I know it has been awhile since I have last posted. The reason for this is because I, along with my husband, Bobby, my sister, Randi and her husband, Shaun, have been in New York City, with Times Square serving as our home base. We have explored, traversed and basically wore ourselves out trying to do all we could in the 5 short days we were there. I had thought I would be able to post while there, but honestly by the time I was back at the hotel I was too exhausted to put two syllables together, let alone two words!
Don’t believe me? Here are some of the highlights of what we did.
- Saw a Broadway show — We decided to do this our first night in town. Good thing, too, otherwise we might have been too tired. We saw Groundhog Day, The Musical. It was great!
- Saw a Mets game — We took the train to Queens to see the Mets play. They didn’t win, but the seats were great. The weather beautiful. And we were in the shade for most of the game.
- Ran in Central Park — Bobby and I have started training for a 5K. Randi and Shaun are avid runners. So when you go to New York, where do you run? Central Park, of course! It was starting to get hot, but we did it anyway. There were tons of people running with us, too. It was cool to be able to train in Central Park with actual New Yorkers.
- Hopped on and off — We purchased tickets for a 72 hour tour bus that allowed us to hop on and off at different locations around town. Boy, did we hop on and hop off. In between the riding there was a lot of walking!
- Saw works of art and the eclipse — One of the stops we could get off was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw masterpieces by Monet, Manet, Picasso and Dali. We also saw the eclipse on top of the Met with half of New York.
- Visited one of our favorite restaurants in NYC — The last time we were in NYC, we found the Tri Tip Grill. We ate there two times last year. We made it back this year too. Just as good as I remembered.
- Viewed New York from the Top of the Rock — We traveled up the elevator to the top of the Rockefeller Center. We saw all points around New York, including the Empire State Building. (That is something you can’t see from the top of the Empire State Building.)
- Walked on the High Line — This is a converted railway to an elevated path for 1.5 miles above the streets of the city. (We walked to the High Line, so we decided to not walk the entire length of it.) There are seats along the way, for those of us who were tired. I’m not mentioning any names.
- Rode a ferry on the Hudson River — We took the ferry first to Battery Park City and played ping pong in the park, while Randi and Shaun walked to the 9/11 Memorial. Then we took the ferry to Brooklyn.
- Toured Brooklyn — One of the bus tours we could take was around Brooklyn. We sat on the upper level during a hot and humid day. That’s about all I will say about that (at least for now).
- Walked a mile from the United Nations — We ended up hopping off of our bus to see the United Nations. We thought the walk back to the hotel wouldn’t be far. Turns out that it was a mile, a long, hot, humid mile. Bobby said it was the longest mile he ever walked.
- Looked into a world of miniatures — A new experience in New York City is called Gulliver’s Gate. It is a miniature world with working lights, vehicles, boats, and so many people. The closer we looked, the more we saw. Something the creators promised.
- Toured a Landmark Theater — Last year my dad told us to go to Radio City Music Hall. We never made it. This year we did. We didn’t see a show, but we got to tour it and met Kristen, an actual Rockette. Glad we got there this year.
- “Enjoyed” pizza from the first pizzeria in the country — During a tour of lower Manhattan, we got off the bus to see Little Italy and Chinatown. We also found Lombardi’s, the oldest pizzeria in the country. Bobby really enjoyed it. It was OK, but I like Ohio pizza.
- Discovered rolled ice cream — We happened upon an ice cream shop in Chinatown that makes the ice cream in front of you. They then roll it up into several small rolls. Think of it as a cross between subzero and cold stone creamery.
- Rode to the “nearest thing to heaven” in New York — This is a quote from one of my favorite movies An Affair to Remember. Of course they were talking about the Empire State Building. It was amazing view on the 86 floor. Randi and Shaun paid extra to see the world from the 102nd floor.
These are just highlights. I definitely will go into more detail in future posts, but honestly I’m still trying to recuperate. I hope you enjoyed the brief review of the city that never sleeps. I am glad we went and am glad to be back into a slower pace  and more open space, where I can finally catch my breath.
