Day 1: The Red Eye

We booked out flights with JetBlue, which I believe is the best bang-for-your-buck value out there. The only JetBlue flight to NYC leaves SLC around midnight which has its pros and cons. Pros are: You aren’t wasting a whole day at the airport. You can sleep on the plane. You arrive very early before the rush at the airport. The flights are cheap. Cons are: You waste a whole night of rest. Nobody can sleep on a plane, no matter how much legroom you have. There is always a rush at JFK airport. Flying is always expensive. In fairness the JetBlue flights are the next best thing to business class flights. We paid less than $280 round trip. The bummer is we did have to buy a full price ticket for Lance, but at least we got a whole row of seats to ourselves.
We arrived at JFK and I had arranged a private driver to shuttle us to Manhattan from the airport. We had 10 bags and the kids car seats so we needed more than a taxi. He took us to our hotel that was truly in the heart of Times Square its called the Renaissance Hotel, and my neighbor friend Dave hooked me up with a sweet deal. This hotel was awesome! We were on the 24th floor and had an awesome view. We checked in our room and went to the hotel restaurant on the lobby floor and had breakfast, then we went back up to our room and slept. We didn’t really want to but we were too tired to enjoy ourselves.
We woke up at 2 and went downstairs and got on the Grey Line bus. This is truly the greatest way to see NYC for the first time. Our first tour guide was the low talker from Seinfeld, so we got off the bus early and checked out Greenwich Village. We ate a late lunch at a little noodle shop and walked around for a few minutes. Then we got back on another bus and headed down to Battery Park.
We decided to get off at the World Trade Center site. I was not prepared to the emotions I had while I was there. It was truly moving, and the reality of that tragic day hit me again more powerful than any time before. Happily they are starting the construction on the new Freedom Tower, maybe our next trip to NYC will be for the opening of that new tower that is to stand 1776 ft tall, I anticipate the triumph, jubilations and sorrow of that future day.
From the WTC site we walked to Battery Park and looked out on the harbor at Lady Liberty. I had wanted to do that ever since I was 7 years old. It was beautiful and as the sun went down on the first day of our trip I felt like the trip and expenses were already worth it. To see the same sights my grandparents saw when they immigrated to America from Switzerland more than half a century ago was priceless.
We then proceeded on a long walk to the South Street Seaport, which was beautiful but ultimately disappointing. The first restaurant we went to seated us immediately but we did not see a waiter or even a bus boy for water for over 20 minutes, even after a request after the first 10 minutes. We got up and left and went to another café a block or so down. The food was mediocre at best comparable to airport counter food.
We finally got a hold of our friend Kirk that was going to meet us back at our hotel. So we headed back to Times Square via the NYC Subway. That’s a load of fun with a double wide stroller and two infants. We had to look like hayseeds, and that’s mostly because we are. Times Square at night is truly a sight to behold, we walked around and finally indulged Lance with a trip to the Toys R Us store, which was really the coolest toy store I had ever seen. Kirk met us there and we walked back to out hotel.
While we were at the hotel Kirk told us all about his personal thoughts on the city. He had a great insight he shared with us. I cant remember verbatim but it was something to the effect that although while you are in the city you are never more that 20ft. away from someone, you can feel absolutely alone and lonely. The anonymity of walking around so many people you don’t know, who don’t know you, can drive you insane. And some people snap! They want others to notice them so they yell or do something weird, and sure enough people notice you. I guess that could feel good to someone who is desperately lonely. It explained to me the crazies we saw riding around the city yelling, waving, dancing and freaking us out. They just wanted us to look at them, and we did.
We followed up Kirks visit with a half block midnight run to Ray’s pizza which was just incredible. Then we went to bed ready to see the city again.