New York City, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

As I said during Part 1, the bus was perhaps the best decision we made about our entire trip.  It enabled us to see almost every landmark we wanted to see in record time, without any delays associated with hailing cabs or getting stuck in traffic.  We saw Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and Rockefeller Center all with minimal walking.  I took pictures, but let’s face it – my photos of said landmarks have nothing on the stock photos.  🙂  I’d rather stick with the photos of the things that caught the attention of my heart, not just my eyes.

Like this.

It was the signage on the front of the scaffolding at a random building being repaired.  I love the black and white, I love the font, and I love the sentiment.

Or this.

I’ll be honest – it took my breath away.  I’m not even sure what it was advertising.  I just loved it.

Clearly I’m susceptible to emotional advertising.  I am probably an advertiser’s dream! I’d buy anything if it spoke to my heart!

An especially strong heart-tug came when we took Gabe to Ground Zero.  He’s only 5 so we hadn’t told him much about the World Trade Center attacks, but being more astute than we normally give him credit for, he figured out just enough on his own that we had to fill in the details.  We explained bits of it to him in the week before we left for New York City, but when we went through St. Paul’s Chapel we could see that his observation of a more tangible reality required some debriefing and preparation on our parts.  While we were in the Chapel, Tahd took him aside and talked about what we were going to see at Ground Zero and why it was there.

Gabe took it all in, particularly concerned about whether or not we were safe now.

We tried to assure him that we were safe now.  A niggling voice reminded me that we can never be sure we’re safe, but I don’t think most five year olds are ready to comprehend the intricacies of terrorism and their consequences.  Heck – most adults aren’t ready to comprehend the intricacies of terrorism and their consequences.  It’s just too horrific.

I was surprised at how much hustle and bustle surrounded the World Trade Center sites.  It wasn’t quiet or reverent.  It was just busy.  And huge.  I can’t imagine how dramatic it must have been to see the towers standing one morning and gone the next.

On an entirely different note, another thing that spoke to my heart were cupcakes.  Oh, the cupcakes!  We went to Magnolia Bakery, which I’m told is famous and I later found was made famous on Sex and the City, but I had never heard of it before.

Somebody has been holding out on me, because these were the best cupcakes

In.

The.

World.

See?

This is Gabe, his facial expression suggesting strained tolerance at the fact that I am making him hold a cupcake while I fiddle with camera settings.  Clearly I should have been allowing him to eat it!

Nom, nom, nom!

This is what I look like when I realize I accidentally left 4 of my 6 cupcakes on the bus.

I also clearly noted in this picture that my nose is crooked. But I’m pretending I don’t see it because the chance of me doing anything to my nose involving the words “elective” and “scalpel” one more time are slim to none.  So I have two options – pretend I have a straight nose or learn to love my crooked nose. Done and done.

I had wanted to come away with some sort of souvenir from my trip, but because we didn’t do much more than sightsee – and because I donated my cupcakes to the Grey Line bus company – I didn’t find anything to keep.  Gabe, however, found a book.  When we were in Washington DC we got him an “A To Z Washington DC” book.  I found a similar one about New York City.  He loves it, especially the page about the Empire State Building because you have to turn the book on its side since the building is so enormous.

I’m super glad we got to go to New York City, and as far as a family trip goes, half a day was plenty.  We had no strong desires to go into the landmarks – just see them.  Had we wanted to go up the Empire State Building or something like that, we would have needed longer.  I wouldn’t mind going back to take Gabe through the Statue of Liberty.  He’s quite enthralled with Lady Liberty, and he would have loved to get to the top.  Really, though, I’d like to go back with a bunch of girls and a stack of twenties.  A stack of hundreds would be better, but a stack of twenties is more realistic.  😉 It seems like that would be the most fun way to experience the city!  For now, though, I’m crossing this one off my bucket list.  We had a really nice time!