Leg 3-New York
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The older I get the more I realise that there is a spectrum to most things-how much you love chocolate, how into Star Wars or LOTR you are, how sick your feeling, what you mean when you say 'you like to bake', etc etc. Growing up a in beach town outside the city, I never necessarily considered myself a 'city' person. But over the last several years, and different places we've lived I've come to adopt that as part of who I am. I sleep easier hearing the sounds of buses, fire trucks, hustle and bustle of people, or just ocean outside better then crickets and deep silence. Here more then anywhere, I accept that I am a city person...
or so I thought. Apart from the SF bay area, we've lived in OKC, SLC, and Boise-all major cities in their own right, and the largest in their respective states. I've also visited several other ones across America-as well as small ones like Rexburg. I thought that gave me some perspective. But I hadn't been to NY. And now I realise that even growing up where I did and spending as much time as I did in the city-that puts me on the spectrum-but not at the end of it.
NYC feels like and unconquerable beast. Its loud and exciting and scary and beautiful and BIG and diverse and intense and rough and efficient and dirty and fast and has every thing you could possibly want. We only had 3 days, and we did our best to pack what we could in that time-but I feel like even 3 weeks wouldn't be enough. Still, I am grateful we got go do what we could and see it in all its massiveness.
Our hotel was right by Times Square, and I loved being so close to the action, but also having a quiet place to see all the lights in the skyscrapers next to ours come on as the sky got dark. We got around by taking the subways, buses, walking and even a ferry ride. Some high lights were going up the tower at Rockefeller Center and seeing the views, playing at FAO Schwartz especially on the piano, walking through the Pride parade accidentally on our way to amazing Little Eataly and everything there, going to church while being at the temple downtown, an amazing public library, riding the ferry in a storm to attempt to see the Statue of Liberty, walking through Times Square at night, trying ALL the food [more on that later, but seriously that was probably about half of our time here, eating all the things...I'll do a separate post on the later though..], the World Trade Center Memorial and 9/11 museum which brought back a flood of memories and feelings, riding the double decker bus w all the other tourists and seeing the Plaza and The Met, eating hot dogs at Columbia circle while strolling through Central Park, Chelsea Market and more that I am sure I am forgetting.
It was an incredible experience that I'll never forget.
