My mom is 71 years old and, until this week, had never visited New York City. I had an airline credit that was expiring soon and decided that I'd make a quick trip up to the Big Apple to see Billy Joel play in Madison Square Garden. I go to a bunch of concerts, but I'd never seen Billy Joel and I'd never been to Madison Square Garden. Since my flight was basically free, going when I could see him made sense to me. I was at my mom's when I mentioned my plan. That's when she said that she'd never been. So I said, "Well, go with me. I won't be gone long, and you could check that off of your list."
I threw in the "I won't be gone long" to entice her because my mom is that person who can't wait to go somewhere...will actually countdown the weeks and days until she goes...and then, once she gets there will, almost 100% of the time, be ready to come home and eventually cut her trip short.
But this trip started on Wednesday and ended on Thursday. That's my mom's kind of trip. Plus, she and I had never been anywhere out of town together as just the two of us.
What follows is my account of our approximately 30 hour visit to New York City:
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - We are flying Southwest out of Atlanta. Our flight leaves at 8:30 a.m. That means that we have to be in Atlanta around 6:30. That, in turn, means that we must leave Chattanooga at the unspeakable time of 4:30. Yes, we could have gone to Atlanta the night before, but I had hitting lessons until 8:00 p.m. and didn't really want to spend money on a hotel when all I had to do was get up early. We clear security without a hitch and make it to our gate about an hour early. We decided to get a Chick-Fil-A biscuit because, well, Chick-Fil-A. So, we leave our seats at the gate and head for some chicken deliciousness. Except, you can't leave any bags unattended in an airport. I know this because: 1.) they announce it over the intercom constantly as a "security alert". To me, this isn't exactly a "security alert" so hearing "security alert" while in an airport is harrowing. I think they need to re-evaluate what they consider to be an "alert" as opposed to just an "announcement". So, we carry our bags with us to Chick-Fil-A...only my mom forgets her pocketbook. Fortunately, I saw it and picked it up for her, but, as it turns out, this was an ominous bit of foreshadowing.
We had a smooth flight and arrived at Laguardia Airport ahead of schedule. Once we got there, as we didn't check any luggage, we just went straight outside the terminal to find our ride. Let me pause right here to put in a plug for Go Green Ride (you can find them at gogreenride.com). I've taken both a bus and a taxi from Laguardia to Manhattan. Taxis are really expensive and buses aren't so clean. But this company allows you to schedule your ride ahead of time, has courteous drivers and clean cars. As our flight arrived a little early, our driver wasn't there yet, so we sat on a bench outside the terminal and waited for him. Within minutes, he was there. We got up, put our bags in the trunk and hopped in the car for the 30 minute ride into the city.
About halfway into the ride, my mom realized that she didn't have her purse. She'd left it behind. Again. Only this time, I didn't realize it and pick it up for her. At this point, panic ensued. I'm going to make a long story short: As it turns out, if you leave a bad unattended in Laguardia Airport (and probably any airport), it will be picked up immediately. This happened to Tyler and I when we traveled to San Diego. We put our bags down, walked off to charge our phones, came back and the bags were gone. In this case, my mom's pocketbook was picked up by the airport police and taken into their custody. Which...is a really good thing. We found out they had it, after my mom described it over the phone, and decided that she would go back and get it when I was at the concert that night. She did and, again, the folks at Go Green Ride were awesome! The driver drove her over and waited on her to come back (though we hadn't scheduled a return trip as we didn't know how long it would take at the police station). When my mom went to tip him more than he was allowed to receive, he had to call for approval. That's an impressive company.
In between my mom's trips to the airport, we managed to walk about 21,000 steps. We stayed at The New Yorker just across the street from Madison Square Garden but walked up to Times Square and then took the subway up to Central Park. It was in Central Park where I almost met my doom. As we were walking to Strawberry Fields, an enormous...and I'm not exaggerating when I say enormous...squirrel fell about a foot in front of me while trying to cross overhead. I'm assuming that's what he was trying to do, unless he mistook my bald head for an acorn and was attempting to pounce on it, but I didn't see him overhead. I only heard a dull thud and saw the squirrel scramble to its feet and run off...presumably to be made fun of by all of the other oversized Central Park squirrels for failing to cross safely overhead. Or, he could have been carrying out a dare from other fat squirrels to attempt to scare the bejeezus out of the big, bald dude. If that was the case, he was incredibly successful, and I nearly went into my karate stance when he fell at my feet. This was probably my mom's favorite NYC moment as she laughed and laughed at me.
Anyway, we did a lot of touristy things until we made it back to the hotel for the night. If you ever go to NYC, stay at The New Yorker. It was a fantastic stay. When I made my reservation, I mentioned that it was my mom's first visit to the city. They gave us a great free upgrade and allowed us to check in about four hours early. They were terrific all the way around. You can check them out here.
Thursday, January 12, 2017 - We started day two of our NYC trip with an authentic NYC bagel from a street vendor. It was terrific. We went downtown to Lower Manhattan and checked out the 9/11 memorial, Wall Street, Trinity Church, the spot where George Washington was sworn in as our first president, and the Statue of Liberty. We also logged about 18,000 steps that day. We ate a Junior's cheesecake, which was easily the best cheesecake I've ever eaten. When it was time to head to the airport, Go Green Ride was there on time and dropped us off at the exact time they estimated.
Our trip was a complete success.
Even better than the trip going so well was the fact that, for the first time in my life, I went somewhere with just my mom. Always before, we've been with friends or family. This time, it was just us. I love New York City, and I love seeing folks see it for the first time. My mom tried her best to make sure I had everything I wanted when I was growing up. I've not been able to ever give her very much in return. But getting to be with her when she got to see one of the world's most famous cities will always be special. It was a quick trip, but one we will both remember for the rest of our lives.
