Mountain Woman Takes Manhattan: The Final Chapter

On my first trip to New York the "hands down best day" was when Lesley and I took a walking tour, guided by Ben, through The Village, Little Italy, China Town and then across the Brooklyn Bridge.  I so wanted to do this with Aaron so on our last full day in Manhattan we set out to sort of re-enact the same tour.  Aaron wanted to start further up at the 9/11 Memorial, then to Wall Street, across the Brooklyn Bridge and then end in Little Italy for lunch.

When I had last been to Ground Zero it was a big hole.  A construction site.  I had not planned on visiting it then but Les and I had been close and so felt we should go.  Now there is almost a whole building erected.  I don't know what it was about that but this time there was so much more emotional.  As Aaron and I viewed the bronze wall mural across from the site, the tears started to well up.  There were tourists in hard hats preparing for a tour of the Memorial site.  Aaron checked the schedule to see if we could join a tour.  While he checked I turned away from him so he could not see how hard I was crying.  I did not want to keep him from doing anything on the trip that he had hoped to do.  Thankfully the next tour was not until 11 and, since we hoped to be in Little Italy by lunch, we had to forgo it.  As we walked away toward Wall Street I really started sobbing. We couldn't walk away fast enough for me.  Ug.  Maybe one day I'll be able to do a tour but... whatever it was.  It just wasn't in me this go 'round.

An unfortunate thread that weaved through our trip was the stock market.  What a mess it was last week!  (This week isn't looking any better.)  I wanted to unplug every single one of those ridiculous monitors back at the hotel because all it talked about was the stock market.  Since this is a major part of my husband's job he could not help but pay attention and be effected by it.  There was someone he left basic instructions with at work but when the Market was behaving like it was he had to make calls, texts and conferences to tend to them.  At one point the battery on his cell phone was dying and he had a conference call.  We dove into a T-Mobil where Aaron bought a charger and then asked the clerk if he could plug in here because the conference call was in one minute.  I did some people watching while he took his call and then we resumed our tour.

Aaron felt awful but even though we are on vacation the world did not stop.  He wished the Market had not been so darn dramatic on our trip but...so it was.  Anywhoo, all of that to say Wall Street was all the more interesting that day due to the roller coaster it was on.  CNN news was there as were other stations, reporting about the chaos on the floor from outside the stock exchange.  There was an ambulance there.

"I wonder what happened..." I thought aloud.  "Some poor guy probably had a heart attack," I said to Aaron.

"Or committed suicide," he said.

Geez.

Onward we walked.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge you see some great views!  It's also very hot.  Whew!  I thought this would be another great scene for a goofy picture but Aaron was not "in."  We finally made it across and then took the subway back to Manhattan.  We accidentally got a train going the wrong way though so we had that to finagle...  Once on the right train we were serenaded by some old guys singing old Motown hits.  This is another thing I love about this city!  Yea!  It's like in the movies!

We made it to our destination and walked through China Town to Little Italy.  A friend of mine had recommended we eat at a place called Angelo's on Mulberry St.  (Dr. Seuss!)  Aaron and I stood at a corner on Mulberry St.

"Which way now?"  Aaron asked.

"I don't actually know but I'm sure we could just ask someone."  Of course Aaron does not want us to talk to the New Yorkers but I told him there is one thing New Yorkers love and that's giving directions.

"Excuse me," I asked the nearest gentleman next to me.  "Do you know where Angelo's is?"

"Yeah.  It's right theh," he answered in a perfect New York accent.  I looked in the direction he gestured but didn't see it.

"Where?"

"Right theh!  You tellin' me you don' see it?"  I looked again.

"Oh!  There it is!  Wonderful!  Thanks so much!"

"No problem."  I wished I'd had a more challenging quest for him.  Angelo's was across the street and three venues down.  The food is great there BTW and so is the atmosphere with waiters passionately talking to one another in Italian.  I reviewed our map of the city while we ate.

"Hey, The Empire State Building is a block from our hotel.  Maybe that really is the Empire State Building outside our window."

"It just doesn't seem old enough," Aaron said.  "Maybe it is..."

We walked home through what was supposed to be The Village but it was not the same as when Ben took me.  He had showed me such a pretty area and had trivia to share.  I had no idea where we were really and it just seemed like any other part of the city.  The people watching was still rich!  At one intersection we pedestrians had the "go" to cross but a bus decided it was going to go as well.   The bus inched through the intersection trying to force it's passage but this one woman was not going to have it.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!"  she yelled up to the driver as she hit the grill of the bus with her shopping bag.  "We're walking here!"  she shouted.

Awesome.

Back home we showered and changed for a show.  We had tickets to see Jersey Boys at 8 and had originally planned to go to dinner first.  Since our lunch was later than we thought it would be neither of us were hungry.  I also had two big blisters on the bottom of my feet.

"Why didn't you pack tennis shoes?"  Aaron asked.

"I packed the same two pairs of shoes the last time I came here. We took the subway more though."

I had heels for the dress I was to wear that night.  Aaron was worried about my feet and so we decided to grab a cab.  To catch a cab on a Friday night in NYC is not easy.  We still had walking to do.  Looking fabulous, we walked in the general direction of the Theater District until Aaron was successful in hailing a cab.

"How are your feet?"  he asked.

"I'm good!"

He directed the cab to a wine bar near the theater where we could have a light meal and cocktails.  Since we had yet to get our silly NY pic for the day I thought we could do something in the taxi. 

"Since it's just us in a cab you have to make a funny face," I instructed.

"That's you being silly?"

"Yep."

"Oh Baby!"  I laughed at him.  These things are good for him.  I'm certain!

The wine bar we went to was called Casellula which means "little house" or something like that.  We ordered a variety of cheeses.  I can't recall now what kind of wine we had...some sort of white and then with dessert I had a Pinot Noir.  It was just right and we were only a block from the theater so there was no problem with walking.  Well...as no problem as you can get in heels with blisters.

Jersey Boys was super and our seats were great!  I boo-hooed through the whole thing, as I always do when I watch people perform.  I just wanted to run on stage and hug all of them and shout "I am so PROUD of you!!!!"  They're doin' it!!!

Show over we headed back to the hotel.  Funny thing about sore feet: You would think resting them would help but it only made each step more painful!  I figured we would walk a bit until Aaron could hail another cab as we did on the way there. 

"How are your feet?"  Aaron asked.

"Um...I'm OK right now..." I winced.  We walked on and quickly found ourselves in Times Square.

"This is out last chance to walk through Times Square,"  Aaron said.

"So it is,"  I sighed.  It is fun to be there at night!  I figured we would walk through and THEN he would get a taxi.

"You doing OK?"  he asked as we came out the other side of it.

Not wanting to make him feel bad I said, "Yeah.  I'll make it," still thinking we were getting a cab and meaning I'd make it until we got it.  Aaron understood it to mean that I could keep going.  With each step I was in more pain and getting more ticked off as I realized we were not getting a cab.  Finally we were about 3 blocks from our hotel and Aaron asked about my feet again.

"They hurt.  Badly."  I snapped.

"Well, why didn't you tell me?  You want me to get us a cab?"

"NOW?  We are only 3 blocks away.  I'm finishing it now." 

Once back at Hotel Wacky I turned on Aaron.  "Why were you concerned enough about me walking in heels TO the theater but not BACK?"

"I asked and you always said you were fine."

"I was fine knowing that a cab was soon to be in our future!"

"I'm sorry I had no idea that's what you meant.  I still don't understand why you didn't bring tennis shoes."

"I told you these are the same shoes I wore last trip and my feet were fine.  Of course we took the SUBWAY that trip!"

"Well this is not how I hoped our last night here would end."

"Agreed."

We sat on the bed for a bit.  I rubbed my sore feet and Aaron his sore ego.

"You screwed up and I screwed up," I told him.  "It was not fair of me to assume you understood what I was thinking.  Let's end the trip the way we started.  Let's go back to Blaggers."

We changed clothes and headed back out.

"How are your feet now?"

"Brutal."  I growled, still not done seething.

The bartender that was there the first night was there this night as well.  He remembered us and asked what all we had done on our visit.  Our anger dissolved after I had a Stella and Aaron a Guinness and after re-playing all the fun times we had together.  Our Irish bar tender set up the shot glasses again.

"We are still celebrating a birthday," he said with his fabulous accent.

This time he set up four glasses as his other 'tender (from Dublin) was going to join us.

"Something sweet, right?"

The next morning Aaron and I set out to buy souvenirs for the boys and to solve the mystery about the Empire State Building once and for all.  We found some books for the kids and NYPD ball caps then walked a block over to where our map marked the Empire State Building.  It was indeed the same building we saw from our window.  The one thing that was actually nice about that hotel was that we apparently had a great view the whole time but didn't even know it.  Ha!  Don't ask.  We felt pretty lame.

We found ourselves exhausted and well spent on the whole scene and so called for Deano to pick us up an hour early. 

"Yous enjoy your visit?"  he asked.

"Very much."

Mountain Woman Takes Manhattan Part 1

For my birthday my Good Man took me on a trip to NY.  He arranged for my mom to come up and watch the boys so that it would just be the two of us.  I had only been to NY one other time, about 2 years ago, with my friend, Lesley.  We stayed with Olivia and Ben in their adorable little apartment near Harlem.  The two of them took us all over the city.  It was awesome having our own private tour guides. 

I was a little apprehensive as to how this trip would go.  Though we were hoping to catch up with Ben and O for dinner, we would not have them to GPS for us.  We would be maneuvering through the city on our own.  We would be landing in Newark so I was already concerned as to how to get from there to our hotel across from Madison Square Garden.  I called Christina the night before we left and left her a message to call me if she knew what trains to take to get us to the hotel.

"Hey Baby," Aaron interrupted my call, "I've already got that taken care of."

"You do?  How?  There must be a website somewhere..."

"No.  Just...I've got it taken care of."

At the airport I informed Aaron of my side mission while in The City.  While we were to be in NY, another friend of mine was vacationing in Hawaii.  We had decided to have a photo-scavenger hunt of sorts.  I had to take silly pictures of Aaron and I doing something uniquely New York-ian and she had to take silly pictures with her travel companion doing something uniquely Hawaiian. 

"We both have to be in the picture, Aaron and we both have to be posing funny."

"Great," Aaron said.

After landing and getting our luggage Aaron made a phone call to a guy named Deano.  (I kid you not.)  Deano from Jersey met us at the curb in a Suburban.  He jumped out in a dark grey suit, opened the doors, loaded our bags and welcomed us to Jersey with an accent thicker then those guys on The Jersey Shore.  Apparently, one of the companies that Aaron does business with uses Deano's services and arranged the "lift" for us.  I was thrilled to bits because the thing I love about NY is seeing the stereotypes in real life: the rat in the subway, the crazy lady yelling at her imaginary foe, the Italian guy from Jersey with the slicked back hair giving "what for" to someone over his cell while punishing a piece of gum.  Classic! 

We pulled up to our hotel, a beautiful building with "Hotel Pennsylvania" in gilded letters over the canopied entrance.  Deano unloaded the luggage and told Aaron he would pick us up to return us to the airport when our trip was over. 

Hotel Pennsylvania.  What the hell?  Like a lot of the buildings in NY, this one is old.  That's another thing about NY that I love.  The juxtaposition of modern skyscrapers sandwiched in with pre-war architecture is  a very present reminder of the history of the city.  Hotel Pennsylvania is one of those fabulous older buildings but it has not been well kept.  The carpets were once very fine but are now faded and worn.  The paint on the walls were chipping.  The brass accents were in need of polishing.  Our whole stay there I felt like we were visiting a foreign country.  The front desk was staffed by 4-5 foreign people all from different countries.  It was both check-in and money exchange.  Behind the clerks was a long row of television monitors all playing CNN and stock market tickers.  The clerks were efficient but terse.  They offered no extra information and no well wishes for your visit. 

Aaron and I boarded the small elevator. We were followed by probably 8 more people and their luggage, all of us from other lands and speaking other languages.  Later I reminded Aaron that New Yorkers and many of it's visitors have no concept of "personal space."  There are too many bodies going to the same places to make room for "space."  The elevators also had TV monitors with CNN blaring.  The elevator went up and at every stop, shook from side to side.  Awesome.

Our room: white walls, no art.  There was a bed, a TV, a desk and a teeny tiny bathroom.

"This bathroom is not much bigger then Ben and Olivia's," I told Aaron.  Another NY trait.  Tiny bathrooms.  Space is an issue everywhere.  I opened our curtains, expecting a view of a roof top.  There were many roof tops and rising from it all a tall skyscraper that I was certain was the Empire State Building. 

"That's not the Empire State Building," Aaron said from behind me, "doesn't look old enough..."

"Huh...I guess you're right.  Seems to me it should be more ornate."

After freshening up we met up with Ben and O and headed out for dinner.  It was lightly raining.  I kept at a quick clip to keep up with Olivia's long strides in order to share her umbrella. She had a place in mind that she hoped to take us to but when we got there it was closed.  We tried to find a place out of the walking traffic to pow-wow and choose a new spot.  I think it was Ben who had a new suggestion.

"It's a diner," Olivia said.

"Sounds good!  We are game for anything," I told her.

"Alright then!  It's so cliche.  A New York City diner.  Ha!"

"That's exactly why I love the idea!"  I said.

Once at the diner we all placed our orders.  Everyone else chose a breakfast omelette of sorts (Olivia's with turkey sausage) but I ordered a delicious bow tie pasta cooked in olive oil with scallions, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes.  While waiting for our meals Olivia filled me in on the "behind the scenes" of The Biggest Loser and of what is in store for her next.  She just got her copy of Fitness magazine with she and Hannah on the cover.

"No one in Biggest Loser history has been on the cover of Fitness!" she excitedly exclaimed.  "Jillian Michaels was just on Fitness two months ago," she said in awed disbelief that she was sharing the same honor.

Our food arrived as we continued to catch up on one anothers lives.  Olivia and Hannah had been offered a job on Dr. Drew's new television show about....life improvement (I guess is how to describe it.  Over coming addictions and things.)  Hannah and O will host the fitness portion of the show; helping others who are struggling with their weight to get in shape.

"This tastes like pig!"  Olivia suddenly exclaimed mid-conversation.  "Ben, taste this.  I don't think they gave me turkey sausage."

Ben took a bite.

"If that's turkey I want to know the brand.  That's really good...." Ben said with a pleased expression.

"Will you ask the waitress when she comes back by?  Double check for me.  She's going to say it's turkey but I know what pig tastes like.  I've gone too long with out it to not know the difference."

Aaron and I were cracking up at this whole conversation.  The rest of our trip "This tastes like pig!" (said in Olivia's southern accent with emphasis on the word "pig") was our new catch phrase.

Way to go though, Olivia! 
"It's all about making healthy choices," she said.

After dinner I told Ben and Olivia about our side mission while on vacation.

"I think it would be fun to have you in the pic too," I told Olivia.

Ben obliged to being the photographer:

With hugs, kisses and instructions from Ben on how to return to our hotel; we parted ways at the corner diner.  On our way home Aaron and I passed an Irish Pub called Blaggers. We decided to pop in and enjoy a pint.  The bar was another New York City cliche in both appearance and patronage.  I was pleased as punch!  The bartender was an Irishman who immediately pegged us for tourists (apparently we were cliche as well.)  He gave us his recommendations for enjoying The City.  Upon learning that we were there to celebrate my birthday he lined up shot glasses.

"Oh no.  I don't 'do' shots,"  I told him.

"You do tonight," he insisted, "what will it be?" 

"Those aren't all for me are they?"  I asked noticing the three shot glasses.

"Nah," he winked, "we're all going to celebrate."

"One then," I said, "Something sweet please."

He and Aaron exchanged eye rolls to heaven as he began to brew up a potion.  We each took our glass and raised them up in Cheers.  Down went the delicious concoction.  Tasted like lemonade; the sourness cutting the sweet to something the blokes could stand.  We thanked him for our shots and and his tips for fun in the city and set back out for our hotel.

The rain had started again and increased as we continued on our way.  Aaron picked up our pace to a light jog.  I love, love to get caught in the rain!  I was laughing as we hurdled puddles and dodged people; stopping only at intersections.  Our clothes were drenched through and rain ran down the tips of our noses.

"I love this!"  I shouted to Aaron.  He kept pulling me along not appearing to share the same affection for the situation.  While stopped at another intersection I pulled Aaron under the canopy of a closed up souvenir shop and kissed him.

"You and your 'sweet' shot," he said through a smile.  I laughed again, grabbing his hand and running on as the herd began to move through the intersection again.