City, Sand, and Savanna - Link to new trip report

[PrincePluto]

I have to say that Lauren did an excellent job with her travelogue and accompanying pictures. I have given up all hope on winning a round in the "Find Judy-do" contest, both because I am following too many TRs to be able to respond with any kind of alacrity, and because I am not enough of a forensic photoanalyst to accomplish this task. So I'll mostly be lurking, poking my head out to make a comment when necessary.

On another note, to provide some more (perhaps unnecessary) detail to Lauren and Judy's boat trip pictures, the Space Shuttle on the USS Intrepid is the Enterprise, the original prototype of the Space Shuttle, which was never launched into space, and which was, depending on which source you rely on, either named after a series of Enterprises in the US Navy, or after the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, as a result of a massive letter writing campaign by fans to NASA.

 

[englishrose47]

Evening Glenn !!!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I DO agree it WAS an excellent photo taken by Judy, very well framed and everything!!!

I will give you "looks like" but as for sure-fire

Even the zoomed in picture doesn't show any specific features that a shadow doesn't show, like color of clothes or maybe at least her glasses, the fact her top has no sleeves, or anything like that to confirm a positive ID. Just an outline, which could be someone with similar hair on the sidewalk on the other side of the store, holding their hand to their eyes to cut the glare from the window so they could see inside.

Even zoomed in, that is VERY weak justification at best......... Now if the zoomed in showed a mirror reflection that you could faintly make out her face, or glasses or something........

Haven't you lost out on reflections in table tops before for exactly that reason???

Because I have an extra 2 cents in my pocket, the reflection in question looks like the person would have to be holding the camera on top of their head Just sayin' I saw another one a little further to the right - someone with white capris on. Maybe there are some people in the store who are trying dresses or something? Oh wait! Judy changed clothes and grew her hair long, just to TRICK us when we were looking for her!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Haven't you lost out on reflections in table tops before for exactly that reason???

yep but sincei clearly didnt win this round im going for suck up points for future rounds.

i still like you better marv.

 

[BMC423]

I've missed so much! I have to say Lauren and I have very similar taste when it come to tv... I love cake boss, and yes to the dress and if that dvr'd vampire diaries was for her I love that too.

I can't believe they did the Museum of Natural History, Soho, Chinatown and went to Kleinfeld all on the same day. I'm exhausted just thinking about doing all that. Were they have able to check out the planetarium? It really is amazing if they didn't you should definitely add it to your list for next time! Also for next time the Doughnut Plant, its one of the best doughnut shops in the city. It's really small but oh man those doughnuts are delish!

I love Judy's picture with the giant turtle, it does look like it's smiling!

I'm glad Lauren was able to be on the Today show and get some camera time! How exciting! Maybe you can search for the day on you tube and find another copy of the video.

 

[marvali]

Nope no trouble at all. Zooming in seals the deal.

Well of course YOU would say that...........

Molly Say it ain't so- agreeing with Marv that is...

As hard as that is to believe, it HAS to give some significant credence to my argument!!!

Don't be upset you didn't win this round, just be happy I did.

Oh, I am happy for you that you won. Nice job!

This isn't about who won and besides it doesn't impact whether or not I did. I botched that one on the "arm" picture when I zoomed past the pictures of Lauren with no sleeves in the pictures just prior to that one in deference to the very first picture where she had on the sweater. One of those heat of the battle thingies..........that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

And I was thinking that Glenn had said before no shadows, but when there was no feedback, and the insinuation there was possibly additional Judy's, I decided to leave it since if I removed it from my guess and it ended up being a Judy I was going to be kicking myself.

I have looked at the zoomed in picture, and IMO it is no more definitive than my shadow. I will admit there is a HIGH probability that the zoomed in part IS from Judy taking the picture, and the slightly taller part probably Lauren being closer to the window. I know the Rules Committee isn't going to rescind a decision once the scores have been posted so I am going to say it this way because this is how I personally would rule it if it were my contest, and I was making a decision.

I will concede that the zoomed in portion is indeed Judy based on reason and a high probability if the Rules Committee will concede that there is enough confusion with this picture that it will also award natebenma a point in the contest for recognizing such in their submitted guess which was first, and quoted here:

"I'm going with the 1 obvious Judy. Could be one in the reflection in the Kleinfeld's window, but I couldn't make it out.

So 1."

And no, I don't think I have a clue who natebenma is so no personal agenda, but IMO it is the only completely fair ruling.

Because I have an extra 2 cents in my pocket, the reflection in question looks like the person would have to be holding the camera on top of their head Just sayin' I saw another one a little further to the right - someone with white capris on. Maybe there are some people in the store who are trying dresses or something? Oh wait! Judy changed clothes and grew her hair long, just to TRICK us when we were looking for her!

Don't you just hate when Judy pulls a stunt like that.................

yep but sincei clearly didnt win this round im going for suck up points for future rounds.

i still like you better marv.

So much for those suck up points!!!

 

[glennbo123]

I DO agree it WAS an excellent photo taken by Judy, very well framed and everything!!!

I will give you "looks like" but as for sure-fire

Even the zoomed in picture doesn't show any specific features that a shadow doesn't show, like color of clothes or maybe at least her glasses, the fact her top has no sleeves, or anything like that to confirm a positive ID. Just an outline, which could be someone with similar hair on the sidewalk on the other side of the store, holding their hand to their eyes to cut the glare from the window so they could see inside.

Even zoomed in, that is VERY weak justification at best......... Now if the zoomed in showed a mirror reflection that you could faintly make out her face, or glasses or something........

Haven't you lost out on reflections in table tops before for exactly that reason???

Molly Say it ain't so- agreeing with Marv that is...


Don't be upset you didn't win this round, just be happy I did.

Because I have an extra 2 cents in my pocket, the reflection in question looks like the person would have to be holding the camera on top of their head Just sayin' I saw another one a little further to the right - someone with white capris on. Maybe there are some people in the store who are trying dresses or something? Oh wait! Judy changed clothes and grew her hair long, just to TRICK us when we were looking for her!

Well of course YOU would say that...........
As hard as that is to believe, it HAS to give some significant credence to my argument!!!
Oh, I am happy for you that you won. Nice job!

This isn't about who won and besides it doesn't impact whether or not I did. I botched that one on the "arm" picture when I zoomed past the pictures of Lauren with no sleeves in the pictures just prior to that one in deference to the very first picture where she had on the sweater. One of those heat of the battle thingies..........that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

And I was thinking that Glenn had said before no shadows, but when there was no feedback, and the insinuation there was possibly additional Judy's, I decided to leave it since if I removed it from my guess and it ended up being a Judy I was going to be kicking myself.

I have looked at the zoomed in picture, and IMO it is no more definitive than my shadow. I will admit there is a HIGH probability that the zoomed in part IS from Judy taking the picture, and the slightly taller part probably Lauren being closer to the window. I know the Rules Committee isn't going to rescind a decision once the scores have been posted so I am going to say it this way because this is how I personally would rule it if it were my contest, and I was making a decision.

I will concede that the zoomed in portion is indeed Judy based on reason and a high probability if the Rules Committee will concede that there is enough confusion with this picture that it will also award natebenma a point in the contest for recognizing such in their submitted guess which was first, and quoted here:

"I'm going with the 1 obvious Judy. Could be one in the reflection in the Kleinfeld's window, but I couldn't make it out.

So 1."

And no, I don't think I have a clue who natebenma is so no personal agenda, but IMO it is the only completely fair ruling.

Don't you just hate when Judy pulls a stunt like that.................
So much for those suck up points!!!

The Rules Committee thinks that we’ve had more than enough debate on this….even Judy agrees that it’s her. The ruling stands. Time to move on!

 

[glennbo123]

Most definitely. I still remember watching it on tv when I was 10.

Trying to make me feel old Squidge?

Even then i knew that history had been irrevocably changed by that tragic day. Only the 7/7 bombings in London and the 04 tsunami have made such a large impact on me.

The memorial is both tasteful and well designed, which is always nice to see after such a tragic event.

Agreed!

I have to say that Lauren did an excellent job with her travelogue and accompanying pictures.

Thank you Prince!

I have given up all hope on winning a round in the "Find Judy-do" contest, both because I am following too many TRs to be able to respond with any kind of alacrity, and because I am not enough of a forensic photoanalyst to accomplish this task. So I'll mostly be lurking, poking my head out to make a comment when necessary.

I completely understand. But kudos to you for using “alacrity” in a post…you don’t see that every day.

On another note, to provide some more (perhaps unnecessary) detail to Lauren and Judy's boat trip pictures, the Space Shuttle on the USS Intrepid is the Enterprise, the original prototype of the Space Shuttle, which was never launched into space, and which was, depending on which source you rely on, either named after a series of Enterprises in the US Navy, or after the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, as a result of a massive letter writing campaign by fans to NASA.

Ah yes, I kind of remember that letter writing campaign. I think that’s what did it, but they don’t want to put all of the credit there.

 

[glennbo123]

Evening Glenn !!!

Evening Rosie! Different evening, but hello just the same.

yep but sincei clearly didnt win this round im going for suck up points for future rounds.

Easy come.

i still like you better marv.

Easy go.

 

[glennbo123]

I've missed so much! I have to say Lauren and I have very similar taste when it come to tv... I love cake boss, and yes to the dress and if that dvr'd vampire diaries was for her I love that too.

Hi Bicki! The landscape of our DVR recordings are changing now that she’s at college. Vampire Diaries sure wasn’t for me!

I can't believe they did the Museum of Natural History, Soho, Chinatown and went to Kleinfeld all on the same day. I'm exhausted just thinking about doing all that.

Yep, they were hoofing and cabbing and train-riding all over that city that day. It’s not very big, is it?

Were they have able to check out the planetarium? It really is amazing if they didn't you should definitely add it to your list for next time! Also for next time the Doughnut Plant, its one of the best doughnut shops in the city. It's really small but oh man those doughnuts are delish!

No, they didn’t do the planetarium. Now the Doughnut Plant sounds like something that should be on my itinerary, when I visit.

I love Judy's picture with the giant turtle, it does look like it's smiling!

It looks like some playful skeleton from Night at the Museum.

I'm glad Lauren was able to be on the Today show and get some camera time! How exciting! Maybe you can search for the day on you tube and find another copy of the video.

That’s a good idea!

 

[glennbo123]

Then we went to two other H&M’s in search of the elusive lace dress. The lines for the dressing room were horrendous and I wasn’t able to find one that fit or that I liked. So we decided we were done for the day and headed to Chinatown. My Uncle Larry had recommended it because of the great food. We found this nice place called Shanghai Restaurant. There, we finally got to rest our haggard feet and feed our starving bellies.

We had dumplings for an appetizer which were actually my favorite part of the meal. Even though they were scalding hot, I ate them. I was really hungry.

I also had a chocolate milkshake with my dinner of Mu Shoo Pork. Mom had some sort of spicy chicken dish. I remember that she kept commenting on how hot it was, so it must’ve been pretty hot.

The waiters here were pretty nice looking also and one of them came over and prepared my dinner with the “pancakes” it came with. I would just call them tortillas.

I actually didn’t care for the food because it was really salty. Mom said it was probably because we normally don’t eat that much salt anymore, for Dad’s sake. Therefore, I wasn’t used to so much at once. The milkshake was good though.

To our surprise, we weren’t able to finish the food so we put it in a doggie bag and took it with us. I told Mom how on previous mission trips we would sometimes give our extra food to the homeless. It’s better than giving them money (because you don’t know how they’ll spend it) and you know they’re getting something they need. So, the first homeless person we saw, we gave them our food. The man had a shopping cart and was pushing it up the street. It looked like everything he owned was in there. Behind him was what looked to be his wife with her own shopping cart. When I gave him the food, he said, “For me?” Of course I told him it was. Then he smiled real wide and his eyes lit up as he thanked us. His wife did too. I was glad I could help someone in need. Mom started crying at their reaction, as per usual.

Then we walked back down Canal Street to get on the subway back to our hotel. As we were getting our tickets, I had to laugh. The screen said, “please dip your card” and I took a picture. Who says that?

It kinda reminded me of how Dad told me the people in the south sometimes say “What button do I mash?”, when referring to a computer keyboard. It’s funny how the English language all started relatively the same and has evolved into so many different dialects and accents. During the confusion of me taking the picture and then putting it back in Mom’s purse. We thought someone might’ve stolen our ticket. I don’t know for sure, but I felt bad. Mom just said, “I guess they needed it more than us”. The reason I’m not sure if it was taken was because Mom was also having trouble with the credit card. I think she ended up using cash. Either way, we got the tickets.

When we went down to where we would meet the train, we realized we were on the wrong side of the tracks, that we would keep going south, when we wanted to go north. Thankfully we found the way to the other side safely. Then we caught our train. Sadly, there were no dancing boys on this one. Then we walked the rest of the way back to the Manhattan Club. We watched some TV and went to bed.

End of Day 3

We woke up on Sunday morning at a much more reasonable time, around 8. We got ready, packed up our stuff, and checked out of the hotel around 9-ish. A hotel worker helped us hail a taxi and he took us to Penn Station. It didn’t take us long at all and we realized that the taxi driver at the beginning of our trip had taken us for an extended ride. Oh well, what can you do now?

We went in and it looked much nicer than the Penn Station we exited when we arrived in NYC. It was so nice I even took a picture of the marble floors and pillars.

We bought our tickets and asked the resource lady about when the train was coming. She answered our questions. Then we went to the store and I got a light blue I <3 NY t-shirt because I hadn’t gotten one the other day. We finally knew the terminal that the train was leaving on and we went and boarded. My mom and I quickly found a seat. Then, a man and woman sat down beside us and when they did, he said, “Weren’t you on the Today show?” Now this wasn’t because he watched it and saw me, this was because he was standing behind me when it happened. Remember him now?

So, we talked a little bit about our trip in New York City and then fell silent for the rest of the ride. I ate some of the pineapple and grapes we had left over from our breakfasts and I played on Mom’s phone some too. The farther out we went, the thinner the train got with people.

Finally, we arrived at Hamilton, NJ. It turned out they were getting off at the same stop. We laughed at this as well and then said our goodbyes. Mom and I got off and headed out but she needed to find the ticket before we got to the garage. So, the two caught up to us again and they asked us if we lived around there. We said we didn’t and they did. But we got to talk a little more and then we parted ways.

We finally got up to the floor where our car was. It was practically desolate up there. We put our things in and headed out. For some reason, Mom thought it was a good idea to give me the exit ticket. I was still trying to situate myself when the GPS fell off of the windshield. I put down the ticket and my phone without thinking and grabbed the GPS to put it back up. We were lost without it. Then Mom asked me where the ticket was and searching chaos ensued. We looked high and low for that ticket and couldn’t find it. We tossed every piece of paper in that car around looking for it, to no avail. Mom told me that we had to be out of the garage in fifteen minutes and we were losing time. I watched as several cars passed us and time ticked by. Finally, we saw it between the console and the driver’s seat. I tried sticking my hand down there, but there wasn’t room and I attempted to use tweezers, but that failed as well. Then, Mom started moving the seat and I was able to grab it. We got out of the lot in time, thank goodness. It seemed our trip was riddled with excitement up to the very end.

After that, we just drove home. We did stop at a Ruby Tuesday to eat dinner. The service wasn’t that great and the food was slightly better. Then, we finally got home and started packing to leave the next day for Florida.


Up next: Trip Report Intermission
Link to next chapter

 

[englishrose47]

2 judys !!Do I have to say where or do I just win!!

 

[Poolrat]

2 Judys One in the dip - a reflection and the Today one.

 

[englishrose47]

Edit answer to one Judy !!I mistook the paper bag for her arm !!!The only one is a partial next to Lauren in the Today pix !!Of course Marv will prolly get out a magnifying glass and blow up the pix to find a shadow or a part of a finger !!!

 

[englishrose47]

Lauren how sweet that you gave away your leftovers to the homeless couple !!!

 

[englishrose47]

Oops back to 2 the pix of the food has a Judy arm in it !!

 

[marvali]

Seriously............you post an update on opening night of college football? I realize Penn St is pretty much done now as a football program, but sheesh!!!! Worthy of losing your man card that is!!!

 

[Poolrat]

Quite the adventurers. I am not so sure I would be all over like Lauren and Judy were.

How nice to give the leftovers to the homeless.

Dip the card. Gee Never heard that one either.

 

[marvali]

3 Judy's...........arm on table, at Today show, and reflection in the Dip YOur Card pic

 

[glennbo123]

Oops back to 2 the pix of the food has a Judy arm in it !!

I'm not sure which picture you're talking about with this one.