I'M IN NEW YORK CITY

Day 131 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and the USGS says that Fissure #8 is still showing lava.

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My flight from Honolulu to Newark International Liberty Airport was as wonderful as an overnight on a plane can be.  Newark is in New Jersey, not New York. JFK and Laguardia are the other two, but the environs around the former scare me, with customs/immigration a mess, and Joe Biden has referred to the latter as a third world country.  Best to arrive into Newark.

My island of Oahu is beautiful:

I started with a glass of champagne, and went on to a Dewars on rocks.  The meal, a strange kind of chile, was very average, but okay.

I saw two films not worthy of mention.  The best part was that I was in seat 1A, which reclines into a real bed.  My problem is that I can't sleep on a plane.  Here I am over Chicago:

After a surprisingly short flight time of less than nine hours, the Panda Tour group awaits bus pick-up:

It was raining in New York and we took the Lincoln Tunnel route...

...to the Sheraton Times Square New York:

This hotel opened as the Americana just about the time I graduated from Stanford, 56 years ago, and was the prime hotel for the 1964 New York World's Fair.  Sheraton spent $200 million for renovations in 1991, and $180 million in 2013 to upgrade the facility.  It was at one time said to be the tallest hotel in the world at 501 feet, with around 1800 rooms.  If you can find room today for less than $300, you have done well.

The best part of the day came here, for me.    The Panda group came in three different airlines, and all 200 from Hawaii had to wait in one of the ballrooms because we showed up at 8AM and rooms were not to be available until the later afternoon, some waiting until 4:30PM.  Some went for short walks, but it was raining and the temperature unexpectedly had fallen into low 60's.

However, I am a Sheraton Lifetime Platinum member, so went down to see if I could somehow check-in early.  Amazingly enough, I succeeded, and went to take a well-deserved nap at 8:30AM.

The Club Lounge here is expansive with a mediocre dinner buffet.  Most of these Sheraton lounges are now charging for alcohol, and I blame Marriott.  The announcement of the buyout was three years ago, but the transition has been really slow.  The cheapest glass of wine was $12.  So I had a free Pepsi and watched the New York night traffic of people and vehicles.  That New York Times on the table was free, but now costs $3.

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Some of the local TV channels in New York City are taking Hurricane Florence with the same seriousness as Hawaii is awaiting Hurricane Olivia.  The difference is that Olivia should weaken into a tropical storm when landfall is expected to be made Tuesday night.

Florence could be of Category 5 strength when she most probably will strike the Carolinas late Thursday, with Washington, D.C. in the cone of concern.  

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