NYC

I went to NYC one time before in my life. It was one hour of a month-long trip in the station wagon during the summer of 1987. We went through Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, up through Michigan, Canada, Niagara Falls, Boston, upstate New York, and then down through New York City as we worked our way south to Washington D.C. I was excited to see New York City, but at the time, it really wasn't the safest place to visit, and my parents were terrified. I remember driving through the city looking up at the Empire State Building and wishing I could get out of the car. But my dad gave us strict instructions to leave the doors locked and the windows up. Once we were safely across the bridge and in New Jersey, he pulled over and took this picture of the statue of liberty. It is as close as we ever got.

I have always wanted to go back. For many reasons. One of them is because of listening to my grandfather talk about the day he sailed into New York harbor when coming home from WWII. He has some photos of himself and other soliders on the boat that day with the statue in the background, and when he tells the story he always tears up. And so do I. He says that seeing the statue was the moment he knew the war was really over and he was finally home.

So Lady Liberty has always been an obsession of mine. I have 3 books about the statue and its creation. I just had to go see her from the harbor the way my grandpa had.

Mark and I flew to Hartford a couple of weeks ago to run in the Hartford 1/2 Marathon. We arrived on Wednesday morning, and I immediately jumped on a bus for New York City. My sister Nancy joined me later that evening in Manhattan, and we had quite an adventure. Mark stayed in Hartford with his brother and had his own adventures for a couple of days.

My friend Emilee lives in Manhattan, and she and I had not seen each other for many years. When I got off the bus, I took a taxi to The Plaza Hotel where she was finishing her gig. She gave me a tour of that beautiful hotel, and introduced me to her good friend Emilio Delgado, AKA Luis on Sesame Street. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of him. I basically spent every morning of my childhood with him. He and his wife were so nice. I wish I could have spent more time with them. Then we met Nancy for the most delicious Indian food I've ever had in my life at Amma. Scrumpdiddlyumptious. Then we went to the Waldorf and listened to Emilee's gig. She is amazing and so talented. While we were there, this oldie guy (who claimed to be French but I could tell his accent was Italian) grabbed my hand and sat me down by him in the lobby to "talk." He offered me a drink, which I refused for many reasons, and then he saw my ring. He asked me about my husband, and about my kids. When he found out I had 7 kids, he couldn't believe it, so I showed him a picture. He wanted me to email it to him......yeah, right. Anyway, it was nice to finally break away from him and get out of there.

I had booked a hotel room near Times Square through Hotwire. Sounds fine, right? Biggest mistake of my life. On Hotwire, all you can see is the price and location and star rating of the hotel before you buy. And their website says, "Our 2-Star hotels may be La Quinta, Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, or other quality hotels." Sounds great. I bought, and found out I had booked at the Portland Square Hotel. I checked out the website, and it looked fine, maybe even nice. And the location was great. Nancy and I hoofed it with our suitcases across town to the hotel, and when we got to the front door, my heart sank. It was the grossest rat-hole of a place I could imagine. Threadbare, filthy carpet, drywall construction going on all around, and just dirty. I told the guy at the front desk that I hoped our room looked better than the lobby, and he just gave me a nervous laugh. He told me the renovated rooms were available for an upcharge, but they had their old rooms that they give people who buy through Hotwire. And he said that was the last room he had available.

So Nancy and I took our suitcases down a creepy, tiny hallway, and I tried to open the door. THUD! The door hit the bed. I squeezed myself into the room, and I nearly cried. The room was honestly 6 feet wide and about 8 feet long. It was dirty and the carpet was even worse than the carpet in the lobby. There was not room for 2 people and 2 suitcases in the room. I called Hotwire. They first told me that if it was a useable room, there was nothing I could do, as there was no money back. I told them this hotel had given me a hostel room and not a 2-star room, and then after I got a supervisor, he called the hotel and told them to make it right. The hotel then magically had a another room available. It was indeed bigger, and the carpet not as sick, but the rest of the room was filthier. Cobwebs honestly coated every corner of the room and ceiling. The sheets had hair on them, and drops of bodily fluid. The shower had hair on the walls. We marched back out the creepy hallway and down the creepy elevator back to the lobby. It was 1:30 AM at this point. He told me that for $79 we could have a renovated room, and so I got on the phone with Hotwire. Hotwire had told me the last time I called that they do guarantee a "clean and comfortable room" and that if the hotel couldn't make it right, they would give me my money back. I told them this time that the hotel and told me if I wanted a clean room I had to pay $79 more, and Hotwire decided to refund my money. We left in a hurry.

That was good news, but now we were in Times Square at 1:30 AM with 2 suitcases and no hotel. I remembered that La Quinta had been a good price when I was looking online, so I called them, and they had one room left. We hopped in a taxi, and I swear angels were singing when we pulled up and saw the beautiful lobby. It was even better when the only room they had was the top floor suite for that night. We got a few hours of sleep before getting up at 6:30 to take the subway to see Lady Liberty.

We had a few subway mishaps that morning, missed the right stop, and ended up way into Brooklyn before we could get off. Then the tunnel was blocked and we had to wait quite a while for a new train. But it all turned out well, because we got to Liberty Island just as the world's funniest park ranger was starting a tour. We laughed until we cried as Jim told us all the details about Liberty's design, construction and dedication, adding his own dry wit and humor with side-splitting jokes and tangents. My favorite two lines: "The largest street fighter in the world," and "It's a diadem and a nimbus, of course."

We then climbed the steps to the top of the pedestal in 2 minutes flat. Who wants to wait 30 minutes for an elevator ride? What an incredible view of Manhattan from the pedestal. I don't know how long I just stared out at the harbor and the city. We didn't have time to get off at Ellis Island, because we were in a rush now to get to the Manhattan LDS Temple for the 2:00 session. We took the train to the hotel, changed our clothes and took a taxi to the temple. I told the driver to take us to Lincoln Center, which is just across the street. But he was so creepy. He kept staring at me instead of looking at the road. He didn't even start the meter for 5 minutes because he was so distracted. I was very glad to hop out of that cab and run to Angel Moroni. What a beautiful, beautiful temple it was inside. I loved it.

The whole time I was in NYC, I had the song "NYC" from Annie running through my head. "NYC, what is it about you? You're big, you're loud, you're tough..." I know there are lots of New York songs, but that's the one I had in my head.

After West Side Story, Nancy and I walked around Central Park and met up with Emilee again at the Plaza. She took us to an excellent restaurant for some NY pizza at Cer Te, and then we headed back to our hotel to change again. This was the night I had waited most of my life for--BROADWAY! I had scored a half-price ticket to see West Side Story from the best seat in the house. I have been singing the songs most of my life, and I have watched the movie at least 40 times. Probably more. Here's a picture of the stage. Lame, I know. But I was there.

Nancy walked around Times Square while I was at the show, and then we met up for a walk through Rockerfeller Center on our way to the Waldorf. After Emilee's gig was over, her friend who is a security guard there took us to the Presidential Suite and some other interesting places in the Waldorf. It was so fun. When I see Emilee, it is always amazing how we just pick right up where we left off, and always laugh our heads off and some old stories, and many new ones. The best line from this trip was definitely, "It had to be done."The night was still young when we left the Waldorf at 1:30 AM. I was hungry, and this was New York City. We went to The Midtown Restaurant, which is a 24-hour diner. Their menu was hilarious. It had absolutely every possible dish you could ever imagine. I stuck with the cheeseburger and fries. It was the best burger of my life--even better than Hires. And you know how much I love my Big H.

We said goodbye to Emilee at about 2:30 AM, and took a taxi to La Quinta for a few brief hours of sleep. My cousin picked us up later that morning for the drive to Hartford, as he and his wife were also running there. We got to meet their precious Piper at the children's hospital where she lives. She is a little miracle, and it was so inspiring to finally meet her and play with her. And then my trip to New York was over.....

To be continued with the trip to Harford.