This account also may be of interest to any member who has never been on a wandering.
Tuesday, we boarded the 8:36 a.m. train from Darien. David Mace and Sunil Saksena jumped on at Norton Heights a few minutes later.
At Grand Central, we checked at the Information Booth for others who might have been on other cars of our train or who had come to Grand Central to rendezvous with us.
No one else appeared so we took the Lexington Avenue Express downtown to Bowling Green and walked a block to the ferry terminal.
We boarded the 10:30 a.m. ferry, the Samuel I. Newhouse, and were strolling out of the St. George Terminal on Staten Island at about 11 a.m.
We walked south toward the Government Center District, noting that several statues were there, including one of General Barrett in the Barrett Triangle. We passed by Borough Hall and the Richmond County Court House.
We took our libation break at Steiny’s Pub on Hyatt Street. From there, we walked the historic St. George’s, St. John’s Avenue and Stapleton districts.
Our walk was punctuated by the arrival of spring at 12:15 p.m. and ended at the Stapleton station of the Staten Island Railway, where, given the blustery weather, we decided to choose a restaurant close to that rail line for our luncheon stop. We proceeded by rail to the southern tip of the Island, along the Arthur Kill Channel that runs between Staten Island and New Jersey. We had a fine Italian meal at Angelina’s.
After lunch, we observed the local vistas, including the Outerbridge Crossing over the channel. We then boarded the railway for our trip back north and right into the St. George Terminal.
We took the next ferry and were graced with the photography services of a most pleasant European acupuncturist, who took our photo along the starboard side of the Andrew J. Barbieri, with, we hoped, Lady Liberty in the background.
Back in Manhattan, we boarded the Lexington Avenue subway for Grand Central and were able to make the 5:34 p.m. train for Noroton Heights and Darien.
As a side point, I should mention that the two ferries we took, while not close to being full, are the two largest in the city’s fleet.
Moreover, these two ferries, of 1981 vintage, are the two largest passenger-capacity vessels in the world, each capable of carrying 6,000 people.
Joe Spain will lead the Happy Wanderers on their kick off trip this season on Tuesday, March 20 with a trip to Staten Island. Plans are to take the subway from Grand Central Station to the ferry terminal at the tip of Manhattan and then across the