It seemed that many of my furloughed colleagues took advantage of the shutdown to visit family, sight see, and generally take an impromptu vacation. I wasn’t much different, aside from being limited in the forms of transportation I had available to me. Of course, there was at least one place where the absence of a car would make little difference, and so myself and a few colleagues grabbed some train tickets and headed to New York for the long weekend.
I’ve been to New York once before on a business trip, but it was during a time where I wasn’t as adventurous, and was tethered to our small office in Melville. Suffice to say, I really didn’t get to see the big apple that time around. This time it would be different!
We departed early on a snowy morning from Washington Union Station on a comfortable three-hour train ride across the frosted landscape of Maryland and Philadelphia. It would have been easy to sit back and drift off into a light sleep, aided by the gentle rocking of the train, and interrupted only by the soft clacking and other noises trains make – of course, I had earbuds for the latter. In any event, the landscape was far too enthralling to pay much attention to the backside of my eyelids. It almost felt like a scene out of The Polar Express. Frozen countryside, ice-crusted lakes and marshes, snow-covered trees and houses. It was all fairly majestic, especially given when you see this much countryside enveloped in snow, you’re usually attempting to drive through it.
Of course, by the time we got to New York city, the snow was scant and scarce. It was still before noon, so we left our bags in Amtrak’s keeping and decided to visit the American Museum of Natural History. Of course, we first had to navigate the New York city subway system (they oppose to calling it the Metro, as it’s called in DC). Only a couple mistakes were made in our first foray into the tubes, and we arrived at the museum only twenty minutes later than we had anticipated.
We made our rounds through the exhibits – Scales of the Universe, Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, Vertebrate Origins, Mammoths, Mammals, and other fossil remains. I especially enjoyed the Scales of the Universe, although much of it was information I already knew – it was good to see that displayed in such an easily understood and enlightening manner – though I don’t think everyone got the same sense of awe from it that I did.
Proceeding onward, I was looking forward to the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians, the native cultures from my own geographical backyard – unfortunately this exhibit was closed for renovation. This was a real setback, given how much floor space they had dedicated to it – but there was plenty more to see, so we didn’t let it delay us. Progressing through the Hall of Human Origins and Hall of Meteorites were both enjoyable and hearkened back to some of the anthropology courses I attended in college.
We visited the Halls of South American Peoples, of Mexico and Central America, and others. The hall of African Mammals was also quite enjoyable, although none of them appeared to inhabit any of the areas near Cairo, where I would be staying. I guess that means I’ll have to go on a safari. We hadn’t finished getting through everything when closing time rolled around, but that’s the nature of trying to explore a big city in a few days.
One of the folks that we were traveling with had some relatives that lived in Brooklyn, and were accommodating enough to allow us to stay with them for the weekend. Navigating the subway to the closest stop was a good exercise – but was accomplished with all bags and persons accounted for. With the temperature dropping to uncomfortable cold levels, we were all eager to get into our accommodations. I was expecting a fairly tight living situation in the domicile, and I wasn’t to be disappointed – although it was a tad bit roomier than expected. I believe this was because it was actually two flats combined into one – the layout certainly lended to that. After meeting, supping and drinking with our hosts, we planned for another big day and turned in.
The next morning, our group walked to Bergen Bagels, where we tried a good selection of their bagel offerings, and even a little dessert. I distinctly remember the salmon, cream cheese, onion and chive bagel that I treated myself to, being quite delicious. We parted from our hosts after this point, and took the subway back into lower Manhattan.
Once in Manhattan we walked the streets and sidewalks, from Madison Square Park, up through Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. At every step of the way we took pictures, ducked into stores that interested us, remarked upon the sights, and generally enjoyed the experience. The sights and sounds of Time Square was otherworldly to behold, but still had that distinctly “American” feel I knew that I’d soon be without. After much walking, we rested our feet while watching skaters on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, one of which was clearly a professional. Once we were ready to go again, we awed at the architecture and magnificence of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was definitely worth the stop.
Finally, we made our way up through Central Park, enjoying the walk despite the protests from our feet. We managed to get about halfway through it before heading off down 74th street to Levain Bakery. The wait to even get inside was quite long, but we were treated to some amazing smells and bought several cookies, which would turn out to be hands down the best cookies I’ve ever had, once we got them home and had them for dessert. Definitely worth a stop.
The next day we visited the 9/11 Memorial, which was a moving and emotional tribute to the tragedy which occurred there. It was definitely worth going through the museum there, built into the foundation of these buildings, offering onlookers and those to young to have experienced it – firsthand accounts and the experiences that people that were there went through at the time. It was past lunchtime by the time we got out, and we were all looking for something to lift our spirits.
New York style pizza seemed like just the thing to do it, so we stopped and enjoyed some, then continued on, visiting the Federal Hall, New York Stock Exchange, as well as the statues of the girl and the giant bull nearby. Most shockingly, were the still-working payphones that we found along Broadway street!
We arrived at Battery Park just in time to miss the last trip to Liberty Island and visit the Statue of Liberty. That was a bit of a bummer, as I had really been looking forward to it. It was a perfect day to see it, though the wind was really picking up, which made it pretty cold outside. As our fallback, we instead hopped on the Staten Island Ferry, which gave us a good view of New York from the water, including the Statue of Liberty, and provided a nice warm place to watch the sunset from as we simply rode to Staten Island and back.
By the time we returned, the sun had set and we were all fairly tired, so we retired for the day – knowing we’d be up early to catch the train back to DC tomorrow. At this point, we were experts with the subway system and didn’t have any problem navigating back. All in all it was a pretty phenomenal trip which I’ll remember for years to come – and there’s still more in New York that I haven’t done, so perhaps the opportunity to make a return trip will be somewhere in my future. I can’t imagine living there though – which is a bit strange given that I’m about to head off to another giant city to live in. It’s evident that space is at a premium though, and I like to have my space. I don’t like feeling cramped and enclosed in a small space (not to be confused with claustrophobia or anything). Inner city life hasn’t found a lot of appeal in me, but I found it a nice enough place to visit.
