My Not That Exciting but Perfectly Fine Life

What a sobering experience it was to stand across from where the Twin Towers once stood and imagine the chaos and tragedy that was experienced right where we were standing on 9/11. We couldn’t see the ground where they were working because they had a fence surrounding it. All the buildings next to it looked like they had been repaired and in good working order. The area was busy with people – just like any other part of the city. Not far from Ground Zero was Trinity Church - the beauty and serene setting of the church invoked me to quiet my spirit. I could have spent more time in the grave yard. There’s something wonderful about spending time in grave yards. I can’t explain it.

Down the road a bit there was a temporary memorial. This sculpture stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center for three decades. It was entitled “The Sphere” and was conceived by artist Fritz Koenig to symbolize world peace. While it was damaged during the tragic terrorist attacks of 9/11, it stands here as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of our country. If you look down to the far right of the picture you can see an eternal flame. It was ignited on September 11, 2002 in honor of all of those who we lost.

We thought about going to Ellis Island but by the time we arrived at Battery Park where the Ferry launches off, we realized it would take us a good three hours or more to visit Ellis Island and we didn’t want to spend that much time there. So, we admired Lady Liberty from afar and also enjoyed this photo opportunity with a look alike right there in the park.

We also took a moment to observe the memorial honoring all the fallen men and women who served the U.S.A. and are buried in the American Coastal Waters of the Atlantic Ocean. There were slabs of concrete that had name after name listed on them.

Wall Street

We walked right down Wall Street. It was quite an enjoyable experience. It was kind of surreal to be standing right next to the New York Stock Exchange – a place I normally only hear about on TV. Federal Hall was down this pathway as well as a great view of Trinity Church. The street was alive with activity - lots of street vendors and tons of people. Actually, that could pretty much sum up New York.

It rained a couple of the days we were there…actually it rained/snowed one of those days. We had one simply gorgeous day and for that we’re thankful. So, the day we were to see Central Park, it was raining. The men were out with the horses and carriages non-the-less. We didn’t ride in one, but they sure looked fun. So, my view of Central Park was a bit gloomy, but hey, I got to see it!

Brooklyn Bridge

I was also delighted to see the Brooklyn Bridge. It reminds me of Spot Collin in the movie Newsies. If you’ve never seen it, rent it. But be forewarned…it’s a musical. So, they do break out spontaneously into song. It was one of my favorite movies growing up though. The Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t that far away from South Side Sea Port where we dined for lunch. They had a little mall we walked around in, but it wasn’t much different than what we have here.

Well, it certainly lives up to its name – grand it is indeed! I wasn’t able to get any really good pictures of the inside because of the lighting, but everywhere you looked there was marble. The ceiling was so tall and grand with chandeliers and the USA flag hanging down. It was breath taking really. We used the facilities there and happened to enter the restroom as they were cleaning it. We were very pleased they only chose to clean half of the restroom at a time – how clever! They had a wonderful food market as well. There were booths of everything from fruit, veggies, bread, and seafood, to even a variety of spices. We trekked out to see the trains and found that they were quite boring and looked old and dirty. But hey, whatever gets you from point A to point B, right?

Overall Impressions

I loved the diversity represented there. It didn’t matter where you were, there wasn’t someone far from you who was jabbering away in another language, and almost everyone had a foreign accent.

I noticed that no one paid attention to anyone else – accept the locals had an uncanny awareness of when it was safe to cross the street even when the light said differently. It wasn’t uncommon to be walking down a sidewalk and see people listening to their iPods in their own little world or in a group of people doing something crazy. It doesn’t matter –nobody seems to notice if you do something crazy. You can yell out I LOVE NEW YORK CITY! And no one bats an eye.

The taxi drivers are as crazy as Bolivian taxi drivers. They weave in and out of traffic as if they can do it in their sleep. All I can say is I’m so glad I wasn’t behind the wheel on those streets!

While the city has a beauty all of its own, I missed the beauty of the great outdoors. And I got tired of fighting the crowds and being around people all the time. Guess that goes to show I’m not a big city girl. Not to mention, everything there was a pretty costly. Was the trip worth it? Absolutely! Would I go back? I don’t know. I feel like I got to see a ton. The only real draw would be a Broadway show. But if I want to see another show, I think I’ll look into a traveling one or go to Chicago.

I finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom which in turn has challenged me to keep a positive attitude about being ill. Betsie Ten Boom was always praising God and focusing on Him even in the most difficult of circumstances. At one point she and Corrie were placed in a terribly cramped, dank, and dreary room with hundreds of other cranky, smelly women. And as they entered their new prison home at Ravensbruck Betsie challenged Corrie to thank God for EVERY thing in that new place – including the fleas dancing around on their moldy straw beds. Corrie was sure Betsie was wrong in thanking God for the fleas as there couldn’t be any positive thing that came from them. Weeks passed by and they noticed all the guards stayed out of their quarters. This was very unusual since they were prisoners. So they started a nightly Bible study (a very risky move on their part) and never once were threatened by the presence of a guard. They soon found out why. No guard would step foot in there because of, you guessed it, the fleas. So I look at that story and think, there’s something positive in every little thing – even the annoying and inconvenient circumstances of life.

So, perhaps one positive would be that I have time to finally blog about my New York City trip! Char, Lynne and I arrived in the Big Apple on St. Patrick’s Day. There was a St. Patty’s Parade in Times Square when we arrived although we missed it since we were very hungry so we decided to get a bite to eat a local diner. I think the easiest way to tell you about the trip is to divide it up into a few different categories rather than tell you the details of each day. So here we go!

We decided to fly rather than drive – a wise choice, I must say. We had a brief time to make our connection in Detroit on our way there so we rushed from one terminal to the next. Char and I were a little ahead of Lynne. At one point Char and I were entering a moving walk way and there were these two really tall African American men in front of us. One of them reached over and shook someone’s hand. I thought to myself, how strange! What is this, a meet and greet? Char said something to them about us being in a hurry to catch our next flight and they graciously moved over and let us be on our merry little way. A few minutes later Lynne caught up with us and said, “Do you know who that was back there?” We said, who? She said, “It was Isaiah Thomas.” And we both responded, “Whose that?” Ha! She then informed us that he used to play basketball for IU. Apparently he was named one of the 50 greatest player in NBA history. And we simply bi-passed him. We decided we had better be a little more aware of our surroundings in case we ran into someone famous in NYC. As far as we know, we didn’t see anyone famous during the rest of our trip. Of course, with our track record we could have very well ran into someone famous and had no clue.

Once we got into the city we either walked to our destination or took taxi cabs. The starting fee for a cab was$2.50. It wasn’t the cheapest way to travel, but we weren’t really comfortable navigating the subway system. Char is the most directionally aware between the three of us and she said she even gets turned around when using the subway system. So, we stuck to taxi cabs but used them as sparingly as possible.

I found that eating for cheaper than $8 is impossible. I was delighted to see Chipotles directly across from our hotel and quickly introduced Lynne and Char to it. They had never been but fell in love with the food as much as I have. We also enjoyed a little diner called Cosmic’s. They had delicious food but frowned on splitting the check. The first time we managed to figure it out ourselves although it took us a good ten minutes to read the waitresses handwriting and then do the math. The second time we figured the cashier could split it for us. Well, it just so happens the owner was at the cash register when we were ready to pay our bill. He was a sturdy Greek fellow who had a gruff temperament to say the least. We asked anyway and the next thing we know he’s yelling at the waitress walking by reminding her to ask if the customers want separate checks. We informed him that she wasn’t our waitress and he relied, “I don’t care! They all need to know.” Whew! We got a good laugh out of that. So the next time we went, we decided to be up front and simply ask the waitress to separate our checks. She granted our request, but you could tell she wasn’t thrilled to do so.

Our worst dining experience was at Rockefeller Plaza. There were several places to choose from and we just happened to make a disappointing choice. It was a Kosher Deli. I ordered a roast beef sandwich (repeatedly since the man taking my order couldn’t understand me for some reason) and ended up with corn beef. I also had chicken noodle soup – it was the blandest soup I’ve ever tasted. All to the tune of a little over $10. Sigh.

Our best dining experience was at Trattoria Dell’Arte. We had the best Margherita pizza. The curst was as thin as a cracker but tasty as ever. The cheese was excellent and was complimented by fresh basil. It was oh so yummy. To top it off I had a to die for chocolate cheese cake. Mind you, it didn’t taste like cheese cake. It tasted like the richest dark chocolate cake yet had a very light consistency. The icing was very runny and reminded me of the taste of brownies before you bake them. I couldn’t consume it all in one sitting, but have no fear, I ate it for breakfast the next morning. I know it’s not a typical breakfast food, but I’ve never been conventional when it comes to breakfast. This meal was by far our most expensive meal – but well worth it. The pizza was $20. The cake was $10. And my one glass of coke was almost $5. The ladies each had a salad that was $16. The atmosphere of the restaurant was great though and so was the service. Our waiter was quite fun without being flirtatious – a very refreshing thing indeed. The weirdest thing about this restaurant was that it was decorated with body parts. There were drawings and sculptures of ears, lips, noses, feet, etc. everywhere. I guess it makes your visit memorable if nothing else!

The best coffee I had was in Little Italy at a quaint little place called Caffe Palermo. Probably because it was loaded with sugar and milk! They claimed to have the best cannoli on planet earth so I tried it. But I must say, I’m not much of a connoli fan. The waitress here was our favorite. She was a native New Yorker who was quite upset at how difficult the government is making it for the middle class to make a living there. It was fun to talk with her.

So if you want to go shopping, NYC has any store you can imagine and more. We visited the famous Macy’s where I was shocked to find a whole wall of elevators – 10 total! There were at least three floors of just shoes. I can’t remember how many floors there were total, but it was huge. We also visited Saks on 5th Ave, Bloomingdales, and Century 21 Discount Store. I didn’t buy anything at these stores, just wanted to experience them. Here’s a pic of me posing as the pink statue next to me in Saks. I figured might as well do something fun there since there was no way I could afford anything! We also went to M&M World where you could find anything imaginable with the M&M trademark on it. I purchased some playing cards there. They also had M&M’s any color imaginable. I’ve never seen so many. They sold them by the pound.
The most memorable shopping experience was in ChinaTown where they sell “look alike” handbags of the more expensive brands. They also sell scarves, jewelry, hats, etc. But they also have an underground market where they sell the “real” thing for a lesser amount. It’s illegal I’m sure and I have a sneaky suspicion they are dealing with stolen goods. It seemed like every minute I had someone coming up to me saying “hand bag?”, “Gucci?”,“Coach?”, “ Wrist watch?” All in hopes of taking us “down under” behind locked doors to wheel and deal. We got used to saying no often.

There were lots of little tourists’ shops especially around Times Square. I stopped outside a luggage store once to purchase some postcards and went inside by myself to purchase them. There were two gentlemen behind the counter. One was Indian and was very friendly. He said the word “beautiful” right away and it was shortly after that I realized he was talking about me since he kept saying it. While I was flattered, I didn’t know quite what to do with that compliment. I was glad to return to the street with Char and Lynne.

We didn’t bother to go into Daffy’s. See this pic – it says Clothing Bargains for Millionaires. Can’t imagine what kind of “bargains” are in that store!

While there were many hi-lights on this trip, I think my favorite part was going to see Wicked on Broadway. It’s the story of the two witches prior to the Wizard of Oz. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. But I fell in love with the story and the music right away. The characters were so likeable. I understand the book is darker than the show so I probably won’t venture into reading it. But I’d recommend the show to anyone. The set was amazing and the music was even better. Char and Lynne had both seen Wicked in Chicago and said both shows were equally as good. So, perhaps next time I want to enjoy some good theatre I’ll head to Chicago. Although, I hear the traveling tours are just as good. So, perhaps an interesting show will come to Fort Wayne, Indy, or Bloomington sometime.

Ok – so there’s so much more to share, but I’m going to have to finish with part 2 later.