Epic Summer Trip 2019 (Day 24-25): NYC

This is, in no way, meant to be an insult to my Mid-Atlantic / Northeastern friends, but driving from Washington DC all the way up through Connecticut so far has been strewn with multiple examples of selfish, impatient, and in-courteous drivers.  I don't know if it has to do with the high population density or just a particular culture of driving, but my stress levels have definitely risen since exiting North Carolina.  Drivers in these regions seem to have no patience for anyone who isn't going the pace they want to or anyone who may not know exactly where they are headed.  They certainly don't like anyone pulling a trailer!  I know that I'm generalizing here and there are plenty of courteous drivers, but I have plenty of examples that I could list.  This is less a criticism and more of an observation.  I maybe just too used to open roads lately (outside of Seattle).

After leaving Aunt Janet's house the second time (we had to go back after I accidentally left our water bottles in her fridge), we headed for Chester, New Jersey to visit my college friends, Rick and Kristen Turner.  Chester is about an hour west of NYC so it presented us an opportunity to do a day trip into the city as well as catch up with some old friends.  Rick and Kristen have 11-going-on-12 year old twins (daughter Megan and son Ryan) and live in beautiful house complete with a theater room and torture dungeon.  Actually, that's not true.  The theater serves as both.  I can't tell you how hard it is to watch a movie in surround sound with all that moaning and wailing!  All kidding aside, they provide a wonderful home for themselves and their kids.

After consulting with Kristen, we figured out the best way to get into the city and what to do when we got there.  The transportation part went fairly smooth (drive ~1 hour to the nearest commuter train station, hop on the train and navigate Penn Station), but we underestimated the heat and humidity in the city while walking from destination to destination.  Manhattan is truly a national wonder and I encourage everyone to visit it at least once!  The kids probably wouldn't rate it as a highlight of the trip, but that was mainly due to the weather.  There is so much to see and so much busy-ness always going on.  If walking down Hudson street is about a 6 on the dial for action, Times Square is definitely a 9.  A ten being a spectator at a light saber battle taking place on an ice rink while a professional hockey game is going on.  That would probably make a good Las Vegas show, actually.

We walked on this really cool path called the High Line which is actually an abandoned elevated railway line which has been converted into a green space complete with walking path.  It allows you to walk above the streets to avoid traffic and intersections at the same time enhancing your voyeurism as you look into 3rd story condos/apartments with large, uncurtained windows.  Unfortunately, the tourists were out in force and the walkway was pretty clogged with folks not utilizing the "walk on the right" social American norm.  After about a quarter mile I wanted to get off.

By that time, the kids started whining about being hungry so we made our way down to street level and started scouting out for food locations.  I really wanted to go to a cool "authentic" delicatessen, but Goggle's ratings have some work to do.  The one 4.5 star deli we visited wasn't much more than a shop with a few cold cuts near the front and a stale looking buffet in the back that may or may not be experimenting with a new strain of salmonella.  We ended up at a small sushi restaurant because I like to live life on the edge.  It turned out to be really good (and really cheap for NYC standards!  You can't beat a soup, salad, California roll and 5 pieces of fresh sushi for $12!  As of today, the kids and I are still alive so I win!

We proceeded to walk to lower Manhattan down to the Trade Center and see the 911 memorial.  I remember going there a couple of years ago, but this time around I was given the opportunity to explain 911 to the kids in a little more detail.  It turns out that Rick's dad was actually UNDER the second tower heading to a meeting when it was hit and was fortunate to get out, get on a ferry and wander around New Jersey until Rick somehow found him walking around in the area where he said he might be.  This was back when cell phones were rare and cell towers were even more rare.  It didn't help that tower #2 was also a cell tower!  Crazy.  For those of you reading this, you probably all have a 911 story of where you were when it happened.  I was at Starbucks at the time and had just arrived at work to a beautiful summer Seattle morning when my boss  told me that the US was under attack.  I was then asked to start running reports to locate all of the SBUX stores within a certain radius of the towers for the purpose of turning that info over to our Safety and Security department.

From the 911 memorial, we made our way down to Battery Park which is located on the southern tip of Manhattan.  It provided us with a decent view of the Statue of Liberty, but more important an opportunity for Drew to purchase a $10 baseball cap.  I know... priorities.  I asked one of the numerous tour guides in the area the best way to get up to Time Square and we were directed to the "1" train complete with thick New York accent which the kids appreciated.  Figuring out how to buy, pay for, and get on a subway with three people without anyone but other tourists to figure it out is actually pretty entertaining.  I learned that you can get someone on the other side of the subway revolving bar-door to push on the emergency exit and let everyone in free of charge.  Am I an official New Yorker yet since I broke maybe the third most common law beyond jay walking and public urination?

We made it up to Times Square in maybe a tenth of the time it took us to walk down from approximately the same place.  Yes, I probably should have used the subway the entire time, but I'm stubborn dammit!  We explored the phenomenon which is Times Square complete with a naked 70 year old woman with a guitar and a thong as we popped up to street level from the subway.  Start spreadin' the news... I'm leavin' today!  We buzzed in an out of some of the tourist shops and enjoyed the AC when we could before walking to the first Macy's on 34th street to check out the old school wooden escalators starting on the 4th floor.  I decided to seek out a new swim suit for Olivia, but after getting conflicting locations from retail workers (Basement, 4th, 8th, and 5th floor) we decided to head back to Penn Station and start the exhausting trek back to Kristin and Rick's house.

We arrived in time to watch Rick coach his son's baseball team.  It was great to see them interact as father/coach/son and see the dynamics for good or for bad.  I really got caught up in the game and could see the psychology of a team that was "in it" and then suddenly "not in it".  12 is a fun age to watch baseball!  We all headed back to the house and the kids had a great time having fun and tearing up the house much to Rick's chagrin while Rick, Kristen and I covered a wide range of topics throughout the evening.  It dawned on me later that night why I was friends with them in the first place.  The banter, teasing, and depth of conversation took me back to my college days.

College or post-high school friendships are so different from high school friendships as they are based on your history as a young adult rather than a child.  You come to college where very little people know about what you were like or what you did as a child.  College friends only judge you based on your personality and the stupid/fun things you did while you were there.  I think it's the first time that you actually get to really choose your friends based on things you more or less had control over.  I'm not saying you can't make great friends in high school, but a lot of that can be determined by social groups or even how you react to going through puberty.  No matter how you grow in terms of political spectrum or set of values, I think those college friends are determined based on the personalities you gravitate toward.