Other Places – Page 4

Lime Light

A night on the town – that’s what we had – and not just any town, this is New York!

We went off Broadway, literally, to 340 West 50th Street – the New World Stages, to see “Peter and the Starcatcher” (at least most of us did.) It’s worth all those Tony awards (5). We saw a few other marquees on the way there. Then after the play was over, we hopped a subway back down to the Empire State Building (at least most of us did) for a night view of The City before hopping another subway back to 340 West 40th Street and the Staybridge Suites.

Getting to bed at 2am was brutal, but it did make us believe that New York never sleeps. There were still people going places – and still places to go – when we quit.

New York

We went to New York. Landed at LaGuardia Airport on a Tuesday – took off from LaGuardia the next Saturday. At LaGuardia, we found a kiosk for MTA weekly passes that allowed us to ride any bus or subway train that we wanted during our stay. We took the M60 bus to the the Astoria Boulevard stop and then caught the N-line to Times Square. From there, we dumb-lucked ourselves out of that maze and onto 40th Street and wheeled our luggage from Broadway toward 9th Avenue where we had reserved a room at StayBridge Times Square. We bought a couple pizzas on the corner of 40th and 8th, sodas for the kids and wine for the grownups and collapsed into sleep.

Here are some pictures of Wednesday as we walked to Times Square and then to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building. Then we took the subway a couple stops south (down) to 14th Street and walked a couple blocks west to Highline Park. We walked North(up) end to end on the Highline, ending up at around 30th Street and walked to the Empire State Building. Cool!

At the Empire State Building we bought the New York City Pass which saved us some money on admission to some of the things we wanted to see. One of the things that we had not expected was a second admission to the Empire State Building after 10pm if we used it the same calendar day.

Florida V – Orlando to Fort Lauderdale

“All good things have to come to and end and its the same with the wild wood weed.”

Oops, sorry, that’s in a song, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the end of our trip

to Florida or, really, anything else about us. We found ourselves heading back south to Fort Lauderdale, and from there, home. We made a point to drive down the Atlantic coastline as much as possible. We stopped a couple times to get our feet wet. Wiser people than me have noticed that there’s something about the beach that makes some people lose their minds. (Just kidding.)

One last thing: Thanks, Dad, for going with us.

Florida IV – Disney’s Animal Kingdom

At the Animal Kingdom, the first thing we did was go on an African Safari – by which Disney meant that we would be driven on a bus through a rather well designed zoo with some very well fed and healthy looking animals.

The park also has a tremendous gorilla area that we enjoyed.

Gorilla at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando

I guess its true that everybody loves a parade, because if it were just me, Disney would have parades every day at every park. Well, they do and, get this, each park does it differently!

Florida III – Disney’s Epcot Center

We enjoyed Epcot Center most of the Disney parks we visited. We really enjoyed the feeling of being able to step from one country to another. There are little corners tucked into each country that just quietly say “This is us.” It was cool riding around inside the big bucky ball that has been the signature of this park since its beginning in 1982. (OK, its not really a bucky ball because Spaceship Earth is made out of triangles, and bucky balls are made from pentagons and hexagons, but still!) These photos show some of the other great things.

Florida II – Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Jay and Kay and the Happiest Place on Earth

In Orlando, we understood that we had to visit Disney theme parks. So we did! Day Two was The Magic Kingdom. This is before we got drawn into the magic when we were still thinking of managing people and expectations,. This is getting started, what we saw in little corners and finally, how empty the entrance was in the afternoon.

Then there were a few attractions: I liked the Paddle Wheeler and the view as we were cruising the circular lagoon. May-be I just liked sitting down.

There were a couple rides that I enjoyed like “Small, Small World” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”

And then, the parade …

Florida

We went to Ft. Lauderdale. We drove up north and found ourselves in Orlando.

What could we do in Orlando? Well, in Orlando they are glad to offer a few suggestions. We ended up, like lots of other people, trapped – yes, trapped – in universal fantasies that movies are made of.

You might call this “Day One” or “Orlando by Universal.” Looking at the web site, Universal seems to have reorganized since we were there.

We first went to the Harry Potter area.

Then we stood in line for the slowest roller coaster in the world. Don’t think it wasn’t fun, we went through a restaurant on the roller coaster and decided to go back there for lunch. Note the Dr, Suess characters.

Dee and Kay took the log ride, Ripsaw Falls, and Steve took pictures. By then the day had gotten hot and long and the line looked too forbidding. Steve was afraid his camera would get soaked. And anyway, he didn’t want to go. From the pictures, it’s clear that the riders get wet and they don’t mind. It also looks like good fun.