Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary to us (2 years later)

Sam and I went to Michigan for our 25th wedding anniversary.  Yes, it was 2 years late and no, it wasn't Barbados, but we finally got away somewhere after COVID.  It was a nice quiet few days away together.  Ben stayed at our house to keep an eye on Maggie and they did perfectly well without us.  We stayed in 2 separate B&B places, both very nice.  Sam took his bike and went riding a couple of times.  I went running and got absolutely soaked-I have never been that wet in my life!!!!!

On our anniversary, we found a great little place to eat.  The silverware was wrapped in these spider napkins, so of course we had to send a picture back to Ben (our resident arachnophobe)

The restaurant was famous for martinis-mine was chocolate of course!!!!!

It was a tapas bar, and we got some of the best beef tenderloin we have ever had

We stayed outside of South Haven for the first 3 days, in a place with a small vineyard.  It was very nice and peaceful and we almost had the place to ourselves most of the time

We stayed in South Haven for the next 3 days, our room looked out over the harbour

We did a lot of beach wandering, sunset watching and general lounging around!!!!

Marie and Jane do new York-Day 5

Marie and I went to see Madison Square Gardens on our last morning.  It was a beautiful day (look at the blue sky)

We did our final walk on the Highline

Our final view of The Vessel (for now)

There are some really cool buildings in New York

We walked through Chelsea Market

I am so glad we did New York in the week, the number of people on Saturday was so much more than the other days we were there.  Times Square was crazily packed with people

All-in-all, it was a fantastic trip to New York.  So glad Marie suggested it

Marie and Jane do New York-Day 4

This was definitely our longest walking day.  It was forecast to rain all day, so we weren't holding out much hope, but we were luckier than we could have been.  We walked down the Hudson trail again.  This includes the Highline, which I don't have pictures of, but was a fantastic walkway that had been an old railway line and is now a walkway with plants on either side (so I'm bound to like it, right?)
Marie standing by the Hudson river on a gloomy day

Our plan was to walk down to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk across.  We stopped in this square for longer than we should have.....

We had to get New York hot dogs from a street vendor

They were OK, not sure they were different to anywhere else though!!

Marie helping out the street performers

....which meant by the time we started crossing the bridge, it started to rain!!!!

The bridge is really fantastic though and it was worth walking over

You can see how much the clouds came down though, and Marie was completely drenched by the time we got back

Back by the East river, in between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges

We ate at a very seedy cafe right on the outskirts of China Town-in fact, we ended up in a very dodgy part of New York at one point!!!!  This cafe was a great find.  The food was fantastic, best cup of coffee I had all trip, and they even charged my phone for me!!!!!  They opened up the whole front of the cafe when the sun came out and we sat at watched the people go by

We walked on the Highline again (think we did it 5 times in total!) and we got a couple of pictures

Looking over towards The Vessel from the Highline

We were staying very close to Hudson Yards, which had a brand new mall and The Vessel, which just opened a month before we were there.  We loved wandering around Hudson Yards.  The Vessel really is fantastic and we had a lot of fun wandering around in there

Great way to bring our trip to an end.  We were lucky that it hasn't been open for too long-I bet this place ends up being absolutely packed all the time.  They should build one of these down at the arch!!!!

There is an elevator in the middle, but we didn't use it

View from the top

One of the guards took this picture for us

View over the Hudson

Marie

Our favourite wine bar (again!!)

Our steps for the week.  We did over 35,000 this day!!!!

Marie and Jane do New York-Day 3

On Day 3, we decided to walk down to get the Staten Island Ferry so that we could see the Statue of Liberty.  We walked down by the Hudson River on our way there.  It was a really nice day, in fact we were very lucky with the weather the whole time we were there.  The walk by the river is really nice, a great place to walk/run/bicycle

We stopped at Ground Zero.  It's a very somber place

Walked past Wall Street, lots of construction everywhere

More fire escapes

New York from Staten Island Ferry

Funny-we went on the Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, but this picture of Marie is the only one I saved!!!!

After the Ferry ride, we walked along the East River towards the hotel.  We walked under the FDR drive, it was very typical New York (or what you think from all the movies you've seen)

More fire escapes in China Town-Marie loves China Town!

We went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater.  We bought tickets that day and we got fantastic seats-of course it cost us a pretty penny!!!!  It was well worth it