My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: NYC-DC-PA Vacation: Central Park, Sight Seeing, Broadway and Ellen's Stardust (Day 2)

I felt like hot garbage as dawn peaked out past the Atlantic Ocean. I might have gotten an hour's worth of bad sleep, maybe less. As we approached JFK, we could see thousands of lights of the city sparkling down below us. I have always wanted to come to NYC but before September 11, 2001. The Twin Towers always fascinated me, even as a kid. I was truly wrecked when they came down during the fall of my senior year of high school. I knew at that point I would never get to go inside or view the city from the observation deck.

We began our descent into JFK, the 8th busiest airport in the world. I was a little intimidated when the plane approached our gate because we were going to go to the biggest city in the United States, ride on the famous NYC subway and see so many things we've seen on television and read in books. I hoped that everything we were supposed to do to get to our hotel works out the way we planned it.

We got to JFK around 5:34 a.m., local time, and followed the signs to the luggage carousel. We found the one we needed, and our bags were the only ones spinning around the carousel, so they must have unloaded them quickly. We grabbed our suitcases and I wanted to go to the TWA Hotel and Museum in the airport because there was a geocache there and a few months ago I saw one of my Facebook friends posted pictures of it a few months ago and thought it looked cool.

The most famous flight, TWA flight 800, blew up just 12 minutes after take-off from JFK on its way to Paris, France the evening of Wednesday, July 17, 1996. The plane fell into the Atlantic Ocean and everyone on board died. It was the summer between my 6th and 7th grade school year. We went to Grandma's house every day that summer because Mom and Dad didn't trust us to be at home by ourselves at that age. I didn't blame them. I remember watching it on the news the following day for pretty much the entire day and a lot throughout the rest of the summer. An investigation ensued and several years later, they deemed it to be a short circuit of an ignition source that caused fuel vapors in the center fuel tank to explode.

We followed the signs to where we needed to go, got into the elevator and taken to the floor to where the hotel and museum was. When we got off, it was like we stepped into the 1960's. TWA is now JetBlue, apparently.

We read some of the information on the walls about TWA's history and then we wheeled our luggage down the red velvet carpet into the hotel part of the museum. We browsed, took photos, did the geocache, JFK Airport's TWA Hotel Lobby 1962 Jet Age Museum (GC9P6PX).

I asked Mom if this is how she remembered flying when she was a kid. She said, she remembers some of it, but she didn't fly very often when she was younger. Mom and I were going to attempt to navigate the NYC subway system. Bring it on! We left and made our way to the AirTrain.

The AirTrain is free when you move from terminal to terminal but when you leave the airport and travel to Jamaica Station or Howard Beach Station, it cost you $8.00. We got off at Jamaica Station. The first set of MetroCard's are for the ride for the AirTrain. We needed help so the Metro guy was there to help us. We did the two people four rides package on one MetroCard (MTA) since we were coming back to the AirTrain to pick up our rental car on Tuesday. It saved us a couple bucks. Next, we wheeled our luggage down the stairs and followed the signs to the subway. There, we bought our unlimited MTA card for $33 per person which was good for seven days. Definitely well worth it.

We got the map out (I tried studying the map/subway map as much as I could before our trip) and figured out which one we needed to get on. We got on the orange line (M) and rode it to the Rockefeller Center area (6th Ave/53rd St), which was the closest one to our hotel. Once we got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to navigate. You just needed to know which way it was going, uptown or downtown and which stop to get off at. It seemed like a long subway ride (we had a few slow downs because of construction), but we saved a lot of money by taking the subway instead of a taxi or an Uber. We saved a lot of time as well by not having to be in traffic.

We approached our stop (my feet hurt already tired, and we haven't even begun our day), got off the subway, wheeled our luggage up the stairs and only had to walk a few blocks to our hotel.

We double checked the address of the hotel to make sure we were still heading the right direction. Mom booked The Hotel at Times Square, which was at 46th and in-between 5th and 6th Avenue. We rolled our suitcases a few blocks south and a few blocks west. It was surreal being in NYC already and we haven't even seen anything yet!

We got to our hotel and checked our bags for free. This was one of the reasons why we chose this hotel, that and the price, since we couldn't check in before 3 p.m. and we weren't going to roll our bags all over NYC. The lady told us we could check in early, since our room was ready, but for an extra $75. Mom and I were like, nope! We were fine with just storing them until we got back from walking around. I changed my pants and got my day pack out and put stuff in there that we would need for the rest of the day. We both used the restroom because we didn't know how readily public bathrooms would be around the city. We handed the bell hop our bags and he took them to their locked storage room. He brought us a ticket to retrieve them later and we tipped him two bucks. We left and started our NYC adventure!

I asked Mom what she wanted to do first, she said Rockefeller Center, Radio City, since they were close and only pictures, and then head up to Central Park. We had gotten to our hotel sooner than we thought we would, so we had an extra hour to do whatever. We walked the couple blocks and took in the Rockefeller Center area. We both noticed it was smaller than we thought it was. They had turned the center of it into a roller-skating rink rather than an ice-skating rink in the winter time. There were already a lot of people walking around for an early Saturday morning. We walked over to Radio City Music Hall to get a photo. We had no intensions of going inside either the Rockefeller Center or Radio City. There were a bunch of people waiting in line to see Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Fallon later on that night.

We started up 6th Avenue to head towards Central Park and I decided we should get some food along the way. We could take it to the park with us and have a picnic. I saw a deli called Fresh&Co along the way and went inside. I asked her what sounded good, and she said she didn't care all that much. We just both knew that we needed some food. I grabbed a Coke Zero, some kettle chips and asked her if she wanted to share a ham and cheese croissant. She said sure and grabbed a water to add to the order. We bought the food and finished walking to Central Park.

We found a good spot near the rocks, near the gazebo (where there was a bum sleeping), sat down and enjoyed our late morning food. I told Mom not to feed the birds, but she did anyway. We finished eating, packed up our garbage and left it in the city park workers gator, he was changing out the garbage can liners nearby. I saw there was a traditional cache nearby, so I went down and grabbed it. Snug as a Bug in Central Park (GC12F8M) was tucked in-between some rocks. I was very surprised that this was still here because of all the bums hanging out. I figured it would have been stolen several times. Inside, was a "Brandon" sticker, some money and a couple of trinkets. I signed our names, took the $2 to pay it forward and put it back where I found it.

I caught up with Mom. We walked over to the "Mall" area of Central Park and we saw they were having an Alzheimer's Walk/Event and there were lots of people walking around. Mom and I began the two statue Adventure Labs as we walked around. Both Mom and I had a list of stuff we wanted to see while we were here. We saw tons of historical statues, animal and literary statues, bridges, fountains, the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, saw people with remote control boats (at the Conservator Water area), pretty trees with pink blossoms, several other lakes and ponds, Belvedere Castle, John Lennon's building, Strawberry Fields, the Plaza Hotel, The NY Zoo, went into the gift shop, saw the carousel and watched people play softball on the fields nearby. It was a really nice day to be out and about.

I did four virtual caches, Angel of the Waters (GC7B9AA), Belvedere Castle (GC4D82), Through the Looking Glass (GC9P6R0) and Central Park Guardian (GC3CFC).

After seeing everything we came to see, we walked down 7th Avenue to see Times Square. There were SO many people there and Times Square is another place that is so much smaller in person than on television. We tried to social distance as much as we could while trying to avoid people. There were lots of lights, billboards, people and shopping opportunities. We just came to say we saw it.

We headed east to go see the NY Public Library because Mom wanted to see the Rose Room. We went through security and up to the Rose Room. We found out that it was close to the public because students were there studying. Mom was bummed out because she walked all the way over to the library just to see it. We used the restroom before we left, and yes, we stood in line for a while. Again, we had no idea how readily the bathrooms are to the public in NYC.

We walked further east down the road to see Grand Central Station, "The Grandest of the Grands" because we wanted to see that in person. I've seen it so many times on movies and television shows that we HAD to see it. We went inside and was amazed on how large it was. So many people were coming and going to their destinations. It covers 48 acres, has 44 platforms (all below ground) and 67 tracks. We took a few pictures and enjoyed the ambiance this place had to offer.

We walked the couple blocks west to Bryant Park. We only know of this area because of Project Runway. We walked through the park for a couple minutes. There was a couple taking wedding photos nearby. This wasn't the first or last time we saw couples taking wedding pictures around NYC.

Mom wanted to go to Gotham Quilts and Mood Fabrics while we were in the garment district, and she is a quilter. We went to Gotham Quilts first and could not believe how tiny the building was. Where we live the quilt stores are much bigger. She ended up buying some NYC themed fabric.

Then we walked the couple blocks over to Mood because of Project Runway. It was also smaller in real life than on television. The place is wall to wall with sewing stuff and fabric. Mom bought some muslin because that's pretty much what she could use here. The place is more for people who make clothes and costumes. It was still pretty cool that we got to go inside and see it. I will have to rewatch some episodes of Project Runway at some point.

Afterwards, we went to Whole Foods to pick up some drinks, bananas and some NY bagels for breakfast and to eat when we checked into our hotel later because I was in need of a snack of some sort. We walked back up town to our hotel to do just that, check in, eat and relax until our next event. I could have come to NYC without going to a Broadway show but Mom wanted to, so we booked tickets to see one. We chose Aladdin a few weeks ago and yes, we brought nice clothes with us to wear. The last time I went to a play was with Shauna and she took me to go see RENT in Seattle. This was almost 10 years ago now.

We checked in and the bell hop helped us take our luggage to our room, we stayed on the fifth floor in room 508. We gave him a $2 tip for helping us. We thanked him and then got settled in. The room we had was small but clean and we had everything we needed including a fridge and a microwave. There was pretty much room for us and our bags. I don't understand why people need huge expensive rooms when you're going to spend most of your time away from your room exploring the city. All you need is a bed, a shower and a place to keep your stuff.

We had about an hour until we had to walk over to New Amsterdam Theater. We both took a short nap. I've been up since I went to work the previous day. I was tired and it did not take me long to pass out hard. The alarm went off and we started getting ready. I got my grey slacks on and my crimson sweater (I have not worn this since September 2018) and my black loafer-type shoes. It was a little chilly outside, so I wore my vest. Plus, it had pockets to keep stuff in. We made sure to have our tickets on my phone, our Covid cards, masks and wallets. We headed out.

We walked a few blocks past Rockefeller Center and Radio City and found the street we needed. We got closer and saw everyone had already been lining up to see the show...some probably hours ago. We got in line and followed the theater worker's instructions.

We showed them our Covid cards, had our tickets scanned and went up the stairs to our seat. We were given a Playbill -- I thought you had to purchase these, but you don't. We sat there, looked through our Playbills, took a few pictures and waited for the show to start.

Note: They will warn you not to take pictures during performance. I already knew this, so it wasn't a problem. We had a great view up until three girls came and sat down in front of us. The stadium seating wasn't very stadium. One of the girls' heads was right in my line of sight. Bummer. I had to move my head around hers to see.

Overall, the play was very well done, there were some modifications done to it, a few different songs and the guy who played the genie was hilarious. The entire cast were very professional, and they were very cohesive and looked like they had a great time working together. I still want to know how they made the magic carpet fly. At the end of the play they said it's a secret and they will never tell anyone.

We left the theater, took a few pictures and I asked Mom if she wanted to try to get into Ellen's Stardust Diner. This diner is known for long wait times because of its popularity. She said let's walk on over and at least try. We walked the couple blocks and saw there was a line, but it wasn't that bad. We had to wait no more than five minutes and we were seated. Mom was super stoked. We were seated next to the make shift "runway" they use to perform. We ordered strawberry milkshakes, burgers and fries while we watched our wait staff sing and dance for us. It was amazing! We learned that after 2020 most of their wait staff had to be replaced because all of them moved onto singing and dancing in Broadway. They say it's a good problem and the turn over rate at this diner is super high.

The food was pretty good, the songs were fun, and the emcee was hilarious! We even got to participate in a song before we paid, donated $20 and left. We stayed until almost midnight. Mom purchased a shirt for her quilt. We took a picture in front of the diner and then made our way back to the hotel though Times Square at night. It was crazy!