Start Spreading the News

“You Nork City!” a much younger Norah once called it. You Nork. A place so big, so important, that toddlers mispronounced it before they really even knew what it was. By now, our kids could pronounce it. They were older and wiser, and knew what NYC was all about. Or so they thought. Buildings that loomed overhead. Mobs of people. A colossal-sized city. Actually, to even call it a city, felt somewhat like a slight. It was more than just some big metropolis. So much more.

We wanted to be a part of it New York, New York

If we could make it here, We'd make it anywhere

We only had a few days to conquer what we could in the Big Apple. Barely enough time. We would have to have a plan. The crowds. The traffic. Both the hustle and the bustle. We couldn't roll in like a bunch of small town gawkers. We'd be ready for it.

As first time tourists to You Nork, we had a lot of apprehensions. Where would we stay? What about our car? How were we gonna get around? How could we afford to do anything? Not to mention, we had to make sure everyone had the full “New York City experience.”


There seemed to be only one logical conclusion. In order to not merely survive, but flourish in the Big City, we would have to think and act like New Yorkers. Not tourists. Locals.
We would stay right in the middle of Manhattan. Of course.
We'd stash our car in a garage. Who needs a car?
And we'd walk and take public transit everywhere. Obviously.
And do it all on a budget. No problem.

After a little bit of research, we scored the perfect hotel for us, right in the heart of Midtown. The Deauville Hotel, a cute little brownstone building, that overflowed with charm was a great fit. Besides being centrally located, we had a two room suite, and even an elevator operator to take us up and down. All this, without having to take out a second mortgage on our house. 

Right through the very heart of it New York, New York

Add in the great views of the Empire State building out our hotel windows, and city noises playing in the background, like a setting on a sound machine, and we were ready.

Bring it on You Nork.



Now that our home base was set, it was time to hit the pavement. First, though, the obligatory “big city walking” speech. Manhattan was no joke. It was one crazy anthill.




“Pay attention.”
“Watch where you're going.”
“Especially at crosswalks.”
“Stay with us. Don't dawdle.”


..was what I thought we said. Apparently, to them, it must have sounded more like:

         “Pay attention only to the food carts”
         “Bump into people, a lot”
         “Invent elaborate hopscotch games at every crosswalk.”
         “Be either a half block ahead of me or a full block behind me at all times.”

Our vagabond shoes were longing to stray

Right away, instead of being awestruck tourists, who stared up at skyscrapers, and walked into traffic, the girls acted as they always did. Like crazy monkeys. Undeterred. Unburdened. At ease. Even on the subway, they were pros. Always standing. Holding the poles. Never sitting. So it “felt more like riding the subway.”


As the day turned to night, we headed over to Times Square. “Which is not square shaped at all”, the kids reminded us. Triangle shaped, quite clearly. The bright lights and Godzilla-sized screens were mesmerizing. A trip to both the M&M store and Disney store sealed the deal. Times Square was a hit.

We wanted to wake up in a city that didn't sleep

The one thing we unanimously agreed on before this trip even began, was a visit to the Statue of Liberty. In the Hall of Fame of American landmarks, she's a charter member. It is the definition of iconic. We had to go. And go up it.

We were king of the hill, top of the heap

This one took a little more planning than we thought. You see, there are varying levels of tickets available for the statue. You can just take the scenic boat ride out to the island and walk the grounds. Which, just by itself, was worth it. To see the city from the harbor should be mandatory for all visitors. If you're a little more adventurous, you can climb up to the top of the pedestal. Which doesn't sound all that much better, but it was. The pedestal is no insignificant part of the monument. It stands just as tall as the statue, and the climb up the nearly 200 stairs was no small feat. The views from there were glorious. For the truly bold, there was the highest ticket choice. The crown. All we had to do was climb up an additional set of spiral stairs all the way to the top. That is, providing we made those reservations 6 months ago (we hadn't). And our party was 4 people or less (we weren't). And everyone was tall enough to do so (not quite). So we “settled” for the pedestal. Which was still super cool, and didn't feel at all like settling. Lady Liberty was amazing. And beautiful. And everything we hoped it would be, and more. The up close views of her gave us a whole new perspective of her magnificence.
Stunning. Sublime. A must do. Just plan way ahead.
==============
As the sun set on our second day, we hoofed it on over to yet another New York favorite: the Brooklyn Bridge. Spanning the East river, and connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, this 130 year old bridge amazed us once again. With cars driving below on a separate level, a pedestrian walkway made it possible to traverse the structure.

We made a brand new start of it, in old New York

Mind you, this walkway was no tourist attraction afterthought. No. Every day over 4,000 pedestrians and 3,000 cyclists cross the 1,500 foot span. Most of them commuters. As we sauntered across, gazing at the brilliant views of the city at sunset, dozens and dozens of people sped by on their way home from work. We admired the views, while they simply crossed.

======================



“Hey kiddos, it's our last day here, how about we go to Central Park?”
                 “I dunno. What's it like there? Are there any playgrounds?”
“Let's see...there's over 20”
                 “20 different playgrounds?... Can we go to all of them?”
“I really doubt it.”
                 “OK... how about we just go to ALMOST all of them?”
"I don't think you understand how negotiating works."

Central Park was yet another gem. A stunning oasis amidst the insanity. The playgrounds themselves would've been enough. But add in the lakes, an abundance of trails, interesting topography, and even a castle, and it was clear to us why New Yorkers revered this place. We could have spent a whole week just exploring it. Instead, we hit the playgrounds we thought looked the coolest.


An ancient Egyptian themed one? You bet.
A wild west inspired one? OK.

A safari playground with sculptures from St. Louis' own legendary Bob Cassily?
Ummm... of course.

The weather was perfect, and that glorious day in Central Park was one we will always remember.


In just 3 short days, we did it. We managed to squeeze in so much. We did so much. We walked. We ate from street vendors. We took impromptu juggling lessons. We saw so much. Street performers. Subway performers. Overly-aggressive pan-handling mascots. We heard so much. Honking cabbies. Dozens of different dialects. Crazed people swearing at each other in the streets. We even smelled so much. Bad smells. Worse smells. Unidentifiable smells. Yup, we were big city folks. Or at least, we were good at pretending to be. The megalopolis had not swallowed us up at all. Surprisingly, we fit right in.

Our little town blues melted away

“St. Louis is going to seem so small when we get home.”
“So tiny.”
“So lame.” they all said in a condescending way.


They were already beginning to sound like New Yorkers.

Slowly I Turned

We needed to take another big road trip. A good, long one. A couple of weeks, with lots of stops. It had been a while. Too long, by our standards, certainly. But, life got in the way. Our days always seemed to be full. Chauffeuring the kids around. Working on the house. The pets. The this. The that. The everything. And before you knew it, a year had gone by. Then two. We really needed to take another trip.

What we really lacked was a reason. We needed some inspiration. A nudge. Then my sister (who lives in Alaska) gave us just the excuse. For the 3^rd year in a row, she was going to run in the Boston Marathon. And while in Massachusetts, she was again, going to stay with our East Coast family. “This year, you guys need to come.” she said. Then my Boston cousin confirmed, “You're all staying with us.”

Sure. Why not? We'll head east. All new places for Jenny and the girls to see. Plus, an opportunity for Clark to hang out with his family that he hadn't seen in forever. It sounded great. But, what else? We needed more. Boston is a pretty decent drive from St Louis. There's plenty to see along the way. The East coast is rife with opportunities.

So it was opened up for discussion.
                              “Where else does everyone want to go, besides Boston...?”
“New York City?”

                              “Definitely!”

“Pennsylvania?”
                              “Sure.”
“Connecticut?”
                              “Maybe...”
“Can we see how long it takes to drive across Rhode Island?”
                              “We'll see...”
“Niagara Falls?”
                         
“NIAGARA FALLS!!!”

Slowly I turned...

So, it was set. Our next adventure. First stop, the northwestern tip of upstate New York. We piled into 'Mia the Kia' (our recently named minivan) and headed out. Surprisingly, Niagara Falls is just a 12 hour drive from home. (Who knew?) And like a bunch of traveling pros, we got there in no time.

Now none of us had ever been to Niagara Falls before. Even though we all had our own idea of what we thought they would be like, we had no idea. It's funny how things are that way. The more we travel, the more we learn that. You just can't picture things until you've been there.
We arrived at a seasonal transition time. The extremely harsh northern winter was (mostly) gone. Preparations were being made everywhere for the upcoming tourist season. Spring was near. Or so we thought. When we got out of the car, it felt pretty brisk. Cold. We put on our coats, and headed straight to the overlook of the falls. The wind picked up the closer we got. Pretty darn chilly now. Gloves. Hats. Then as we walked up to get our first glimpse, the mist hit us. It was everywhere. And when the temperature is hovering around freezing, mist turns into, well, frozen mist, I guess. It was frigid. Biting. For a bunch of Mid-westerners, it was full on winter. ”Look there's an observation tower. It's inside, and has a great view!.. Just a quick walk over a little raised bridge.” Where the winds were even fiercer. Sub-Arctic. Top-of-Mount-Everest cold.

...step by step...

Twigs the Snowman

Niagara Falls was massive. We were seriously impressed. Cold be damned, their allure was unavoidable. They were literally awe-inspiring. I was inspired with awe. Now, they weren't massive in a tall way. They're kinda' short, really. (At least when compared to the rest of the world's largest waterfalls) They're survivable-if-you-go-over-them-in-a-barrel short, actually. And they weren't massive in that they stretched on and on. They are wide, for sure. Just not that wide. No, Niagara Falls are massive in a that's-a-crap-ton-of-water kind of way. With a world's best rate of 150,000 gal. per second flowing through them, the amount of water is super impressive. Indescribable. Until you see it.

In a master stroke of vacation pre-planning, our hotel was within earshot of the falls. We could hear them from our room. That night was filled with short walks back to the falls, snowball fights, and even snowman building. It was definitely still winter.


The next morning we did the one thing I would insist everyone does when they visit. The Maid of the Mist boat tour has been sailing to the base of the falls since before the Civil War. And for good reason. Armed with ponchos and anticipation, we boated right out to the base of both the American Falls, and eventually the Horseshoe Falls.






Seeing them from below was a whole other experience. The water. There was just so damn much of it. It was so amazing. So worth it.

That's some white noise machine.

...inch by inch...


After our journey below, we hiked across to Goat Island, in the middle of the falls, to finish up our stay. More views of the falls were to be had here, but again work was being done everywhere. Construction. Improvements. Maintenance. That much water has to do some damage, right? It does. Every year the falls erode 1 foot. If that amount seems high, it has actually been slowed down (thanks to engineering) from 3 feet per year. They say in 50,000 years, the falls won't even be there anymore. So, if you haven't been, hurry up and get there while you can.

And take the boat tour.

In the summer.


For now, so long Niagara Falls.

NIAGARA FALLS!!!

Slowly I turned...