New York City Day 1 - March 31, 2008

It’s colder than I thought it would be. The weather is drizzling rain, but Dean and I decided to go do some sightseeing anyway. When trying to figure out all the sights we wanted to see, and the logistics about how to get from here to there, it occurred to us that perhaps we ought to just take a paid tour and let somebody else handle all the driving. Brilliant, eh? A very nice girl at the front desk of our hotel suggested a tour that lasts 5 ½ hours and hits everything we wanted to see. We set out cheerfully to meet the tour bus, instructions in hand about which cabs, busses and trains to take to get to our pick up location in Times Square.

Well, we missed the bus by about 2 minutes and they didn’t wait. We had to walk about 8 blocks and we were freezing cold at this point so we stepped into a wonderful smelling sandwich shop / bakery (the cheesecakes looked incredible) and called the tour company. They were very gracious and said we could reschedule whenever we wanted to. So, we’re going on Wednesday morning. We decided to walk around Manhattan on our own and we took pictures of Times Square, Rockefeller Center, NBC, the Rainbow Room marquee, Radio City Music Hall, the Lincoln Center, and American Girl Place. We also saw a great Build-a-Bear workshop right on 5th avenue. The girls would’ve loved it!

The subway system isn’t as scary and intimidating as I’d anticipated. It’s shady, for sure, but as long as it’s daytime and I have Dean with me, I feel pretty safe. You can’t believe the amount of gum wads on the concrete floors.

It strikes me that the people we’ve interacted with here aren’t rude and mean, they’ve been very colorful and interesting and really quite nice. I can definitely see why one would have to be aggressive in this city, though. If you don’t have a spine, you’ll never make it. The pace is fast and you can feel urgency in the air, wherever you go. For the most part, I see a lot of lost souls, trying to make their way in this life and stand out or make a difference in a city of millions. That’s a tall order and it obviously wears on them. They seem so exhausted and worn out more than anything. It seems like a very tough, stressful life living at this pace and I feel sorry for them. And they don’t look healthy. Everyone just seems to have a grey pallor about them. They’re just struggling to keep up, there’s not much vibrancy or joy in their countenance. They seem to be aggressive because they have to be to survive, not because the have an ambitious or cheerful attitude of wanting to tackle the day.

It also seems odd that I don’t see many children. There are a few here and there, but not many. I’m obviously not the only one who thinks that this is no place for kids.

We’re spending a lot more money getting around than I thought we would. The public transportation seems affordable on the surface, but at the end of the day, they’ve nickel-dimed you to death. Five dollars here, two dollars there. It’s eight dollars to get from here to downtown Manhattan. So, round trip for two is $32.00. Every day. Yipes. And dirty? Wow, is this place dirty. The subways especially are about as gross as it gets. The poles that you hang onto for balance feel very greasy and you just have to wonder what manner of germs are crawling up and down that thing. Blech!! There’s not enough hand sanitizer in all of America to survive a lifetime here. And they tell me that it’s a LOT cleaner than it was 15 years ago. That astounds me.

We met a very interesting guy on the subway – his name is Gary – he plays the drums in the Broadway shows. He’s currently playing for “Legally Blonde” and one night a week for “Spam-a-lot”, which Clay Aiken in starring in right now. Gary went to Alaska with “Cats” back in 1991 and he absolutely loved the beauty of our state. He was so helpful explaining the subway system to us and getting us pointed in the right direction to meet our tour bus. He pointed out a few of the theaters on Broadway and I took a picture of “The Lion King” marquees and signage (again, thinking of the kids). Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid are two other kids Broadway shows that are playing now. He also showed us “Schubert Alley” (I think that was the name) named after some famous New York family that I’ve never heard of. But I saw the bronzed plaque in the sidewalk with their name on it, and it sounds very Jewish, so I believed him. Ha.

We met another interesting fellow in the cab on the way to the Rangers game later that night. A big Harley-Davidson fan, shaved head, and a million tattoos. Very funny guy who gave us his business card at the end of the ride and said, “If the spirit moves you, send me a Harley (pronounced “HAH-lee”)Shirt from Alaska, and I’ll pay you back for it.” We’ll have to see if the spirit moves us when we get home, I guess. Lots of f-bombs from him in the conversation, then when we got out, his farewell was, “God bless!!” Whatever, dude.

We went from the cab to a bus, and met two guys down from Toronto. They came to see the last home season opener in the historical Yankee Stadium (which got rained out and delayed a day). This is the very same stadium that Babe Ruth played in, and Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Cool. I wonder where Marilyn Monroe sat? Apparently, they’re building a new stadium right next to the old one, which they’ll tear down and use for parking. New Yorkers are sad about the end of an era. Security is tight this season, because people keep trying to take home “pieces” of the stadium. I hear they’re going to auction off all the seats and stuff. Guess they have to pay for the new one somehow, eh? The two guys we met, Tony and Bob, knew some of the same guys that Dean played hockey with in Troy, NY. Ian Frazier “Fraz”, to name one. It was all sports, so I sort of tuned out the conversation after that and took in the view of the Hudson River as we crossed the George Washington Bridge. (looking for dead bodies? Just kidding…)

The Rangers game was big fun. Dean said it was the best professional game he’d ever seen. I thought it was cool to see the historic Madison Square Garden – arguably the most famous arena in the world. I would debate for the Roman Coliseum, but that’s another journal for another day. The game was fast paced, low-scoring, and ended with the Rangers scoring a game-ending, game-winning, heart-stopping, crowd-igniting goal in overtime. 20,000 people cheering and Scott Gomez got an assist on it, so that made it extra-fun.

Dean had a moment of glory before the game when we picked up our tickets at the will-call window. The fellow behind the window dropped a bomb on us when he said that he used to watch Dean play all the time in Albany when he played for the Capital District Islanders. He gave us his name and number and said if we ever wanted copies of Dean’s fight tapes to give him a call, because he had all of them. Wow. How cool is that? Seriously, what are the chances? Dean was giddy. What a great feeling for him. He’s making so many friends everywhere we go, I’ve affectionately nicknamed him “Mick Dundee”.