When we drove into the RV park late last night. It was closed, but we had a reservation so they just told us where to park. As we were arriving Curtis was telling me that "Old Beth Page" is a place where they have the US Open Golf tournament. Those are usually in pretty nice places. When we woke up in the morning we discovered the RV park didn't seem all that nice, and were surprised if this was the actual place of the Golf tournament. The Bathrooms, and showers were not very clean or nice, and there was no laundry. When I packed for the trip, I packed a ton of clothes because I had no idea how often we would be able to do laundry. It turned out every place had laundry and so I felt like I had packed way too much. Until we get to the very last place where we have a ton of laundry, and we don't want to take all these smelly dirty clothes home. UGHH.
We decided to spend the day in NYC and take the kids to see Blue Man Group. Of all the Broadway shows we decided this is one they would enjoy. As we were parked in the Gas Station/used car lot on the way from Syracuse yesterday we talked to the kids about it. They seemed excited about it, but we wanted to be sure. As Curtis rested we had them watch You Tube Clips of Blue Man Group, they laughed and laughed and laughed. Especially Trey. The only seats available were in the "rain coat zone" so that meant we would be close, but possibly messy.
We called a taxi to take us to the train station. We had considered walking, but thought it would be a long day walking in the city so we opted for the Taxi. The Taxi ride was actually longer than we had anticipated, so it was a good thing we didn't try to walk that. The Taxi driver was nice and showed how to get tickets into the City and what train to take etc. We got on the train and it was nearly empty. It was about 10:00 a.m. and past rush hour. Kind of nice ride. It was a bit long close to an hour. Surprising what these people have to do to get to work and survive living there.
As we got closer and closer to NYC, the buildings got taller, and taller, older and closer together. By the time we got to the train station we were all hungry, we decided to go up to the streets to find something to eat. We ended up finding a food cart and eating hotdogs and Gyros from there. While Curtis ordered our food, the kids and I stood back and waited and watched. So many people, and no place to sit. Once we got our food, we pretty much had to inhale it as we stood there. Then we decided to move onto Time Square. We had brought the kids to NYC a few years back, so they had seen it but I don't know how much they will remember.
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| Time Square- you can see 2014 at the very top |
We got to time square and the kids thought it was neat to see the New Years Crystal Ball and 2014 up on a tall building. After a bit we went into the Toy's R Us right there in time square. It took up several floors and there were some fun demonstrations of toys, they had a Ferris whee, the cars were things that kids would like for example, a Monopoly car, Barbie, Scooby Doo etc. It was fun, but it was also a bit of a spectacle. You could pay $20 to have your picture taken with a T-Rex etc. It was fun to see, but no need to capture the moment.
After time square we walked over to the Rockefeller Center. I thought the kids would like it because it is often on TV where the Today show is filmed, there are other familiar studios there. We walked there, saw plenty of interesting things and Characters on the street. The Studio for Saturday Night Live was being remolded so we couldn't have the tour. While we were there, Curtis happen to run into someone he knew. It was a lady he knew from one of the Title Companies he works with back home. What are the chances of being in the same place at the same time. All the way across the country and actually seeing someone you know in that giant city.
By this time were exhausted from all the walking. We tried to find a place to sit down and rest for a bit out on the plaza. There were a few seats here and there, we were lucky to find a seat if we split up. It was worth it our feet were tired. There are too many people in this town. No place to ever sit down.
We then decided to start heading over to the Theater to pick up the tickets for the show. We headed that way and it was a long walk. I don't know why we didn't take a subway at some point. It seemed forever to get there. There are just so many people to go around and we walk the crowded streets. We are pretty hungry and tired, but we can't find a place to sit down inside where there are enough seats for all of us. Why do people live in this city and put up with this chaos? We were all getting cranky at this point. All kinds of people were coming up to us trying to get us to buy their product. We must have stuck out like tourists. We didn't see any other families walking around in Manhattan. We did end up buying a music CD from some guy who told us his sob story about being homeless at one point. Worked hard and picked himself back up. He even sang to us a few lines, to convince us that he could actually sing and the CD wasn't blank. Along our adventure in NYC we would occasionally find a park or some place to sit down but there were always so many people every where. The weather was actually pleasant. I couldn't imagine this place in the cold yucky snow.
We eventually found a pizza place that we could all sit down and eat. It felt so good. I wanted to just sit there until the show started, but I knew what it was like to want a seat in that town so I felt bad hogging the seats while other people were waiting. So we moved on.
We finally made it to the theater to pick up our tickets. It was a tiny little theater. We couldn't imagine the show in there since the previous times Curtis and I had seen it the venue's were much bigger.
We still had some time and we were still hungry so we walked some more and found a little mexican taco stand that had outdoor seating. We sat there and watched a crazy man yell at cars. He was dressed in full winter gear. A long trench coat and a heavy winter hat. He mostly just stood there on the street facing the cars as they drove by and occasionally he would yell at cars and go off on a rant. He seemed harmless so we enjoyed the time sitting there, resting our tired feet. We eventually got chili so we decided it was time to move on over to the Blue Man Group and hopefully sit and rest in the theater.
By this time the work day was coming to an end, and the streets of New York were getting less crowded. There were still plenty of people out and about, but it wasn't smothering. I decided the first time I came to New York we spent a lot of time out at night and going to places that were less crowded like Central Park. No Wonder I loved it so much, I avoided the crowds. I am now realizing that I hate New York City in the day, love it at night.
We arrived and they soon let us in our seats. It was a tiny theater, our seats had rain coats draped over them because we were in the "splash zone". The kids are pretty excited about this show. It starts and they are just giggling the entire time. Trey was laughing so hard at the part where they were eating cereal and every time they crunched the cereal in their mouth, there was a very loud crunch sound effect. They crunched perfectly in sync with the sound. I had already seen Blue Man Group Twice before and I didn't love it. I always came out with a raging headache. This time I wore ear plugs, and it was worth it to watch the kids laugh and enjoy it so much. The ear plugs were great. I could hear everything perfect and I avoided the headache.
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| After the show with a "Blue Man" |
We were exhausted at this point. We had, had a full day in NYC. We headed back to the train station. On the way back we went down one street with many many homeless people sleeping on the street. Very sad to see so many people in their card board boxes, or a sheet thrown over their head to give them some peace for the night. The New Yorkers seemed the think the weather was nice, but I thought it was still going to be cold for those people on the streets.
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| Love the neat old buildings in NYC |
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| Crashed out tired on the train back to Long Island from NYC |
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| We had given NYC our all |
We make it to the train station, and we were not quite sure if we were getting back on the right train. We knew we were on the correct train line, we just weren't sure this train would take us all the way to Long Island to our train station. Nobody seemed to know for sure. We eventually figured it out. We were finally headed back. Once again we had missed rush hour so the train wasn't crowded. There was room for us to spread out. The kids were so exhausted they crashed and fell asleep on the train. It took us about an hour to get us back to Long Island, then we had to take another Taxi, where the driver drove like a bat out of hell. We were actually cramped in the taxi with all five of us plus the driver, but we didn't care. We were so tired we just couldn't wait to get back to Betty Ford. The taxi driver had other people waiting for him to return to give them a drive. It was a wild ride for sure. We were so happy to get out of that taxi for so many reasons.
