Hubby had to do a half day of work in New Jersey, so he invited me along to play for a few days. For me, New York City is like Las Vegas . . . fun place to visit and experience, but 3 days is enough for this small town girl. During my 3 days in New York, many things were learned and many things were confirmed.
My Hubby is gone quite a bit, but one bonus to that is that he racks up tons of hotel points. And when you’re Hubby racks up a ton of hotel points, you get to stay places like this . . .
for free.
Walking in to a historic place like that is amazing.
The clock in the lobby was commissioned for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Nine feet tall, two tons, and likenesses of Cleveland, Harrison, Washington, Grant, Lincoln, Franklin, Jackson, and Queen Victoria. Very cool.
You are not allowed to touch your own luggage in nice hotels.
I don’t like not being able to touch my own luggage.
Expensive hotels on Park Avenue use the same crappy toilet paper and kleenex as the Super 8.
2 Bloody Marys in the bar of the hotel cost $40.
You are not allowed to wear tennies in the lobby of expensive hotels after 6:00 p.m.
Getting free Starbuck’s every morning does not help an addiction.
Whoever thought up the subway is a genius.
It’s hot in the subway.
It’s cold in the subway cars.
There are rats in the subway.
The subway is much cleaner than I thought it would be.
The subway is still dirty.
The subway takes you cool places, like this . . .
A lot of people meander around in Times Square on any given night.
My sunglasses are not big enough.
I need to start wearing my sunglasses all the time. Including inside. And outside in the dark.
Hot dogs from street vendors are yummola!
Foreign men like to wear manpris.
The fashion police in New York appear to have gone on vacation.
Manpris are just wrong.
Some people should not wear sandals.
A subway/train ride from Park Avenue to Morristown, NJ takes approximately 1 hour.
There’s nothing to look at on the train to NJ.
Train employees actually wear those cool conductor hats and use a hole punch when they check your ticket, just like on TV.
I don’t want to live in NJ.
NY is just like it looks on TV.
Manhattan is dirty.
Real life cab drivers are just like they are on TV.
People in Manhattan do not look you in the eye or say hello randomly.
People in Manhattan always have somewhere to be, and they want to be there before you.
Lombardi’s in Little Italy has awesome pizza.
The only place for a driving range is out into the Hudson River.
There are 4 levels to the driving range.
If the net were gone, you could’ve hit a golf ball to Captain Sully.
Just because someone has an expensive camera and talks all cool about photography and the perfect shot and getting sunrays in pictures doesn’t mean they can actually take fabulous pictures.
Hubby almost lost an ear, but luckily we got plenty of the nasty dirty Hudson River in the photo.
The Statue of Liberty is as cool in person as I thought it would be.
Lady Liberty is huge when you’re up close.
The number of buildings on Manhattan is mind numbing.
I don’t want to live in Manhattan.
It’s never dark in Manhattan.
It’s never quiet in Manhattan.
There are a LOT of people in Manhattan.
Most of them leave each night and come back the next day - via the subway.
This is where the “regular” people get to live in Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens.
You are eligible for subsidized housing like this if you make up to $175,000/year.
You could even live in these luxury apartments.
I don’t want to live in luxury apartments.
A ride around Central Park on a peditaxi is fun.
Jamaican dudes who give peditaxi tours are very fun.
Jamaican dudes insist that you take tons of pictures in the park.
Yoko Ono lives in the apartment behind us that overlooks Strawberry Fields.
I can’t Imagine.
There are no strawberries in Strawberry Fields.
It’s cool to be able to walk anywhere.
There is no way Sarah Jessica Parker walked around Manhattan in those shoes.
It is possible to stay on Park Avenue and not buy anything.
Ground Zero is more amazing in person than on TV.
It’s truly amazing that two buildings that huge fell and didn’t take more with them.
Veggie burritos at Charley’s are very yummy.
The New York Stock Exchange is VERY secure.
You have to be specially invited to see the NYSE in action.
It’s disappointing to not be able to see the NYSE in action.
People in Manhattan do not offer to take your picture.
You get lots of nostril self-portraits because nobody will offer to take your picture.
The flag attached to the NYSE building is GINORMOUS!
It’s friggin’ hot and humid in Manhattan.
No matter how much you expect to see trees and grass just around the corner, it won’t happen.
It gets frustrating to see nothing but metal, concrete, and people after a couple days.
Chinatown is cool.
Chinatown is a little scary.
I don’t want to buy a fish head on ice when I just saw the little Chinese dude whack it with a hammer and cut it off.
Chinatown is just like it looks on TV.
You can go from China to Italy in as little as 10 steps.
The culture and number of people walking around Manhattan is amazing.
Not all of New York’s Finest can park a patrol car . . . not even at the police station.
The food at Cellini’s is yummy.
The concierge at the hotel has a very different interpretation of “moderately priced Italian” than I do.
Dessert at Serendipity is worth the 90 minute wait.
I want to try to make frozen hot chocolate.
There weren’t as many people at the Today Show as I thought there would be.
You should always shower before walking to the Today Show.
If you don’t want to get on the Today Show, don’t stand behind the cute old lady with white hair.
Celebrities don’t always take flattering photos.
Matt is not a large guy.
Meredith is a tiny woman.
Even with those shoes on, she’s still barely as tall as Al, who is not a tall man.
I would fall off of those shoes.
When your plane is delayed an hour out of LaGuardia, it’s OK that your connecting flight out of DFW is delayed 1/2 an hour so you can make your connection.
I may have actually kissed the dirt when I got home.
I loved driving home in the dark.
I like dark.
I like stars.
I like mountains.
I like fresh air.
I like SPACE.
I am a small town girl.
I love where I live.
Looks like you saw lots of cool things but you also confirmed my feelings that New York and Manhattan are places I really have never had a desire to see. I realize that everyone should probably see it once but it would be way down towards the bottom of my list as there are soooo many beautiful places in the U.S. that I want to see before I am too old to do so. I am also a small town country girl and I too love to be able to see the stars, grass, trees, lakes, rivers, hills, wild flowers, corn and bean fields, and I like living where people are friendly and say “Good Morning” or “Hi” just because they are nice people. I am glad you had an opportunity to see it and that you had a good time. And to be able to stay at the Waldorf Astoria…WOW! Do they have Super 8’s in New York because that is probably all we could afford there!! Love…Mom