It's NY400 week in New York!
A little history 101 for you (let's face it, it's been a few years since American History). It was 400 years ago this year that Henry Hudson, the Dutch explorer, guided his ship, Half Moon, to the shores of what is now NYC. This became the New Amsterdam and the New Netherland colony, and then the United States after additional history. We are also celebrating 400 years of enduring friendship between the Netherlands and the US. (see below for a map with the Netherlands, just in case you forgot)
Needless to say, there have been many events - the Hudson river flotilla, the Dutch Prince and Princess on bikes in Battery Park City, the New Amsterdam Market at South Street...and Governors Island!
Governors Island is a trip even when we aren't celebrating Henry Hudson. It's only a 10 minute ferry ride away, and you can bike around the island or enjoy a picnic. It was a military facility, and then the US sold it to New York for use as public space. Yay for us!
A picture from the ferry:
To celebrate NY400 and Isabel's Birthday, we ventured out to the island for outdoor festivities (eating and drinking beer). I will note that MB and I were at the end of the long ferry line and about to give up (we actually walked away from the line). Dan called us from the front of the line and as we approached the doors to the lobby and told security we were with the pregnant lady. I hate to cut, hate to cut. But sometimes you have to. We did have a pregnant lady with the group, so it is true.
There were some interesting art installations and odd live performance art exhibits. We all had a good laugh and some jokes were made (I was with a pretty funny crowd).
We decided to stay for dinner and were served at the Captain's meal on a long wooden plank table. Yes, the servers walked down the plank and dished up potatoes and meat. And looking around, everyone devoured it. So much for low-carb New Yorkers.
What we all really wanted were the "Touch of Dutch" orange t-shirts. Apparently, a group of friends made them and they weren't for sale. Though we did wonder why orange? The Dutch flag isn't orange.
And the map (the Netherlands/Holland is between Germany and France):
5 comments:
Orange represents the Dutch royal family, which is the House of Oranje-Nassau. The soccer team wears orange too. See:
http://goamsterdam.about.com/od/planatrip/a/color_orange.htm
This is awesome, thank you! Of course you would know this!
How did I miss this? This is awesome! So much fun.
Just trying to get out and about and explore what's going on around NYC.
New MacBook pro
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