Wednesday, May 13, 2015

NYC - Day 4

We're up to Wednesday in New York City. The hotel is at the corner of Broadway and 77th. I'm going to the tip of Manhattan -  what the natives call downtown. It will take a while, but now that I am king of the subways I should get there just fine.

The main part of the day is going to see the Statue of Liberty. We get there and have to go through a bunch of security and standing in long lines. At one point in line I lean against a fence with the Statue of Liberty in the background and say something like, "Yeah. I just totaled my car, but my insurance company isn't going to pay the full amount for it. Something called depreciation. How can something depreciate before its first oil change?" Get it? I thought it was hilarious. Its just like the commercials on all the time on TV. No one there got it either and I just made a fool of myself. 


Got on the boat and sailed out there. I think I previously mentioned that years ago I spent one day in NYC, went out to the statue, but didn't get off the boat. That was dumb, but I'm making up for it this time. Off the boat and up the stairs to the platform. For an extra three dollars you could walk up to the crown. My fear of heights would have given me a panic attack, so I saved $3 and my life by only going to the top of the pedestal. That was scary enough, though. I get at high places and think, "What is to prevent me from temporary insanity that causes me to hurl myself to my death. Or someone else might go temporarily nuts and attempt to throw me over. Yes, unlikely, but that doesn't keep it out of my thoughts. Anyway, facing my fears, I walked up, very carefully looked at the view, then walked back down. 

Then the boat went to Ellis Island. Interesting, but not terrifically so. It's certainly worth doing.

Back on Manhattan, we saw that giant bull statue you see on the news, and where they have had ticker tape parades in the past. That was fun. We saw Trinity church whose graveyards have two former Secretaries of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin. I know - a big thrill for me. You can go to Wall Street and see the NY Stock Exchange building. On my one-day trip years ago we actually went inside and could see them trading. The room you always see on TV turns out isn't as big as you might think. But, alas, they don't let you do that anymore. Thank you, terrorists.

Its kind of a tiring day by now so the possibility of walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is not seeming as fun as it was at the start of the day. There is also my acrophobia issue. The walkway is actually between the traffic and fairly wide, so being perched precariously over the East River and certain death turned out to not be an issue. In Brooklyn getting just a little bit lost, we eventually take the subway back to Manhattan. 

We walked a ways to see the building they show on Friends and to eat at a dive to have authentic NY pizza. I was outvoted on each of these choices. 

Day 4 ends with me anticipating Day 5 - Maybe getting to see two of my favorite people in the world - Al Roker and Matt Lauer.

No comments: