Look at Me! I'm the King of New York! (Day 4)
So I gave you a couple days respite because day three was super long to read, and quite frankly, I knew we were all taking time off to spend Christmas with our families. My Christmas was most excellent and I hope yours was too.
So, the last day of New York:
Saturday morning we woke up and packed to check out of our hostel and then we headed over to the LDS temple. The interesting thing about the New York temple is that it has a meeting house above it. I thought it might be kind of weird to go to church in a building like that, especially above a temple, but after we were in the temple doing various things (I did baptisms) I went up there to change into street clothes and once I got off the elevator at the third floor, it was just like being in any other church building on a Sunday.
After changing we decided to head over the Central Park to walk around and find a place to eat, because we were starving. I was in the temple for a LONG time. Kathy had done a two hour session and by the time I had come out to change she was already sitting on the couch in the lobby changed into street clothes and waiting for me, so by the time I had changed we were starving to death.
We headed over to Central Park, and I was thinking that it was much easier to walk around with my rolling suitcase, and Kathy had bought a cart to stack all of her stuff on, but it was SO WINDY that it felt a lot colder. We wheeled over to Central Park and started walking around Central Park. We found some food carts but they only took cash, and our cash supply was diminished at this point, and there were no ATMs in sight. So we found a visitor's center next to the food carts and found an interactive map to find out where things were in the park. So we started heading towards a restaurant, but we didn't find it. We found a little French cafe instead. I got a sandwich made on a baguette, and it was the most amazing baguette ever. Crispy on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. The deliciousness was blowing my mind.
I found this eagle as we were leaving the cafe, but it refused to look at me so I could get a picture of its face. We traveled onward and found a gathering of people. It took a while to see what they were going to do, but some guys finally leaped over something. There were also busts of famous people like Beethoven in this area of the park.
Then we continued walking and we saw this huge water fountain. Then we found a water reserve with ducks, and next to that was a statue of characters from Alice in Wonderland. It took FOREVER to take pictures at the statue because there were a TON of people waiting to take pictures and you just kind of had to rush in once one group finished, but of course, small children were unaware of other people waiting, and there parents didn't do much to remove them. Unfortunately, my camera died, and I haven't gotten Kathy's pictures from the statue yet, so you can only imagine it.
Along the east side of the park is where all the museums are, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So we tried to go inside, but because we had suitcases, they wouldn't let us. (You know, 9/11 and all.) At this point I was pretty tired, and it was freezing cold outside, and although walking with the rolling suitcase was easier, it was a little exhausting.
Kathy really wanted to go to Macy's and find Santa land before we left, so we got on the subway and headed back to 24th Street. The subways were slightly annoying because we couldn't fit our suitcases through the turnstile, but I just pushed open the emergency exist and went through that way because I had seen millions of people do it for the past few days. Unfortunately, not all the subways have elevators, not very wheelchair accessible, which is kind of lame of New York. I started heading up the stairs but my suitcase kept catching on something, and then it happened, the handle I was holding on to completely snapped off of the suitcase. I just stood there so annoyed by the stupid thing. This woman coming down the stairs helped me take it all the way up to the top and I checked out the situation. Completely broken.
I wrapped my blanket around the other handle and tried to drag it that way, but it wasn't very productive, and actually incredibly painful, but onward we went to Macy's. It was a complete zoo inside of course and we wandered around several floors and never saw hide nor hair of Santa land or even signs telling you where it was.
We went down to the basement and there were super old elevators down there which was pretty cool, but I really couldn't take anymore wandering around with my crappy suitcase so I said, "well, I have no idea where it is." We gave up and left and headed back to the train station and hopped on the train, and rode back to New Haven. On the car ride home I turned on my Christmas playlist on Henry. That night I was pretty exhausted and I slept very well.
All in all we saw all of the ups and downs of New York City, from homeless people with mental disabilities threatening us in the Subway, to New Yorker jerks that work at Radio City Music Hall to the awesomeness of Times Square, The Lion King and the Rockettes, New York was epic and amazing.
Life goal: check. Happiness :)
So, the last day of New York:
Saturday morning we woke up and packed to check out of our hostel and then we headed over to the LDS temple. The interesting thing about the New York temple is that it has a meeting house above it. I thought it might be kind of weird to go to church in a building like that, especially above a temple, but after we were in the temple doing various things (I did baptisms) I went up there to change into street clothes and once I got off the elevator at the third floor, it was just like being in any other church building on a Sunday.
After changing we decided to head over the Central Park to walk around and find a place to eat, because we were starving. I was in the temple for a LONG time. Kathy had done a two hour session and by the time I had come out to change she was already sitting on the couch in the lobby changed into street clothes and waiting for me, so by the time I had changed we were starving to death.
We headed over to Central Park, and I was thinking that it was much easier to walk around with my rolling suitcase, and Kathy had bought a cart to stack all of her stuff on, but it was SO WINDY that it felt a lot colder. We wheeled over to Central Park and started walking around Central Park. We found some food carts but they only took cash, and our cash supply was diminished at this point, and there were no ATMs in sight. So we found a visitor's center next to the food carts and found an interactive map to find out where things were in the park. So we started heading towards a restaurant, but we didn't find it. We found a little French cafe instead. I got a sandwich made on a baguette, and it was the most amazing baguette ever. Crispy on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. The deliciousness was blowing my mind.
Kathy really wanted to go to Macy's and find Santa land before we left, so we got on the subway and headed back to 24th Street. The subways were slightly annoying because we couldn't fit our suitcases through the turnstile, but I just pushed open the emergency exist and went through that way because I had seen millions of people do it for the past few days. Unfortunately, not all the subways have elevators, not very wheelchair accessible, which is kind of lame of New York. I started heading up the stairs but my suitcase kept catching on something, and then it happened, the handle I was holding on to completely snapped off of the suitcase. I just stood there so annoyed by the stupid thing. This woman coming down the stairs helped me take it all the way up to the top and I checked out the situation. Completely broken.
I wrapped my blanket around the other handle and tried to drag it that way, but it wasn't very productive, and actually incredibly painful, but onward we went to Macy's. It was a complete zoo inside of course and we wandered around several floors and never saw hide nor hair of Santa land or even signs telling you where it was.
We went down to the basement and there were super old elevators down there which was pretty cool, but I really couldn't take anymore wandering around with my crappy suitcase so I said, "well, I have no idea where it is." We gave up and left and headed back to the train station and hopped on the train, and rode back to New Haven. On the car ride home I turned on my Christmas playlist on Henry. That night I was pretty exhausted and I slept very well.
All in all we saw all of the ups and downs of New York City, from homeless people with mental disabilities threatening us in the Subway, to New Yorker jerks that work at Radio City Music Hall to the awesomeness of Times Square, The Lion King and the Rockettes, New York was epic and amazing.
Life goal: check. Happiness :)
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