NYC

Well New York City was never in my top 10 of places I wanted to visit someday; it really was never on the list of places I wanted to visit period. In fact, it might have almost been on the list of places I want to avoid going to at all possible costs, but I enjoyed it much more than I expected. Though I'm not in a great hurry to go back to the hustle and bustle of the largest city in the U.S., I wouldn't mind going back someday to finish seeing and doing several things that I wanted to do but didn't have time. The streets stunk most of the time and I got tired of the crowds, the lines, the noise, and the traffic. I would not want to live there but it is a really interesting place to visit and I think anyone would enjoy going there. Whether you're a history buff, theater buff, nature buff, or night-life lover, there is something for you to do and see and enjoy in New York.

Heckscher playground in Central Park

 We flew into La Guardia late on Thursday night and caught a taxi to our hotel. I've never ridden in a taxi before. Maddy loved riding in the "yellow car". My first impression of New York from the taxis waiting to pick people up and then the ride to the airport was that someone in New York is always honking. This was funny later because I started noticing signs that said: "No Honking. $350 dollar fine". Guess that's one of those things that's seldom enforced.
The next morning it was pouring rain when we got up. I had this ambitious plan to take Maddy to Central Park anyway, but we got one block and were completely soaked, even though we had an umbrella, so I turned around and went back to the hotel to wait out the rain. By the time we got our wet clothes off and and all fixed up to go out again, Aaron was done with his meetings so we met him at the hotel and then went over to the Cosmic Diner for lunch. The people there were really nice and Maddy loved their chicken noodle soup. Aaron had a burger and I had a sandwich. The portions were huge so we were stuffed by the time we got done eating. (I brought breakfast stuff with us so we always ate breakfast in the hotel room to save a little money.) Over all I wasn't real impressed with any food we ate in New York except the street vendor food and the burgers we got at Five Guys (which we could eat at in Dallas but never have but probably definitely will now). 

After lunch, we finally made it to Central Park. Central Park was fantastic! Definitely on the top two for places we went in NYC. Since we went on Friday afternoon the park was not crowded at all. We didn't know when we went, but the south quarter of the park is the Children's District. It was designed specifically for the children in the city way back in the late 1800's when the park was planned and built. They had a playground that Maddy enjoyed, baseball fields, a Chess and Checkers House where people could go and check out games to play inside or outside in the park, a carousel, which was closed the day we went, the Sheep Fields (big open meadows for people to be able to sit and play on the grass), the Wollman skating rink, and the Dairy, which was the tourist shop but was originally a building where the children could go and get fresh milk and rest in the shade.

The Dairy. When the park was first built, this was the place children could go to get fresh milk and rest and cool off.

Wollman Skating Rink

Napping in Central Park

Lemonade, tea, and dessert at a French bakery/cafe in Central Park.

 On our walk through the park, we stopped at a little French bakery at Mineral Springs and got some lemonade and tea and a dessert to share. All of it was really tasty and it was nice to just sit for a little bit.

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Looking at the carousel in Central Park. It was closed for maintenance that day. :(

Need a pay phone? You can find one in Central Park.

Maddy is ready to tour the park on her own power.

 I was a little surprised at how many rocks their were in Central Park. I guess it makes since because Manhattan is and island and probably was originally pretty rough and rocky, but it was kind of surprising and surreal to see these huge rocky outcroppings in the middle of the park. They also had a place where they had a bunch of American Elms that no one could go into because they were trying to preserve the trees and protect them from disease.

Playing on the rocks in central park.

 Saturday's adventure all occurred in Lower Manhattan. We decided to take the Subway to get down to the Financial District. Aaron wanted to see Wall Street and we wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty. Maddy really enjoyed the subway ride. When we got down there, we got a nice surprise that there are also some really interesting old churches in Lower Manhattan. Trinity Church (where George Washington was inaugurated, I think) and St. Paul's, which I believe is the oldest protestant church in New York. St. Paul's was super active with helping during the 9/11 crisis. A couple of pictures down there is a picture of the Presidential box where George Washington sat when he attended church at St. Paul's. They used his box as a podiatrist station during the 9/11 aftermath for all the workers who were there because of Valley Forge and the soldiers that didn't have shoes. Anyway, it was a really neat church to go in and look around. Both Trinity and St. Paul's have very old church yards outside and the gravestones were interesting to look at. Aaron and I both got a kick out of a memorial for someone who died of Yellow Fever during the late 1700's. It said "In memory of so and so who was taken in the midst of his usefulness." I don't know why we got such a kick out of that. Just the old fashioned wording I guess. There were tons of homeless people camped around the churches. Especially Trinity Church for some reason. Some of them have the craziest signs. One guy had a sign that he needed money for weed. Another guy had a sign saying he needed money to have a certain part of his body enlarged. Guess you have to stand out with so many people asking for money. I really don't know what I think about giving money to homeless people or what the best way is to help them. Something I have been contemplating quite a bit since the trip. In my part of Dallas you just don't see homeless people in droves like this. Even in downtown Dallas, where you do see homeless people, it's nothing like what you see on any given day in NYC.

St. Paul's churchyard

Washington's Presidential box in St. Paul's

Hot dog!

 For lunch we ate street vendor food and it was awesome. Maddy was so excited about her hot dog. We had a sausage and chicken kabobs. The guy cooked in on the grill right when we ordered.

No respect for the dead. (Looking in at Trinity Church yard)

 We then went to see the Wall Street bull. Neither of us realized that the bull is not actually on Wall Street. It is on Broadway in front of Bowling Green. People were crowded around the bull, touching him, taking pictures with him, etc. It kind of reminded me of the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. The bull is not nearly as big and impressive as it looks in pictures and movies.

Worshiping the golden calf

 We stopped and had a snack in Bowling Green. Maddy used her own money to buy a giant pretzel from a street vendor. We had our first encounter with a New Yorker yelling at us here. Maddy decided to feed some of her pretzel to the birds and apparently feeding the birds is a big no no. I guess there was a sign that we didn't see that said not to. Oh well. It was a nice break from walking around.

Clinton Castle. This is the entrance to the ferry boats. It used to be on an island by itself during the 1800's. By the late 1800's they had dumped so much trash off the end of Manhattan that Clinton Castle was no longer on its own island but a part of the mainland. So Battery Park is built on top of a dump.

 After our snack we went back and got passes to go see the 9/11 memorial. It is free but since there is a bunch of construction on the new Twin Towers down there they limit the number of people who can go into the area at one time. Our passes were for 3:30 so we decided to walk down to Battery Park where you get on the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. We found out the last ferry leaves at 3:30 so we decided to do the statue first and then go back and see if we could go to the memorial. We bought our tickets and then had to go in a big line to get to a ferry. they make you go through airport style security before you get on the boat. Basically the only thing that is different is they don't make you take your shoes off. Kind of ironic that you have to be herded through a security line to go see the statue that represents liberty. We made it through the security and got on a ferry in a crowd of pushing, shoving tourists who were herding onto the ferry like cows. They had been making announcements that if you didn't make it through security before the last ferry left you wouldn't get to go, even if you had a ticket so I think everyone was kind of panicked about getting on the boat to go over.

Statue that was by the security line. I have no idea what its supposed to be about but the sea gull perched on the guys head on one leg tickled my funny bone.

 The ferry ride was nice. We sat on the deck in the open air. Maddy loved the Statue of Liberty. She called it "the green fairy with the candle". Liberty Island was pretty neat. It had some nice views of the Manhattan skyline and was a little more peaceful than the crowds we'd been in all day. We didn't get to go up in the statue at all.

 On the boat back, Maddy looked at the statue until she couldn't see it anymore. When we got back to Battery Park, she was hungry and picked to go eat at Subway. Guess she thought that fitted since we rode the subway to get to where we were. We also watched some street acrobats in Battery Park. After we ate supper we decided to go back to the memorial and see if we could get in. The guy said they were done giving out passes but we might could get in with our 3:30 ones. Sure enough they let us in, no problem. But we had to go through airport style security, yet again, to get in to see the memorial. I've heard that there is a lot of controversy about ground zero, the memorial, how it was designed, the rebuilding of the towers, etc. I don't really know what the issues are but I thought the memorial was impressive and very peaceful. It was hard to imagine everything down there just being ruins and rubble. They have gotten quite a ways on rebuilding the twin towers and they are building a visitor center for the memorial. It was a meaningful experience to get to go see the memorial. I'm glad that we went even with all the hassle of getting in. They had all of the victims names and what offices or fire stations, etc. that they worked in written on the sides of the pools. They guy had told us the memorial was more impressive at night with the lights. I'm glad we went at night.

 We rode the subway back, got Maddy and ice cream, and then passed out. I think I walked an inch off my legs.

 The next morning, Sunday, we got up late and went down to Times Square. Aaron wanted to take Maddy into the M&M World store. They had a bunch of people dressed up as different characters and you could tip them a dollar and they would take a picture with you. Maddy LOVED these characters. She took a picture with Cookie Monster and Mickey Mouse. They had a Miss Piggy, a Minnie Mouse, and an Elmo. She kept asking to go back and see Minnie Mouse all day long. They also had people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, and the Naked Cowboy, who is a guy who basically spends everyday of his life in Times Square in a cowboy hat, boots, and whitey tighties. If you want to see it, you can see it in Times Square. If you don't want to see it, you can still see it in Times Square. We found the M&M store and went in. Maddy liked it. We didn't really buy anything , just looked around. I guess M&M's are a huge deal to some people though because there were a lot of people in there filling their big ol' hand baskets with every kind of M&M junk possible. they had everything from clothing, to kitchen utensils, to shower curtains, to tins filled with M&M's.
After that we went to eat and found a Five Guys. We have Five Guys in Dallas but we'd never eaten there. It was good! I mean GOOD! And a reasonable price. Will definitely be visiting a Dallas location at some point. We went by the TKTS booth on Times Square and got our tickets for Mary Poppins. If you ever want to see a Broadway show, this is the place to go. They get all the leftover seats after a certain time and sell them 50% (usually) for the next show. We kind of wanted to take Maddy to The Lion King but they said they never get tickets for the Lion King. Guess it is that good.
 After that we walked down to 34th street to go see the original Macy's store. Eight floors of stuff. It was huge! The escalators were really old so that was kind of cool. We found Maddy's dress for Tricia's wedding. It's kind of fun to say she got it from Macy's in New York. Maddy saw some plastic jewelry at Macy's that she couldn't live with out so she used the rest of her spending money we gave her for the trip to buy that.

After Macy's we went back up the street to see the New York Public Library. Aaron and I both thought it was really a neat place. We didn't have much time so we basically went in to use the bathroom. They have Guttenburg Bible there that I would have loved to have seen. The also have a children's are where would have been fun to sit and read to Maddy. Something to keep in mind if we go back again. We sat down for a snack in Bryant Park which is on the 42nd Street side of the library. They just renovated the park a couple of years ago. Then we walked back to our hotel to drop stuff off and get ready for the show.

The show was amazing! This is my other top two that we did. I've always liked Mary Poppins (though in the movie version I get bored after the Feed the Birds song. I really couldn't tell you the plot of the Mary Poppins movie after feed the birds). Mom and Cindy were laughing because Maddy kind of got restless at "Feed the Birds" in the play. Like daughter, like mother I guess. However, the play was much better than the movie. The plot was a bit more interesting and I always think musicals are so much better on stage where they are supposed to be performed. A lot of the songs were different as well. Maddy loved it though it was a bit long for her. They had lots of really cool stage effects and at the end the flew Mary Poppins over the audience. I really felt kind of emotional at the end of the show, I enjoyed it so much. We went to the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway and 42nd street. The theater was old so it was pretty neat just to get to go in and look around, much less she a show. After the show we went to a little pizza/sandwich/soup place and got supper. Maddy ate before but Aaron and I waited. We took our food back to the hotel and watched the end of a football game and crashed. Maddy was so worn out after the show she cried for about 5 minutes straight when we laid her down and then just zonked. Crazy!
The next day, Maddy and I went home and Aaron stayed there for more business meetings. The trip home was hellacious. DO NOT fly American right now. Awfutl! But we made it and Tam had a spaghetti supper waiting for us when we got back.
The trip was a business success for Aaron as well. He got to contracts from the trip so far. We are thrilled about that. I feel truly blessed to have been able to go and have an experience that many people will never  have.