A couple of months ago I got excited after seeing the following tweet and purchased some tickets for Gretchen and myself to see The Alarm in NYC. Check out some For the fans like myself, check out these Awesome Graphics from The Alarm.
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As time marched along I ended up with a work trip the week of our Thursday night flight to White Plains (G's sister, Erika, and her husband live nearby and suggested we stay with them for the long weekend), so our plans of flying out together unfoldedunraveled. Things started falling apart when my late flight started getting delayed, but I thought all was going to work out perfectly was relived when we finally did take off only a couple hours late. Too bad it didn't work out so smoothly in the end.
About the time we should be landing, the captain let us know all the NYC area airports were "socked in" and the fog forced us to land in Philadelphia. Soon after getting off the plane and while waiting for the Delta folks to figure out what the their game plan is, I asked the fella who was sitting next to me, Brian, if he wanted to share a rental car and just drive once I found out our destination was less than three hours away. Once As Brian got our vehicle lined up a vehicle , the Delta folks let us know our flight would leave at 11am (it was a bit after 1am by this time) which validated our plans to make it a road trip.
Brian, clearly a nice world-class fella, decided to ask a few others to ride with us and before you know it we had a small band of five tired travelers headed north. Here we are at a coffee break somewhere in NJ. From left to right; Brian, Dmitri, Caroline and Maureen.
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Brian and I had our computer industry talk up front (he works for VMware) while the SMART people in back (the medical folks) had a great time, too. Caroline and Maureen worked work together and were returning from a medical conference and the "small world" moment came when Caroline and Dimitri realized they were at medical school together. Great stuff!!
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After a painless drive down to Battery Park and then an incredibly looooooooong line we finally boarded our boat for our trip out to see the Statue of Liberty which features some great views of the NYC skyline.
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We couldn't help taking another selfie!!; this time with an American icon.
Feel free to click on these next few progressively zoomed images of the Statue of Liberty – she is surely a beauty and I was so blessed to see her up close!
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The only real bummer is that we didn't make it out to Ellis Island which Gretchen really wanted to see.
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Erika and her husband, John, showed us around the city the rest of the day. Thanks, you two!! This took us to Saturday and The chauffeuring bled into Saturday when they took us around the city some more. We visited the High Line Park which had a ton of young ladies in red dresses with white bonnets. We were wondering if they were in some weird cult and were relived to find out they were there promoting the upcoming remake of The Handmaid's Tale.
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Here 's are the full songs back from the 80's.
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After standing for an hour before the show started and then 90 minutes into the concert, Mike Peters announced we were ALMOST to the halfway point and we he had only played four 80's songs; Absolute Reality, Knife’s Edge, Howling Wind and Sixty Eight Guns. My screaming knees and feet won over my desire to stay and ultimately hear some more of my favorite songs. I couldn't believe Mike had so many new songs. I hated to hit the road, but I was comforted to find out The Alarm has published a 2017 USA tour which includes a July 25th Atlanta show. If I go I'd better learn some of the new songs I heard!!
On our final day we went upstate and took the West Point tour. The USMA was exactly like I imaged it would be. What an awesome college campus. Go Army, Beat Navy!! We finally broke a 14 year winning streak and beat the Midshipman back in December, 21-17!! Of course, the Mean Green beat Army 35-18 back in October. I actually wish I went to that game.
We learned a ton about the rich history of the longest running Army base. As an Army veteran myself, it was a treat and something I always wanted to do. Thanks for setting this up for us, John! We did some eating and shopping nearby before heading back to the White Planes airport for our return back to Atlanta. What a super fun weekend and again, thank you Erika and John for hosting us and driving us around NY; y'all are the best!!