Manhattan!
You've seen pictures. You've seen it on TV and in lots of movies. You know what the buildings look like, the streets, how many people are on them. But when you come off the escalators at Penn Station and step out onto the street and look down those man-made canyons with your own eyes for the first time ... well, I felt something. Not so much awe. Just sort of a ... Yeah! There it is.
Sarah, Margo and I took the LIRR from Deer Park late this morning. Our first stop: a few blocks down 34th Street to the Empire State Building. We saw a sign telling us to expect a 40-60 minute wait. Then the tour hawkers kept reminding us that if we spent extra $18 we could get the combo package with the "Skyride" movie and skip the wait. Margo didn't believe it would really take 40 minutes because of this, but, it did, pretty much. The Art Deco lobby is gorgeous. In line, you're queued through maybe four or five big rooms, but there are velvet-rope mazes set up to traverse. It takes a while but it's not so bad because you get to see other tourists from all over the world. Near the end of the line Sarah started being a monkey on the velvet-rope poles, so with another monkey trying to climb the building, Margo and I made our hands into biplanes and zoomed in to shoot her down.
Then we finally got to the 86th floor observatory. Now at this point I should explain the weather: in the 80s and raining. In Oregon, these are mutually exclusive events. It's either in the 80s, or it's raining, but never both at the same time. Otherwise we'd be taking our clothes off and dancing in the rain, at least the first few times. And for our whole visit so far, it's been pretty overcast and just so humid that you think, you know? It could rain any minute. So it was very windy and not raining, but still quite wet. In fact, it was probably one of the worst days to be there. Those hawkers kept telling us, oh, there's only zero to one mile of visibility anyway ... why don't you see the movie so you can see everything better?
But despite all that ... it was - now I can use that word - awesome to see it in person. You really are so much higher than other buildings. You are either looking down or across at everything. And even with the visibility, I could see parts of Central Park, including the lake, to the north, and make out the mass of the Cesar Pelli World Trade Center buildings to the south in Battery Park, and most anything in between. I should also mention that heights can freak me out (watching the King Kong remake, where the heroes climb to the very top of the ESB, freaked me out), but with the high walls and fencing I felt quite fine.
Now this is normally where the story would end, except we paid almost double to also get access to the 102nd floor observatory. Hoooo yeah.
There was almost no one else there once we arrived. And up there, they don't have the fencing, so you can take nicer pictures. Sarah got bored of course after a few minutes (some day we'll reminder her of this and it will make her crazy) so she and Margo went back to 86 to shop for postcards. (We had our phones. I wouldn't ditch my family that easily.) And then I had more time to drink it in. Just me and the security person.
Oh, oh, I have a question for you: in a city of 8 million people, including some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, can you guess who among them, around noon on Saturday July 22, had arguably the finest view of the city all to himself for about ten minutes? Is it Donald Trump? Oh, maybe Martha Stewart? Hmmm. Maybe one of those hedge fund managers? Oh, I know! It was me!
So I took lots of pictures. You know, you can certainly see better pictures. Just go see the ESB webcams. Mine are crap, really. But you know what? They're mine. I took them.
So finally getting back to the street, after one more attempt to open our wallets for custom ESB photos, we hoofed it a block or two to Macy's. "The World's Largest Store." First we went downstairs to the downstairs gourmet deli, to recharge and refuel. Sarah needed it. Then we walked through the lower level.
We'd considered walking or cabbing to Times Square, but Sarah wasn't up to it, so we headed back to the LIRR and Penn Station. We did have a little time to kill so we walked around the block and hung out a bit in the park in front of the One Penn building across from Madison Square Garden where Sarah chased pigeons for a while. Then it was back to Deer Park and Arthur and Mary's house. I plan to go back in the morning ... I've got lots more I want to see.
Sarah, Margo and I took the LIRR from Deer Park late this morning. Our first stop: a few blocks down 34th Street to the Empire State Building. We saw a sign telling us to expect a 40-60 minute wait. Then the tour hawkers kept reminding us that if we spent extra $18 we could get the combo package with the "Skyride" movie and skip the wait. Margo didn't believe it would really take 40 minutes because of this, but, it did, pretty much. The Art Deco lobby is gorgeous. In line, you're queued through maybe four or five big rooms, but there are velvet-rope mazes set up to traverse. It takes a while but it's not so bad because you get to see other tourists from all over the world. Near the end of the line Sarah started being a monkey on the velvet-rope poles, so with another monkey trying to climb the building, Margo and I made our hands into biplanes and zoomed in to shoot her down.
Then we finally got to the 86th floor observatory. Now at this point I should explain the weather: in the 80s and raining. In Oregon, these are mutually exclusive events. It's either in the 80s, or it's raining, but never both at the same time. Otherwise we'd be taking our clothes off and dancing in the rain, at least the first few times. And for our whole visit so far, it's been pretty overcast and just so humid that you think, you know? It could rain any minute. So it was very windy and not raining, but still quite wet. In fact, it was probably one of the worst days to be there. Those hawkers kept telling us, oh, there's only zero to one mile of visibility anyway ... why don't you see the movie so you can see everything better?
But despite all that ... it was - now I can use that word - awesome to see it in person. You really are so much higher than other buildings. You are either looking down or across at everything. And even with the visibility, I could see parts of Central Park, including the lake, to the north, and make out the mass of the Cesar Pelli World Trade Center buildings to the south in Battery Park, and most anything in between. I should also mention that heights can freak me out (watching the King Kong remake, where the heroes climb to the very top of the ESB, freaked me out), but with the high walls and fencing I felt quite fine.
Now this is normally where the story would end, except we paid almost double to also get access to the 102nd floor observatory. Hoooo yeah.
There was almost no one else there once we arrived. And up there, they don't have the fencing, so you can take nicer pictures. Sarah got bored of course after a few minutes (some day we'll reminder her of this and it will make her crazy) so she and Margo went back to 86 to shop for postcards. (We had our phones. I wouldn't ditch my family that easily.) And then I had more time to drink it in. Just me and the security person.
Oh, oh, I have a question for you: in a city of 8 million people, including some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, can you guess who among them, around noon on Saturday July 22, had arguably the finest view of the city all to himself for about ten minutes? Is it Donald Trump? Oh, maybe Martha Stewart? Hmmm. Maybe one of those hedge fund managers? Oh, I know! It was me!
So I took lots of pictures. You know, you can certainly see better pictures. Just go see the ESB webcams. Mine are crap, really. But you know what? They're mine. I took them.
So finally getting back to the street, after one more attempt to open our wallets for custom ESB photos, we hoofed it a block or two to Macy's. "The World's Largest Store." First we went downstairs to the downstairs gourmet deli, to recharge and refuel. Sarah needed it. Then we walked through the lower level.
We'd considered walking or cabbing to Times Square, but Sarah wasn't up to it, so we headed back to the LIRR and Penn Station. We did have a little time to kill so we walked around the block and hung out a bit in the park in front of the One Penn building across from Madison Square Garden where Sarah chased pigeons for a while. Then it was back to Deer Park and Arthur and Mary's house. I plan to go back in the morning ... I've got lots more I want to see.
posted by Michael Nelson at 4:27 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home