The Bus Rides of New York

Over Spring Break we took a trip to New York.  We each had separate goals for the trip.  Les wanted to visit the 911 Memorial, and do as little shopping as possible.  Cassie wanted us to not look like tourists, and to do as much shopping as possible.  I wanted to walk as much as possible, and to make sure that nobody got hit by a car.  Lacey wanted to play in Central Park, and visit as many different restaurants as possible.  In fact, she wanted me to blog only about what we ate on the trip.  I told her that I would share some of the details that took place between meals.


We took a bus from Virginia that arrived mid-afternoon, and checked into the hotel.   Our first stop was the City Kitchen.  This is a little food mall on 8th Avenue, right next door to our hotel.  The girls loved the food and the view. 

Next, we dragged Les to Times Square.  The girls showed him the Polo store where they can buy shirts for $12.  This store was, of course, so crowded that we could barely get in.  The music was loud and the customers were louder.  I let the girls select a couple shirts while Les opted to wait outside. 

We walked around Times Square until it started to snow.  On the way to our hotel, Lacey spotted Guy's American Kitchen and Bar, owned by Guy Fieri.  Lacey absolutely loves watching his show, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives."  She was so thrilled that we agreed to have dinner there.  She was disappointed that Guy wasn't actually there.  But, she still enjoyed visiting the restaurant.

Dinner at Guy's

Times Square

Monday morning we got up early and set off to visit the 911 Memorial.  While some of us love walking, the memorial was pretty far away.  We asked the friendly concierge for the easiest way to get there.  First, she recommended the subway.  Then, she suggested a tour bus that would allow us to simply "hop on" and "hop off" at multiple locations.  In fact, she had all kinds of suggestions.  One package would give us bus fare and entry to museums.  For a few dollars more, we could also get a helicopter ride. Another package offered four days of bus fare, plus all of the above.  We had ridden the tour bus once before and, although I couldn't remember why, I was pretty sure that we'd agreed to never ride it again.  But, I let Les talk me into the two day bus fare because it included free admission to the 911 Observational Tower.  The concierge took our money, gave us a receipt, and told us that we could catch the bus out front.

When the bus arrived we learned that we had to take our receipt down the street to the visitor's office and exchange it for actual tickets.  After asking for directions twice, we finally found the visitor's office.  Twenty minutes later, we headed back to the bus stop, clutching bus tickets along with free tickets to an adult comedy club, and a card that guaranteed discounts to many shops and restaurants in the city.  We climbed on board, anxious to get out of the cold.  The bus had an upper deck. But, because only half the seats on the upper level were covered, we sat downstairs.  We plugged in our free ear buds and settled back to listen to the tour guide.   As soon as the bus turned the first corner, a deluge of cold water came rushing down the stairs.  As we ducked and picked up our feet to escape the cold water, our tour guide explained that the water was just melting snow.  No worries.  In a few hours it would be dry!

When we got to the memorial, we learned that the "free" tickets we had for the tower needed to be exchanged at a different visitor's center, somewhere in Manhattan.  Rather than spending another 3 hours on the tour bus, we paid for tickets.  In the end, we all agreed that the visit was worth the wet bus ride.

Next we took a brisk walk to Chinatown where we visited the outdoor markets and had lunch at a Shanghai restaurant.  Lacey did her best to not look like a tourist.

We "hopped on" the bus outside Chinatown and headed back toward Times Square.   This bus' upper deck was covered and was warm from the sun.  We sat down in the front two seats.  Lacey fell asleep almost immediately.  When the driver slammed on his breaks to avoid a pedestrian, Lacey flew off her sit and crashed into the front window.  Lucky for her she was sitting cross legged and her knees hit the window first.  This experience didn't stop her from going right back to sleep. 

When we got back to our hotel, the girls and I were anxious to do a little walking.  We visited some of our favorite shops around Rockefeller Plaza.  Dinner that evening was Les' choice - the Playwright Celtic Pub.  We enjoyed the food and hatched plans for the next day. 

The plan for Tuesday was to spend the morning visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then on to the  Laduree.  The latter is a macaroon shop on Madison Avenue, near the Met.  The girls had fallen in love with the Laduree last summer and I'd promised that we would return. 

First, we had breakfast at our favorite restaurant - the Europa Café on 57th.  I know this is a chain restaurant.  But, this particular one is the first restaurant we ever visited in NYC.  Cassie loves the vanilla sugar crepes and I love the coffee.  This was a one-mile walk from our hotel.  But, we had a destination and everyone was happy to walk. 

The vanilla sugar crepe

Les reminded me that we still had a day left on our bus passes.  I argued that we had already walked a mile toward the Met.  It wouldn't be that much farther and if we got away from the buildings and walked across Central Park we would find some sun.  Les reminded me that the bus would travel clockwise up around the park, passing through Harlem and other neighborhoods that the kids hadn't seen.  Lacey was cold and voted for the bus, so it was 2 to 2.  Trying to keep the peace, I reminded Cassie that Macy's one-day sale was starting today and would give us a great opportunity for walking later that day.  We set off to look for a bus stop.  If you've been to NYC, you know that these tour buses have multiple employees stationed on each block.  We asked the next one we saw for the nearest stop that would take us "uptown."  We found a bus around the corner.  But, it was out of service.  We found another bus nearby.  But, it was headed "downtown."  We found another employee who explained the best stop for our destination was the one right in front of our hotel.  I know this is hard to believe.  But, we turned around and walked the mile back to our hotel to catch that bus.

Before we boarded the bus, we purchased three pair of gloves, a hat, and two scarves from a street vendor.  A good use of $20 in my opinion.  This bus was really crowded.  We gave the kids the only vacant seat on the lower level.  Les and I ended up in the very back of the bus on the uncovered top deck. I spent most of the ride with my scarf wrapped over my head and around my face, hunkered down behind the seat in front of me to escape the wind.    It wasn't too bad when the bus stopped in the sun.  But, the sun wasn't reaching many places in the city that early in the morning.  Each time the bus stopped, we'd peer down onto the sidewalk to be sure the girls weren't getting off.    At some point, Cassie texted that Lacey had broken the audio box and they could no longer listen to the tour.  "At least you're warm!" I texted back.  After about 90 minutes of this, we decided that walking would be warmer.  When we reached the Guggenheim, we got off. 

Our first stop was at a sidewalk vendor.  We bought bags of honey-roasted peanuts and poured the hot peanuts onto our bare hands to warm up!  But, seriously, this was the first time the girls had seen the Met.  And, of course, they fell in love.

Edgar Degas' "The Dance Class" and "The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer"

Later, the girls impressed Les by showing him the way to the macaroon shop.

 We decided to walk back to the hotel, looking for a diner along the way.  Apparently, we chose the wrong avenue because we didn't pass a single restaurant.  Even though we had sworn to avoid chains, we lunched at the three-story McDonalds in Times Square.  We used our bus passes to get a discount!  Then, Les and Lacey headed for the Lego Store while Cassie and I walked to Macy's.  We were delighted to discover that Macy's annual flower show had just started.  And, no joking, our bus passes got us a 10 percent discount at Macy's!


At dinnertime, there were incredibly long lines outside all the nearby restaurants.  We picked the shortest line . . . Planet Hollywood!

Wednesday was all about Central Park.  Again, the girls impressed Les with their knowledge of the park.  They took us to the carousel, the Boathouse, and the fountain from "Friends."   




We spent the morning in the park and the afternoon at Bloomingdale's. 

For our final day in NYC, we visited the High Line Park.  We walked the entire length of the park and finished at Chelsea Market.  Here are a few views from the High Line.

Proof that I was there

Here are my new favorite photos of the girls.  I love looking at them and seeing the joy captured in the photos.  I would be willing to tolerate a lot more rides on the tour bus just to make a few more memories like these.