Hello to everyone!We're back from our grand adventure to New York and despite Stan's misgivings about the trip (and mine at times, I must admit) we had a wonderful time. Mark is well situated at Turning Stone and everyone we met said that he dispelled their misconceptions about Nebraskans; I won't even dignify their thoughts by repeating them here. I'm sure you can imagine..... We ate lunch on the veranda of this clubhouse, which is where Mark has worked most recently. Here's the putting green and another view of the modest(!)clubhouse.
We took Amtrak from Syracuse to NYC and found it to be a long, but enjoyable trip. I recognized that I was being irritatingly phobic about having photo ID's to get on the train; I thought I only asked Mark three times if he had his, but Stan said it was at least double that number. When we got ready to board, we were not asked for any ID at all, so I was the butt of many jokes the rest of the trip. The last several hours we traveled along the Mohawk then Hudson Rivers, so the scenery was wonderful--lots of trees on the opposite shore and big boats on the rivers. It was a bit unnerving, though, to see how close the tracks were to the water.
Thanks to Sue's suggestion to read "New York City for Dummies" we were more prepared as to what to expect, but no words on paper come close to actually being on the street.
We stayed near Times Square and it is an overwhelming place--so many people, so many languages, so many sidewalk vendors and soooo much neon. I know I look like typical paranoid tourist with my pouch that I was usually clutching under my arm, but my excuse to my slightly embarrassed son was that this was my first foray into the big city and that I was on sensory overload;
Mark was much more casual and embraced the bustle We did all the typical tourist things: a boat trip around Manhattan, two bus trips through "the city", ate NY pizza (Valentino's is better) and watched part of a Yankees game at the ESPN Zone. I always enjoy seeing pictures from everyone else's trips, so I hope you will indulge me with these. When we cruised by the Statue of Liberty, I was surprised at how ornate Ellis Island is.
There are manmade waterfalls under several bridges as a public art project; this is the Brooklyn Bridge version.
Stan has been a lifelong Yankees fan and he was pleased that our boat went close enough to see the soon to be demolished stadium. Mark and I went to the top of the Rockefeller Center so we could see things from on high
.I was drawn to Central Park because it was the only green to be found.I proudly wore my Nebraska shirt to the Today show and was on TV for about 1.5 seconds after standing outside for two hours.
After putting Mark on the train to go back to Verona, Stan and I went to see Grease on Broadway. Again, my reservation paperwork said we needed photo ID's to pick up our tickets so I carefully put my driver's license in my pocket and again, when I got to the box office, wasn't asked for anything to prove my identity. After the show, we took a ride in a cart pulled by a young man on a bicycle. As we pulled away from the theater, I thought that it was a magical end to a wonderful vacation---and then we turned onto 8th Avenue. No one pays any attention to lanes so taxis, buses, limousines and a few semis(!) weave in and out of each other. That would be bad enough, but then there are delivery trucks double parked on the streets, causing even more chaos. There are signs everywhere about the $350 fine for honking but it still happens and is justifiable. We breathed in bus exhaust and lurched perilously close to many vehicles. Given his load :), our driver didn't want to have to start up from a total stop, so he was determined to find a way to keep moving. Our route crisscrossed the streets so much that at times, we traveled sideways as much or more than we moved forward. Despite all that, we got to our hotel safely and the very sweaty young man was as grateful as we were that the ride was over.After checking our bags the next morning at La Guardia, we were standing in the line to get into the loading gates and I looked for my photo ID in my pouch--first casually, then more frantically as I couldn't find it. As we got to the very patient woman checking ID's, I realized mine was still in the pocket from going to the theater the night before. I had several credit cards, AAA, Trip Rewards and our Blue Cross Blue Shield cards, none of which were adequate to prove my identity. Stan (ever the responsible) showed his photo ID and credit cards with the same numbers, but that didn't work, either. We were shunted aside and waited for Frank, the supervisor, as many people sailed right by us. If ever I was going to have a stroke, that would have been the time. Of course, Stan (ever the patient) was quietly supportive despite my gaffe. Finally, a very bored looking Frank slowly came and disdainfully looked at all my cards until he got to the list of names on the BC/BS card. Since Stan's was the first name and he was "legal", Frank wrote his squiggle on our form and we were released. And so our adventure ended.......a once in a lifetime experience that we would have never done without Mark's internship site.
I want to thank Aunt Marge for her delightful post about her summer; while I'm sure the experience has been a huge strain, her story about the expedition to her storage unit made me laugh out loud. Keep writing, Aunt Marge!
Love,
Nancy
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