Movies, Friends, and Cupcakes

The forecast called for rain today and we had accomplished all we wanted in the city so we went to the movies!  We saw Fall Guy and we loved it.  Since it had been out a while, we weren't able to find a theater near our hotel to watch it.  Instead, I found a theater that was very close to a subway stop so that if it was raining we wouldn't have far to run.  We went to the Empire 25 near Times Square.  It was an interesting theater because there were only a few screens on each floor, but it was very tall.  Our theaters back home are quite the opposite.  Twenty years ago, Rodney and I had seen a movie in NYC and were astounded at the outrageous ticket price of $10.  We scored these tickets for $13 each so I think we beat inflation in this calculation.

After the movie, we met our high school friend Donna at Shake Shack.  Donna actually lives in north Dallas, but she used to live in Manhattan and still has an apartment there.  We had lunch with her in NYC 20 years ago too, so I guess it's a tradition now.  She was passing through New York for a few days on her way home from a trip to Paris so we took the opportunity to meet up.  This isn't the first time that we have gotten together in a faraway city with friends who actually live near us yet we rarely see.  Go figure.

Soon we left Manhattan for good and stopped in for a last meal at Junior's in Brooklyn.  I got another lox bagel (although I had hoped for more than 2 on this trip) and we shared a "hostess" cupcake for dessert.

We spent the rest of the night packing up and getting to bed early for our flight the next morning (which ended up being delayed 2 hours because of weather...ugh).  All in all, it was a good trip but none of were sad to leave or eager to return.  I'm glad we got this taste of city life, but a week was enough for us (probably 1-2 days too long if I'm honest).  We're all ready for the beach now!  Haha!

Some final thoughts:

• We had heard a lot of horror stories about the subway before we came, but our experience was good.  We rode the subway every day and had no issues or scary moments.  Whew!
• We were going to buy a 7-day metro card for the trip, but there was no need!  The new OMNY system that they have allowed us to use ApplePay on our phones to pay for our rides and it caps your spending if you spend the amount of a 7 day pass within 7 days.  It's a win-win!  We designated a credit card as an Express Transit card on each of our phones and we didn't even have to unlock our phones to pay.  Easy peasy!
• Right away, we set up a system with our family so that anytime we passed through a subway turnstile or train door one parent would go first, then both kids, then the other parent.  We didn't want any kids getting trapped alone on a subway platform as the train rolls away!
• New York City has the cutest dogs on earth.  Every single dog we saw was beautifully groomed and super happy.  Big dogs, little dogs, fluffy dogs, hairless dogs...all cute and happy!
• Marijuana is legal in New York and everywhere you go smells of weed.  Everywhere.
• We lucked out with the weather.  It had been rainy before we got here, but only about 2 half days of rain during our trip.  Home, on the other hand, had major severe storms the entire time we were gone.  We picked a good week!
• As crowded as everything was while we were here, I really think it was a slow week in the city.  I had made reservations at restaurants and attractions and almost all of them were unnecessary.  I even switched around several reservations (some more than once) and it was never an issue getting in.  I can't even imagine what it is like during the busy times like summer and Christmas.
• The food was amazing.  I regret not getting a chance to try out some of the favorites of the King family like Los Tacos No 1 and Ess-a-Bagel, but I'm sure I could spend my whole life in this city and still not have enough time to sample all the great food.
• We walked almost 60 miles during our week in NYC.  Our shoes were all filthy by the end of the trip and our feet hurt every day.
• One day, Caleb asked me "Why does the subway smell like pee?".  Ummmm...

Roosevelt Island, Central Park, Times Square, and Top of the Rock

We are all pretty tired by this point so we started late and had a lazy morning at the hotel.  Our first stop today was Roosevelt Island.  I'm trying to incorporate a few slower-paced, nature-centric stops today since the city life is wearing on most of us.  

Roosevelt Island is a small island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.  It is about 1.5 miles long and 1/8 mile wide.  We took the ferry from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Roosevelt Island just for fun.  It wasn't too crowded and we sat inside in the air conditioning, which was nice on this hot day.

Roosevelt Island from the ferry

We exited the ferry and started walking south.  There is a paved sidewalk that runs all around the perimeter of the island.  We saw some geese with their cute baby!

Roosevelt Island used to be known as Welfare Island and was used as a sort of New York version of Alcatraz for many years.  It has had a prison, a "lunatic asylum", and also a smallpox hospital where patients could be quarantined from society yet still close by.  The smallpox hospital was abandoned and now only the shell remains.

Ruins of Smallpox Hospital

At the southern tip of the island is the FDR Four Freedoms Park.  There were many people enjoying the outdoors here when we walked through.

The very tip of the island is a place called The Room.  A very large bust of FDR is just outside the entrance to the large rectangular "room" made entirely of white granite.  It's an interesting monument and a great place to enjoy the views of Manhattan and the United Nations building just across the river.

We headed north again and decided to end our exploration of the island and head on to Manhattan. The ferry stop and tram station are both located near the center of the island.  If we had continued walking, we would have passed through the downtown area and ended at the lighthouse on the northern tip.  About 11,000 people actually live on Roosevelt Island so it has businesses, housing, and schools.  There is a bus route on the island, but not a lot of cars.  The most fun way to access the island is by tram.  The Roosevelt Island tram is part of the NY Metro so your subway pass will get you a ride for free.

The tram runs two cars and it only takes a few minutes to get from the island to Manhattan.  We saw the other car passing as we went over the river.

After our tram ride, we had now experienced all available modes of public transportation in NYC: subway, bus, ferry, and tram.

We tried to stop in for a snack at Serendipity, but a sign on the door said that there was a minimum order of $18 per person to be served so we kept walking.

We ended up at the Plaza Hotel and we peeked in at the people having high tea.  So fancy!

We were in need of a break and some food so we stopped at the Carnegie Diner.  Our plan was to eat here for dinner (when it is less crowded), but we improvised.  We only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table and soon we had a booth looking out at Carnegie Hall.

Rodney and I split a Pastrami Reuben and we got pie and cake for dessert.  It hit the spot!

Morgan's favorite spot in the city so far had been Central Park so we wanted to spend a little more time here.  The park was busy on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  There were so many people relaxing together on blankets on the lawns, playing sports in the fields, shopping at the local vendors set up along the Mall, and even dancing to live music.  The dogs were really enjoying the beautiful day too!

We stepped out of the park briefly to visit the New York Society Library.  This is the neighborhood library of an author I really like and I wanted to check it out.  I love going into libraries and I have been wanting to see this one because of this author.  Unfortunately, it was closed for Memorial Day weekend so I couldn't go inside.

We went back into the park, sat on a bench for a while, stopped at Belvedere Castle, and exited the other side at the Museum of Natural History.

After experiencing Morgan's favorite spot, we jumped on the subway towards Caleb's favorite spot - Times Square.  These kids could not be more different.

Above the TKTS booth in Times Square is a set of bleachers that Caleb was wanting to sit on.  We had a chance to do this on our tour the first day, but we decided to save time and come back to it another day.  That was a mistake.  It was nice and calm on the first day with only a few people quietly sitting on the bleachers.  Today it was packed and rowdy.  We made it up about 1/3 of the way, sat for a few minutes, and decided we'd had enough.

We got out of Times Square as quickly as possible and walked to the FAO Schwartz store on the ground floor of Rockefeller Center.  This toy store was previously located in Times Square and was the location of the giant piano scene in Big.  The store has since moved, but the piano remains.

We had a reservation to go to the Top of the Rock at 8:10 to catch the sunset.  This is supposed to be one of the best views in the city.  We had some time to kill so we relaxed in the courtyard where the ice rink is in the winter.

I wanted to see if we could go up early, but Rodney wanted to stay and rest longer.  We ended up going a little early, but it wasn't enough.  As we walked in, they told everyone that there was only 50% visibility at the top.  We could have rescheduled for free, but it was supposed to rain the next day and then we were leaving so we just went on up.  It was very cloudy when we got to the top and it quickly got even worse.  By the time the sun went down, we couldn't see anything at all.

Even in dense fog, Times Square still lights up the night!

We didn't stay long since there was nothing to see.  Luckily, we saw a lot of great views during our trip so this wasn't too disappointing.

USS Intrepid, High Line, and DUMBO

First on our agenda today was touring the USS Intrepid. It is a World War II aircraft carrier turned museum. To get there, we took the subway and then a short ride on a bus. The buses are part of the Metro transit so a subway pass will also work on the buses. The bus was packed with tourists and was standing room only when we got on. We learned very quick to hold on tight.

This next photo gives a more accurate picture of how the kids really felt about riding the bus.

Luckily, it was a pretty short trip and soon we were at the Intrepid.

There is also a submarine available to tour as part of admission so we started there. The USS Growler was a Cold War submarine stationed off the coast of Russia carrying nuclear missiles. The submarine could hold around 90 men and was submerged for 2 months straight at one point. This sub was capable of launching nuclear missiles onto Russian soil. If given the order to launch, they would have had to surface first, which would likely give away their position and result in an attack. Luckily, the order was never given. It was fascinating to see what life would be like on a submarine.

Officer's quarters

Periscope

Crew's mess hall

Crew's quarters

There were a few beds in the torpedo room and the guide told us that they were the best place to sleep on the ship. It was more spacious and quieter in there with the torpedoes.

Next we boarded the USS Intrepid. We saw the junior officer’s quarters (more spacious than on the submarine!) and the hull where the anchors are raised and lowered. The ropes were enormous.

We headed to the upper deck to check out the planes next.

All kinds of special activities were taking place all over the city for Fleet Week and we got to see a few minutes of the US Army Silent Drill Team performing their routine.

While a large crowd was gathered watching the drill team, we snuck past into the Space Shuttle Pavillion where they had a space shuttle on display and a small museum dedicated to our exploration of the moon and the Apollo program.

We’ve been to NASA in Cape Canaveral a few times so we moved through this exhibit pretty quick.

We were getting hangry too so we went down to the pier for a snack. The Concorde airplane is also on display here, but you have to pay extra to look inside. Rodney and I have seen inside when we came here 20 years ago (back when I’m pretty sure it was included with admission) and the kids were satisfied with seeing the outside from afar.

Rodney could have stayed here all day exploring and reading, but 5 days of NYC was starting to wear on all of us and it was hot. We decided to try to tour a couple of active German military ships here for Fleet Week before we left the area.

When we had arrived, we’d seen a very long line of people waiting to tour the active aircraft carrier USS Bataan on the pier next to the Intrepid and we were hoping that the line for the German ships would be shorter since it was further away. Unfortunately, there was just the one line for all the ships so we didn’t see any of them. We did get a picture with the USS Bataan, though.

The whole area around the Intrepid was insane because of Fleet Week so we started walking towards Hudson Yards to get on the High Line for a more serene stroll through the trees. The High Line used to be an elevated railroad track that has been turned into an elevated walkway between Hudson Yards and Chelsea. It was a fun and interesting 30 minute walk.

Our friend Mike had recommended a biergarten at the end of the High Line so we stopped in for drinks and a giant pretzel at The Standard Biergarten. This place was great and the German food here was much better than our experience at Rolf’s.  We were able to grab a table after waiting a few minutes and the bartender told Rodney that it was much less busy than usual today. Every table was taken so it must be crazy on a normal Saturday.

We felt refreshed after our “nature walk” and snack so we braved the subway yet again to get cleaned up for our big event of the day - dinner with Mallory at Cecconi’s in DUMBO. Luckily, we had a reservation and were able to score an outside table during sunset. The weather was absolutely perfect, the views were amazing, the food was delicious, and the company was top notch!  DUMBO (which stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is a cool area on the East River in Brooklyn between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was only a 20 minute walk from our hotel, but this was the first time we’d made it down there. It was busy on a beautiful Saturday night and we enjoyed the views of the river, Manhattan, and both bridges as the sun went down. Mallory has been in New York for 2 years now and it’s been about that long since we’ve seen her. It was great catching up and hearing all about her exciting city life.

Manhattan Bridge in background

Brooklyn Bridge in background

Thank you so much to Mallory for hosting us at her hotel in the city and spending your Saturday night with us!