Empire State of Mind

You know, I’ve never been to New York City.  Now having been there, I’m still slapping myself for never having gone before.  What an amazing city filled with wonderful sights, sounds and people.    We stayed at a sweet little hotel right around the corner from the David Letterman (Sullivan) theater.  This meant we were just a couple blocks from Times Square, 30 Rock and Central Park.   We walked everyday for miles and got a very good workout.

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The iconic 30 Rock building

What took us to NYC was a field trip of sorts for Raine.  She’s finishing her culinary degree and has a job offer in the East Village.  She’s a bit intimidated by NYC so I thought a trip would be good to convince her to take a chance.  And show me that she wouldn’t be eaten alive her first day off the plane.

Our first night we walked three blocks to Time Square and hung out amongst the all flashing advertisements attached to every conceivable surface.  The energy of the crowd was great and we had a fun time people watching.

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The next morning we went to Central Park to see the views and the Zoo.  We quickly found out that 800 acres is a HUGE space and it took us a while to get to the American Museum of Natural History located about 30 blocks from where we started.

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What’s amazing about Central Park is that unless you look up and see the buildings, you are totally surrounded by nature.  I loved all the trees and rock outcroppings.

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Trees growing in rocks at Central Park

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Love the gnarled tree roots in the rock at Central Park

This promenade reminds me of so many grand walkways in France and England.  It was so quiet here.  You almost forget you on an island in a city of millions.

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We followed the promenade to find the American Museum of Natural History where both Raine and I got a bit creeped by the very old and large stuffed animals of the North American Plains.  I couldn’t stand those rooms and quickly escaped.  Fossilized bones are one thing.  Taxidermied buffalo, wolves and bobcats are another…

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To me, New York City is like an old friend I didn’t even know I knew.  Every time I turned a corner I saw another place I had seen from the TV shows I loved growing up.  It’s like NYC is just one large sound stage where America happens.
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On Saturday, we walked almost the whole length of 5th Avenue, starting at FAO Schwartz by Central Park all the way down to 34th to the flagship story of Macy’s (Which will never be as grand as Chicago’s Marshall Fields….imho)  Along the the way, we shopped at all the iconic stores of the times and had a great time being girls in the big apple….

Raine probably won’t take the job at that one restaurant we visited, but I sure hope she finds a different one.  Her mama will have no trouble finding the time to come and visit her.

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