New York Weekend
New York Weekend – August 27 – 29 1999
Anne and I decided to take a mini vacation to New York to celebrate our decision not to move. We thought it would be fun to take Nicholas to see his first Broadway play as well.
Since “The Lion King” was sold out (so much so, that when I called to see if any tickets were available for Saturday, the operator had to put me on hold since she couldn’t stop laughing), we decided to take Nicholas to see “Beauty and the Beast” at the Palace Theater on Broadway.
I had a difficult time getting plane tickets on such short notice. Due to the popularity of New York this time of year (just before Labor Day weekend) our only option was to fly into LaGuardia and out of White Plains Airport.
Since I had been flying so much, I amassed quite a few frequent flyer points on Northwest Airlines. I decided to cash in some points to pay for the tickets.
Based on the fact that we saved so much money on the tickets, I thought it would be nice to stay at the Plaza Hotel. We booked a suite (so Nicholas would have his own room) at the Plaza.
After dealing with a nearly two-hour delay from Northwest, we were on our way. Nicholas insisted on a window seat so he could see the ground, the clouds and other planes along the way. He was very excited about flying again and was talking very loud to me about what makes an airplane fly. Of course, Anne being terrified of flying was sitting on the other side of me. I was in the middle so that Anne would not hear Nicolas’ comments. He often asks if we’re going to crash or if the pilot turned off the engines could we still fly?
When we hit a little turbulence, Nicholas turned to me and exclaimed “now this is pod racing!”
We arrived at LaGuardia at 5:30pm on Friday. It was a sunny but hazy day. Nick was so tired from the flight; he fell asleep in the cab.
We arrived at the Plaza in less than half an hour.
Not bad considering it was still rush hour on a Friday.
We were really impressed how beautiful the Plaza Hotel was. A very old building with high ceilings, but still well maintained.
We were treated very well by the staff of the Plaza. We found this note in the room when we checked in:
We also found this stationary:
Outside of our window, we could see FAO Schwartz at the GM Building (now the Trump GM Plaza). They had a Star Wars display in the window. Nicholas woke up and became quite excited when he saw that!
After we unpacked, we went in FAO Schwartz, which was the same store in the Tom Hanks' movie “Big” in which he and Robert Loggia played the piano on the floor. Of course, the floor piano is quite worn out, but the store is just as big as it appears in the movie.
Once we left the store, we wandered around 5th Avenue looking at the shops in the retail side of town… Very expensive, but nice stores.
We had dinner at a place called “Burger Heaven” and called it a night. We were tired from traveling.
On Saturday morning, we decided to have breakfast in the famous “Palm Room” at the Plaza. Nicholas was quite a gentleman; saying “please” and “thank you” when the waiter interacted with him.
After breakfast, we went on a long walk in Central Park. The park was quite busy with thousands of joggers, as well as horse drawn carriages, roller bladers and bikes.
We wandered for several hours looking at the sights in the park and we came upon the famous carousel. Nicholas was very excited about riding the merry go round.
We walked back to the room, changed and headed out to the play.
We took a cab to Broadway. It was everything we expected. Loud, bright, crowded but fun. We walked around a bit. Wandered through Times Square and other parts of the theater district. We picked up the tickets for the show and had lunch.
Our seats were fifth row center. I was a little concerned about Nicholas. Since he had never been to a show I was worried that he would be bored. Instead, he sat through the show with his eyes wide open and mouth often gaping at the lights and the dancing.
The show was incredible. I was thinking that it would be a re-hash of the cartoon, but instead it was well done with great singing and incredible dancing. It was great for both kids and adults. In fact, the 2:00 matinee had nearly as many children as adults.
After the show, we decide to walk back to the hotel (which was only 17 blocks. On the way back to the hotel we spotted St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The weather all weekend was sunny and 75. We stopped back at the hotel and changed into more casual clothes and decided to shop a bit more.
Anne had wanted to go to Tiffany’s all weekend, so we stopped by. I kept asking the sales people when they served breakfast and they all rolled their eyes. Nicholas and I looked around while Anne was window-shopping. While in Tiffany’s, Anne and I found a nice ring to replace her lost engagement ring.
Unfortunately, they had to resize the ring to a smaller so it would fit her. Anne had to part with it until the following Wednesday when they Federal Express it to us.
We had a nice dinner at a pub called Houlihan’s (next to FAO Schwartz, which again, Nicholas insisted we pay a visit).
Later that night, we watched “You’ve Got Mail” back in the room. It was interesting seeing some of the same neighborhoods in the movie, which we had just walked through.
On Sunday, we decided to take a boat trip to the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the “Beast”, which is the faster boat, was broken down. Rather than taking the slower 3-hour trip, we decided to take a cab from Pier 83 to the Empire State Building.
We went on the Empire State “Sky Ride” which is a
simulator type ride in which the seats bump up and down as you watch a movie
simulating a flight into and around New York City.
However, the cab ride back to the hotel, which was not simulated,
provided much more terror and thrills then the “Sky Ride”
After the “Sky Ride” we took the elevator up to the observation deck. I think it was at this point, that I remembered my fear of heights. It was still a beautiful view of the city. We could see from Harlem all the way down to the Statue of Liberty.
Nicholas had his picture taken near some cool scenes depicting the Empire State building.
After the Empire State, we had lunch at a Mexican Place called Texiquilla’s. We then took a cab to Battery Park, which is on the southern tip of Manhattan, with a great view of the Statue of Liberty.
At the park, we took some photos of the statue and looked out on the Hudson River.
After the park, we went shopping some more, had a late lunch and took a limo to the airport.
The drive to the airport was surprisingly nice. The areas north and west of New York City is beautiful. Rocky hillsides and nice forests. We drove past Scarsdale and other areas in Westchester County.
As it turns out, the White Plains (Westchester County) airport is much further in miles than LaGuardia or Kennedy, but with light traffic, it only takes 45 minutes to get there. Consequently, we arrived long before our flight was due to leave. We spent a lot of time on the observation area watching the planes land in this very small but nice airport.
After we went through the baggage claim, I inadvertently left my digital camera in the x-ray machine. Fortunately, the airport was small enough that a fellow passenger walked around asking people if they were missing a camera. The x-ray technician found the camera.
Once we got onto the plane, Nicholas walked into the cock pit and said hello to the pilots. He also said “will you take me home?” to the pilot, who smiled and said “of course” to him.
