My youngest daughter, Darcy, was chosen as one of twenty-six delegates to represent her school at the Model United Nations Conference in New York City this past April and I accompanied her. The kids were busy at the conference from sun up until sun down which left the parents on their own to see the city. Having not been to New York City since the 80's, I was a tad nervous and latched on to one of the fathers in the group. Lawrence lived in Manhattan years ago and he offered to show me a good time.
When we arrived the temperature was twenty degrees colder then Florida. The day was overcast, dreary, and the leave-less trees reminded me of Indiana in the winter and the reason why I now live in the south. We took a $70 cab ride into the city from JFK to our airport where we checked in. Darcy had to be in business attire and in the lobby by 1:00 pm to meet the rest of the group. They got instructions, lined up, and headed out into the city to walk to the United Nations building. We were told they would return around 8:30 pm for dinner.
Lawrence and I headed out with two other couples, one of whom was my friend from New York, and another dad. My friend's husband and Lawrence took the lead each deferring to one another so that my head spent a lot of time turning from one to the other as they explained locals and histories. Each seemed quite excited to show me their city.
First up was Grand Central Station which was two blocks from our hotel. Built in 1913 it is celebrating its 100 years of existence. We went inside to have the experience and later I actually took a train into Grand Central Station...twice.
Our tour group
We headed out of Grand Central Station and began our walk to Times Square. Lawrence had asked me prior to our trip what I would like to see and he planned our days around that and the area. We passed Madison Ave. and walked and walked and walked. I did well with all of the walking despite my lack of gym exercise, but I could have used a masseur each night.
Times Square was not as crowded as I expected, but it was early afternoon on a Thursday. It was surreal to be walking down the sidewalks and looking up at all of the buildings that grace so many movie and television screens.
Lawrence explained that once upon a time the roads were all open to motor vehicles and the place was a mad house, but that they have since closed off roads for pedestrians. Those places now have tables and chairs for sitting and taking in the experience or for just sitting and talking. There is also a huge concrete seating area that faces one side of Time Square.
We walked Times Square taking in all the advertising and points of interest. We walked down the Broadway strip and talked about which shows we would have liked to have seen had we had more time. We peeked in at the news stations. We watched the Naked Cowboy perform on the streets.
From Times Square we walked to Rockefeller Plaza, passing by the one place I remember from my previous trip to New York City; Radio City Music Hall. Back then David Letterman recorded from there and I was so hoping to get inside to see him. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and the place was closed up. This time we walked on past. David Letterman is now at the Sullivan Theater, and was not filming any of the days while we were here.
We stood around Rockefeller Plaza by the melted ice skating rink and discussed coming the next day to stand outside of the Today Show building. My friend, Jyoti, is a huge Today Show fan, but the other woman in our party, Cindy, was a Good Morning America girl. I squelched both of their plans because I had already researched both areas and to even get close you had to be there early.
Our schedule was such that we had to feed our children and get them to the lobby of the hotel by 7:30 the next morning thus putting us too late to sneaking into either morning news show. I was more interested in Live with Kelly & Michael, but that too you had to be at early to get any leftover seating.
We began walking again. Each hour the temperature kept dropping, but I wasn't too cold with all of the walking. We went into the Trump Tower and stood outside of Tiffany & Co. debating whether or not to enter it. The two women in the party wanted to go into the jewelry haven and the other three men in the party wanted to go underground into the Apple store. Lawrence and I just kept on walking.
We got to Central Park a little before five o'clock and stopped to people watch. The streets were getting busy with cabs and people getting off of work. Horse drawn carriages were parked outside of the park offering rides to tourists and if we could have fit in one carriage we probably would have been talked into a ride. Instead Cindy talked and petted the horses while we discussed where to go next.
We ended up inside an Irish pub drinking beer and watching the Masters golf tournament on TV. It was nice to sit down for a change, but all the nerves in my legs were firing every which way. By the time they calmed down it was time to get up and head back toward the hotel miles and miles away to meet our kids.
Later Darcy and I went with a group of fathers and their kids to a deli down from our hotel for dinner. The kids sat at one table and the dads and I sat at another table. "A rose among many thorns," one father said when I pointed out I was the only female at the table.
The waitress came and took our drink orders while we looked at the menu which was ten pages long. I never knew there were that many deli sandwiches in the world. We ordered and she told us to help ourselves to the salad bar around the corner which turned out to be a pickle bar with two different types of pickles as big as cucumbers, coleslaw, and a cucumber/onion/tomato salad. By the time we had devoured our plates our food was there. That was the one thing that surprised me about NYC; how quickly the food arrived after you ordered. I wondered if they even cooked the stuff, but was told that because the establishments are so small these places had to serve twice the people that places outside of New York serve. Thus the quick food preparation and hustling out the door momentum I got used to by the end of the trip.
When we returned to the hotel we all showered and fell into bed quickly. We had been up since 4:30 in the morning and with all of the walking we were ready to hit the sheets!
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