Saturday, July 07, 2007

The Vacation continues

Third Day in Manhattan: Super-Tourists

I took the car out of the $40 Idiot Lot and we roamed around looking for a legal spot to park in. It was supposed to be easy since it was the weekend. The signs are very ambiguous and I have enough tickets to last a lifetime so it took awhile because I wanted to be 100% sure.
Then we walked around Lower Manhattan a bit and Tommy shopped at a huge music store. We went over to St. Paul’s Chapel, the famous church across the street from the World Trade Center. They have a September 11th exhibit inside the church. On display there are remnants of the cards and letters and photos they got from children around the world. My children sent letters and cards to the fireman from their classes and Cub Scout dens so it was educational for them to see those and this building with such an intense history. But Gregory really wanted to leave the church and warned me that we were “going to miss the Subway”.


ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL

We took the subway to Penn Station and then walked around 10 blocks to the Empire State Building,. They said there was an hour wait. I have never been to the top so I felt we should do it. I was in the basement once. My friend and I decided that since everyone goes up, we would go down.

The place was packed! It was this huge crowded line, but extremely organized with employees ushering the mobs of humanity to the proper place. Every time you thought you got somewhere, you were on a new line. As I was queuing to pay for tickets, an employee pulled me from the line (oh what did I do now?) and whisked the 4 of us away to a special VIP elevator. He explained that he had observed Gregory and was concerned that with his disability, all that waiting might be a burden. That is something that never happened to us before! So we got VIP treatment up to the top and missed the one hour wait!

Here are some pictures from the top of the Empire State Building:










Then the boys were begging me to go to Madame Toussauds Wax Museum in Times Square, tourist rip-off joint extraordinaire, royally overpriced. With coupons it was $102 for the 4 of us! As we were leaving the first room, there was a “Chamber of Horrors”. Gregory was absolutely freaked out and threw a major panic attack. He was not budging. He almost knocked down The Donald. He threw himself on the floor behind Nicholas Cage and John Travolta and was kicking and flailing, making a real scene. I told his brothers to finish the tour. Finally, as I was in tears, some employees helped us out and helped me to find the boys. After an argument, I was able to get a refund for the admission for me and Greg since we didn’t see anything

ANDREW WITH SHARON AND OZZY OSBORNE

ANDREW WITH SAMUEL L. JACKSON

TOMMY WITH WAXY DUDE SAMUEL L. JACKSON

Then we took another subway them to Washington Square Park. I wanted to go to the East Village to see the Punks, but H told me that the punks were run out of there by high housing prices. At Washington Square there was a contortionist that was unbelievable.- he folded his body into this tiny plastic box and walked on his but cheeks with his legs on his shoulders and stuff. The boys really, really enjoyed that. This guy was unreal.


WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

It suddenly started raining. We tried for a long time to hail a cab. Finally a cab stopped. Some other people got in and started yelling at us to get out, that they had hailed the cab from the other side of the street, and it was their cab. The cab driver told them to get out, since he told them he stopped for us.

After that it was more walking around Times Square. My feet were shot at this point. We took the Subway back to our hotel to spruce up for the party at my friends house in our honor!

The party was beyond fabulous with a beautiful waiter, wonderful food and my best friends in the whole world! They had not seen the boys in a long time. The boys were very well behaved at this adult party. Greg got to pet Juanchi, my friends little dog. My sons were absolutely beside themselves over the Guacamole dip and said it was the best they had ever eaten.

1 comment: