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Published: April 12th 2014
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Tunnel through a fountain in New York
We found a nice fountain acting as a gateway to a courtyard. A clear tunnel ran through it and you could look up and see the water falling. This year our vacations will be all about exploring major cities around the world. We are starting with New York and Seattle.
Day 1 - Getting the Band Back Together
Michelle spent the last week with her class in Washington DC, so our first part of the journey was spent traveling out to meet her. Tony picked Anne up at school and after convincing several of Anne’s students they were too big to either fit in a carry-on we headed up to the Bay Area. After Checking out Brian and Cathy’s new digs and a great dinner on Historic Murphy’s street, we made our way to SFO and our red eye to DC.
One plane trip and a taxi ride later we met up with Michelle at her hotel. She was staying with her teacher, a parent and 5 girls all in one suite. That’s a lot of people in one place for 6 days. We spent the morning taking them out for breakfast and catching up with Michelle before taking the Metro to Union Station and catching the train to New York. Michelle was an expert at getting around DC at this time
and was able to show up where to get on the subway and how to change lines. She was even swiping her transit card without taking it out of her wallet like a pro.
The transit from DC to NYC by train was a grim reminder of the state of the economy in some portions of the US: Buildings falling down with missing windows, yet still occupied by families; Operational factories and business with holes in their walls and roofs; Entire city blocks empty and partially demolished; The number of homeless and poor begging for work or money. Some of the areas looked to be going through a bit of a rebound, however, and Michelle pointed out that the new buildings all looked exactly the same while the old ones were all different.
Union Station in DC and Penn Station in NYC were both very crowded. I guess it is a good warm up for what is to come in NYC. So was Times Square. We visited it on a Friday evening, during spring break. About the only time it is more crowded is during concerts and on New Year’s Eve.
Once in New York, another taxi
Broadway
A few of the options on Broadway right now. ride took us to our hotel on E. 52
nd street, about 7 short blocks from Times Square. After unpacking we headed out to find dinner and take a look around. We found a pretty neat fountain with a clear tunnel through it and made our way to Times Square. While wandering around we passed a group of street performers with various dancing styles. The leader was very charismatic and Michelle enjoyed watching them.
We found an Irish Pub to eat at (imagine that, and Irish pub in NY) and after dinner we somehow managed to walk by the American Girl Doll Store. Michelle explored the 3 stories (and a mezzanine) of dolls and accessories before we headed back to our hotel and crashed since Tony and Anne had not slept horizontal for over 36 hours at this point. Tomorrow we head out to explore NYC.
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