Last night was an historic evening. Cunard Lines had a gathering of it's 3 famous cruise ships at the base of New York Harbor and threw a fireworks show in front of Lady Liberty, to mark the occasion.
Queen Mary2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth set sail at 6:00pm, January 13th, for world cruises and points South. The largest, QM2 was docked in Brooklyn and the 2 matching other ladies were birthed off 57th street at Piers 90 and 88. I got some pics just before the sun set of Vicky and Liz. Note that they are too large to get in one shot of my fancy camera/phone.
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| Queen Victoria Pier 90 |
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| Queen Elizabeth Pier 88 |
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| Queen Elizabeth 2nd half |
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| QLiz Bow |
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| The Intrepid looks sooooo small |
So, as you can see, they are impressive and magnificent ships. A camera can't capture the feeling of standing next to them. I have always been a boat person. Living on Lake Michigan does that to a person. I've been a sailor since I was 10. I can't go too long with out checking into whatever body of water I live near. I was always driving out of my way to take the Shoreline Drive in Alameda to look at the Bay. I do it here, as well. It takes exactly 16 minutes to walk from my apartment to the East river. There is a lovely park there. Actually there are lovely parks all over the river fronts on Manhattan.
Anyway, after freezing all my extraneous body parts off taking these shots, I worked my way down to Battery Park, where I was going to perfectly time a trip on the Staten Island Ferry around 6:45, when the special fireworks show was to start, as The Ladies met up near the Green Torchbearer. It didn't exactly happen as I had planned.
While waiting in the modern (and warm) SI Ferry Building, I met a nice couple from England. I talk to people. This is a fact. They, most interestingly, had just disembarked that morning off the QLiz after her maiden voyage from South Hampton. These two spend their retirement traveling all over the world on the Cunard Lines, my good luck to meet them. Liza and Gerald have been on all the ships and are like Super Frequent Sailors or what ever the ultra passenger list is called. They were just so much fun. I learned lots from them, and we had such a great time, that eventually, when the ships did line up to view the fireworks, I didn't even want to get on the Ferry. It was being routed away from the ships, anyway, so I stayed there, and we oohed and aaahed together like little kids. She is 75, and he is 80...they have been married 25 years (and they have a home in Mallorca, Spain)...not a bad situation.
The pics I took of the fireworks were ruined by the glare of the glass, so I give you a very short video I pulled off the Internet. It captures the ships lined up and the fireworks.
http://www.twitvid.com/2V6O2
It is shot from the opposite side of the harbor on the New Jersey side, and shows the QMary2 leading the other ships out to the Verrazano Bridge and the Atlantic Ocean. Leaving us....I'm still sad.
TTNF
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