What a Trip!

We're home.  Finally.  We got in about 3am this morning.  We were (of course) delayed out of Newark.  Our flight was supposed to take off at 5:23pm but didn't take off until a few minutes before 10pm; putting us into DFW around 12:30 Texas time.  Add a two and a half hour drive on top and there you have it....

Let me back up and give you the highlights of our trip:

1. Visited major museums:

a. Metropolitan Museum of Art
b. The Cloisters (the Medieval Art collection of the Met)
c. Museum of Modern Art
d. American Museum of Natural History

2. Saw the Sights:

a. Statue of Liberty
b. Ellis Island
c. Wall Street
d. Ground Zero
e. Grand Central Station
f. Radio City Music Hall
g. Times Square
h. Macy's
i. Broadway (no, we didn't see any shows this trip - I'll explain below)
j. Central Park
k. Empire State Building
l. St. Patrick's Cathedral
and LOTS more!

3. Rode every form of transportation (airplane, NJ Transit train, subway, bus and good old walkin') available EXCEPT a taxi - Mom didn't want to.  *laugh*

I am a total mass transit pro now.  I can tell you that, if you want to get to times square, you should take the N. 1 train uptown to 42nd Street.  I can tell you that, if you are at Grand Central Station and you want to eat lunch and then go to the Cloisters and then go back to Penn Station to get back to the hotel (in Newark), you need to take the subway shuttle over to Times Square and then walk the underground tunnel to the A Express Train WAY uptown (190th).  Then you can walk the path through Tryon Park to the Cloisters or catch the M4.  To get back, catch the M4, get off at the first stop, take the A BACK to Penn Station and then catch the train (NJ Transit) back to Newark.  Thank goodness for the Metro Pass.  It had unlimited bus and subway rides while we were there so I didn't have to worry about picking the wrong train or missing a stop.  We could double back - which we only had to do once.  (we took an express train rather than a local and we missed our stop for the Museum of Natural History)

Mom's favorite was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  I told her Ellis Island was fascinating but it felt like a sad place.  My favorite thing we did was the Cloisters.  It is WAY uptown on the very tip of Manhattan but it is WELL worth the trek if you like Medieval art and architecture.  The weather was perfect for the occasion, too..  It was cold and drizzling so a trip to a place that felt like a 13th century monastary was really fun. 

We didn't go to any shows and this is for several reasons: 1. the only show I am foaming at the mouth to see ON BROADWAY is Wicked.  We did go to the Gershwin Theatre but they were sold out except the premium seats ($250/each) so we couldn't go.  2. I didn't want to give up a bunch of sight seeing time seeing musicals that I know by heart and may have already seen in other places. 

My solution to the Wicked issue is that I am going to ride the train into New York when I come to get Munchkin in August.  I always stay the night in New Jersey so it makes sense that I use that time to go into the City with my new subway expertise and go to the show.  *grin*

Anyway, it was super fun.  Watching Mom discover NY pizza, bagels and cream cheese and other food that you can't really have here, laughing together, taking pictures and walking 602 miles across the island of Manhattan.  The locals were super friendly (well, not Texas friendly but they were very polite and very helpful to a couple of Texas hicks).  Like you always hear about folks in Europe, they appreciated our attempt to respect that it is their home not just a tourist trap.  We tried to speak their language, walk faster than normal so we weren't in the way, move to the right if we were going to walk slowly or stand still on the escalators and try not to hold conversations with complete strangers when we were standing in line (I hear that makes them nervous).  *giggle* 

I'm glad to be home and anticipate taking lots of naps to recover from that marathon trip home.