Manhattan & Me

We are now in Sedona, Arizona and have so much to catch you up on.  We have stopped in 5 locations since NYC so we are going to try and knock out two postings tonight.  And then maybe one a day for a couple days since we will be in Sedona for a few days.

N E W    Y O R K     C I T Y

As some of you may or may not know, NYC is one of my all time favorite places to visit.  Not that I have been to a lot of places but a fair amount I would say and it stands out for sure.  For me, it is the alive-ness, the knowledge that stuff is happening here, there is so much history, and culture, and I just feel alive as soon as I step foot in the place.  I have done so much there in my 5 or so trips to the city - seen the Versace exhibit at MOMA, Les Miz, David Letterman,  listened to music at a brazilian jazz club, seen a play with Saaaandra from the tv show "227" (do you remember that show?), watched the US Open tennis tournament, saw McCauley Culkin and Isabella Rossilini, and the list goes on.  I just LOVE this place.

Well, this trip was one to remember.  We were driving south from Kennebunkport and stopped about an hour outside of the city to gas up and this nice guy at the gas station asked us where we were going and proceeded to tell us there are some freeways into the city that DO NOT allow campers and guess what?  Our directions were taking us on one of those freeways so we had to change our route.  At this point, it about 102 degrees and no a/c and we are wanting to get there as fast as we can so we gave the guy a high five and knuckles and we were on our way with our fresh directions.  To say we were hot was an understatement.  As a mother of two small children and having experience with dehydration and heat stroke, I was a little nervous and the girls were HOT- pink cheeks, sweaty brows, backs that are wringing wet...so I became a clanging gong..."keep drinking water my loves"  - If I said that once, I said 100 times.  And I am a sweaty person by nature (thanks dad for those genes) so I am wringing wet before we even got started with the day.  We bought bandanas (for reasons I am not clear) at Wal-Mart in Cody, WY and it was the best $2 I ever spent...those suckers were my saving grace for looking somewhat presentable and that was a stretch!  We had to basically drive thru Yonkers and over the George Washington bridge at about 5 miles an hour for about 2 hours to get to our destination.  There were guys walking down the freeway with grocery carts full of cold water bottles and selling them for a buck a piece.  It was crazy!!!  And we are pulling a camper ...Clark Griswold has nothin' on us.

We had made reservations prior to our departure, at two places - 1) Liberty Harbor RV park (Jersey City, NJ) where the plan was to stay a night and then park the RV & Car, and take the ferry over to Manhattan and 2) stay in a hotel for 2 nights.  Our much documented air conditioning problems changed this plan.   We had found an auto repair shop in Bayonne, New Jersey which is about a 5 mile drive from the RV park so we planned to drop the car off and enjoy the city while it was being fixed.  Sounds great so far, right??  We FINALLY pull into the RV park and notice that about 3 RV's (two are from Washington) are pulling out. Aaron starts talking to one of the guys and he says that there are rolling brown outs through out the city and that the RV park is blowing circuits left and right and so they are asking people to not run their air conditioning while using their RV's/trailers so they were all leaving and heading north so a cooler spot.  We scratch our heads and wonder...what are we going to do ?  It is now 111.  We jump online and get a hotel room for the night - I am thrilled to say the least...I want a shower so bad...

Now, we have to get the car to the shop which closes at 5 pm and it is about 4 pm.  It is 5 miles as the crow flies but it takes us 30 minutes to ge there and thankfully, TONY was waiting for us.  We pull out about 5 bags plus a small cooler with some food  that we are going to take into the city with us and leave the car with him, begging him to figure out what is wrong...Please TONY!  We are in Jersey City and need to get into Manhattan and it is now 5pm on a Friday night.  TONY says to us "Oh, just jump on the bus...it is easy and will take you right to Port Authority."  Thanks Tony so we cross the street and stand at the bus stop in 108 heat with 5 bags, 2 lethargic girls, and 2 adults that are trying to keep it together.  We hop on the bus after waiting there for about 20 minutes only to find that guess what...our bus is not air cond and you can't roll down the windows!  The bandana comes out again and thank the Lord for that piece of pink fabric.  The bus takes about 90 minutes to get to Port Authority in bumper to bumper traffic.  It is now about 6:45 and from Port Authority, we need to jump on the subway to get to our hotel in Chelsea.  It is crowded okay and I am hot and sweaty carrying a bunch of bags and trying to keep the girls spirits up.  And I got us on the wrong subway ok!!  Actually, we were on the right line just going in the wrong direction.  Oooops. So we hop off, have to walk a little ways, and then we are on our way, in the right direction towards Chelsea.  The subway takes about 30 minutes or so  - we are looking at 7:30 or so by the time we walk out from the subway onto the street and it is still H O T!  We have to walk about 5 blocks to our hotel and I am on the verge of tears and when I see the hotel from a distance, it was like a really ugly version of that scene in the movies when two lovebirds are running towards each other on the beach.  That was me with 3 bags and the hotel!! 

We get our stuff settled and it was one of the better night sleeps I have had on this trip.

The next morning, we get packed up and made it over to our originally planned for hotel and from there, we were OFF!  The girls were pretty adament about 4 places - Dylans Candy Bar, FAO Schwartz, American Girl Place, and the Museum of Natural History.  And as they have mentioned, we did all of those things.  But we did and saw some other things as well.

• Had dinner in Battery Park with Brian, Allison, Luna, and Rachel who just moved there and we know them from home.  It was so cool to see an apartment in the city and to hear how things are going with them and what living in the city feels like.  We had a yummy homecooked dinner and then took the girls over to a super fun park that had a long slide that if you pour water onto , you can fly down the sucker!

• Saw the 9/11 site and also the new construction that is going on there - it  still brings tears to my eyes to think about that day.  Our 2nd hotel looked down onto the construction site.  We also got to witness the moving of a girter that was found in the rubble days after the attack that was shaped in a cross and was being moved to the museum.  Rudy G was there and I overheard someone say that Michael Bloomberg was going to be there.  A priest blessed the cross before they moved it, said a prayer and talked about the history of the cross.  Lots of firefighters in attendance and press...it was extremely touching and very memorable for us all.

• Had dinner in Little Italy which was really good but kinda intimidating...we walk in and there are a couple of guys sitting in the corner speaking italian and giving us the once over and we are led to the back of the restaurant ...I felt like I was in an episode of the Soprano's. 
• Took the double decker bus tour around Manhattan and into Harlem a little bit. The history of the city, the cast iron buildings, the projects, it is all so neat in their own ways. 

• Went to the big flea market near times square which was a feast for the eyes.  The girls didn't seem too overwhlemed by it but I do know that Syd hung onto my dress the whole time and McK hung onto a strap of the backpack Aaron was wearing.   We stuck together like glue. 
• Walked thru Washington Square and saw some guys breakdancing for a big crowd that were not good if I must say so myself.  And the people watching were eating it up! 
• Saw two famous people, Martina Hingis (retired tennis player) and Rudy Giuliani.
• And finally, ate a hot dog from a street vendor.  oh yeah, baby!

We decided post-NYC that for kids, they would have just as much fun at a great water park for example then to see the sights in the city.  It is really fantastic if it is not 111, you are not on a budget, and can't go out at night and stay out. Regardless, we had a lot of fun and we ALL want to go back again.  Our poor little car did not get fixed in NJ - couldn't get the parts in and was going to cost us $600 so we decided that we would go to our next stop to see if we could get it cheaper there. 

From New York, we headed south to Galax, Virginia where Aaron's Uncle Rick and Aunt Donna live. 

NYC, we will meet again. 

Karie

P.S.  I have finished two more books, and have started the next one in the stack.  I finished "State of Wonder" (excellent) and "The Dogs of Babel" (not so excellent - a little wierd I must say) and I am starting "The Help" today hopefully.