Need To Head East

This is a view.  I’ve got the entire west side in front of me.  I can gaze out from the Battery up to the Bronx.  I’ve always known this view exists, but I for one, have never been to Jersey City before.  They Park Hyatt here has a remarkable position on the quayside, with a plot of land that juts out into the Hudson.  The view from the ninth floor hall room is exquisite. 

                               

My father drove me down from Westchester yesterday.  We crossed the George Washington Bridge and followed some directions we’d printed out ahead of time.  Before long they no longer made any sense.  But the basic idea was straightforward, head over towards the water and follow the river down. We’d hit it. 

There are the highways of New Jersey that crisscross this area, dividing swamp land and industrial land and buildings that once meant something.  We decide to just follow the signs for Jersey City and approximate the general direction.  “It’s gotta be this way.” 

Get out of the lane for the Holland Tunnel.  Get out of the lane for the New Jersey turnpike.  Get into the lane for the interminable red light.  Soon, we are heading down a major boulevard, looking for some of the cross streets we’re eventually supposed to see.  “Wouldn’t you say that Manhattan is that way?  This must be the right way.”  “But look there.  It’s saying we’re heading south west.”  “Are you serious?  We definitely need to head east.”

But signs appear for the “Historic Downtown” and we follow them left and right and now we are heading east.  First we have check cashing store fronts and modest housing stock.  Then we come upon a park encircled with brownstones that could be anywhere in Manhattan.  Further still it is the requisite glass and steal towers of someone’s corporate modernity.

Nobody seems too sure of how to get my father back on the New Jersey turnpike.  He’ll invariably be discovering still more, about Jersey City.  I can now enjoy the view.