15 nautical miles

By 10 am we were en route to the 9/11 memorial. Workers were preparing for the 9/11 celebration/remembrance, as September 11th is tomorrow. It was cool and sad to see the monuments. Then we walked to get New York bagels from Pick-a-Bagel. My dad got us some delicious bagel sandwiches and 3 warm, buttery cinnamon raisin bagels! Then we walked to a park to eat lunch. Once done with our AMAZING (and quite messy) lunch, we kept on walking past Broadway, through Times Square, and to the Rockefeller Center.


Once at the Rockefeller Center, my parents revealed the surprise store: FAO Schwarz! The toy store is huge! They still had the giant floor piano that was in Big. My dad and I recreated "Heart and Soul", the song Josh Baskin plays in the movie. Then we went to the LEGO store. There were SO. MANY. LEGOS!!! They had a new, huge Diagon Alley set from Harry Potter that I really want! My parents let each of the boys pick out an $80 set for their birthday present. The sets they picked are really cool! On the way out, some workers from the restaurant Frenchette were handing out free cookies. It was the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had, and that's saying something because my mom's cookies are REALLY good!


After the cookies, we walked on 5th Ave. before riding the subway. We rode it across the Manhattan Bridge and then to the Marina. We got back to the boat just after it started raining - we all got soaked! Then we untied and headed for Sandy Hook. We spent 24 hours in NYC almost to the minute, and we checked off most of the big items: riding the subway, walking across Brooklyn Bridge, eating in an Italian restaurant, getting NYC bagels, riding in a cab, going to FAO Schwarz, seeing Time Square & 5th Ave, and visiting the 9/11 memorial.


The sail to Sandy Hook was pleasant. On our way out, we sailed right past the Statue of Liberty. We anchored in a little cove right off the ocean once we reached Sandy Hook. While we were circling the anchorage to check depth, we went only 30 ft away from shore and the water was still 30 ft deep! Usually, we would've been on the ground 100 ft away from shore. We think it's deep enough that Running Tide could nose up to the beach without running aground- that's crazy! We watched a movie and had fresh, boatmade apple pie for dinner to celebrate Cyrus's 8th birthday. This was my favorite dinner yet!