NEW YORK
CITY
May 25,
2006
We could
have stayed longer
in Pennsylvania enjoying the pretty countryside on bike rides, but we
were
behind on our schedule and had a hotel reservation in New York City, so
we set
out early Thursday morning to continue our journey.
When we
arrived in New York
Trexie took us right across the Lincoln Bridge and into Manhattan. Following her instructions we drove right to
our hotel and parked illegally near a fireplug while we worked out what
we were
going to do. I recounted my teenager
NYC stories of signs on the street that said “No Standing” and
nervously looked
around for a policeman coming to give us a ticket.
As we sat there discussing our plans the actor, Jerry
Stiller,
crossed the street right in front of us.
It was
1pm, really too early
to check in, but I went into the building to see if we could get in
early
anyway. The clerk said our room was
ready, so I went out to tell Don. He
moved the car across the street to another illegal parking spot and we
unloaded
our bikes, suitcases, food box and cooler and took them up to our room. Our room is quite spacious and has a little
kitchenette.
After
moving in we asked
about parking. Everyone was quite
dubious—parking in a garage, we were told, would cost more than our
room. We had to move the car, though, so
we got in
and began to drive around the neighborhood looking for a parking garage
or
street parking (impossible to find according to everyone we spoke with). Don, the parking god, found a free and legal
parking spot just steps away from our apartment! Man! Is he good, or
what!?!?!
That
afternoon we walked the
two blocks east to Central Park and found the Gray Line hop on, hop off
sightseeing bus. The tour guide let us on without tickets and promised
to tell
us when we were at the point we could buy tickets.
The bus proceeded around the “uptown loop” and the tour
guide
kept up a running commentary full of corny jokes and tidbits of
information
about various landmarks. We finished up
near Central Park again and purchased our tickets, good for 48 hours of
unlimited riding all over Manhattan and Brooklyn. The
tour buses stop running around 6pm, so we rode another one
over to Times Square. It was starting
to get dark and the lights in Times Square enthralled Don.
We caught the last tour bus for the
“downtown loop” and got a taste of the Broadway theater district,
Madison
Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Lower
East
Side, East Village and the United Nations building.
Our tour guide wasn’t as entertaining as the first one,
but the
sights were very interesting. We
finished up back at Times Square.
By this
time Don, who was
not even planning to go to New York City, was hooked!
He came alive and was excited about everything. He was snapping pictures left and right of
buildings we will never remember and people on the street and the many
sights
of NYC. On the other hand, I was a nervous wreck, trying to protect his
wallet
from passersby. I just wanted to go
home and be safe. Don wanted to go
everywhere and see everything. The only
reason I got my way is because he was hungry.
We took the subway back uptown.
It dropped us off just a block from our hotel.