Two Days in the Big Apple

Hello!!
Lots to tell over the past two days; I can't quite believe we have only been here two days! We drove in from Newburgh (90 minutes) uneventfully, but noticing the traffic steadily increasing. Paid a lot in tolls (probably $25 altogether), including one we drove up to but couldn't find anywhere to drop cash. We, being honest Canadians, even pulled over and tried to find a human to pay, but there was nobody. Hopefully we will not be extradicted.

Took us about 20 minutes to drive the 5 blocks to our hotel once we were in the city; but managed without damaging the car, us or anyone else. I canNOT imagine bringing our trailer in too...there is just no way to widen the streets here; it is pretty much concrete horizontally and vertically!

After we dropped our bags off (the room was not yet ready), we headed out for a walk. Made it to a burger place that had BOTH veggie and soy burgers, so went in and had lunch ($40 for 4 burgers and fries). It was HOTTTTTTTTTTTT and humid but on we trudged, making it to Times Square, which is actually a LOT smaller than I thought it was going to be. How people celebrate New Years there is beyond me. We investigated tickets to a show, and ended up going with Mary Poppins ($480--gulp), but we figured, if we are going to do it, let's get good seats and enjoy. We are going Sunday afternoon. So, that was Mhairi's wish taken care of. By this time all of us were feeling hot-and-tired-and-if-another-human-touches-me-I-cannot-be-responsible-for-my-actions.

Got a latte on the way home just a block from our hotel, which is quite possibly the best coffee I have ever had (at least on this continent).

Went to the hotel and checked in. The room is great; it used to be an apartment, so there is a galley kitchen. Got some groceries, since we plan to breakfast and like eat dinner here.

Went for a walk after dinner and headed to the Empire State Building, only a few blocks away. Did the obligatory "tourist shopping" and enjoyed our evening. Girls spotted purses that they wanted to think about before buying.

Slept well, and I was up and out at 7 for a latte (unfortunately, Starbucks) while everyone else slept. We got off to a late start, not sure what would be open on the Fourth of July. Everything, except the good coffee place, apparently. As we were walking, we came across Macy's and went in. Advertised as the biggest store in the world, we looked on 5 floors and every one of them was ladies clothing, accessories, etc. Dennis went to Starbuck's (one of four in the store) and read his Peter Robinson murder mystery quite happily while the girls and I explored. Mhairi picked up a cute t shirt (50% off--go Mhairi).

Walked up to 5th Avenue again to buy the bags, and then took the subway down to the very bottom of Manhattan where you can see the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the statue is on an island, and it is kind of unspectacular from the shore. The wait for the ferry over to there and to Ellis Island was HUGE, so we decided to leave it. Had a couple of pretzels to nourish us and then walked up Broadway, past the huge sculpture of the Wall St bull, and realized we were close to Ground Zero. Had not planned on going there, but as we were so close, we took a detour (past a beautiful church which I had to go into). So, I have to say that I was surprised at Ground Zero. I had expected a huge US display, as they do so well. However, there was chain link and fabric all around, so you couldn't really see into the site, and it all seemed very business as usual. What struck me was that the site was actually small, and every building around it was completely open and seemed absolutely untouched. If I hadn't know where we were, it would have looked like another building site. The thought of two scyscrapers occupying that space was almost unbelievable.

As we walked up to find a subway station, we noticed Century 21. A friend had mentioned this store to us as a bargain hunter's dream. We had forgotten the name of it, until Dennis (!?) remembered. The tag line on the store is "bargains worth fighting for", which gives you an idea of the concept. The girls perked up immediately. In we went. Dennis found a corner with his book and the kids did some shopping. Ceilidh got jeans and shoes, Mhairi got two pairs of shorts, a hoodie and a belt. It was insane...and there are only change rooms on one floor. Mhairi came up with a brilliant strategy; to try on the shorts, she put a dress on, took her shorts off, tried on the new ones and then took the dress off. We were all impressed, and Ceilidh used the same technique, saving us about 2 hours in the change rooms!

Walked on up into Little Italy (I could have stayed there a long time) and had pizza at Lombardi's THE place to go. It was SO VERY GOOD and everything was really fresh. By this time we were all spent and took the subway home.

However, it was the Fourth of July and we wanted to go out to the fireworks. Debated between watching on TV and going in person; decided on the latter...big mistake!

There are a lot of people in New York. Every one of them went to the fireworks. There are more police officers than the entire population of Kitimat. Every one of them was working. We walked out of our hotel room the two blocks to the viewing site (did I mention it was raining?) That site had been closed. We ended up walking from 39th Ave to 20th Ave where we had a beautiful view of the FDR parkway, almost completely obliterating our view of the fireworks. It was a bit like getting up at 3 am to see sunrise at Haleakala in Maui, only to find it fogged in ("This NEVER happens here!") So, we walked the 19 blocks back to the hotel and watched the Boston fireworks on TV (which will make Jim laugh since he suggested those fireworks in the first place).

I am quite mixed in my feelings about NY. It is really dirty and there are garbage bags stacked along the sidewalk for pick up, so there is this pervasive garbage smell all the time). I think London, Paris and Rome are all much cleaner. However, there are so many iconic symbols here that are quite thrilling to see in real life, and there certainly is a buzz of energy. We have all felt perfectly safe here (other than crossing the street, where we have adopted the same strategy as the locals, which seems to be "see a chance take it" which has worked fine until the time I stopped to take a photo in the middle of an intersection), and we must look like complete hicks since we spend half our time looking up! I had also assumed a lot of flag waving and the like, but it has all been quite low key.

Today we are heading into Central Park and uptown...maybe the Museum of Modern Art. We are hopefully meeting up with Ceilidh's friend Tessa, who is here studying at the Alvin Ailey Dance School.

Maryse, they publish Metro and 24 here too, and Mhairi and Ceilidh have dutifully kicked each 24 stand they have seen!