The Big Apple
The City that never sleeps
New York City.
I’ve wanted to visit New York
City for as long as I can remember. I
saw it in movies, television shows, art, and magazines. I’d heard Frank Sinatra sing about it. I’d read books about it. But I wanted to SEE and experience it for
myself. My friend Jenn and I had talked
about going since we were in college, and we especially wanted to see it at
Christmastime, decorated for the season.
So this year, 10 years after we graduated from college, we finally made
it there.
In September, we booked our
plane tickets, our hotel room, and two tickets to see “Annie” on Broadway. I started doing my research early to ensure
that we saw and did as much as we could in the three and half days we would be
there. I found an app for my phone that
I would recommend to anyone going to New York called the “New York City
Essential Guide”. I bought a new coat,
more hats and scarves than days I would be in New York, gloves that work with
touchscreen phones, cuddleduds, and some fabulous new all-weather boots. Unfortunately, the boots didn’t show up on my
doorstep until 2 weeks after I got BACK from New York…but that’s another story.
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| My cute boots that were in a postal sorting facility while I was tromping around the snowy sidewalks of New York. Fortunately, my mom had some boots I could borrow. |
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| Jenn had asked me what I was packing...I sent her a picture. |
As our trip approached, the
weather in New York was getting wild. We
would be getting into town just before a blizzard (A blizzard that would be the
first in what would come to be known as “The Polar Vortex”). The night before my flight, I went online to
check-in and found that my flight from Washington, D.C. to New York had been
cancelled. It was a small jet that
wouldn’t be able to handle the storm.
After over an hour on hold with United Airlines, I got a new flight that
would connect through Houston…and it left at 6:30 a.m.! That meant I’d be leaving my house around
4:15 and waking up around 3:30.
Fortunately, I love to travel, so I didn’t mind! My flights went smoothly, and before I knew
it, I was landing in Newark, New Jersey.
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| The photo I took to remember where I parked my car at 5 a.m. |
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| Add caption |
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| Waiting for the air train |
Originally, Jenn and I had planned our flights so we would
both fly into JFK, but when I had to change my flights, those plans changed and
we would have to meet at our hotel. I
got my luggage and took the AirTrain to Penn Station in New York. Penn Station was 12 blocks from our hotel…way
too many to walk in a blizzard, so I had to take the subway from Penn Station
to our hotel. I bought a 7 day metrocard
that allowed me unlimited rides for $30.
Penn Station was confusing, but I eventually found the
subway line I needed. I wheeled my
luggage up to the turnstile and swiped my card.
I started to walk through with my luggage…but it wouldn’t fit. So, here I was, the country mouse visiting
the city, halfway through a subway turnstile, tugging on her huge suitcase
trying to get it to fit. I backed up,
ready to try again, only to find out that once you swipe your subway card, you
can’t swipe it at the same station for 20 minutes. So, I bought a one time use subway card just
to get through the same turnstile! This
time, I wheeled my suitcase sideways, under the turnstile before me, THEN
swiped my card and followed it. NOW, I
could board the subway train.
The subway looks just the way it’s represented in TV and
movies. The loud sound of the trains
approaching on the tracks, the “subway tiles” on the walls, the swarms of
people getting on and off. What they can’t
communicate to you through the television, however, is the stench. The minute you walk down the subway steps,
the smell of urine hits you. If you’re
lucky, it’s just urine…sometimes you get a hint of vomit. If it smells this terrible in freezing
temperatures, I can only imagine what it’s like in July.
It only took two stops to get me to 50th
Avenue. I’d been underground since I got
to Manhattan, so I was anxious to haul my suitcase up the stairs and onto the
streets of New York. I’ll never forget
that moment…like my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was tattooed
on my memory. The bright yellow taxis
were racing by on the street and people were speeding around me on the
sidewalk. Even though the sun had set
hours before, the lights of the billboards, the buildings, and traffic lights
kept it lit up like it was daytime. And
the snow! It had just started snowing, I
could tell because there wasn’t much on the ground yet, and it was snowing
sideways! My face has never been so
cold. Just keeping my eyes open was
difficult because of the snow hitting them.
Still, I couldn’t help but grin…I was in New York City!
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| My first glimpse of the city |
I
was on the corner of 50th street and 8th avenue. I knew our hotel was on 50th,
between 7th and 8th….I just didn’t know what direction 7th
Avenue was. Fortunately, I guessed right
and found it, and Jenn, waiting for me in our room!
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| Our Hotel |
We stayed at the Amsterdam Court Hotel. It’s a small, simple
hotel, but it was clean and the location was ideal! We could see the “Wicked” sign on the
Gershwin Theater from our window. It’s
just a block from the lights of Times Square and Broadway. Our room was a king size bed with about two
feet of floor on three sides of the bed, and a bathroom. Tiny, but all we needed.
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| Keep in mind, I'm holding the phone up in the corner of the room to try and get as much as I could in view. Tiny. |
It was about 7:00 pm, and we were hungry, so
we bundled up (I hadn’t worn my cuddleduds, wool socks, or snowboots while I
traveled, afraid I’d be sweating on the plane) and headed out into the blizzard
to explore and find something to eat.
Snow was already sticking to the ground and was turning the city
white. It was beautiful, but it was FREEZING! I just kept laughing as we walked around,
because it was just so unbelievably cold. I described it later to my mom saying, “It’s
like a blizzard!”, to which she replied, “It’s not LIKE a blizzard…it IS one!”.
We wandered around, taking it all in, until
we’d had enough of being pelted in the face with snowflakes and ducked into a
pizza place. We’d both been looking
forward to New York Pizza. It didn’t
disappoint! It was delicious! After some more exploring, we headed back to
the room. It was only 10:00, but we were
exhausted.
The next morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland! There was about 8 inches of snow blanketing
the city.
To Be Continued...
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