On Saturday we were finally able to sleep in just a little.  The only plans we had were not until late afternoon, so the day was ours to do with what we may.  Erin found a great place for breakfast called Friedman’s.  They have several locations but we thought that going to the one in Chelsea Market seemed to be the best idea.  Purchasing the unlimited rides on the subway was probably one of the best things we did because it allowed us to go wherever looked cool without having to worry about cost, time, distance, or anything really.  To Chelsea Market we went.  It required a transfer and a short walk, but the market was really cool.  Located in the old Meatpacking District, they have done a great job of making the place really inviting.  There are tons of restaurants, shops, and being New York, people.  Friedman’s was great.  I had the chicken chilaquiles, Lucy had a great looking chicken sandwich, and Erin had an eggs benedict not made with english muffins.  The food and the Bloody Mary’s were fantastic and I highly recommend this place.  After we ate, we tooled around the market a bit.  I bought some hot sauce at a neat little shop, and then we decided to head to 23rd Street where Lucy had been told there was great shopping.  There was not.  I expected this to be the case, but I had to let her see for herself.  I did notice on the walk that in the Gramercy part of town lots of the little bars were having quite the competition with the holiday decorations.  But since I as with the kids and my parents, I saw the decorations from the outside and in passing.

23rd Street was a bust and to try and salvage the shopping day we headed to Herald Square and to Macy’s.  I mean, no.  Just no.  The entire area was swamped with people and the only store that was not overly crowded was a store with local artists.  I don’t know the name or if it will be there in a week, but we all had great success there with some cool little purchases.   We took the train back to 42nd Street and headed up 5th Avenue.  We visited the North Face store and made a few purchases and then went back to the hotel.  The girls took a rest and Erin and I went to a place called Via Brasil next to the hotel.  The bartender was great, Erin had a Brazilian beer that looked good, and I went with the Caipirinha.  Two of them actually.  We changed and then went to our dinner at Ocean Prime.  The food was wonderful.  Erin’s Sea Bass was great and my scallops with risotto could not have been better.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their food and off we went to Radio City Music Hall.

Ok.  The Rockettes.  We have all seen them and are familiar with them.  If given the chance to seem them, I would recommend you go see a Broadway show instead.  Radio City Music Hall is a very neat venue.  The Art Deco architecture is cool and the sight lines and sound quality are wonderful.  The show though.  There was no flow to it.  It hopped all over the place.  Once the little people came out for their only appearance as Santa’s elves, I knew we were in trouble.  The only living creature more confused than I was, was the poor live camel.  I can only imagine what he was thinking.  If camels think.  Also, did you know it snowed the night of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem?  Well, it did.  The Rockettes say so.  Seriously, save your money and go see something else.  Anything else.

The show ended and we headed back to pack up for the trip home.  Erin and I visited our pub once more and had a quite pleasant chat with some of the staff, all of whom are from Ireland.  Too quickly the night came to an end and we headed upstairs.  On Sunday, we were up early and off to LaGuardia.  Every leg of the trip home was flawless.  There was no traffic, security lines were non-existent, and the flight was early.  Soon enough, we were home.

Would I recommend going to New York?  Sure, if you’ve never been.  There are lots of neat things to see but it rivals Disney World for exhausting trips.  We saw historical sites, sites of great tragedy (the Rockettes), visited Ground Zero, and ate some wonderful food.  It is not an inexpensive place to go.  Many places had trouble making change when we tried to pay with cash.  In the end though, it is not always about the location of our trips.  So much of it centers around being able to share in these experiences with my family.  We won’t always buy the latest   hot item, but I will always make sure the girls get a chance to have experiences.  The memories of places visited, sites seen, and laughs shared will carry us and will make us smile years from now.

Today was a full day.  A very full day.  We were all out of the hotel and on our way shortly after 7:45 to get to Battery Park for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Everything proceeded like clockwork and we were even able to get on an earlier ferry than our original 9am reservation.  We were actually on the island by 9 and the benefit here is that, because we were on an earlier ferry, both islands were way less crowded than they would be later in the day.  If you’re planning to visit these sites, reserve an early time as soon as you can.  We didn’t have crown tickets and a good chunk of the island is a construction site.  We walked around the island, took the normal photos, and headed to Ellis Island.  I had been here once before and it never ceases to make me think.  Millions of people leaving everything for the hope of a better life.  Arriving with nothing except dreams and family.  Waiting out an incredible amount of governmental bureaucracy.  All for just a chance.  Even now, 100 years after the Island’s heyday people are still trying to come here.  For many, I suppose the dream of America is still worth risking everything.  The audio tour you can use makes the rooms more accessible.  The signage is well-done and the movie should be watched, especially if you’re a first-timer.  At the end of the tour, there is a chance to reserve a computer for 30 minutes to search all ship manifests for the late 1800s to 1954 for both Ellis Island and the Port of New York.  We did this and were able to find my grandparents names, with my aunts and uncles who arrived in June of 1950.  I must admit, sometimes as jaded as I am, that it was special seeing their names jump off the page at me.  Seeing their ages reminded me that we all were young once with hopes.  We took the chance to purchase copies of the manifests and have it shipped to my mom.  This was 30 minutes and money well spent.  I think it meant lots to my mom as well.  It would be easy to spend all day here, but we had other plans and had to leave for those even though we had spent about 3 hours or so there.  The girls chowed down on churros on the ride back to Manhattan and then they saw the line for the ferry.  They understood why I stressed the need to be up early.  The line easily had 4-5000 people in it.  But that was no matter to us.  Off to lunch!

Erin found a place called Pronto Pizza on Liberty St. that got good reviews for their gluten free pizza.  I was expecting a sit-down sort of place, but no, it was a normal pizzeria.  They did have a gluten free crust, they were super careful, and even gave me an individually wrapped pizza wheel.  The only downside is that you have to buy a whole pizza, but that is pretty standard so I am used to it.  After eating, we still had about an hour an a half before our reservations at the 9/11 Museum.  We spent most of that time looking at the memorials on site.  The memorials in the footprints of the original World Trade Center were beautiful.  Erin did a bit of research and was our tour guide.  Apparently, the North Tower memorial contains the names of those who died in that building as well as the planes and the Pentagon.  The South Tower contains those in that building, that particular plane, and all first responders.  It was immense and for many there was a sense of reverence.  For others it was a chance for another selfie.  I don’t understand that.  How does one stand in front of the names of 3000 dead mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and friends and then smile for the camera?  I had lots of feelings there at the site.  The feeling that I needed myself in a picture was not one of them.

The line to enter the museum was long and though it was not the most efficient system, we were inside by 3:05 which I didn’t feel was too far off our 3pm time.  But boy was it crowded.  You’d think they would better control the number of people inside at one time.  I guess the hard part about timed entry is you have no idea how long people will stay in the museum.  There were bottlenecks at every turn.  For those of us who can remember that day, there is little new to be learned I felt.  For me, the impact was in seeing the destroyed fire engines, the pieces of airplane, the personal effects, and the room containing the photos of everyone who died.  I feel that if they had used more of the open spaces and not try to cram everyone in small areas it would have been better.  In this way, it was very similar to the Holocaust Museum In Washington.  I think the girls benefitted from going.  After all, for them it is a day in history.  For most of us it remains a beautiful September day interrupted by evil.

At 5:30 we left the museum and went across the street to go up to the One World Observatory.  There was no real line to go up and we were soon at the elevators.  The elevators proved for me to be the best part.  The walls become screens and you see Manhattan develop to the present day.  There is a Disney-esque quality to the elevator and the part immediately upon exiting the elevators.  But the observatory was way too crowded, the windows made getting any kind of photos impossible, and the subtle swaying of a 1000 foot building made for an uncomfortable visit.  Maybe a daytime visit is better, but for my money, the Empire State Building runs circles around this place.  Maybe I’m a bit old school.

It was at this point I took everyone to the promised Ukrainian restaurant, Veselka.  If you like Eastern European food, you must go.  The 4 ladies I was with ate about two dozen pirogie, a cup of Borscht, and some potato pancakes.  The general agreement seemed to be that the original potato pirogies won the day.  My cup of vegetable soup was good (as was the wine) and my dad seemed to really dig his glass of water.  Lucy even declared this her favorite food of the trip.  We left there and walked to Pommes Frites, a Belgian fry place, where we got my dad some potatoes he recognized and I also enjoyed a few.  The fries here are not to be missed and in a very expensive city, reasonably priced.  It’s located near NYU, so that might be why. We took the train back and after a very busy 14 hour day, we called it.  Erin and I had a quick drink at the pub and we were done for. 9 miles of walking, several subway rides, ethnic foods, retracing family steps, and reliving one of the worst days I can remember.  All of these things together made for a day not to soon forget.

This might be the city that never sleeps, but I can confirm that it does close.  Well, at least streets, and paths, and subway exits, and restaurants, and stores.  I think you get the point though.  This morning we were up and at it around 7ish before leaving the room to stake out our spot for the parade.  Across the street from our hotel, obviously, is a Starbucks and that is where everyone steeled themselves with caffeine and calories.   Since the Thanksgiving Day parade passed within a half-block of our hotel, we thought it wise to take the subway uptown towards the park.  In theory, this would have worked well, but at the stop all of the exits were closed and blocked by cops who told us to turn around and use the passageway.  Not knowing what this meant, we joined in the exodus and plodded out of the station only to end up several blocks from our desired location.  All we wanted to do was to get to Central Park, but since this was not an option, we stood in the middle of a street along with 2000 of out closest friends.  All we could see were the balloons and that wasn’t unobstructed.

After dealing with the parade crowds with their nonstop bumping into us, standing in front of us, and everything else, we had had enough and left.  In fact the only time we really saw the parade was when we got back to the room and it was on TV.  So, yeah, kind of a bust.  We figured we could take a train from 59th street up to 81st Street or, at worst, 86th.  We hopped on the train that was to take us there only to realize that we had gotten on an express.  Next stop 125th Street.  Probably a bit too far north to walk back to the park.  We got off that train, switched platforms and headed back to 59th street.  What the signs didn’t make especially clear was the holiday schedule and to be honest, given the crowds, a reduced train schedule probably wasn’t prudent.  But then, nobody asked me.  Eventually, we made it to the park and began meandering around.  It was pleasant, cold, but nice.  We thought we’d take one of the paths south and end up at the Dakota.  Problem was, the path we wanted to take was closed.  I mean seriously, who closes a path???  After even more backtracking, we finally made it to Strawberry Fields were everyone was paying their respects to John Lennon by standing on, sitting on, or pointing at the Imagine mosaic.  At least it wasn’t closed.

By now we were all starting to get hungry so we began heading towards our lunch reservations on Columbus Ave.  We were early, but they were able to seat us.  I’m not really going to go into too much detail on lunch except it was fine, the service a bit off, and the price a bit much for what we got.  But, I didn’t have any gluten issues, so hooray.  We gave the girls the option of heading to the Plaza Hotel or back to our hotel for a rest.  They chose rest, and while they rested, I was able to watch the parade.  The same one everyone else watched without having to fight the crowds.

After a brief rest, we headed to the Empire State Building.  We figured going up to the top might be fun.  It seemed that most everyone else had the same idea because it was crowded getting in.  The line moved fairly quickly though and soon enough we were at the top.  Since it was dark, we really could only see the lights of town.  I thought it was neat though and after spending a few minutes on the observation deck, we got in yet another line to go back to the ground.  Food choices around the Empire State Building were scarce and the girls were starting to complain of needing food.  We thought, heck, Grand Central Station had a food court.  Surely, they can find something appetizing there.  Nope.  Closed.  Not the whole station mind you.  Just the food court.  So after admiring the terminal much the way Clark Griswold admired the Grand Canyon, we went to McDonald’s.  Yep, McDonald’s .  Nothing says happy thanksgiving like a coke and fries from the golden arches.  And that, dear friends, is how we spent our Thanksgiving in New York.  In crowds, on trains, and chasing down inevitably closed places.  I guess that despite all of the aggravations, the most important thing is that I spent it with the most important people.

After several months of planning, since March to be exact, the day of out family trip to New York  City arrived.  For months, I had been asking the girls what activities, sites, or foods, they wanted to be sure to experience while we’re here and the list seemed to grow longer with each passing day.  I made reservations for various activities and restaurants beginning in about July to ensure that we’d have our choice of times.  But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself-I’ll get to all of those things in due course.  And, if you’re curious as to the title-it’s a Dylan song-look it up.

So, 4:15am on November 22nd came.  The girls had already loaded their suitcases in the car and by 4:50 we were driving to FastPark to drop off the car.  Erin had made reservations for us and while spots were available, it did ease the check in process as we simply scanned her phone and parked.  The shuttle dropped us at the terminal and we went upstairs to the main check-in area.  If you’ve ever been to Terminal 2 at RDU, I’ll tell you how long the line for security was.  The line was in the normal spot, then wrapped around the American counter before ending somewhere around Delta.  So yea, it was long.  To give folks an idea of how long it was who have not had the pleasure of RDU, I’d compare it to waiting in line at Disney World for Spaceship Earth (during the glory years of the mid 90s).  But, to the credit of everyone there, it moved quickly and we were through that line within 20 minutes or so.  At that point, all that was left was to grab some food and wait for the flight.

The plane was small.  Like really small.  Small enough that when I stood up I had to duck.  Yes, me.  Duck.  It was a new experience and kind of neat.  The flight was a quick one and at 9:30 we were pulling up to the gate at LaGuardia.  I’m not altogether sure what the best way to get to Manhattan from LaGuardia is, I can only tell you what we did.  We split into two cabs, I had Ethel and my Mom and Erin got to ride with my dad and Lucy.  Our driver was silent the whole way whereas Erin’s driver was Irish and according to her didn’t stop talking the entire way.  I’d think that would be fun to have such an enthusiastic driver.  I’m just glad ours didn’t get us killed.  We all arrived at the hotel, Cambria Hotel and Suites, Times Square, around the same time.  Initially it didn’t look like we were going to be able to check in since we were fairly early, but the really nice front desk employee got us all in our rooms.  So that was nice.  We were able to drop our bags, settle in a bit, freshen up some, and then head out.  I had made lunch reservations for 3:30 that afternoon fully expecting there to be some snafu along the way, but no, everything had proceeded quite smoothly to this point.  Almost too smoothly…(Bum bum bummmmm…..)

So I can’t stress this part enough.  We had from basically 10:45-3:30 to kill and no real plan.  Have a plan.  Even if it everything falls to pieces at least there was a plan.  I didn’t plan for everything to work.  I mean, come on, it is me after all.  But then I remembered, Ethel wanted to go to Carlo’s Bakery.  Apparently, this guy has a show on TV or something and she watches it, so we went.  This would not be the only time I ventured into gluten-land on this day.  I will admit though, that the stuff looked great, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  I guess that is all that really matters.  Then I remembered she wanted to go to M&M’s World.  So we did.  With every other kid in mid-town Manhattan.  I mean dear lord this place was busy.  There were kids crying, kids screaming, kids running, parents crying, parents screaming, and parents running (mostly after kids, but they may have been trying to get to the personalize your M&M thing).    If you’ve been to the one in Vegas, or London, or Shanghai you’ve no need to come here.  If you’ve not been to one go to the store and buy a bag of M&Ms.  You’ll never know the difference.  We let the girls do the personalization thing and while neat, it was NOT worth the 20 bucks.  Each.  But whatever.  It killed time.

So like settlers wandering around the frontier we plodded onward.  Lunch time was coming soon and that was exciting for all of us.  This was when we stumbled, not unintentionally, on one of the highlights of the day.  We ended up at Rockefeller Center.  The workers were taking the scaffolding down from around the tree, the plaza was decorated, and there were skaters on the ice rink.  Between the cool architecture of the building and the decorations, there was definitely a cool vibe here.  Across the street, Saks had decorated their windows for the holidays so we took a look at those and then finally headed towards some food.

The past two times I had been to NYC, we ate at a place called Carmine’s.  I’m not going to pretend that I made some discovery of a hidden gem.  The place is firmly in the heart of Times Square and at 3:30 on a Wednesday was telling walk-ins that there was over an hour wait.  So, no I didn’t find a quiet place to eat.  Also, the previous two times I had been, I was firmly in camp pasta.  This was around 7 BC (before celiac).  The place had gotten fairly decent reviews on the gluten-free app so I went for it.  The Caesar Salad (no croutons) was fantastic, the Penne Alla Vodka (rice noodles) was great, and the Chicken Scarpriello was wonderful.  Erin and I washed ours down with the house chianti, because honestly it felt right and the girls had strawberry lemonade.  My parents and the girls also split a non-GF spaghetti and meatballs that looked wonderful.  And now, typing this at 6:30 on Thursday morning, I can happily say that there were no nasty repercussions from this glorious meal.

It was now closing in on 6 and we didn’t want to call it just yet.  Erin had the idea to go ride the Staten Island Ferry.  We bought our unlimited ride metro cards and headed to the ferry.  I think everyone appreciated the ride and when we got to the terminal we waited about 2 minutes before boarding.  They wouldn’t let us on the deck heading over, but on the way back they did and we got some great views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.  Very cool and very free.  A couple of trains later and we were all home by 8:30 or so.  The girls came up to the room and Erin and I hit the adjacent pub for a drink before heading up.  At 9:30 about 17 hours after getting up, my head hit the pillow and I closed out being 40.