New York Adventures

So I visited New York for the first time ever on Saturday. My family and I walked through Battery Park, traveled via Subway, went down 5th Avenue, meandered through Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and had dinner at a cool Greek restaurant*. Sunday we took a ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It was an exhausting trip, but very exciting. Some highlights:

		Stopped by the Wall Street building to check out this famous bull statue (which, incidentally I've never heard of), and there were quite a lot of people crowding around it. There were Japanese/Chinese folks taking pictures with the bull's backside, and Indian folks taking pictures with its front. I opted for the Indians in the front, as I can't fathom why anyone want a picture of a bull's you-know-what. The world is a strange strange place.
	At the MET, my sister and I had fun finding all the landmarks from that old Sesame Street movie, "Don't Eat the Picture." We found the Temple of Dendur (of course), the Paul Cezanne picture that inspired the theme song of the movie ("Me don't want to touch picture, me want to EAT picture!"), and the gold statue of a cherub blowing a horn (and maybe a couple of other random artifacts), but we missed the giant George Washington picture and the armor because of museum renovations. What a rip off. On the other hand, I saw all kinds of paintings by artists I learned about in my Humanities class a couple of years ago--Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, De Goya, Renoir, Degas, etc etc. I felt so culturally educated!

We went from place to place in NY in quite a big hurry, which was not so great a thing for my Dad. The man rushes for no one. We worried about losing him a few times, but thankfully he chose to wear a bright lime-green baseball cap that day. It made him very easy to spot in the crowds of the museum. He broke down and ran with us only once--at the subway station when a kindly stranger suggested we quickly get on the subway on the other side of the stop since it would definitely take us to Penn Station. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would've been if we lost my Dad in the subway station--he has no cell phone, and I doubt he knows any of our numbers either. I guess he had that realization too.

It was a fun trip. But we were there for 12 hours. We walked for miles. We put up with crowds. We did a lot of waiting and running around subways stops. Although I feel I was very mature, at the end of the day, this is what was going on in my head:

**

Sunday was even more of an adventure. We got tickets for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty quite a few days (weeks?) in advance, so, when it started raining, we grabbed our emergency ponchos and left anyway. On the road, the rain got heavier. I remember cars switching lanes on the freeway to avoid massive puddles. It crossed our minds several times on the 40 minute drive to the ferry that we were crazy and should turn back. We didn't.

We arrived in the ferry parking lot to pouring rain and with maybe 5 or 10 minutes to spare before the ferry was set to leave. My sister took off running while my brother-in-law and I helped my parents into their ponchos (Mom didn't realize hers had sleeves, and Dad tried to put his head through one) and then RAN. Well, bro-in-law and I ran. Mom and Dad rush for no one, as always. The ponchos were a really great idea though, because they were very brightly colored. Once again, if I lost sight of someone, I just had to find the red (mom and sister), green (dad) or yellow (bro-in-law) splotches.

We made it onto the ferry. It continued to rain. We were soaked. I think everyone but myself and my sister were Not Happy. Naturally, I took pictures:

***

Eventually it stopped raining and we were able to get rid of the ponchos and rain coats. We walked around Lady Liberty, got back on the boat, and went home. Despite the rain and the rushing, it was a fun trip. Although, my shoes were STILL wet the next day. Gross.


*If you ever go to a Greek restaurant and there's a dessert called Galak-something or other, get it. It's GOOD.
**Lower right-hand corner of the huge painting The Triumph of Aemilius Paulus, Carle Vernet 1789
***I didn't actually take this picture. The blue blob is me.