Where else but in New York City, would you find the driver of a horse-drawn carriage yielding to a man carrying a cello across a bustling street at 11:00 at night? Ah, the city that never sleeps. And neither do I, it seems. As much as I truly do enjoy visiting New York City, I often find the experience overwhelming and overstimulating, leaving me in desperate need of a good night’s sleep. We typically walk for miles throughout the city, but that’s only one reason for my exhaustion. I’m always in full-tourist mode in Gotham City; always on high-alert, always on the watch for interesting sights, fast drivers, fast walkers, and quick talkers. Now that I think about it, I’ve been in full-tourist mode with the 50/50 tour for nearly a year now. No wonder I could use a good night’s sleep.
This city, more than any other, drives home the sheer magnitude of our enormous country. The number of people living in this one city is absolutely staggering: 8 million. I find that mind boggling – 8 million people in one city!! They represent about 40% of the state’s total population. And speaking of states, New York City has a larger population than 38 different states in the Union! That is just a lot of people.
How on earth is it possible, that so many people can manage to (generally) live together in one space? And, how on earth is it possible that the folks who live in this fantastic, urban paradise share the same nationality as those miles away in a beautiful, quiet place like Medora, North Dakota? Do they really have anything at all in common? Or is it enough just to both be called Americans?
Ok, enough scratching of the head. Back to the travelogue.
New York state is certainly much more than this iconic city. Two of our favorite spots are Niagara Falls and Cooperstown. But this rainy weekend in May, we boarded a train for the Big Apple.
We’re welcomed to the city at Penn Station, which makes no sense to me. Why would you name one of the biggest train stations in one of the biggest cities in the world after a different state? Is there a “New York Station” somewhere in Pennsylvania? Shouldn’t it be called something like “Big Apple Station” or “Center of the Center of the Universe Station” or maybe “Grand Central Station”…. oh wait a minute. Maybe the good names were already taken (will all due respect to the residents of Pennsylvania).
Anyway, we got a good deal on a hotel room (anything under about $1,000 per night is a good deal in New York) and even had a great view of the Empire State Building out our window — especially dramatic at dusk.
To really get a feel for the magnitude of New York City, go visit Times Square on a Saturday night. The energy level is through the roof. We’re talking high-octane excitement. I’ll admit, even if it’s a tad crowded, it’s a really fun place to be. All the senses are tickled here, with neon lights flashing, horns blaring, hot dogs grilling, and elbows jostling. You just want to stand agog, mouth gaping in a permanent “wow” expression. Kind of like the handsome guy in the white sweater, below. Yeah, we’re tourists.
We sampled some amazing pizza and found our way to one of the many, many “gourmet” candy and/or chocolate shops in town. (Really, I thought we should visit the opera, but the others just SCREAMED for chocolate. It was embarrassing).
Have you ever seen a chocolate bunny like this? And how ‘bout that t-shirt? Describes several people I know and love…..
Despite some gloomy clouds and rain, we logged several hundred miles (or so it seemed) on busy city streets. I don’t have any highway numbers to share this time, but we rambled along plenty of famous streets: Broadway, 42nd, 34th, Wall Street, 5th, 6th, and 7th avenues, and nearly everything in between.
We had planned to take the subway to ease our weary feet, but here’s an embarrassing admission: we somehow got lost on the subway. Bill and I have successfully navigated subways from Moscow to Singapore, and traveled the New York subway several times. But this time, we boarded the wrong train and had to disembark, turn around, argue, take a different route, argue some more, be generally frustrated, and walk more than we intended. I hate to think that turning fifty has had such a dramatic effect on our navigational abilities, but……
At least we saw plenty of iconic sights as we walked:
A friendly local guy who could tell that we were tourists (imagine that!) walked with us for a bit and pointed out sights of interest. He was clearly very proud of his city. One down, 7,999,999 new friends to go.
Construction was nearing completion for the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero. This is a sobering place to visit, bringing back memories of the tragic day that changed the world.
Yikes! We’re glad we don’t have to park a car at these rates. Do you think a minivan is considered an “exotic car”?
I’ve never seen a Home Depot quite like this before.
Ah, the ubiquitous fire escapes.
I’ve told you before, this is a G-rated blog. We did not go inside. Just took a voyeuristic photo from the sidewalk. Actually, Bill tried to walk by and pretend it didn’t exist (for the sake of the children, you know).
You gotta love the City’s signs and rules:
We even stayed awake long enough to see what happens on the streets of New York late at night:
Now, about that iconic photo — ok, I admit, it wasn’t taken on the 50/50 tour. It’s from an earlier visit to the city. Our official 50/50 photo looks like this:
Can you blame me for making the switch? I guess I could’ve used one of these:
As usual, we were all exhausted by the end of our busy weekend in the big city. A part of me wanted to push on and see “just one more sight” before we boarded our train for home. Kind of like the time several years ago, when we watched the Mets at Shea Stadium during the afternoon, then boarded the subway and headed to Yankee Stadium for an evening game. Yep, two games, two stadiums, one city, one day.
No baseball on this visit, but we all feel as if we’ve played a double-header. We still had a couple of hours before our train departed, but as much as I wanted to keep going, once I sat down, I just couldn’t get up. My legs ached, my feet screamed, and my head hurt. It took all I could do to drag myself to the train station and collapse into my seat for the ride home. I think I’ll nap. I really do love New York city, but I am tired, tired, tired.
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Travel tip! Do not take pictures of your kids doing everyday things like riding public transportation while on vacation. Trust me on this.
On second thought, just do not take pictures of your kids.
Actually, just do not take your kids.
33. New York
The Statue of Liberty