Tag: “New York”

Saturday In Manhattan

When we woke on Saturday, it was to find Pluto staring out the window as if to fix the Port Authority Bus Terminal permanently in her memory. Pluto is the Bernese Mountain Dog puppy plush toy received as a Christmas present eight or so years ago that seems to travel on all family vacations. We did some packing, but before we left Manhattan, we had to visit the New York University Visitors Center and feed the fire to learn that burns in the heart of every young person. OK, I’m not that old, I haven’t forgotten my attitude toward the fonts of knowledge – or their gatekeepers. What worked for me was a sort of hypnosis or hysteria that could not consider anything less than a Bachelors Degree – in something.

In addition to Pluto, here are a couple shots of Washington Square Park which, as the girl in the Visitor’s Center put it, “doesn’t belong to the University, but might as well.” We close our trip with a picture that I didn’t take on purpose, but which sums up my New York experience – it’s a bit blurry, but it looks like everyone is going very fast.

 

Friday in Manhattan

First, The Cloisters. To get there we had to take the “A” train. That was cool. No way to tell who else thought so. We also found it interesting that the ceilings Subway stations in Midtown Manhattan were very dark – at 190th street, the ceiling was white. It felt nicer. As we walked through Fort Tryon Park on the way to this extension to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we thought it was fun that Broadway bordered the park on the east. Simple minds – simple pleasures.

After returning to Midtown, we ate lunch at the Heavenly Rest Stop which, more than anything else reinforced the notion that one shouldn’t try to buy their way into Heaven. The staff was great, the building was fascinating, the shelter from the midday sun was a Godsend and our panini were tasty. Actually, we didn’t like the texture of the cooked cucumber in the Vegi Panini but that really only bothered the Vegetarian.

We crossed another street and there was the Guggenheim. Now, I really don’t know what their problem is, but they have one. It seemed to me that there are enough people in New York that want a job that they could hire people who weren’t angry just for coming to work. Either that or it’s policy to hire and train staff that resent visitors and are rude to them so that they will leave. It wasn’t just us; I could see docents abusing guests where ever I went  in the building, most often when they stopped to view the exhibits. We were grateful to leave that place behind us. There were a couple interesting things about our visit, but if we old anyone about them, we fear that we might have to forfeit the memory.

We arrived at the  Circle Line Cruises office to learn that the only ride we could take that fit our time frame was a 30 minute sprint on a speed boat they called “The Beast”. It was a perfect next step. They turned up the throttle, turned up the music and took us for a quick spin down the Hudson River to see the Statue of Liberty and back (we’re afraid she lies, but she’s still a grand old dame.) We got a little smarter and caught the 42 bus back to as close as we could get to our hotel.

The younger members of our party went to see Cinderella and the elder members to dinner at McGee’s on 57th. we had no idea at the time, butt McGee’s claims to be the inspiration for the gathering place in How I Met Your Mother. Not only that but we felt they took good care of us.

The Beast

Thursday Night in Times Square

So, on Thursday, things didn’t go according to plan. The camera stayed in the hotel room during the day. We received email notice that our attempt to win ‘Shakespeare in the Park tickets through the lottery had failed. The Guggenheim was closed. (More about the Guggenheim in another post.) Central Park is much bigger than we realized. Our feet still hurt from the day before. And, yes, that would be a slight note of whining that you hear.

We took the Subway up the west side of Central Park intending to get off at the American Museum of Natural History. Well, we got off one stop early and walked north and arrived at the museum just as it was opening. We had a great morning: we saw the Giant Squid in mortal combat with the Whale, we saw the Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway and we saw the Hayden Planetarium program. Well, we didn’t see all of the planetarium program, The planetarium was awfully dark, and the chairs were very soft and we didn’t get to bed until 2. We ate lunch there too, after we woke up.

After lunch we took the Subway to the south end of the park, across to the east side and up Eighth Ave., (2 transfers! and we discovered later that there’s a bus for each of the cross-park streets.) to the stop nearest the Guggenheim. The sign said, “Closed Thursdays” so we walked back south to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We got lost in there – several times! We also received complementary tickets to The Cloisters – a collection of Medieval Art and Architecture located way at the north end of Manhattan. It’s embarrassing to admit, since we were so into using mass transit, but we took a taxi back to the hotel. There was time for another nap before The Social – finger food, beer and wine (sorry kids – how does left over pizza sound?)

We devoted the evening to Times Square and had a great time – even though I’m still not really sure if there is an actual place that is Times Square. I’d say the the New York Times Building. That’s on 40th street and 8th Avenue. Except for the absence of the Times building, 42nd Street and Broadway is a strong candidate, but it would be nice if there were something square there. The folks who really care say that its the intersection of 7th and Broadway (nope – not square). The photos of the evening would convince most folks like us (residents of Denver, near downtown) that the entire population of New York was in and around Times Square to spend the evening. In fact, we ran into friends from Denver. That happy interaction didn’t keep us up too late, we were in bed by midnight.

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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.