in the next basin, with the bowling alleys on our right. Pier 60, the Sports Center, was devoted to basketball, volleyball, track, swimming and sunbathing, with a cardiovascular and sports medicine facility - and rock climbing and a boxing ring for hardbodies.
There were more boats in the next basin, before Pier 61 and its two Sky Rinks, for ice skaters, seven days aweek, all year round. Figure skaters and hockey players abound. Roller hockey enthusisasts go to to Pier 62, which also has two outdoor rinks, besides space for inline and skateboard workouts. These two piers are the congregating places for league players, the boys and girls who bring immense gear bags on buses and elevators, and keep apologizing while banging your shins. No problem, carry on, teach something to the fatties and couch potatoes the US seems to breed, since recently. The Field House, on the right, walking towards 62, has gymnastics, more basketball, batting cages, a gym, soccer and another climbing wall .
We were perfectly happy walking about, enjoying the marina scenery, stopping for sandwiches along the 1.2 mile waterside promenade, when a young nautical fellow pressed some free tickets on us. It seems the New York Water Taxi company was conducting some test runs of their service, stretching from West 44th Street pier to the River Café under Brooklyn Bridge (closing 10/3). The big yellow catamarans looked sturdy, and we got into one (there seem to be three). The fast ride to the Intrepid pier, at 44th Street, took about three minutes. The navy-grey Intrepid, planes stackrd on the deck, was assturdy as ever, with the Destroyer 946 qnd the submarine alongside. There's what looks like a floating dock, named Little lake and marked Air Space Museum that looks worth checking out. Eight sturdy ladies with McDonald's bags, joined our company, as we turned around to go back south. The taxi has a captain, who drives the sturdy boat into the pier, protected with tires, and holds it there, while a mate opens bates and helps passengers cross in and out. While the boat pulls out, the mate bolts the two front entrance doors, until arrival at the next pier. The cabin holds 54 passengers, and there is a top dech, max 29 passengers, thst's how many can hold to the railings. Believe me that's necessary, the wavves of ther harbor are rough.
There are six stops on the route, and during the longest passage, to the Cove of the World Financial Center, the little taxi seems to match the speed of the trucks on the West Side Highway. We fly past the stubby remnants of old piers, the marinas and warehouses, and the new highrise buildings exploiting the view and the Hudson River Park facilities.
After the Cove, the passage gets crowded, with Statue of Liberty and Staen Island ferries crossing our path. The Battery stop is tight, as id Pier 11, near the 55 Water Street, the DST building, the hub of the capitalist system. The boat has to turn around to head out, a tight procedure, since New York Harbor has become populated with ferry boats, since 9/11 destroyed the rail facilities to New Jersey. New York Waterway ferries with meaningful names like Father Michel M Judge and Senator Frank Lautenberg trade passageways with the taxis and other boats. It is not quite a busy as the Inner Harbour of Sydney, Australia, where the much larger two-headed ferries serve the residents of that city, practically all of them living on its its 66 bays. In Sydney they practically touch sides while coming in and out, but we are getting there.
Finally, we cross to Brooklyn, at the foot of the bridge, looking out at the blooming Japanese rose gardens of River Café. Our ladies with lunch bags leave us, and a new crowd, including some tourers with bikes, join in. It is tricky to lock the two-wheelers against the railings in FRONT, but the mate manages. The home tour is uneventful total time about 80 minutes. A great experience, that will cost tourists $15, once the tests are completed and regular service starts, but it is neat, more adventurous than the XXXX .
If an East Side resident is willing to cross the island and enter new territories, there is the new park south of 16th street, all the way down to World Finacial Center and the Cove, a basin for ferries and pleasure boats. You might be hesitant, to travel on along the Battery City Promenade, to the Battery; believe me it is all right, not going there is giving in to the terrorists. We must conquer fear.
Today I'll stick with a really pleasurable plan, crossing the island along 17th, 18th or 19thStreet, on foot, or on 23rd, via the M23 bus, to visit Chelsea Piers, our local luxury resort. We went on foot, through through the above pleasant streets, stopping at the bookstores on 18th and Bed, Bath etc and T,J. Maxx on 6th Avenue, then past Ajax School, with its dreadlock and big pants crowd of students peacefully having lunch on the street, then the neat sidewalk gardens of the neatly rehabilitated Anglo-Italian brownstones and their high stoops and iron tracery railings, then the industrial/garage/warehuse area, until reaching 11th Avenue. The traffic was thick, but the crossing button at 18th worked miracles, and we were inside the Piers, passing a boatmarina of yachtclub proportions on the 16th Street side.
Chelsea Piers is a sports and entertainment area, housed on the four piers, 59 through 62, and their administrative and garage facilities in the sheds west of 11th Ave. We walked in thpough a gara and shop area, past a Chelsea Brewing Company, classy microbrewery and restaurant, looking gor the Golf Club. That was a four-story building, overlooking Pier 59, a 200-yard driving range with over 50 hitting stalls. Intrigued, we invested $15 for a card that, inserted into the stall's computer, would automatically send up 89 balls, one after the other, from a hole, neatly placed on a fat rubbet tee that can be elevated to a height from 16 to 30 milimeter, the only such tech facility known to man, in the US anyway (I suspect it is a Japanese invention). The balls seemed strangely lethargic, and flew low, but that might be our imagination, and a denial not uncommon among high-handicap players. You can also stop and come back to use up the balance of your card at a time of your choice, bringing clubs that you trust. Golfers are superstitious mystics.
Exhilarated by the experience, we walked along the riverside padded path nortwards, past major millionaires' yachts in the next basin, with the bowling alleys on our right. Pier 60, the Sports Center, was devoted to basketball, volleyball, track, swimming and sunbathing, with a cardiovascular and sports medicine facility - and rock climbing and a boxing ring for hardbodies.
There were more boats in the next basin, before Pier 61 and its two Sky Rinks, for ice skaters, seven days aweek, all year round. Figure skaters and hockey players abound. Roller hockey enthusisasts go to to Pier 62, which also has two outdoor rinks, besides space for inline and skateboard workouts. These two piers are the congregating places for league players, the boys and girls who bring immense gear bags on buses and elevators, and keep apologizing while banging your shins. No problem, carry on, teach something to the fatties and couch potatoes the US seems to breed, since recently. The Field House, on the right, walking towards 62, has gymnastics, more basketball, batting cages, a gym, soccer and another climbing wall .
We were perfectly happy walking about, enjoying the marina scenery, stopping for sandwiches along the 1.2 mile waterside promenade, when a young nautical fellow pressed some free tickets on us. It seems the New York Water Taxi company was conducting some test runs of their service, stretching from West 44th Street pier to the River Café under Brooklyn Bridge (closing 10/3). The big yellow catamarans looked sturdy, and we got into one (there seem to be three). The fast ride to the Intrepid pier, at 44th Street, took about three minutes. The navy-grey Intrepid, planes stackrd on the deck, was assturdy as ever, with the Destroyer 946 qnd the submarine alongside. There's what looks like a floating dock, named Little lake and marked Air Space Museum that looks worth checking out. Eight sturdy ladies with McDonald's bags, joined our company, as we turned around to go back south. The taxi has a captain, who drives the sturdy boat into the pier, protected with tires, and holds it there, while a mate opens bates and helps passengers cross in and out. While the boat pulls out, the mate bolts the two front entrance doors, until arrival at the next pier. The cabin holds 54 passengers, and there is a top dech, max 29 passengers, thst's how many can hold to the railings. Believe me that's necessary, the wavves of ther harbor are rough.
There are six stops on the route, and during the longest passage, to the Cove of the World Financial Center, the little taxi seems to match the speed of the trucks on the West Side Highway. We fly past the stubby remnants of old piers, the marinas and warehouses, and the new highrise buildings exploiting the view and the Hudson River Park facilities.
After the Cove, the passage gets crowded, with Statue of Liberty and Staen Island ferries crossing our path. The Battery stop is tight, as id Pier 11, near the 55 Water Street, the DST building, the hub of the capitalist system. The boat has to turn around to head out, a tight procedure, since New York Harbor has become populated with ferry boats, since 9/11 destroyed the rail facilities to New Jersey. New York Waterway ferries with meaningful names like Father Michel M Judge and Senator Frank Lautenberg trade passageways with the taxis and other boats. It is not quite a busy as the Inner Harbour of Sydney, Australia, where the much larger two-headed ferries serve the residents of that city, practically all of them living on its its 66 bays. In Sydney they practically touch sides while coming in and out, but we are getting there.
Finally, we cross to Brooklyn, at the foot of the bridge, looking out at the blooming Japanese rose gardens of River Café. Our ladies with lunch bags leave us, and a new crowd, including some tourers with bikes, join in. It is tricky to lock the two-wheelers against the railings in FRONT, but the mate manages. The home tour is uneventful total time about 80 minutes. A great experience, that will cost tourists $15, once the tests are completed and regular service starts, but it is neat, more adventurous than the XXXX .
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:44 PM 
