It's up to you, New York

Monday, April 3

Spring Break--New York City

Washington Square Arch at night

During our spring break, Shelby and I are visiting New York City.  Partially to visit Anneliese when she is not in class and partially to see stuff and have fun!  

Shelby in the West Village

Yesterday (Sunday) Randy drove us to the airport, then as we were going through security, I remembered that I left my phone charging at home.  So, I had Shelby call Randy to ask him to bring my phone to the airport.  He was wonderful and was there 15 minutes later.  Which meant that Shelby sat at the gate with our bags and after meeting Randy to get my phone, I had to go back through security, which had longer lines than when we went through the first time.  Argh.  

When we arrived in New York, we used the subways.  When Randy and Joshua were in New York a few weeks ago, they found that it was faster (and less expensive) to take the subway from JFK than reserving a shuttle.  And it was WAY faster than the Super Shuttle (and less expensive).  It only took an hour to get to our hotel as opposed to a couple of hours.  We took the air train, which is sort of free to the Howard Beach station.  Then you pay to leave the air train (which is why it's only sort of free) and board the A train into Manhattan.  We got out at 14th street which is only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  

We checked in and went to our room.  I had texted Anneliese earlier where we were; she was going to meet us at the hotel to go out for dinner.  Well, she found out that many places close early on Sunday nights and with a few extra texts, one as we were leaving the hotel, she directed us to meet her at The Corner Bistro not too far away that was open later.  We had fun visiting with Anneliese, talking far past our meal.  We finally left when the waiter gave us continuous hints that he wanted to clean our table--we were the last in the back dining area.  

Anneliese walked us back to the hotel, then we sat outside on the front steps to the hotel and talked for awhile before Anneliese left around 1:00 to take at least two trains back to her apartment.

This morning, Shelby and I slept in, then set out to explore. We meandered up and down and around blocks at random, eventually ending up at Madison Square Park and the Flatiron builidng.  We rested our feet, then walked on to the Empire State building and visited the Museum of Math gift shop.  If you visit with children, I would definitely recommend taking them there--it looks very cool.

This is an Episocopal church--beautiful!

A Home Depot in Manhattan!

Flatiron Building

Madison Square Park

Shelby resting her legs

Empire State Building

Shelby sampling the wares of the sidewalk vendor

At this point, the angle of the sun was below the tall buildings and it began to get chilly.  Shelby hadn't brought her sweatshirt, so we walked back to our hotel.  We went to our room, then went to the lobby, waiting for housekeeping to finish.  When we went back to our room, they still hadn't done ours, so we stayed there until Anneliese texted where to meet her for dinner.  She had about two hours between a production meeting and her night class (astronomy).  We ate at Mighty Quinn's which is similar to Famous Dave's, but hipper and tastes better.  The three of us shared a rack of ribs and got fries, broccoli salad, and corn fritters as the sides.

Anneliese at a florist

They are selling flowers everywhere!  

Then, after eating and talking, we dropped Anneliese off at her night class (we were in the Village near Washington Square), we headed back to our hotel.  I had a blister on the bottom of my foot (I haven't gotten my barefoot callouses yet and wore my sandals all day) and we were both tired.  Last night we were up late and tired, so an early night to catch up on some sleep sounded good.  Of course, early was around 9:00.  So Shelby has just arrived back from taking a shower (bathrooms are down the hall) and I'll load the pictures and post this before I turn in as well.

This building is where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was.

A 106th commemorative display in honor of those who died in the Triangle
Shirtwaist Company fire.

Each flower has a tag with the name and age  of each woman who died
in the fire.  Some also list their job.  The women seemed to be aged
14 to 40.  What a tragedy.

Washington Square Park

Empire State Building