Our New York trip was a whirlwind of busy and being home this week isn’t looking much better but getting down the last of my thoughts on the trip while they are in my mind has to be a priority. Here’s my highlights:
· Spending time with my girls of course was top of my list! How lucky am I? Honestly, I felt like it was nothing less than a privilege to be in New York with two wonderful, vibrant, fun-loving young women. We shared one room – even one bathroom with cosmetic bags strewn about everywhere! I loved the time for one-on-one chats and late night movie watching.
· A huge shout out goes to Anita for her patience with me! The girl knows her technology and is fantastic at apps. She helped me a ridiculous amount with my computer questions. I had this major long list of trouble-shooting needs and she fixed them all! I am super duper happy because a couple of them are going to save me HOURS every time I post pictures – which as you all know is quite often.
· We all loved doing the tourist things. Top of the Rock, Times Square and seeing Rock of Ages were three of our favorite things. Some time I’m going to hit New York for a weekend and just jam in as many plays as I possibly can. So fun!
· The Hilton we stayed at had a great location and we had a nice size room by New York standards. We had some issues with our room smelling – we suspect they had had some plumbing issues – and trying to get an elevator down at checkout was insane! Everyone in the whole place seemed to want out at the same time – reminded me of cruising. One of the things I really liked though was they clearly have a commitment to hiring employees of all ages including well over 65 and that was cool.
· New York feels safe. It just slays me how much safer that giant size city feels to me then the streets of Seattle. We have too many homeless people with mental issues on our streets at home to feel comfortable. In NYC we were out at all times of the day and night walking and never didn’t feel completely safe. And at some point or another, we were all out by ourselves walking and still did great. The one exception is going through crosswalks! Oboy. Approach those babies with caution – there are always taxis ready to run the red light.
· The heat didn’t bother me as much as I expected. Now I was largely out only at night but even at night it was still in the high 80s. It bothered Tea much more but she was out at all hours much more than we were since she had more free time.
· There are expensive restaurants everywhere but we found fun, reasonable places the locals ate at and really enjoyed them. The girls even ate from the street vendors a couple of times – one of which had a constant long line waiting to order!
· I’ve hit New York now at Christmas and middle of the summer. I think the fall season would be a perfect time to go but I wouldn’t turn down another round any time of the year. I’ll be ready for another bite of that big apple for sure!
