Around the peninsula of Manhattan

Thursday was the last day we had to spend together. The Shaffers leave tomorrow for Washington DC and we will stay on in NYC for three more days.

We took the Circle Line boat tour around the island of Manhattan. Unfortunately, today it was only a peninsula tour as the tide was in and we could not go under the bridges that crossed the Harlem River. We only got to go north as far as 95^th Street on the East River and about the same distance on the Hudson River. But, it was fun seeing the buildings of the City from a new prospective. I learned that the structure I was trying to describe yesterday in Hudson Yards is called The Vessel. It’s design was inspired by the Stepwells in India. These are wells dug down to the ground water level. Then the sides of the well are lined with steps so people could actually walk down into the well to collect their water. So the Vessel is actually an above ground stepwell with people walking up from the bottom of the well as far as they want to.

After the boat trip we decided to have an iconic New York meal and go to a deli for dinner. There are many delis to choose from, although considerably fewer delis have survived over the years. We went to Ben’s Deli on 45^th and 3rd Avenue. It was quite satisfactory for our last New York meal together. We also got to experience our last time traveling through the congested streets of New York on the crowded buses. Luckily it only rained when we were inside, so we did not have to wait for buses in the rain!