New York City - Day 1...

We got into the city and checked into our hotel at 47th and Broadway, right in the heart of Times Square. Because the hotel was sold out and they don't hold rooms, even when you book weeks out, we got our two rooms on two different floors. So, Wade and I split up and the boys went to the 47th floor while the girls stayed on the 36th floor. If 27 floors up bothered me in Philly, it shouldn't have. 37 floors made my stomach turn so I just stayed away from the window, which was hard to do because it was almost one whole wall.

We set out for a Saturday of sightseeing, with Uncle Scott leading the way. This means that we ran through the city and I was kept busy counting all my kids amongst the millions of people we were walking through. Initially, we checked out Times Square. I hesitated to whip out my camera as I did not want to look like a tourist right away. My sister quickly jumped in and said, "You're with the cowboy, I think the cat's out of the bag." So, I snapped a few quick photos before we set out for lunch.

Our first trek was to the subway and into Harlem for lunch at, what my sister's husband, Scott, told us was the "best bar-b-que place around". Colton did NOT want to get on the subway and there was quite a struggle, lots of tears and finally, after a pep talk from uncle Scott, he got on.

We got off at the wrong stop and took a walk through the Harlem projects. I was a little uncomfortable because we stuck out like a sore thumb, especially with the cowboy. I was fascinated with the old style of fire suppression that they used in the city. On the very tops of most of the buildings, especially the older ones, they had large metal tanks which held water. In the event of fire and without the now mandated sprinkler systems, they used this gravity fed method to fight fires. This was extremely interesting to me.

We made the long walk through Harlem without a problem and reached our lunch destination. This place is so popular that you need reservations for lunch and dinner. We were all happy to sit down and when the food came, we were not disappointed.  I could have eaten a second lunch and enjoyed every bite.

 

After lunch, we caught a different train right and headed back to Manhattan to Central Park.  How amazing that in the middle of a concrete city there is this beautiful, green respite for people to enjoy. It was relaxing and very nice.

After Central Park, we hit Rockefeller Center, FAO Shwarz and a few other places. 

We stopped for pizza and quick break before my sister's family took off for home and we went to see our much anticipated Broadway play, Wicked.

We saw the 8 PM show and it was terrific!  The untold story of the Wizard of Oz and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to laugh and enjoy the story from a different angle, all before Dorothy came along. Colton did get a little antsy and with the money everyone paid for the show, I did not want him to ruin it for those behind us. When the curtain fell at intermission, Colton stood and cheered like he was watching the Super Bowl. I thought that he was loving it until he said, "Ok, let's go."

I told him it was just intermission and we had about 15 minutes before we needed to get back to our seats. He said, in all seriousness, "So it's only halftime?  Can't we just go and skip the last two quarters?" 

Wade got him some Milk Duds and that kept him busy for the rest of the show. It was a great play and the rest of us loved it. We got out of the show about 11 PM and made the four block walk back to our hotel, where we crashed after an exhausting, but VERY fun, first day enjoying NY City.

Comments

[KC]

Can't wait to hear about Ground Zero. I can only imagine. A day, truly, that will live in infamy for the American fire service. It's the day America realized that firefighters are their front-line of defense against terrorism on our turf. Be safe, KC