Mystic Day 5

Today is the day Josh is giving us a whirlwind tour of New York city. I am trying to learn what I can and also get a feel for the city. I hope to go back and spend more time there. He was able to analyze the train schedule on his phone. We drove to New Haven, Connecticut and saw Yale University off in the distance from the interstate. We parked in a parking garage and walked into the train station. The train station had a big hall with a waiting area and a ticket counter. It was architecturally fancy. But not as fancy as the Grand Central Station in New York city would be. There were high ceilings, and lots of fancy moldings and columns. I guess they built all the train stations Greek style. It was pretty. We figured out the tickets to buy, Josh was free being military. We did not have anytime to wait, and went straight through a tunnel and to our train. We got seats and enjoyed the train ride, watching the people and the views from the windows. There are a lot of abandoned buildings. They are neat looking, but sad at the same time. People used to live and work in them. People built them, and now they are falling down. Our train ride lasted about an hour and we got off at Grand Central Station. We went back through a tunnel to the terminal and up the stairs with several train loads of people. It was packed. There was people everywhere. Everyone was going different directions, but all were basically polite and had their own airspace around them. We squished into the bathroom line and then had to find each other in the crowd when we got out. Josh was wearing his favorite gold knit hat he got from Europe on his last trip there. That was helpful. Josh gave us a view into the grand central station's main hall on the way out to the street. Yep, it was quite amazing. We hit the streets and he started walking. It took me a few minutes to get my bearings and I realized we had walked right out to 5th avenue. We saw amazing buildings, lots of people, and lots of traffic. I would not want to be a New York city driver. It is generally faster to walk and take the subway. I heard one kid as were were in a crowd crossing a street, "Dad I want to go back to Chicago, it's crowded here." We tried to go into St. Francis Cathedral, but the line to get in was really long. We saw the Tiffany and Company store my grandfather worked at when he was a young man. We went into the Apple Store. They have big tables with phones locked to them and offer classes so you can play with the current phone while the salesman teaching the class tries to get you to want to buy it. New York city is such a dog friendly city, people brought their dogs down the elevator and into the store. And no one did the "Oh, it's a dog, I gotta touch it." Amazing. We popped out of the store and back onto the street. After a bit more walking. we wound up in Rockefeller center and got to see the giant Christmas tree and the ice skating ring. People were hanging out in that area talking, and soaking up the Christmas spirit. We walked on. It wasn't long after that we got to central park. Wow. The walking speed went from 10 miles an hour to 3 miles an hour. The pace of everyone in the park magically stilled and relaxed as soon as they crossed the street into the park. Central Park seems to be the breathing place of the city.  We bought hot dogs from a hot dog vendor. They weren't anything special, but were crazy expensive. We weren't sure if that was because we were in central park, or if all the vendors charged $25 for 2 hot dogs and a gyro. Oh well, eating a street vendor hot dog in central park isn't something we have ever gotten to do before. It was a treat. And they were hot, great on a cold day. We walked down central park for a bit and saw a viewpoint for the central park zoo. We didn't go in, but saw it from the outside. It was a nice zoo. We went back to the beginning, and watched someone feeding the squirrels. Then we crossed the street and hit city walking speed again. I am not sure how we got there, but we wound up in Times Square. It wasn't as I expected. A bunch of streets converged together. All the colorful led signs were there and interesting to see. The designer stores were all over the place. We went into the SWATCH store and looked at watches. I didn't know they were still a thing, but evidently they are very popular still. The watches were displayed like artwork in acrylic cases. It was a neat store. We went down Broadway, or crossed it I think. We saw Radio City music hall and the line of people waiting to go in. We walked a bit more and had to detour around some closed streets. People were not happy the streets were closed and they had police men at the barricades to keep people from going through and make sure they went around. It turns out, the streets were closed because ice was falling off the roofs of the buildings. A couple people got hurt from falling ice. Who knew. The roof tops have a different climate than the street. Somehow we wound up going down to the subway. Josh showed us how to get a subway pass and go through the turnstile. He knew which train we should take and we stood by the tracks to wait for it to arrive. The subway was good during the day. Lots of normal people use it. There was a lady with a kid in a stroller and a toddler. She got them all onto the train and kept them behaving well the whole trip. She did it like it was easy. We came out of the subway and were at One World Trade Center. To come out the doors and see the memorial across the street and the new skyscraper was amazing. The memorial was done really well. We hung out and enjoyed the relative quiet solemn moment. Then we walked down some more streets and we were at battery park. There was the water, boats, and people lined up in a security line. Those were the lines to go on the cruises to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We went down to the water and watched the ferries and could see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was neat to see them in real life. I might want to take a harbor cruise one day, but not stand in the security line and crowd onto the ferries. On the way through the park we saw the memorial for New York Soldiers killed in battle. They have their names on granite. I wasn't sure from which war. The views of the city from Battery Park were beautiful. Josh pointed out the Empire State Building. From where we were, it didn't look much taller than the other buildings. One World Trade Center was much more impressive. We saw the entry to Staten Island Ferry. I remembered hearing granddad talk about that. One day I want to go on that. We found the subway again and came out in Chinatown. It was full of cheap stores and people trying to get bargains. Street vendors were selling knock off name brands for more than the real name brands were being sold at the outlet mall at the casino. Josh bought quite a bit for Christmas presents for his friends. He actually wanted bad copies. He didn't buy one watch because it looked too good. We went back down the subway and came out at the train station. We had to rush to the train, but made it. The train home was standing room only for about half the trip. We saw Harlem on the way through it. We made it back to our original train station. The car was where we left it. We drove back to Mystic and Josh directed us to a restaurant he liked that sells food produced locally. They featured the farms they get the meat and produce from. I had a ramen bowl which was really good.  We relaxed at Josh's apartment for a while, but didn't stay late. He had to work the next morning. Josh did an excellent job with our whirlwind tour. When I go back, there are 4 things I want to do...the Staten Island Ferry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Strand Bookstore, the ballet, and a Broadway musical. Okay, 6 things I want to do.