No Bull, Whispering Wall, and other fun Friday NYC experiences...

Our second full day in NYC started with another new experience -- and as I think of NYC, I feel quite certain that if one desired to they could indeed have a new experience there every single day -- This experience was perhaps not all that exciting, but we rode the bus through Brooklyn to our subway station. The bus we rode was mostly filled with moms (or nannies) with strollers carrying young New Yorkers to school or day care. It wasn’t terribly eventful, but one thing Jessie reflected on that is certainly true is that the kids in Brooklyn were as fashionable as the families they belonged to...

We rode the subway, which was this time not terribly crowded, past numerous stops all the way to the Wall Street...

Our first stop after emerging from the subway to the light of another New York day was Starbuck’s...This Starbuck’s is only worth mentioning because despite my normal experience with Starbucks’ employees, these people were genuinely nice and seemed very happy to help and to be working where they were. After a brief stay with coffee and a breakfast sandwich for Jessie and a Vanilla Double Shot Energy + Coffee and a low fat very berry muffin for me, we headed out to see the Charging Bull. This Bull is pretty famous and you’ve no doubt seen it’s face. The thing you may not know is that NYC lore dictates that for good financial luck a visitor should rub the statue in the area that separates the bull from the steers...I can’t tell you how many times Jessie has tried to convince me to do things that sound as crazy as this might sound, but after she posed with her head seemingly up the bull’s behind and received a hearty WOOT WOOT from an NYC worker on the street, I relented and rubbed the symbols of virility for luck.

Feeling somewhat silly, but also certain that I’d participated in an important Wall Street ritual, we headed to Battery Park where we stopped to take photos of the Sphere -- a statue removed from the site of the WTC bombings and positioned here with its holes and damages unrepaired. We then moved on toward the area where we would catch our ferry to the Statue of Liberty. After passing through security much like that at airports -- which of course meant for me the complimentary massage/pat down and the added humiliation of having to take off my hat and expose my horrendously flat and ugly hair we headed to the ferry. The ferry had three levels and we headed up top to get the best view. It was a chilly morning, but thankfully the rain had subsided. We rode out toward Lady Liberty and enjoyed the beautiful views of the city. On the way out we of course passed Ellis Island as we headed to Liberty Island. The Statue of Liberty is beautiful and was everything I’d hoped it would be and it was an awesome site to see. Because we had much planned for this day (as with every other day) in NYC, we opted not to get off the ferry at either Liberty Island or Ellis Island. At some point when I return to the city, I’d love to do the Ellis Island tour, but it takes several hours I’m told and we weren’t anxious to give up several hours of seeing other things to partake of that particular attraction. We rode the ferry -- and boy, are there a lot of ferries in NYC ;) -- back to Battery Park and enjoyed an almost empty second deck seat on the outside of the ferry.

When we departed the ferry, we saw what was an odd site for the middle of a city...we spotted a turkey in the park. Well, I thought it was a turkey and Jessie thought it might be a vulture. Since we didn’t know for sure what it was, two girls who are both terribly afraid of and disgusted by birds, for some reason decided that stalking this strange bird to get a pic was a good idea. I’m not sure how many minutes we stalked our prey, but at some point we did get within about fifteen feet of it and get pretty good pics (as it turns out after seeing our pics Jeremy did indeed confirm that it was a lone turkey in the middle of the big city.)

After we left Battery Park, we walked up toward Ground Zero. Ground Zero itself offers little more than a fence with some large banners explaining the construction of the memorial, but as we walked toward the site, I had an overwhelmingly odd and somber feeling. I had vivid recall of clips of video and photos of the same buildings I was walking past being shown with people frantically fleeing the site in front of a huge dark cloud of debris on September 11. I cannot even begin to imagine how panicked and devastated the people must have been that day. Walking the opposite way down a street that was a site of such severe devastation on a day that changed the country we live in so much was a moving experience.

On our way to Ground Zero directly across from the American Stock Exchange we took a detour. We saw steps leading up off the sidewalk into a beautiful cemetery. We went up the steps and walked around the cemetery which was full of eroding and interesting tombstones dating back into the 1700s. We later found out (on the Gray Line bus tour as we passed this way again) that the cemetery we were wandering through was the cemetery at Trinity Church and that Alexander Hamilton was buried there.

After leaving the cemetery and walking past the Ground Zero site we headed to Century 21 to do some shopping. I’d actually never heard of Century 21... and as their shopping bags say it’s “Fashion worth fighting for” or as other bags state “Shopping’s Best Kept Secret.”... And both are true. Jessie had her heart set on getting a new coat, and although I had nothing in particular in mind to buy, I rarely pass up a great opportunity to get a good deal or at least do some fun looking around.

Century 21 was similar to those scenes you see on tv where the aisles and shopping areas are all very crowded with people grabbing things off racks and crowding around sales displays. We headed into the first area we saw where there were jackets and coats. Most of the jackets in this area were ski jackets...brands like Spyder and others with really good prices. Jessie didn’t however find a coat in this area that was what she was looking for. We moved up another floor to an area full of more coats. Jessie tried on several and I started looking at coats too and actually came across one I really adored. I really had no intention of buying a coat. I had packed my bag pretty tightly and I knew I’d have to be fitting in souvenirs for the fam, but this coat was winter white ultra suede with a faux fur lining. The entire jacket inside and out is so incredibly soft AND it’s a Jones New York jacket at an incredibly good price...SO...Yes, I bought the coat. And yes, I do love it. Jessie also found a dark suede jacket that is fur-lined as well that she felt would be warm enough for Ohio winters and she decided to buy that coat as well. I also grabbed a pair of gloves -- the kind that are like mittens but fold back and expose the ends of your fingers so you can fasten your coat or dial your phone or whatever else you need to do. We continued to look around Century 21 and they truly do have some great prices on some great brand names. We spent a few minutes shopping in the men’s area. I can’t exactly explain why, but I have this strange obsession with men’s neckties. I LOVE ties, love looking at them, and while I never actually buy them I suppose they appeal to me as a symbol of a dreamy well-dressed man -- or maybe it’s something else completely twisted, idk, but I do know I love them.

When we finished our shopping, we decided to walk to another Gray Line Bus Tour stop to give the bus another try AND get from point A to point B without putting any more stress on our feet. There were several things we still wanted to get a glimpse of without spending a lot of time on so we climbed aboard the bus and headed on our way.

This time our bus ride was surprising. We actually had a really good tour guide. His name was Andrew and he was not only informative, but also witty and friendly and made riding atop a double decker bus in the cold a little more pleasurable. On this particular ride we went through downtown NYC. We went through Chinatown -- again an area that on some future trip I’d probably like to see more in depth -- but my only real impression that it was pretty dirty and not something worth missing other big attractions to see. We saw Little Italy -- another stop I’d like to explore some more -- and also saw fabulous buildings where incredibly pricey apartments owned by the likes of Madonna and Derek Jeter and others.

We rode the bus to a stop near Grand Central Station where we headed down Lexington in the direction of the impressive Chrysler building and Grand Central Station. On our way there we noticed the spa where we would be having our treatments done on Sunday. We went inside for just a minute to check the place out and it looked pretty nice and we felt less unsure about our appointments awaiting us there on Sunday evening. We also stopped on our way to Grand Central for me to buy more Pashminas...I’d already bought a couple that I’d been wearing the last couple of cold days in NYC and I thought they’d make fashionable and great gifts for the girls in my family.

We soon arrived at Grand Central Station and I was in awe. It is a truly beautiful station and it has so much to offer. It has a huge variety of people from many walks of life. We saw a musician playing the stand up bass and a good number of kiosks with interesting items to buy. As we headed into the main area of the station we saw a world of hustle and bustle as well as a beautiful and well-guarded brand new Maserati. Both Jessie and I were hungry since it was late afternoon and we decided to head to the food concourse and have a meal while we warmed up. We found a great place called Hale & Hearty that sells soup. And it was super soup. I ordered a big cup of sweet crab chowder and Jessie ordered the sweet corn chowder. We found a place to sit and started enjoying our dinner. As Jessie and I sat there and discussed our last stop for the day, the Empire State Building, Jessie noticed a homeless man going through the garbage cans looking for food. I didn’t even see him, but we needed to finish eating quickly so we could catch the last bus to take us back across town to the Empire State Building and although I was pretty full I still had quite a bit of soup in my large cup. Jessie asked me if I wanted to give my leftover soup to the homeless man. And I did, but I didn’t know how to approach him ((--you know, that whole stranger danger thing...and not just because he was homeless...Jessie had bailed me out throughout our trip when numerous people would approach me to take pics of them while they posed -- I wasn’t opposed to taking the soup to the man nor was I ever opposed to taking the pics of people I didn’t know, but I did ALWAYS hesitate. Somehow I must have an open and accepting ‘yes’ face, but still just haven’t managed to not look a bit shocked when approached by a stranger for anything.)) Anyway, Jessie took my moment of hesitation as an opportunity to just do it for me and took the man the soup. She came back with tears in her eyes and told me that he simply said Thank You as a tear rolled down his cheek...Ok, so maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t take him the soup because it’s quite possible if he’d cried when I handed it to him that I’d have emptied my pockets of every cent I had and given it to him...

After we had this encounter there was one more thing in Grand Central Station Jessie wanted me to see. She took me to the Whispering Wall. The Whispering Wall is where the arched design of the walls of a corridor enables two people, standing at opposite corners and facing the wall (like you're being punished,) to talk to each other and be heard! I was skeptical, but I figured if I was willing to touch a bull’s balls I might as well go along with this tradition too and it is amazing and surprising, but it really works.

As we left Grand Central Station, we headed back to the where we’d hopped off the tour bus and rode across town to the Empire State Building. On the way across town we passed numerous landmarks, including Rockefeller Center and lots of other sites. We actually had to get off the tour bus for some unexplained reason and walk a few blocks to get on another bus that would carry us to the Empire State Building.

We went through security and began our ascent to the observation deck. There are a couple of different elevators and places where one must wait on the way up, but the lines weren’t terribly long and we got to the top pretty quickly. It was dark and cold by the time we reached the observation deck, but it was also breathtaking. I would highly recommend going to the top of the Empire State Building at night. While it was indeed snowing lightly at this distance above the city, the views of the city were remarkable. Times Square was a glowing spot amidst a scattering of other lights on every side of the observation deck. It was a beautiful view of the city and we spent a good deal of time walking around and taking pics before we headed back inside and went through the gift shop. I picked up a couple of souvenirs here for friends and family and we headed back down to the street to catch a cab back to Brooklyn.

When we arrived at Chris Ann and Jeremy’s apartment amidst the lovely brownstones of Union Street we were greeted by our wonderful hosts. I had mentioned the night we arrived that I would love to try sushi and Chris Ann informed us that their Friday nights generally included ordering in from a sushi place in Brooklyn. Since I knew I was clueless about good sushi, Chris Ann kindly ordered for me. Within a very short time a delivery guy from Kiku Sushi brought us our dinner. I had shrimp dumplings as an appetizer followed by spicy salmon rolls, shrimp asparagus rolls, and California rolls as well as a salad with a yummy dressing. I was so grateful for the chance to have a wonderful sushi dinner ordered by someone who actually knows about sushi, and I enjoyed it all so very much. I have to say at this point that I am so happy that my parents raised us eating a large variety of foods. I never hesitate to try anything from escargot to sushi or whatever other local delicacy I am offered because somehow my parents instilled in us a willingness to try exotic and interesting foods (hmmmm....now, if they’d only taught me not to have extreme stranger danger, I think traveling the world would be incredibly easy for me.)

After our dinner we sat and talked with our wonderful hosts. I have to also say a huge thank you to Chris Ann and Jeremy. Both were fun and kind and so great to just hang out with.

We tried to formulate a plan for the next day, but just kept getting distracting from the task by all the talking and laughing we were doing. We did decide that IF it weren’t raining the next morning we’d have bagels from a bakery around the corner and walk the Brooklyn bridge as we headed in to the city for another fun-filled day. Some time well after midnight as a fantastic Friday turned in to Saturday we crawled in to our warm bed in our comfortable and welcoming home away from home. I went to bed laughing at one of the million hilarious things Jessie said throughout our trip and dreaming of another exciting day of incredible and virtually endless experiences in a city of contrasts and complexity and cultural experiences.