Dinner in Jersey City and NBC Studios

After our first day figuring out ferries the long way with a long walk through the back end of Jersey City, we managed to take the proper yellow ferry back to Liberty Landing. This ferry is not the nice upholstered version that business people take from World Financial Center to the Jersey City Financial Center. No sir. This is the really old tired almost retired tourist ferry for the rest of us poor slobs. But it runs on schedule and the crew is really nice.

Jersey City walking to the restaurant

Lighthorse Restaurant

In discussions with crew we figured out how to get the local yellow ferry across the 100 foot channel to some of the interesting restaurants in Jersey City. So we are expanding our boundaries little by little.

We decided to go to Lighthorse Restaurant in Jersey City. This restaurant continues the history we’ve been experiencing for months. Lighthorse Henry (Harry) Lee is part of the Carter Lee family, one of the founding families of Virginia, owner of the Shirley Plantation we visited in Virginia, and represented in Colonial Williamsburg. Just another reminder that this trip really brings history to life.

The restaurant was really good and not too expensive plus it is really pretty. It has an old flavor to it but it has is clearly in a recently remodeled space. It has a second level that overlooks the main restaurant bar in a storefront building about 40 feet wide and about 80 feet long. It was so well maintained that there was no dust visible on the bar and the liquor bottles were organized by height in the cubbies. No dust even on the draperies.

Rusty update: I thought you would enjoy these pictures of Rusty finding the absolutely most uncomfortable position to sleep on the couch!!

The next day. We keep getting late starts to accommodate my clients. Our only goal this day was a tour of NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center.

We got off the little yellow Liberty Landing ferry and haggled a bit over how to get to mid-town. We know how to take the subway but we were running late so we got a cab.

We got a nice tour of the battery to the east side to mid-town including South Street Seaport, the United Nations, and the mid-east side.

According to Wikipedia, "Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City."

John D Rockefeller Jr. began construction on Rockefeller Center in 1930, financing it himself. It was the largest building project in history at the time, completed in 1939 employing 40,000 people during the depression. Inside the lobby walls are covered with WPA murals.

Exquisite glass covers the entryway. 

We got there a little late for the 2pm tour and early for the next available tour at 4:30 so we wandered around a farmers market in the plaza and did some people watching. The farmers market confirmed for Kermit that it is nice to buy from farmers but the food is usually more expensive. We bought a loaf of bread for $4.00 that tasted like sawdust.

Not sure why I look so sad - I was having fun.
See the farmers market tents in the background?

NBC Studios was really fun. We saw the Saturday Night Live studios, the Today studios, and Katherine got to pretend she was a weather girl. Such fun!! No photos allowed inside. 

We wandered around and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant a few blocks away. The restaurant got 4 stars on Yelp but it was completely deserted. I mean just us and the cook and the waiter. No one else. The waiter said locals are already out of town, leaving early Friday afternoon. So we had the town to our selves. Dinner was delicious.

We planned to visit a comedy club this evening. But we were really tired. Darn this looper midnight!! We decided to head back to catch the 7:45pm ferry, the last one for the evening, and skip the evening entertainment.

We took a cab to the ferry down 37th street to the west side highway and down to World Financial Center through the west side. We saw how they have been converting piers into parks.We saw the folks playing on the trapeze on the pier roof. I think we saw Chelsea Pier. We need to come back here to explore. 

Next: More exploring