Last Weekend's Fun Part 2 - Sunset Ride on the Staten Island Ferry

Saturday morning I swam, and then I went home and napped and then cooked and cleaned (a little at least), and then Saturday evening, my friend Louise came back into town. Sunday we paid another visit to the Draken Harald Hårfagre. Louise has Norwegian heritage, and it's a seafaring heritage, so she'd been absolutely fascinated by the longship, and during one of her visits, she discovered that the chief engineer was actually a cousin of hers! She couldn't resist one more visit, and although I had seen the boat already, I thought visiting with her and getting to meet her cousin and others she'd met during her visits when they were in her vicinity would be a much richer experience.

It was, we went at 2, we took our tour again, I took a few shots of things I'd missed the first time around but this time really spent more time just seeing the boat again (I feel like sometimes when I'm intent on taking pictures of something, I'm not looking at it the same way) and listening to stories. We'd run into Louise's cousin heading off to take care of some laundry just as we arrived; he said he'd be back, so we took our time visiting the longship, and Louise introduced me to a couple of other friends she'd met during her earlier visit. Eventually we went back on shore and had a bit of a snack, and when Christian got back we went for a stroll along the promenade. I really enjoyed having the chance to hear him talk story about the boat and the voyage in a more leisurely and in-depth fashion than the tour allowed for. Such a treat!

I had suggested going for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry as a fun thing to do if he had enough time. Turned out he didn't, he needed to get back to the longship to prepare for their Monday morning departure after about an hour visit, but after saying our goodbyes, Louise said she'd be up for that ferry ride, so we legged it on south to the terminal and caught the ferry at the most perfect time for the sunset, which was absolutely stunning.

Here are my photos from that trip, plus one of the Adirondack, who sailed by looking splendid as usual while we were walking with Christian - it was great that we got to show him that because not only did I work on that schooner as part-time crew for five years, but Louise's brother Brad had actually been a captain on the boat for quite a while! He sailed more in Newport, R.I., as I recall, but the few times he was here in NYC and I was in his crew I recall him as being an excellent skipper. I'd loved it when Louise and I had figured out that connection, and it was so nice to be able to share that with our visitor from Norway.  

And now, pix! Click for a slideshow view.