After exploring central park in all it's early morning glory on Sunday, April 27, my mother and I started heading back into the city. As we came out of the park near the Museum of Natural History, we saw a subway station leading underground. My mother got pretty excited and felt spontaneous I guess because she started leading me down those steps with talk of taking the subway. "Where are we going?" I asked a little hesitant. "I don't know," she said. "How do you get on?" I asked, this time a little more worried. "We will figure it out" she said and we did.
Thing is, I thought I was going to have time to muster up some bit of courage to get on the subway for the first time rather than just throw myself on it not knowing where the heck I was going. Since it was still really early (around 7am), the station was EMPTY and quiet-too quiet. I seriously was waiting for someone around the corner to attack us or something with nobody around to hear our screams-call me crazy but I'm just being honest here.
Surprisingly, we ended up in Times Square- not a bad destination for your first subway ride. I was finally able to grab a vanilla latte at an open coffee shop and we walked around the Crossroads of the World as it was transformed into a still and muted realm on a Sunday morning.
The earliest opening restaurant we could find for breakfast was Hard Rock Cafe so we took a seat there. We had a buffet of french toast sticks, waffles, bagels, sausage, bacon, and eggs. It seemed like the food was frozen prior so it wasn't my favorite meal but it was food and I was hungry.
Afterwards, we decided to walk to the Empire State Building. As we came out of the restaurant, a lady who resembled a monk came up to us and started saying how beautiful we were and some other strange words. She put bracelets on our wrists and then asked for a donation and initials on a graph. She was a scammer! I gave my bracelet right back and pulled my mother away. Another lesson-don't trust everyone who comes up to you and compliments you on your beauty. Ha! After that, every time another would try and come up to us (they were everywhere) my mother would say, "OH NO! NAH-UH! NOT AGAIN!" It was pretty priceless!
The Freedom Tower-built in replacement of the once standing Twin Towers.
We also visited the 9/11 memorial (later post).
The beautiful Chrysler Building (my favorite skyscraper).
I spy Central Park.
Our hotel building
We had dinner at Trattoria where we sat outside-pretty much in the middle of the busy sidewalk while I enjoyed some yummy minestrone soup and my mom had some type of rigatoni pasta. It was definitely different to eat dinner while people walked all around you but it added some free entertainment while we people watched and sipped on espresso (my mom's first one) and a vanilla latte. NY cheesecake was for dessert!
We ended the night back at the hotel after a trip to Zabar's-the best family market we've ever been to (more on that place in a later post)!
It was good day!
See Post I of New York: Sunrise Over Manhattan and Magic in Central Park
See Post III of New York: Strange worship in the seaport harbor, a yacht ride under the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial.
