Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Field Trip to NYC

I live way out in the sticks and love it. Even when there are four big buzzards sitting on the barn across the street staring at me. (Really, that is what's happening right this minute. I hope they don't know something I don't.)

When I get away though sometimes I really like to go to the big city to add a little variety to my life. My daughter and I went to NYC last October and it was my first trip there in over 30 years. Back in the 1970's it was filthy and pretty disgusting. Those were the Saturday Night Fever days when polyester was big which was the disgusting part. Anyhow, it's so much better now.

So we left on Thursday and stopped off at Costco to buy a new camera that Wes has been craving. (It's a combined Mother and Father's Day gift to each other.) Then we took off across Ohio, the land of turnpike rest stops that feature Panera Bread and Starbucks which is another way of saying "heaven" to us.

We spent the night in East Stroudsburg PA which is in the Pocono's next to the Delaware Water Gap. We drove into NYC the next morning.

So Wes was driving and I was really stressed out because we were actually taking our car into the city which is crazy. But I had found a good deal (hmmm) on a hotel on the Upper West Side and their website says that it's easy to find parking in the neighborhood because it's a residential neighborhood. Now I've watched a lot of Seinfeld and logically I was thinking yeah right. But it turned out to be true. We found a parking space and left the car there for three days.

I have a talent for finding really bad hotels in really good locations. This place we stayed at was Riverside Tower Hotel and it used to be a dormitory back eons ago. Our room was a "suite" which I thought sounded pretty cool until I realized that it was two small rooms with single beds that had trundle beds under them. Both rooms had small sinks and there was a bathroom with a toilet and shower between the two rooms. It was heated with old style radiators. BUT it was in a great location, free parking and it was quiet and very cheap. Only 2 blocks from the subway.

We checked in and went exploring. We took the subway down to Greenwich Village and visited Washington Square. Then we walked down to Ground Zero, Trinity Church, down Broadway to catch the Staten Island Ferry which is free and goes right by the Statue of Liberty. We then walked up to and across the Brooklyn Bridge which was extremely cool. There is a famous pizza place down the street from the bridge in Brooklyn called Grimaldi's and we stood in line for about an hour to get in. We had been chatting in line with a young couple from Virginia and the four of us decided to eat together (it was easier to get a table for 4 than for 2). The pizza was good but not waiting 2 hours good. Then we took the subway back up to Columbia Circle and walked back to the hotel. I figured out that we walked 6.5 miles on Friday.

Saturday among other things we went up to the Cloisters Museum which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it's at the northern tip of Manhattan in Fort Tryon Park which is beautifully landscaped. The Cloisters is where a lot of the medieval collection is kept. The unicorn tapestries are located there. Then down to the Met and we met my sister and her husband who live in Connecticut. I hadn't seen her since October.

Sunday we went to Chelsea Market which is in the former Nabisco factory where the original Oreos were made. Now that's history!!! Now it's broken up into markets, bakeries, other retail stores. It's beautiful and fun and funky. I loved it there. Then we walked up, met my sister and hub for lunch, went and checked out Macy's then went to the play "Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo" which starred Robin Williams. Very good and thought provoking. Had to say goodbye to sissy after that. Ate at a deli by Times Square where 2 sandwiches, 2 cans of coke, 2 cannolis cost $41. Then back to car and hightailed it out of the city.

It was fun but it was good to get home yesterday. Now I can concentrate on my county challenge again. I also have to keep an eye out for those buzzards!

PS I can't get my pictures on here. I don't know what's going on.

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