The South Street Seaport is a historical area located where Fulton Street meets the East River, just next to the Financial District. It features some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan and includes the largest concentration of restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city. You can find renovated original mercantile buildings, renovated sailing ships, the former Fulton Fish Market, malls, nice restaurants, great nightlife and of course, the famous South Street Seaport Museum here. If you are looking to catch the NY Water Taxi or go on one of the many NY Harbour Cruise, this is the best place to go on one.
The whole South Street Seaport has a great concept. With the streets preserved in cobblestone, almost all buildings and the entire Seaport neighborhood are meant to transport the visitor back in time to New York's mid-1800s, to demonstrate what life in the commercial maritime trade was like. Here is a photo of me in front of the Museums main building as well as the ticket office and gift shop. There are currently two exhibitions going on here at the main building, the "New Amsterdam: Island At The Center Of The World" and "Treasures Of A President: FDR And The Sea". The FDR exhibit just opened 6 days ago, so it was cool to check it out. This row of buildings is called the Schermerhorn Row Galleries. The original intent of the Seaport development was the preservation of this block of buildings, which was threatened with destruction from neglect at a time when the history of New York City's sailing ship industry was not valued.
Opposite the Schermerhorn Row Galleries is the Fulton Market. Apart from housing some very nice restaurants, you can also check out the famous BODIES - The Exhibition. It features over 200 specimens consisting of whole-bodies and individual organs that have been meticulously dissected and preserved through an innovative process. Sounds gross but yet, many people flock to see it. Visiting the exhibition doesn't come cheap though, tickets cost $27.50 a person on weekends.
What I like about the South Street Seaport Museum is the layout. Unlike other museums, it's not constricted to one huge building but it's made up of smaller buildings and piers all over the Seaport area. We are not allowed to take photos inside the exhibits, so I can only show you the buildings from the outside. Here is Kevin outside the Galleries on Water St. This is where you can check out the "Monarchs of the Sea" exhibit. It's permanent exhibition that features plans, models and memorabilia that evoke the majesty and magic of a time when ocean liners were considered luxury travel. Since all the models are made in the same size ratio, it's pretty cool that you can compare the Titanic or the Queen Mary to one of the current day cruise ships, like the ever popular Carnival Cruises.
We also went in to checkout the Bowne & Co. Stationers. New York City was the center of the letterpress printing industry during the 19th century. Printing offices and "job shops" clustered between Park Row and Fulton Street. Bowne & Co. Stationers was one of those shops. Now, it is a part of the South Street Seaport Museum and it still resembles a typical job shop of the late 1870's. It really feels like walking back into time the moment you step into the shop. However, it is not just a museum display. In fact, it is still a working letterpress office and continues to take commissions for cards, announcements and other social stationery. All text is set and composed by hand using Bowne’s historic antique type collection and then printed on original 19th century treadle-powered platen presses. How cool is that?
On our way to Pier 16, we passed by the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse. It is a memorial to the passengers, officers and crew who died as heroes when the steamship Titanic sank after collision with an iceberg on April 15, 1912. It was erected in 1913 and originally stood above the East River on the roof of the old Seamen's Church Institute at the corner of South Street and Coenties Slip. The time ball at the top of the Lighthouse would drop down the pole to signal twelve noon to the ships in the Harbor. This time ball mechanism was activated by a telegraphic signal from the National Observatory in Washington, D.C. How cool is that? When the Seamen's Church Institute moved its headquarters in 1968, the lighthouse was donated to the South Street Seaport Museum. It was erected on this corner at the entrance to the museum complex in May 1976 and continues to stand til today.
After checking out all of the buildings, we headed out of Pier 16 for the highlight of our museum outing - to check out Peking, a steel-hulled four-masted barque and the lightship, Ambrose.
First up, the Peking. It was launched in 1911 in Germany and was used to carry fuel and manufactured goods to the West Coast of South America, around Cape Horn and then return to European ports with nitrate mined in northern Chile.
All aboard! Let's go explore the Peking!
With her four masted bark rig, steel hull & masts and midship bridge deck, the Peking represents the final generation of sailing ships built for world trade. Though a product of the 20th century, she still sailed in the traditional way, with few labor saving devices or safety features. Her crew followed the standard sailing vessel routine of four hours on duty and four hours off duty, alternating around the clock, 7 days a week.
Check out the sailor boy with the giant wheel! Look at the big smile plastered on his face, I guess it brings back some good memories from his sailing days :P
The Peking was retired in 1933, when steamers using the Panama Canal took over what was left of the nitrate trade. She served as a nautical school for boys, moored in a British river until she was acquired by the museum in 1974.
Today, she is docked on Pier 16 as a permanent feature in the South Street Seaport Museum. You can get an awesome view of the Brooklyn Bridge, East River and the skyline of Brooklyn Heights from her stern.
You can also find the Living Harbour Wet Lab on board the Peking. It is a collection of live marine life that can be found in the Harbours of NYC. Small exhibit, but pretty interesting.
From the Peking, we will now head over to the lightship, Ambrose. The Ambrose lightship was built in 1908 to guide ships safely into the broad mouth of lower New York Bay, between Coney Island, NY and Sandy Hook, NJ - an area filled with sand bars and shoals invisible to approaching vessels. While a light house is normally used for this purpose, the water here was too deep and the bottom was too soft, so...this floating alternative was devised.
Up on the gangway we go!
Here am I in the pilot house. It's way smaller than Pekings but the Ambrose was swaying like crazy that day. I felt like I was drunk or something :P
Kevin down at the anchor windlass. Again, its really small and cramp. I would just die if I had to work in there!
What is a lightship without the light? This is the star of the whole tour. A vessel approaching the port would search the horizon for the lightship, identifying it at night by a pattern of light at the top of the mast and in daylight by it's distinctive hull color and name lettered on the side.
In rain or fog, the lightship will announce its location using powerful foghorns.
The Ambrose served as a lightship until 1963 and was given to the museum by the US Coast Guard in 1968. Today, it is docked permanently on Pier 16 and is still one of the best places to go to in Manhattan if you are looking for an awesome view of the skyline of Brooklyn Heights!
Our last stop before we headed out to lunch was the South Street Seaport Museum's Maritime Craft Center. The workshop was erected in 1983 and was made out of two ship containers joined together with the windows and doors cut out. Here wood carvers and model builders demonstrate their skills, showing that they are at home using traditional skills of the past as well as new techniques. With that, it concludes our day out to the South Street Seaport Museum. It's very well laid out and I safely can say that even though you are not really interested in all things related to ships and the maritime (Kevin loves anything to do with ships and the sea, but me...not really :P), you will not be bored and will still have loads of fun exploring this museum! Definitely one of the 'must see' museums if you are planning to visit NYC!
South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton Street,
New York, NY 10038
Tel: (212) 748.8786
Web: http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org/
The Annual NJ State Fair @ Meadowlands is here again! It's the largest state fair in the whole of NJ, with over 150 rides and attractions! Kevin and I have been wanting to go since it started on June 25th but we never got around to it. At last, we managed to go last Friday (since the last day was July 12th) night. It's located at the Giant's Stadium Fairgrounds, about 15 - 20 minutes away from our apartment :D We arrived at around 8pm and parking was fairly easy. I guess it's because of the big car park or maybe it's still considered little bit early. Parking is $3 for the entire night. 
We got our tickets at $9 ($7 for weekdays) a person at the door and was given the option to buy an unlimited ride stamp for an additional $19.90. We passed on that, I don't think we will be riding enough rides at the fair to make it worthwhile. I guess it's a good deal if you have kids with you. 
Our first stop was to go take a ride on the Skyride. It's actually a ski lift that goes from one end of the fair to the other. We figured it's the best way to check out the fair, to see what we want to do and stuff. The view was amazing from up there, check out this little video clip that I took when we were on the Skyride. 
Yup, that's right. It's time for the long awaited Pig Races!! Hahaha! I've never seen pig racing before and I was pretty excited to check it out. We made a point to get to the arena early, so that we will get front row seats. There were three heats, here is a video of the second heat. Aren't they just so cute? They look pretty fast here but you should see the third heats. It featured the Asian Pot Bellied Pigs. Boy were they fat! I mean, they were so hugeee..it wasn't even funny. They were just merrily strolling along the track, I think it took them about 3-4 minutes just to complete the race. It was funny! 
Check out what's next to the petting zoo. Noooo, you are not allowed to pet those! Hahaha! They are actually part of the famous tiger show act. It's free and there are 4 performances per night. We didn't managed to catch the acts cos there were other shows that we wanted to see going on at the same time as the tiger show. However, it was cool that we got a chance to get up to close to real tigers...we were just a few feet away from them! 
There were also elephant rides (the elephant is 41 years old!), camel rides and pony rides.
After all that walking around, it was time to get a snack! There are over a hundred food stalls at the fair, selling all kinds of yummy carnival food. From turkey legs to corn dogs to funnel cakes! We shared a funnel cake (of course!) and Kevin also had a large pretzel too! The funnel cake was hugeeeee and really good. It better be good, we paid a good $6 for it! Just imagine, $6 for some dough and sugar...tsk tsk tsk :P
Another good thing about this fair is that there are constantly live shows to watch. Apart from the pig races, we also managed to catch a mini concert by a local band as well as a magic show by the people from Festival of Magic. There were also other things going on like a show by hypnotist Steve Bayner, the Marcan tiger show and a bicycle tricks show.
Apart from live shows, there were also all kinds of rides and carnival games. I just love the whole atmosphere at the fair.
We ended the night by going for a midnight (well, more like nearing 1am) ride on the Giant Wheel. The view from the wheel was just amazing! We could see the whole Manhattan skyline, all lit up as well as a few bridges and of course, a birds eye view of the fair itself. With the nice cool breeze blowing in our faces and the beautiful view, it was definitely the best way to end our evening at the fair :D
