Fun in New York

Except for the last day, we had pretty decent weather while we were in New York. Cloudy quite a bit, a few sprinkles, and fairly mild temperatures. And thank goodness—other than the subway ride downtown and the bus ride to the port for the after-concert cruise, we walked everywhere else. (And I didn’t lose an OUNCE! I was so disgusted! But at least I didn’t gain, either.)

After arriving in New York and checking into the hotel, we walked up 5^th Avenue to the Empire State Building. We didn’t have a long wait at all, maybe because it was cloudy. Worked well for me—that fear of heights thing, you know? Not too bad, actually. A level ground and tall fencing makes me feel a little more secure. It was kind of cool to see some of the buildings and stuff sticking up above the clouds, even if we didn’t get to see much in the distance. It was really windy up there, too. It made MFD nervous and she didn’t want to look over the side, but Me-Ma eventually talked her into taking a peek.

After that we went to Carmine’s for dinner. Oh my. Family style Italian food and it was wonderful. There were seven of us, and we all split a salad, lasagna, spaghetti with meatballs, and some kind of sausage and rotini dish. We had leftovers, but no room for dessert. Bummer. They didn’t have crème brulee anyway.

We just moseyed along the rest of the evening. We found Broadway and Times Square and I don’t remember what else before we made it back to the hotel. Now then, the hotel did have crème brulee—for $12. So I couldn’t tell you if it was any good or not. However, I’m thinking not. We stayed at the Hilton, and let me tell you, if that’s what Paris is used to, I don’t know why she was bitching about jail. A Super 8 is just fine by me—it’s cheaper and at least it has a refrigerator you can actually use and a microwave. And I even got desperate enough for a decent cup of coffee that I resorted to the Starbuck’s that was in the hotel. And that was cheaper than the $4.50 they charged for a bottle of water if you broke the seal on the beverage bar.

Sheesh.

After practice Saturday morning, we took the subway to Battery Park and got on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. No one is allowed up top anymore, and you can’t even get inside the base of the Statue without tickets, of which there are only a limited number. I tried to get some online before we left, but they were already gone. It was still fascinating to see those monuments of history, and to think we might have walked on the same ground as some of our ancestors.

Before heading back, we made a short stop at Ground Zero. I cannot adequately describe the sights and emotions.

The subway was interesting. One man offered his seat to my mom, but other than that, no one really talked to or looked at each other, ‘ceptin’ fer us tourists. And you know those pictures you see on the internet with people pierced all up one side and down the other? There are real people like that.

Walking around, you know how to tell New Yorkers from the tourists? New Yorkers are each issued a cell phone to attach to their ears, and you have to walk along, oblivious to everything. And not those silly things a lot of people around here wear that look like a huge hearing aid with a blinking light. Has to be an actual cell phone. Guess they don’t want others to think they might be talking to them.

Saturday evening concluded with a Broadway show, Monty Python’s Spamalot, at the Schubert Theater. It was hilarious. If it comes to a town near you and you get a chance, go see it.

Groaner for the day: one of our chorale members ended up standing next to a university student named Lance. Another member enjoys teasing MFD about boyfriends, so his comment was that MFD liked Lance a lot.

I told you it was a groaner.

Ok, that’s it for this round. To be continued…

Flo

P.S. Happy Birthday KSA