New York, New York

I can’t help myself. Every time I think of this city, I can hear Frank Sinatra singing!

C had never been to NYC, so I decided to take him for his birthday present this year. Instead of going in August when his birthday actually is, he suggested that we go over the 4th of July so we could see a good fireworks show while we were there. Neither of us are very impressed with the shows that Charlotte puts on (that topped with having to move out of the way for all of the SWAT teams in riot gear… doesn’t exactly equal my thoughts of a good show!), so why not?

My first trip to NYC was in 2/02 working on a mission trip for the Salvation Army. We served food to the workers at the WTC site, which was a very moving experience. More on that another time though, I’m hoping to find the email I wrote to friends and family immediately after that trip, explaining all of the things I saw, heard and felt. It is always interesting for me to go back and witness how much the site has changed from those few days I spent there soon after 9/11.

We stayed at the Hilton Penn Station in Newark, which was significantly cheaper than staying in the city. Yes, the 22 minute train ride into the city got very old after awhile, but it was worth it. We did hit the ground running after we finally got on the hotel shuttle. C’s first NYC experience? Why, witnessing someone attempting to park of course! How convenient since he works in that industry!

It was a doozy. We’ve got parked vehicle number one, the Mercedes SUV, parked vehicle number two, the Ducati motorcycle, and then Mr. Brilliant in vehicle number three, the red Volvo.

Not only did Mr. Brilliant hit vehicle #1 multiple times, but he also hit the motorcycle a couple times. Now, one would think that if you’re constantly hitting another car, it’s time to give up and find another parking spot. Nope, not this guy. He got out of the car and attempted to move the bike. Well, that’s a good idea, until the bike falls over. Oy.

Moving on now… we ate hot dogs from a street vendor, which was at the top of C’s list of things to do. We were planning on doing the Statue of Liberty Friday afternoon, but unfortunately the line was ridiculously long. We headed back north, weaving through the city, stumbling on a festival. There was live music, tons of food, and several other street vendors stretching for several blocks. C stopped and got a gyro, and I enjoyed walking through some of the vendor displays. We managed to get to the South Street Seaport and lo and behold, there’s the brewery! US Air had this section of the best breweries in several cities, so I wrote the addresses down of the Heartland Brewery. This was our destination after we nixed the Statue trip for the day. The beer was ok, not my favorite, but not the worst we’ve ever had either. We were able to sit out on the sidewalk and enjoy our sample tour of their beers.

As a quick side note, I asked about The Strand bookstore while we were in one of the shops and I was thrilled to hear it was just a couple short blocks away. They’re not kidding when they say they have 18 miles of books! We could’ve spent hours in there, but after some browsing we decided to move on.

In all of the times I had been to NYC, I had never been on the Brooklyn Bridge. We had to do some creative planning after seeing the long lines, so we marched straight over to the bridge after enjoying some beer and books. It was CROWDED! It was neat to see the city from that perspective though, especially seeing it with a storm brewing.

Back to the subway and off to Top of the Rock. It was a cloudy day but we decided to go to the top anyways. It was nice and breezy, which felt good after all of the walking we had done. We managed to get a few good pictures up there and we sat down and relaxed a little bit. Our feet certainly needed the break!

After a trip back to the hotel to rest, we headed back to Little Italy, eyed some places we were interested in for dinner, then walked off to the fireworks. It was a much longer walk than anticipated to the park, that’s for sure. We finally got there, it started raining, and we waited. And waited. And waited. We heard they were to start at 9pm, but it didn’t start til almost 9:30. We were tired and hungry, but stayed for about 10 minutes of the show. It was good, but the hunger and exhaustion won over and we caught a cab back to Little Italy and grabbed some pizza. Yummmmm!

We had hoped that Saturday would hold some better weather, but no such luck. We stood in line for almost two hours for the Statue of Liberty. We probably wouldn’t had done this had I not pre-purchased the tickets. It was cool to see, but we were pretty put off by the fact that the stores were hiking up the cost of ponchos right in front of our eyes. I know, I know, they know they’ll get people to buy them, but we decided to get a little wet and not buy them after witnessing this. It wasn’t bad at all, thankfully. We didn’t get off at Ellis Island, it was pouring at that point and we just wanted to head back into the city.

Lunch was at Jackson Hole Burgers, which was recommended by a friend. Amazing burgers! Both of us really enjoyed our ginormous hamburgers and my root beer was quite tasty. I’d put it up there with Sprecher, which is saying a lot! Mass was next at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We got there in time to watch a wedding party walk out, complete with multiple stretch SUV limos, a Rolls Royce, and a coach bus for the guests. The groom’s family was very Italian. I can’t imagine getting married at a huge tourist attraction or in the center of a huge city!

The wedding left and we went in for Mass, which reminded Clay of a comment I had made awhile back. I mentioned that Mass was fast, and he told me that I had once said that Northern Masses were much shorter than Southern, which holds very true! It has been awhile since I’ve been up North for a Sunday Mass!

Times Square was our very last major stop. Quite overwhelming, that’s for sure. We went to M&M World and decided that was the extent of our Times Square shopping. It was a long, busy, but fun two days… we were ready to sit and relax! We did find an Irish pub to stop at before heading back to the hotel, which was neat.

Overall, we had a good time, but I think our next trip will be to a much lower key place 🙂