Friday morning I drove to work thinking about what we might do over the weekend. I was leaning toward cleaning the house. Then Jeanette called me asking if I would ever be interested in a spontaneous weekend getaway via flying standby.
Um, yeah.
And before I could say "how much will this cost anyway?" we were on a plane to NYC Saturday. First class.
Here we are in Central Park.
Yup, those are first class peanuts. First class! Seriously, I'm not sure I'll be able to sit with the rest of you now that I've been spoiled.
Here's some graffiti in Queens on our way into the City from JFK.
Speaking of first class, did I mention we stayed at the Waldorf=Astoria on Park Avenue? Apparently, mid January is not peak season for visiting New York, and good deals can be found pretty easily. And quickly.
This is the chandelier in the bathroom. Not in our bathroom; it was the main bathroom in the main lobby area. But still. C'mon.
So after dumping our stuff and freshening up, we set out on foot. We started at Rockefeller Center, which was right down the street.
We went to the "top of the Rock" for a view of the City. That's the Empire State Building behind me.
Then we kept on down the street toward Times Square. And then I saw Elmo! There were some other characters there, too, and I thought there was some kind of promo going on. I knew I had to get my picture with Elmo to show Lily. Mama's guilt, y'know. Well, Elmo didn't say anything to me; he just grunted and pointed to a sock that he was collecting cash in. It wasn't Elmo. Just some dude dressed in a rented Elmo costume getting cash from suckered tourists. There was an Elmo on every damn corner.
Figures. I'm off the plane for an hour and I fall for some stupid scam. Oh well. He only got a dollar.
We did make it to Times Square and that's one well-lit place.
The next morning, we had a great breakfast at an extremely small, extremely packed diner. It was one thing to get a good room rate at the Waldorf, but it was a whole 'nother thing to do the whole "Waldorf thing."
Do you know how much a Snickers from the mini bar was? Guess. You'll never guess. You know it's going to be more expensive than a movie theater, maybe $5-$6, right? Wrong. It was $9.25. No lie.
Anyway, so we found Grand Central Station after a couple of wrong turns.
A few more wrong turns later and we were on the subway.
We went all the way to the last stop on Manhattan Island. We saw the Brooklyn Bridge! Next time we're in NYC, we'll hike across it, but we just didn't have time during this weekend.
We went to Ground Zero. I don't really know how to explain what that was like; I'm just really glad we did it. It was especially good to go to the small visitors center and see the plans and progress for rebuilding.
Well, after that, our first-class luck seemed to run out. It started to rain. Not just an annoying sprinkle, but an all-day washout complete with cold, blustery winds.
Actually, I think we did pretty well with making the most of our situation. We hopped on a tour bus for a narrated tour of the City. We saw everything from Uptown through Downtown. The only problem was that with the rain, well, this was our view.
So it wasn't conducive to photos, but it was still interesting and I saw a lot more than I would've on foot. Especially since I didn't want to poke my head out from under my hood out there.
We got off the tour bus on "Restaurant Row" to find some place to eat. We stumbled into the first of several Irish Pubs we'd visit while in New York. It was warm, cozy, and totally hit the spot.
The next morning, the crappy weather was gone and the sun was finally out. It was cold, but sooooo much better. A perfect day to go to the park. Central Park.
What an amazing place; it's just the most bizarre juxtaposition of green bordered with concrete.
And all the little bridges and tunnels were just so beautiful. I can't wait to go back when it's warm and the trees have leaves.
The highlight of the park, for me, was the carousel. It was old and rickety. I loved it.
But holy crap the artists who painted and carved for this carousel must really hate kids.
We made our way to the other side of the park to the American Museum of Natural History. We had a little more than an hour to spend in a museum you can't possibly see in a whole day.
But, again, we did the best we could with the time we had and we learned about weird little monkeys.
And their skeletons.
We even learned about evolution. You know, if you believe in that kind of voodoo.
Well, before we could even process the fact that we were actually in NYC, we were in the tunnel on our way out.
And we saw the sun setting as we flew into Tampa.
We did make it to Times Square and that's one well-lit place.
The next morning, we had a great breakfast at an extremely small, extremely packed diner. It was one thing to get a good room rate at the Waldorf, but it was a whole 'nother thing to do the whole "Waldorf thing."
Do you know how much a Snickers from the mini bar was? Guess. You'll never guess. You know it's going to be more expensive than a movie theater, maybe $5-$6, right? Wrong. It was $9.25. No lie.
Anyway, so we found Grand Central Station after a couple of wrong turns.
A few more wrong turns later and we were on the subway.
We went all the way to the last stop on Manhattan Island. We saw the Brooklyn Bridge! Next time we're in NYC, we'll hike across it, but we just didn't have time during this weekend.
We went to Ground Zero. I don't really know how to explain what that was like; I'm just really glad we did it. It was especially good to go to the small visitors center and see the plans and progress for rebuilding.
Well, after that, our first-class luck seemed to run out. It started to rain. Not just an annoying sprinkle, but an all-day washout complete with cold, blustery winds.
Actually, I think we did pretty well with making the most of our situation. We hopped on a tour bus for a narrated tour of the City. We saw everything from Uptown through Downtown. The only problem was that with the rain, well, this was our view.
So it wasn't conducive to photos, but it was still interesting and I saw a lot more than I would've on foot. Especially since I didn't want to poke my head out from under my hood out there.
We got off the tour bus on "Restaurant Row" to find some place to eat. We stumbled into the first of several Irish Pubs we'd visit while in New York. It was warm, cozy, and totally hit the spot.
The next morning, the crappy weather was gone and the sun was finally out. It was cold, but sooooo much better. A perfect day to go to the park. Central Park.
What an amazing place; it's just the most bizarre juxtaposition of green bordered with concrete.
And all the little bridges and tunnels were just so beautiful. I can't wait to go back when it's warm and the trees have leaves.
The highlight of the park, for me, was the carousel. It was old and rickety. I loved it.
But holy crap the artists who painted and carved for this carousel must really hate kids.
We made our way to the other side of the park to the American Museum of Natural History. We had a little more than an hour to spend in a museum you can't possibly see in a whole day.
But, again, we did the best we could with the time we had and we learned about weird little monkeys.
And their skeletons.
We even learned about evolution. You know, if you believe in that kind of voodoo.
Well, before we could even process the fact that we were actually in NYC, we were in the tunnel on our way out.
And we saw the sun setting as we flew into Tampa. You know, in first class.
Wow, what an awesome getaway weekend for you girls! Reminds me of my weekend with an old college roomate back in 1997....except we didn't have first class and didn't know where we were going in NYC. We just went spontaneously!! Very exciting!!
ReplyDeleteKate - let me just take this opportunity to say that I am so jealous of your life! Good for you for getting away and spending some kid free time doing kid free things. I love the way you document an adventure!
ReplyDelete