New York - Manhattan

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Just returned to Connecticut on Thursday from our three day visit to New York. We had a fantastic time!! Sally and I rode the train down from New Haven Connecticut on Tuesday July 24th. This was our first train ride in over 30 years. The last time we rode a train was when we were stationed in Germany in the late 70's. Coming into Grand Central Station all you see are lanes of railroad tracks side by side coming into the station. There are over 115 train tracks that lead into grand central station so it's quite a bustling place. From Grand Central, we took a taxi to our hotel, which was located just off Times Square. We arrived at the hotel early so we were unable to get into our room until later in the afternoon. We declded to leave our luggage with the bellman and headed off sightseeing. Times square was about four blocks from our hotel. We had a lounge deck on the front of the hotel facing broadway and the view of Times Square was amazing!! Bright neon lights, visitors from all over the world and an atmosphere like you would see at a carnival. The streets are closed off to traffic and there are New York police officers, both on foot and on horseback, everywhere you look. There is also a toys R us on Times Square which has a full sized ferris wheel right inside the store. For Lunch, Sally and I had New York style pizza in a little hole in the wall restaurant on 7th avenue called Rays Pizza. Excellent Pizza!! Traveling the subway was a little confusing at first but by the end of our 3 days in New York I had the system completely figured out. Anyway, we spent several hours sightseeing before boarding the subway to go see the 9/11 memorial. I intend to create a separate blog for the 9/11 memorial. On our second day in New York we spent over half of the day visiting Central Park. Central Park sits right in the middle of midtown Manhattan. It consists of approximately 860 acres of land and is 6 miles long from the uptown to the downtown end of the park. Hard to imagine such a large park right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of New York City. Anyway, after visiting Central Park, Sally and I had an early dinner at Carmines. It's similar to Buca De Beppo in Phoenix. Everything is served homestyle. My recommendation is that you come either with a group of people or with a really big appetite. Sally and I had a salad and eggplant parmesan which was large enough to feed a family of six. We returned to our hotel for a rest and to get ready to go see the broadway show 'Jersey Boys'. The theater was right across the street from our hotel. The show was fantastic!! It must have been a sellout because we didn't see one empty seat in the house. On Thursday my sister took the train down and Sally and I met her at Grand Central. We headed off to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (separate blog). After an afternoon of shopping we all headed back to the train station for our trip back to Connecticut. New York is an amazing city to visit. Thank god I don't live there!! We overheard a woman on the subway telling someone that her friend had just signed a one year lease on an one bedroom apartment for $2,600 a month. If you ever have the opportunity, I recomment a visit to Manhattan. You won't be disappointed!! I also need to add that the people of New York were extremely helpful and friendly. There were some who were not quite so friendly but all in all I was pleasantly suprised by their hospitality.

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