New York City

Wow, the NYC experience is a wild one....we arrived on Friday afternoon on the Bolt Bus--we were dropped off at 34th and 8th Avenue. Our hotel was on 40th, so we grabbed a cab (could have walked, but we had our luggage). The cab situation in NYC is crazy...it seems as if there are 15 yellow cabs for every 1 car...and if the light is green...and you're a pedestrian---watch out! If you're a passenger, just hold on for dear life. Yikes...they fly though the lights like you wouldn't believe, trying to make it through while still green...and legal. On our very first cab ride, our driver hit the van in front of us--really quite a bump which caused bad words to come out of Peggy's mouth, but the van driver never even got out to check the damage....very interesting. Our hotel was on the 15th floor with a view of....another building. But it was a nice place, close to Times Square and in Mid-town, which is where we wanted to be.

On Friday night we traveled up to 79th street. The travel time in a cab going from 40th to 79th is about 2 minutes---they drive like maniacs, dropping their fares as fast as humanly possible to clear their cab for another fare...yikes. We ate at a totally vegan restaurant called Candle 79. It was really a lovely place and the food was terrific...we all enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning, we took a bus tour of Uptown. The tour guide was a friend of Mary's sister's, and he'd lived in the city for his whole life--his parents and grandparents had also---a true New Yorker. He has never owned a car, has never had a lawn or mowed a lawn. He thinks that crickets are annoyingly loud...he was hilarious. He really knew his stuff about the city and made it really fun. We saw the Dakata building, where John Lennon lived and was killed, Central Park, Harlem, the Apollo Theatre, lots of wonderful architecture, a church that is so big that the entire Statue of Liberty could fit inside of it without touching the top. He pointed out the buildings where famous people lived...it was a gorgeous day and a very fun and informative tour. After that, we walked to Rockefeller Center---and went to the "Top of the Rock", the observation tower overlooking the entire city. Wow, it was really great being able to see the Hudson and East Rivers, Central Park, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens....the views were spectacular. We had wanted to have lunch at The Boathouse in Central Park, but the wait was long, so we opted for Tavern on the Green...an expensive lunch that was not very good, but what the heck, it was Central Park/NYC, so it was fun, but I was wishing we'd opted to wait for a spot at The Boathouse. We took a walk around the park for awhile---very busy and loaded with bikers, roller-bladers, a german festival--very fun and festive goings-on. We then headed to Times Square to check out 1/2 price tickets for a broadway show. We got into a very l o n g line of people doing the same thing, and surprisingly enough--the line moved very quickly and we had ourselves 1/2 price tickets to "Hairspray" at 8pm. The show turned out to be great---it starred George Wendt (Cheers) as the mother--and he rocked! Very fun, great music, great seats.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the hotel, but had them hold our bags, went to breakfast and shopped around Macy's (huge!) and a few other spots. Went back to get our luggage and headed out on the bus around 2:15. It took over an hour just to get out of the city. There were people everywhere and traffic was gridlocked. Made it back to Boston around 7:15pm and at South Station, found that Mary's car had a flat tire. Spent about 90 minutes waiting for AAA, and finally headed home.

It was a really fun weekend in New York. It's a great walking city, although a bit dirty. It's laid out on a grid, and every street and avenue is very well marked, so it was super easy to figure out where we were and where we needed to be. I wouldn't want to live there, but it sure was a fun place to hang out for a few days with great friends...just doesn't get any better than that!