2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Twenty One

First stop - MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. Started at the fifth floor - few paintings were recognisable. Man, there certainly was some crap in there but there were a couple of decent pieces. Wasn't a bad experience. Had to check our bags and then provide my drivers licence to borrow an audio set. Pretty good incentive to return it, I'd say. Finished at 1:30pm so that The Boy and I could catch a bus to NJ to meet Phil and his family. Discovered that I had run out of credit for my mobile.

Who pays good money for this? - The Voice by Barnett Newman

Number 1A, 1948 by Jackson Pollock (rather more interesting than I thought after seeing it)

The Absolutely (big waste of money) Naked Fragrance by John McCracken

Twin by Robert Ryman (he's having a lend of us)

Untitled by Blinky Palermo (too lazy to even name it - you have to be shitting me)

Academy by Cy Twombly (are we supposed to take this seriously?)

Ended up walking all the way to 42nd Street, 8th Ave bus station. Grabbed the tickets, plus returns, then a sandwich for lunch. Didn't have time to finish the sandwich before catching the bus as it turned out.

Wasn't too sure where to get off the bus. Asked the driver and he just pointed forward. Then he said it was the next stop. At the next stop he said it was the next stop. Confusing!

Was looking for a tall, white guy. Made a lot of sense to utilise that description as there were only Negroes and Hispanics about. Somehow accessed the Facebook message with Phil's mobile number and had just enough coins to call him on a payphone. He had been waiting down at the train station which was about two blocks away. Phil located us pretty quickly - he just looked for a confused-looking white guy and a confused-looking white guy's kid - yep, that'd be us. Quick intro to the family and we handed out some Australian stuffed toys that we'd brought over especially. Rather than staying locally they planned to take us to Jenkinson's Boardwalk at Pleasant Point Beach - the Jersey Shore.

Quite a trek down there. Was rather glad to hear Phil say that he was having no difficulties understanding me face-to-face as he couldn't over the phone - that's exactly how I felt! No trouble keeping the conversation going for the next hour. Rather than talking with the kids The Boy was more interested in the conversation being had by the adults.

Myself and Phil

At Jenkinson's there was an amusement park that they've been to many times. We had a great time and won enough tickets to claim a half decent prize. One of Phil's boys won an Annoying Orange prize. Little bit of a walk around, spotted a wedding party about to have photos taken, then decided it was time to eat. Went to Tiki Bar - slow service but wonderful food with great portions. The younger boys had personal pizzas but they were very large. The Boy had chicken parmigiana and it was massive. Twenty bucks only. I ordered a $19 lobster ravioli which was delicious. Had to help The Boy eat his but he nearly got through the whole thing which was amazing.

Before the meal we were talking about poor service. Phil hates to complain and just after telling me how difficult it was to be a waiter with the memory required, our waiter came over and apologised, without making eye contact, that he had forgotten that no sushi, which Phil had placed an order for, was available. Perfect timing and a real crack-up.

After dinner a game of mini golf was suggested but they were just closing up. Had just under an hour to get back for the bus we had planned to catch. On the way we were so busy yakking that we missed the turnoff. Ended up being a few minutes later than we'd hoped. And there was no way that they were leaving us in that area at night by ourselves so we all waited for the next bus which was due in just under an hour. I couldn't see our bus number on the bus route marker but the driver had stopped opposite on the way there. Left us with more time for stories, and photos of our pets along with phrases from the Annoying Orange. Four cop cars charge away from the police department while we were waiting so there was some action elsewhere.

Time for the bus to arrive. Phil, The Boy and myself waved to the bus driver. He just kept going. Phil's wife spotted our bus stop two blocks away and picked us up. I'd showed her the bus route so she decided to drop us off at the next stop. We raced the bus, we three jumped out at the next stop and again waved to the driver. He stopped and we boarded.

After an uneventful ride I mentioned to the driver the reason behind us being at the stop before and he said, "That was you guys?" Hadn't even clicked that he'd seen us at the previous stop. I would've thought that that would have stood out as being out of the ordinary.

Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)