New York City Day 6 - April 5, 2008

The kids lost their 3rd game, 10-1, so they’re out of the semi-finals. The team that ultimately made it to the championship are two teams that beat us in the first round – the LA Selects and “Honey Baked” from Michigan. I guess that makes the boys feel a little bit better. Also, I found out after a little sleuthing, some of the parents from the LA Selects team said, “We’re not really supposed to talk about it, but we get a lot of corporate sponsors.” Apparently, these kids have 2-3 sets of gear each, their own patterned sticks, and they travel everywhere. Definitely an unfair advantage and something our organizations in Alaska need to pursue as well. Don’t know what the USA Hockey rules are around it, but there must be some, because the LA parents were fairly hush-hush about it. So…we had Saturday off and Dean and I spent it alone together.

We slept in a bit, and it felt great. We had breakfast in the hotel lobby, then set off to Manhattan one last time. We took our time this time and kept it at a leisurely pace. We took the trains to Grand Central Station, which was gorgeous. The entire inside of the building was solid marble and granite, with engraved signage – about as permanent as it gets. I guess there won’t be any restructuring any time soon, eh? Ha. The main foyer has to be no less than five stories high. The lower levels have some great shopping and a food court to die for – VERY good food. A funny sidenote…the hand dryers in the ladies room don’t mess around. They blasted my hands so hard my skin folded over! I was dry quick, though. Ha. Obviously, they want you in and out quickly. I’m washing my hands constantly here. I can’t help it. There were three cleaning ladies in that bathroom that were working full time. One of them told me that’s all they do is clean that bathroom all day long, over and over again. Grand Central certainly lives up to its reputation of being a very busy place.

I can’t find any grocery stores here, no matter where I go. There are some very small little shops and some fruit and veggie stands on the sidewalks, but you couldn’t pay me to eat that food. At the end of the day, when I blow my nose, it’s just black. The air is so polluted, you just know that fruit is coated with nothing that I want to eat. Ewwww. How do people eat here? Is it all eating out? Man, just one more expense for an already too expensive place.

I saw an ad for a 3,000 square foot apartment in SoHo for $5Million. No, thank you.

We left Grand Central and headed Northwest. We stopped into a little coffee shop, got coffee and cocoa, then walked up Park Avenue to the Waldorf Astoria and took some pictures. I can’t believe the excess in this part of town. Very, very wealthy area. Then we walked over a block to Madison, where I took a picture of a street sign for my niece Madison. She was named after Madison Avenue in New York, from the movie “Splash” with Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah. Then one more block over to go window shopping up 5th avenue, alongside Central Park again. We walked up to 5th and 55th and stopped in the World of Disney, where we got some souvenirs for the girls. They had Disney characters with New York Flair (Minnie dressed up like the Statue of Liberty). Cute. We saw FAO Swartz, too. Dean snapped a picture of me in front of Tiffany and Co. on 5th Avenue. I’m convinced I’m an heir to that fortune somehow, I just have to figure out the connection beyond my too expensive taste for my budget.



We walked through the entrance of the Central Park Zoo in the southeast corner and took pictures of the famous clock and penguin exhibit that were in the kids movie, “Madagascar”. The clock chimed and all the little steel animals did their dance around it while we stood and watched for a while. Jaden wanted a mug from the zoo, but I couldn’t find one that I liked. There was only one design with a Polar Bear on it. More Alaskan, than New York, if you ask me.

We meandered through Central Park to the other side. This is by far the most beautiful park I’ve ever seen and Dean agreed. Every inch of it is manicured and today (Saturday), there are a lot more people than earlier in the week. Lots of joggers, too. You’d have to be a dedicated runner to do that in this city. There are musicians and performers of all types on the corners. There’s a whole “Literary Alley” with some larger than life statues of William Shakespeare, Webster, and many others. I got a picture of Dean in front of the Balto statue. Had to. It was a little bit of Alaska in the middle of New York. Apparently, the horse drawn carriages are not allowed in the park, so if you want a carriage ride, you have to be pulled by someone on a bike. Weird. We did see the park police riding their horses, though. That was neat. We saw the Jacqueline Onassis reserve and almost stopped to have lunch at Tavern on the Green, but decided to pass for a cheaper option. We passed Sheep Meadow, where you’re allowed on the grass. It was huge and pretty full of people. Is this where Garth Brooks had his huge concert? I can’t remember. The Park entrance to the Met was very grand, indeed. If I ever make it back to NYC, I’ll do the Met and budget a lot more money for shopping. There are so many stores here that I’ve never even heard of.

We saw one homeless guy the whole trip, just today. He was the classic picture: as dirty as could be, huddled under a blanket in a doorway just a couple blocks down from upscale, prestigious Columbia Circle. I can’t believe it might have been a cop, because he was barefoot with really gross toenails, and I could smell him from half a block away. My heart broke. I was in a funk all through our lunch. It’s hard to leave leftovers on your plate when you’ve just seen a desolate, hungry person smack in the middle of such affluence and excess. I always wonder what their story is. What was his childhood like? How did his mother treat him? Did he have siblings or friends when he was a kid? How did he get to this place? I don’t feel horribly sorry for our homeless in Anchorage, because I know that a lot of them consciously choose that life, but I can’t believe that anyone would choose to live the way this fellow was. He wasn’t even begging for money or anything, just sitting there, totally apathetic, like he’d given up, watching life go by. I wonder where his next meal is coming from and what he thinks about all day?

Saturday night in New York is the hoppin-ist place I’ve ever seen. There are more people out on the streets than I’ve seen this whole trip. It’s shoulder to shoulder and it seems like most of them are drunk, hootin and hollerin. There was another Yankee game today, but they lost, so I don’t know what they’re celebrating, but they’re certainly partying like it’s New Years Eve in Times Square. That reminds me, on our tour, the guide pointed out an old church in SoHo that had been converted into a nightclub called “Avalon”. He said it was one of the hottest spots in Manhattan right now. Not to be judgmental, but that’s a little puzzling. I know it’s just a building, but something just doesn’t seem quite right about that.

As we were waiting for our bus to cross back over the George Washington Bridge to our hotel, I did some quick calculations in my head, counting cars and figuring the toll ($8 per vehicle). That bridge grosses over $1Million per day!! Crocodile Dundee (aka, Dino) was chatting away with yet another local, so I leaned over and asked the man (he had a big huge smile, and was very talkative) if I was close in my number, and he said yes, absolutely. On the weekends, its more. It boggles the mind how much money that is at the end of the year. Very profitable. I think I’d like to own a bridge.

My next trip to New York may have to be for shopping at Christmas. The locals tell me that’s the best time to be here-the city is really dressed up, they say. The first trip to New York is appropriately about sightseeing, I guess. The next trip needs to be a bit more about “doing”: the shopping, the museums like the Met, the Jewish Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Natural History, drinks at the Waldorf, actually watching a Broadway show, a Knicks game, a Conan O’Brian taping, a Saturday Night Live taping, the Today Show, a Harlem Dance Company performance, the New York Historical Society, Carnegie Hall, Grants Tomb, something at the Apollo, Madame Toussad’s wax museum, the United Nations building, the list goes on and on. One week just isn’t enough to really take it all in, but I feel like we’ve done really well for the time we had. We made the most of it, for sure.

Usually, when I take a vacation, it involves a hot beach or some lavish amusement park, or at least a pool and an outlet mall, and when I get home from places like that, I really wish I could go back and live in those exotic, beautiful, tropical, warm places. I have to honestly say, I’m glad for the opportunity to see such an important place in the world like New York City, but this is one homecoming that I’m looking forward to. And I’m thankful to have a place like Alaska to raise my kids. After seeing this city, Alaska feels so clean and pure and untouched to me. I’m looking forward to drinking our water, breathing our air, and having a spacious home to live in, real, untouched woods to walk through, and a car to drive myself. I’m feeling very affluent and fortunate right now, counting my blessings.