Tuesday, July 3, 2012

In another life...

...I was a world traveler. Some people find seeing the world to be a necessary part of their lives. Others don't have that itch. I sometimes wish I didn't have it. Traveling is expensive even when you try to do it on a budget.

When I say world traveler that really just means I went on one gigantic trip after college. I've seen a decent amount of the US, but I'm pretty sure I've been more places in Europe. Anyway, out of everywhere I've been there's one city that keeps drawing me back. It helps a great deal that my sister lives there now as well.

I wouldn't say it is a wise choice to visit New York City during a heat wave, but one can't plan such things. No regrets here. I will say I learned a few things this trip:

1) Many New Yorkers simply do not have AC or if they do it's hard to actually call it air conditioning.

2) Taking a hotel shuttle is never a good idea. This is now bad experience number two with hotel shuttles. Noted.

3) If I were a New Yorker I would take every opportunity to run through the little parks with splash pads that are shockingly EVERYWHERE. Who knew the big city was so family friendly?

Let's back up. I went to New York with my mom to visit my sister. My sister actually lives in Brooklyn and our hotel was in Soho. We opted for the shuttle for money reasons only to quickly regret the choice the minute we got going. To make a long story short, it took us three hours to get to the hotel from landing to setting foot in the lobby. This involved no AC in the shuttle, our stop being the last, an accident with a taxi, an unexpected walk the rest of the way, a dropped bag in the middle of the street (where a girl in a Ferrari stopped to tell us we couldn't keep walking on said street or we would be stopped by the cops), and a pretzel man pointing up at our hotel as we almost started crying because we couldn't find it.

It's a good thing the rest of the weekend didn't follow suit.

Anyway, we had the best weekend. Mom and I have both been to NYC multiple times so we opted to forgo the touristy stuff and just enjoy quality time with each other and Sara. We did throw in a few newish things we hadn't seen like the Highline and the World Trade Center Memorial. Here's a rundown in pictures:

The Highline...have you heard of it? It's pretty amazing.  In case you have no idea what I'm talking about:

The High Line was built in the 1930s, as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park. 




After enduring the heat to get to the Highline and walk down it this was in order. I'm a sucker for a good bloody Mary.

I took the WTC Memorial and new building pictures for Seth. He watched the special on the making of the memorial and has a thing for architecture. 

This is really brilliant. If you haven't been I encourage you to go and see it in person. And it was designed by a Georgia Tech student. Needless to say, it seems to be the perfect memorial for such a great loss.

Laying in the grass soaking it all in.

Day two involved Sara's stomping ground. We did the Brooklyn Flea Market. Maybe not the best choice when it's crazy hot outside, but well worth it. 

AND, I found this gem of a toy. It's better than any New York trinket I could have brought back for the girls. Lila played with it for over an hour yesterday. You are probably thinking "it's just blocks". But it's so much more. There are two layers of blocks and they create a puzzle where every piece is used to fit in the wagon. Oh and this is where we tried to escape the heat. 

This helped too...best Mojito I have ever had! 


One of the most enjoyable parts of going to New York for me is to see how people live their day to day lives. I saw in the winter how life changes for everyone and now I have seen the summer. Of course, I'm intrigued by families and how they get around with small children in the hustle and craziness. There really are SO many small playgrounds and parks. You can't really see them in this picture, but it was so much fun to see the kids in this fountain. Oh, and Sara too!

But really, this is why I love New York.

Some summer in the not to distant future I will take Lila and Sara and I will cart her to every little park with a splash pad we can find ;-)

2 comments:

  1. Glad you had such a great trip!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every time we visit my brother and his kids, I am amazed at how family friendly the city is. Lower East Side has some great parks, splash pads, sprinkler parks and more!

    ReplyDelete

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