Christmas in Manhattan
Since Sheila's latest bout with cancer, I've been doing all I can to keep her happy and keep her mind off the cancer as best as I can. She had already received a few gifts to lift her spirits throughout treatment but she also expressed that she would like to visit Manhattan for Christmas. Needless to say, we headed down to Manhattan earlier this week to spend some time there while the city is decorated for Christmas.
As usual, we traveled on Amtrak so we didn't need to worry about staying awake while driving nor did we need to worry about where to park the car once we arrived in Manhattan. Amtrak has proven to be a mostly trouble-free way to travel for us. I'll write more about our journey on Amtrak soon.
I picked out an historic hotel and we reserved a good-sized suite by Manhattan standards. The location of this hotel was perfect for our plans... mid-town Manhattan, near all the animated storefront windows decorated for Christmas, near the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, and near Penn Station where our train arrived. It was a great location and a nice historic hotel.
We did a lot of walking... a lot of walking... and, of course, I brought my camera along for the sightseeing. I shot approximately 500 photos while we were there and I even shot a few video clips. I'll be sharing some of these photos in each of my blog entries about our sightseeing.
In this blog entry, I want to start off with a couple of photos from Grand Central Terminal. I had an idea for a photo... I had asked Sheila and Adam to stand perfectly still while I shot a long exposure photo from one of the higher balconies. I wanted to capture the motion of a fairly busy train station... of time passing... but had hoped to capture Sheila and Adam in crisp focus... an instant of time standing still... while everyone is blurred in motion around them. In hindsight, I should have shot a few more exposures of this idea since I ended up with a little bit of motion in Sheila. That being said, overall, I like the way this photo came out... I directed Sheila and Adam to a spot in a less busy area in the foreground... placed my camera on the ledge of the balcony... and shot a four second exposure while Sheila and Adam were standing as still as possible...
Then I came down to where they were located and shot a photo of them from just a few feet away...
On this particular day, we walked over 10 miles in frigid temperatures with a northeast wind gusting to 40 mph while sightseeing around mid-town Manhattan. It was brutal!
After only a mile, my spine, hips and Achilles tendons were killing me. My hips were actually the most painful which is odd because I've never had that problem in the past (perhaps it was really a result of my spinal injuries?). We were in no hurry so I just hobbled and wobbled along, trailing behind Sheila and Adam.
Sheila fared well considering her fatigue from her radiation treatment. She's still struggling a bit with fatigue and she was exhausted on this day as well but felt excited and exhilarated by being active again and having walked so far. The fatigue is really weighing on her now though. Actually, we're all a bit worn out!
I'll be writing more and sharing more photos in the coming week or longer. We all had a great time!
As usual, we traveled on Amtrak so we didn't need to worry about staying awake while driving nor did we need to worry about where to park the car once we arrived in Manhattan. Amtrak has proven to be a mostly trouble-free way to travel for us. I'll write more about our journey on Amtrak soon.
I picked out an historic hotel and we reserved a good-sized suite by Manhattan standards. The location of this hotel was perfect for our plans... mid-town Manhattan, near all the animated storefront windows decorated for Christmas, near the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, and near Penn Station where our train arrived. It was a great location and a nice historic hotel.
We did a lot of walking... a lot of walking... and, of course, I brought my camera along for the sightseeing. I shot approximately 500 photos while we were there and I even shot a few video clips. I'll be sharing some of these photos in each of my blog entries about our sightseeing.
In this blog entry, I want to start off with a couple of photos from Grand Central Terminal. I had an idea for a photo... I had asked Sheila and Adam to stand perfectly still while I shot a long exposure photo from one of the higher balconies. I wanted to capture the motion of a fairly busy train station... of time passing... but had hoped to capture Sheila and Adam in crisp focus... an instant of time standing still... while everyone is blurred in motion around them. In hindsight, I should have shot a few more exposures of this idea since I ended up with a little bit of motion in Sheila. That being said, overall, I like the way this photo came out... I directed Sheila and Adam to a spot in a less busy area in the foreground... placed my camera on the ledge of the balcony... and shot a four second exposure while Sheila and Adam were standing as still as possible...
Then I came down to where they were located and shot a photo of them from just a few feet away...
On this particular day, we walked over 10 miles in frigid temperatures with a northeast wind gusting to 40 mph while sightseeing around mid-town Manhattan. It was brutal!
After only a mile, my spine, hips and Achilles tendons were killing me. My hips were actually the most painful which is odd because I've never had that problem in the past (perhaps it was really a result of my spinal injuries?). We were in no hurry so I just hobbled and wobbled along, trailing behind Sheila and Adam.
Sheila fared well considering her fatigue from her radiation treatment. She's still struggling a bit with fatigue and she was exhausted on this day as well but felt excited and exhilarated by being active again and having walked so far. The fatigue is really weighing on her now though. Actually, we're all a bit worn out!
I'll be writing more and sharing more photos in the coming week or longer. We all had a great time!
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