Trekking

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. - Walt Whitman Song of the Open Road

Travel Destination - NYC



Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Lilac Pier 40 Hudson River NYC

Most New Yorkers try to escape the city’s hot pavement in the summer, opting for the sumptuous lure of the beaches. But those of us, who avoid the sirens’ call and remain in the metropolis, can find some outdoor enjoyment of our own. One such place is on Pier 40 on the Hudson, the steamship known as, The Lilac. A massive structure, on the National Register of Historic Places, this 1933 vessel stands 173ft. in length and was constructed by Pusey & Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware between 1931-1933.


Since its launch on May 26, 1933 and now celebrating its 76th year, the Lilac has served as a lighthouse tender, a Coast Guard buoy tender, and a preservation center of American maritime history. Although the vessel shows the wear of its age, its beauty is in the majestic arch of its stowed crane; the curve of its bow, as it once navigated the Delaware River and Bay; its silent engine room, where the fossil of 2 triple-expansion steam engines not yet replaced by diesel propulsion, once was a marvel of nautical machinery.


It only takes a breath of imagination to resurrect the ghosts and engage the twin propellers into its maximum performance of 11 knots. With a 20-ton boom, its hoist operated by steam power, the Lilac swept the Delaware River and Bay servicing lighthouses and offshore lightships, tending buoys, and providing rescue relief in emergencies and marine disasters until 1972. Since being decommissioned, the 1933 steamship exists as only one of two of the thirty-three vessels built between 1892-1939. In 1972, the Lilac became an educational resource for the Harry Lundeburg Seamanship School of Seafarers International Union. Since 2004, having been rescued by the non-profit Tug Pegasus Preservation Project, and currently under the ownership of the Lilac Preservation Project, the Lilac steamship has been revived and given a face-lift and a new life, as a cultural and educational facility. Its legacy may have begun in Edgemoor in the Delaware River, but its future rests in the Hudson River at Pier 40 in Manhattan.

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Ireland/Scotland 2008 Travel Journal - Part I

Travel Journal - Destination Ireland/Scotland July 2008

Ireland July 3 - 16th
Scotland July 16 - 28th

Part I - Enterring Ireland via Shannon Airport and the Southwest coast

My folks and my youngest brother arrived a day prior in Shannon. They spent the day traveling to our B&B in the Ennis area, resting, and then going on a day trip via bus to Galway.

My husband and I joined the trio at Anne's B&B near Ennis on the bus route. We rested for a bit and then headed off to Bunratty for the latter part of the day into the late evening. We explored Bunratty's Castle and then Folk Park, while the weather held off rain. As the rain began to pelt later in the afternoon, we made our way back to the Castle for the mid-hour Medieval Dinner Banquet.

The banquet began with cocktails of aromatic honey-flavored mead and salty bread as a gesture of good tidings and peace. The hall was filled with the lightly plucked instrumental song of Baroque music before we were ushered to the lower Banquet hall. Once in the lower room, we were escorted by costumed Medieval hosts to our long wooden banquet tables and benches. As the meal progressed from bread and soup to meat and wine a plenty, a duke and duchess were chosen, madrigal music elighted through the room, and "Charles" jestered with the festive crowd.