We are
back! Our trip was amazing. Our three days were packed with fun
activities. Here is a recap with pictures from each day. I'll warn you that it is pretty long. Read at your own risk.
Saturday: We left home at 5:00 am. It was a smooth trip to the airport and through
security. Bonnie was a little nervous, but she did great. Once we were in the air, she relaxed and enjoyed
the flight. We had to circle LaGuardia
several times and ended up landing in Philadelphia
to refuel, so Bonnie ended up getting to two-fer for her first flight
experience. That only threw us off by an
hour or so. After landing at LaGuardia,
a van took us to the hotel and we put our luggage into storage and went on our
merry way. After a quick meal at an awesome restaurant right next door to the hotel, we took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History. We stayed there until they closed at
5:45. We went back to the hotel and
checked in. Then we walked to Times Square. We
visited Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
Afterward we got some iced cappuccino and sat right in the middle of the
action for about an hour. Traffic,
megatrons, street performers, food vendors, merchandise vendors, and costumed people
everywhere…. We could have stayed there
for hours! It never got
boring. Finally we left because we
wanted to make it to the Rockefeller
Center by 11:00. The ticket seller told us that visibility at
the top was zero, so we decided to wait and try it the next night. We walked all around Rockefeller Center
window shopping and enjoying the sights and sounds. We finally got back to our hotel after
midnight to prepare for an early morning and busy next day.
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| That blue sign is our hotel. It is Club Quarters Opposite Rockefeller Center. It has a great central location, friendly staff, not too expensive, secure luggage storage, and free bottled water. I would definitely recommend it. |
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| I have a new word. I will never say "skull" again. It's a braincase. |
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| I would totally try to pass this off as real, but him being dead really puts a hole in my story. |
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| I was amazed at how many parents handed their kids to these costumed people in Times Square. Bonnie cried when I tried to hand her over. She wouldn't even go to the Naked Cowboy. |
Sunday: We woke up in time to make it to 9:00 mass at
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The building
is in the middle of a massive restoration project. A lot of it is blocked from view by
scaffolding, both on the inside and outside. http://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/about_restore.php
Nonetheless, we made it in and found a
seat. The archbishop started speaking,
and we couldn’t understand a word. At
first I was thinking it was a Latin mass.
I know a few words, but I really don’t understand much at all. Then at some point, I realized it wasn’t
Latin at all. It sounded more like
German. The archbishop gave a homily
that was over 20 minutes long. It seemed
like an eternity! Some people were nodding
along, obviously understanding much more than I did. Then he switched to English and said, “So as
the eloquent Pope John Paul II assured us, ‘you may no longer be in Poland, but you
will always be Polish”, and thanked us all for coming to the annual Polish Day
celebration. Mystery solved. We had a good laugh about that whole
experience.
We went
back to the hotel for breakfast and a clothing change and then took the subway
to lower Manhattan. We walked around in Battery Park and then
hopped on the water taxi. We stopped at South Street
seaport and the DUMBO neighbored in Brooklyn. We cruised by the Statue of Liberty for a
photo op and went back up the Hudson River to
Pier 84. At the last minute we decided
to hop off at Pier 84 and head toward Central Park. That ended up being a mistake because I
forgot to bring my map and New York Pass booklet.
Bonnie wanted to rent bicycles, but we couldn’t find the rental stand
that accepted our passes. After walking
for 2 hours, I finally called Matt to look it up for us online. I have an iPod Touch that needs wifi for
internet access and this is one of the few occasions that I really wish I had
an iPhone so I could have instant access to stuff like that. Wifi signals were plentiful, but they were all locked. We made it to the store, but they closed in
less than an hour from the time we got there, so they ran our passes through
and gave us vouchers for the next day. We
got on the subway aiming for the Empire
State Building, but the MTA officer had given us the wrong directions. We ended up heading back to the hotel to get
the maps and find somewhere to eat. We
were both a bit grumpy that there had been so much wasted time on what was supposed to be our most productive day.
We went
to an Irish Pub to eat. It was loud and
laid back. We enjoyed some excellent
food and had an attitude adjustment. It
was not so late that we needed to call it a day. There was plenty of time left for fun. We went back to Rockefeller Center
to go to the Top of the Rock. Again,
visibility was poor. They offered to run
our NY passes, which expired at midnight, and give us vouchers for the next
day, but we decided to just go ahead anyway.
I love to learn about the history of such places, but that bores Bonnie
and this was her trip, so we went straight to the top. We could see some lights way below, but not
much else. But it was cool just to be up
there, and there was a fun interactive room that lights up and changes colors
as you move around. After that, we
walked around the area a little more.
Bonnie made a little video for her siblings to watch as she had done the
night before. After a while we decided
that ice cream would be nice, so we walked all the way to Times
Square for Cold Stone Creamery.
We sat in Times Square just as we had
the night before and had a blast. After
going back to the hotel, we went over the missteps of the day and decided that
a rigid schedule works best when time is limited, so we mapped out a plan for
Monday complete with directions from place to place. We were determined to pack it with activity.
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| The beautiful Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Or should I say "Przepięknej katedry Świętego Patryka"? |
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| Aside from getting off one stop too early once and getting the wrong directions to the Empire State Building , we were great at the subway. I would highly recommend it. It is safe, fast, and cheap, and it really adds to the New York experience. |
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| Bottom of the Rock |
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| Top of the Rock |
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| Interactive room |
Monday: We showered, dressed, packed, and officially
checked out of the hotel at 9:00am. On Sunday night, people were already camping out in Rockefeller Plaza in line for the Today Show concert, so we watched on TV while we were getting ready but went the opposite way when we left the hotel. We headed
to the bike rental shop and stopped for breakfast along the way. We rode bikes in Central
Park until 11:30. Then we
took the subway to Chinatown and ate
lunch. After looking around for a while,
we took the subway back uptown to Grand Central Terminal. Again, if it had been my trip, we would have
taken the 1-hour audio tour, but we didn’t.
We looked around for a few minutes and headed out for a store called
Dylan’s Candy Bar. It was amazing. We spent $50 on candy! After that, we headed back to Rockefeller Plaza to the Nintendo store to buy
Will’s souvenir. Luke and Rosemary got
candy, but Will had specifically requested something other than food. This was supposed to be our last stop before heading back to the hotel to await our ride to the airport. We picked Will out a Pokemon toy. When we went to pay, I handed the cashier my
credit card, and he asked for my ID. I
went digging in my bag and couldn’t find it.
Panic started to rise. I
completely emptied my bag. It wasn’t
there. I paid for the toy in cash and
started to retrace my steps in my mind.
The bike rental place! I had to show them my driver's license to rent the bikes. I already
had the phone number in my phone from when I had called for directions. Sure
enough, they had it. At first I figured
I’d just get them to mail it to me, but then
I realized I couldn’t get through airport security without it, so we had
no choice but to go get it. We had to go
from the corner of 49th Street
& 5th Avenue
to 58th Street
between 7th & 8th avenue
and back in 20 minutes. We were
running. Bonnie was exhausted and I was
harsh. Training for the 5K came in
handy. In the end, we made it. It was crazy.
Sometimes
I see people running down the street or crying behind the wheel of their car
and wonder what their story might be.
I’m sure people wondered why we were running like mad down 7th avenue. After getting back to the hotel, we got
water, used the bathroom, retrieved our luggage and waited for our van.
When times
seem bad, it is time to count your blessings.
If the cashier at the Nintendo store had not asked for my ID, I would not have realized I left
my ID at the bike rental place until we were going through security at the
airport. Then we would have had to take a cab
back to Manhattan
($50) to retrieve it and back to the airport ($50) and would have missed our flight as a
result. It was a rush, but at least we
had time to take care of it. And after
we got back to the hotel, it started raining, so at least we weren’t running in the rain.
Our flight
was slightly delayed due to the weather, but LaGuardia is a nice little
airport. We made the
best of it. While sitting there waiting
for our plane, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize and then I had a
voicemail. It was an artist who lives in
Rome who makes
jewelry. She was asking if Bonnie would
be interested in selling stuff at an art show for her. She does the Berry College Arts & Crafts
Show every year but has a scheduling conflict this year, so she is going to pay
Bonnie to work her booth and purchase a booth for Bonnie sale her own stuff. It was the perfect end to an excellent trip. I called her back this evening to accept the
offer on Bonnie’s behalf and work out details.
Bonnie is so excited. Bonnie
idolizes this young lady, and it is such a compliment to Bonnie that she
considered her mature enough and good enough with people to represent her and
sell her art. I am proud of my baby.
