Lady Liberty and Mike Peters

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.  For the fans like myself, check out these Awesome Graphics from The Alarm.

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 unraveled.  Things started falling apart when my late flight started getting delayed, but I 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 their game plan, 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.  As Brian got our vehicle lined up, 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, a 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.

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 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!!

The road trip was a ton of fun, but I have to admit I was glad to finally make it to Erika's house around 4am on Friday morning.  Fortunately, Gretchen heard her cell phone and let me in!  It wasn't long before Erika came in to see if Gretchen was ready for breakfast and was a bit shocked to find me sleeping.  No rest for the weary though as I really wanted to make our visit to see Lady Liberty.

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.

Great time for a selfie of the two of us!

Yep, Gretchen is MY Lady Liberty!  Before we got off the boat we passed by this pretty sweet yacht which holds a sailboat and the powerboat that is beside it.  Amazing that there is this kind of wealth out there.

Once we got onto Liberty Island, I had to take a picture of Gretchen (yes, still wearing her foam liberty crown!) with the city in the background.

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!

The only real bummer is that we didn't make it out to Ellis Island which Gretchen really wanted to see.

Erika and her husband, John, showed us around the city the rest of the day.  Thanks, you two!!  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.

At lunch, we sat near Venessa Bayer from SNL which was pretty cool. Good times all the way around, but the big event of the day was The Alarm concert.

Mike Peters sounded GREAT!!  I recorded a few short videos during the concert.

Here are the full songs back from the 80's.

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 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!!