Day One: The 'Big Apple"

OK, I'm going to be one of those people who torture others with their vacation pictures. Only this will be vacation --day by day.

Day one, Sunday: After many hours spent online planning this trip, we're finally ready to head up to the 'Big
Apple.' (Did you know that jockeys in New Orleans gave New York the Big Apple nickname? I read it on a NYC visitors site, so it must be true.) I had booked our flights out of Birmingham because more choices were offered. As it turned out, it was a blessing because the New Orleans airport closed Saturday night. If we HAD flown out of New Orleans, I was planning on spending Saturday night down there so it would be easier to make an early Sunday morning flight out-- and to have a good meal and maybe catch some good music. I don't even want to think about what might have happened if that had occurred.

So we leave as Katrina heads in. Who would have thought that the city we were leaving (Baton Rouge) would be forever changed when we returned just a few days later--not to mention the lives of so very many people? I swear that before Katrina hit Florida our weather man said that she wasn't expected to be much of a threat....and our weather men are usually quite good on things like this. I was so surprised at the amount of damage Katrina did to Florida--and I started paying attention.

(Eerie moment here.) About a month before we were scheduled to leave I started getting anxious. Not scared, just anxious. I felt that 'something' was going to happen to keep us from going. I knew I could cancel the room, but not the plane tickets, the two shows I already had tickets for, or another tour I had booked. To think I was worried about money! This anxiety kept increasing. I had to stop myself from imagining all sorts of things that could happen....but never for one moment did I imagine the storm.

I was so relieved mid-week before we left. Nothing had happened. I thought we were home free. And then the warnings started coming. No weather patterns were going to develop to push the storm away. And it was so hot, even for the dog-days of August in south Louisiana, it was so hot. People were talking about the 'heat' coming to town like it was an unwelcome relative. All this heat was just feeding Katrina, and she was sucking it up. You never can tell about hurricanes, but all along it looked as if Baton Rouge would be getting the west side of the storm which was the best we cold hope for. I was insisting my boys go to Hattiesburg, MS and stay with their sister, until she told me what was being predicted for them. Such a huge storm! As it turned out, Hattiesburg was hit harder than Baton Rouge. Katrina was a Cat 2 when the eye passed over Hattiesburg. Such a huge storm.

So, making myself believe (after much prayer) that the boys were not in line of a direct hit, and not being able to believe that Hattiesburg (90 miles inland from the coast) could actually be hit by a Cat 2 hurricane, we were off. As we headed east to B'ham Saturday night, everyone else was headed west to (hopefully) safety. The radio was telling people not to go east because MS and AL were under the gun. We had to pass right by Hattiesburg and police were limiting access to the city by closing off interstate exits. They wanted people to head farther north. We stopped for a bite to eat in Meridian, MS and the city was full of people from the New Orleans area. One family with 3 small children and (I guess) three grandparents came in and sat at a table next to us. As the mom took the children to the restroom, the dad gave a big sigh and said, "We made it." As we asked him if he was from La. we noticed tears running down his cheeks. People were scared. I wonder if they have a home to go back to. We had an easy drive into B'ham. We did notice many moving trucks on the other side of I-59. I guess people were going to try and move out as much as they could from their homes and/or businesses.

After reading all this you may already be tired. By the time we got to B'ham around midnight I was emotionally exhausted. Amanda and her roommates had come in to see us off. They were all going to the Myrtles (a supposedly haunted plantation) Saturday night and then head home to Hattiesburg. Looking back, I can't believe we actually left. What happened was just unimaginable at the time. I had prayed and had a peace regarding my children. I wish now that I had prayed more for all the others. I feel selfish.

Anyway, we did make it to B'ham and tried to get a few hours sleep--after going to WalMart for an alarm clock. We had an 8:25 am flight. Since neither of us could sleep well, we got up and headed to the airport early. It turned out to be a good thing because Jim couldn't find the airport. It was de ja vu because on our first date he couldn't find the airport. His excuse then was that he had just returned from being overseas in the Air Force. ....I forget what it was this time. I was no help because I only remember my way around B'ham if I'm coming form the side of town I grew up in, and we weren't coming from that side of town. We finally found the airport and were grateful that we had left early and that the flight had been delayed. As we waited many people around us were on their cells trying to make plans for their animals or contingency plans in case they were delayed coming back. The B'ham area had found out they were going to be impacted by the storm. And by the end of the week Katrina was going to be in the NY area. She was one huge mama.

We finally got on the plane and realized it was the first time we had flown together. As usual, I opened the paper and pretended to read it as we took off. Jim looked out the window. When I decided I could stop worrying about the plane making it off the ground, I decided to start worrying about the hotel room. I had booked the room online, but had called twice to make sure they knew we were coming. ....They assured me they knew we were coming and that we would indeed have a room waiting. :/ I started telling (preparing?) Jim for what might happen. I asked him if he realized that most NYC rooms were teeny tiny and for good reason--there is no space up there. I asked him if he realized how many people came to NYC each day/month/year, meaning the hotel room might look quite USED. I asked him if knew that NYers had a reputation for being rude--especially servers at restaurants (according to Fodors). I asked him if...
About this time he told me to just shut up.

A little over 2 hours later we landed at LaGuardia. I had read that many planes overshoot LGA's landing strips because the landing strips are so short and not intended for large jets. We were in a smallish plane and did just fine. When I told Jim about the overshooting, he told me I had over- done the research. We got our bags and made our way to the taxi line. As we were standing on line, the driver of a gypsy cab came up to us and offered to take us into the city for a reduced price. He wanted us to share his car with another couple. My research came in handy this time because, unless you know what you're doing (which we did NOT), you only want to take a yellow cab. There have been stories of tourist taking gypsy cabs for what they think is a reduced fare, and upon arriving at their destination, the driver demands a much higher price. Unfortunately the driver will keep your bags in the trunk until you pay what he demands. So we stood on line for a cab.

My daughter had told me that the only time she was scared in NYC was whenever she was in a taxi. I thought I was prepared. But....where Amanda said the cabs they had ridden in were new, clean, and even had machines for credit/debit cards, our cab was none of these. It was old, dirty, smelly, and driven by a man with a turban. I found out by reading all the little cards he had posted in the cab that he was a Sikh (sp?). The cards spelled out his philosophy of life and it was cool, but still sort of a shock to a girl form south Louisiana. He spoke virtually no English, yet he was mumbling or singing or chanting the whole time. I noticed Jim was unusually quiet. He told me later that he was stunned that the Shikh could go over 70 mph on crowded interstates. I told Jim that I wasn't able to see much over the man's turban (it was wound way up there), and Jim told me to count my blessings. I admit I almost cried when we first got in the cab. I didn't know what I had gotten us into. My NYC experience began in that cab. And....after getting out, I wondered if I should get some kind of immunization.

Well, we made it to the hotel. It was too early for check-in, but they held our bags. We stayed at the Lucerne on the Upper West Side. The Upper West Side is a neighborhood--sort of. There are hotels, lots and lots of restaurant and stores, and brownstones. We were two blocks from Central Park, and one block from the subway. The hotel looked fine (even tho we hadn't seen our room), and they did indeed have us a room waiting, so I started feeling better. We left our bags and headed for Central Park. If you've never been to Central Park it's amazing. It's huge. It's quiet. You're walking in a park yet you can see skyscrapers lining the skyline in the distance. We wandered around finding places we had heard about and wanted to see. I knew 'Shakespeare in the Park' was happening that night, and had put that on the itenerary, but once I learned that people usually start lining up at 8 am for the box office to open at 2 pm, I had given up hope on getting tickets. The tickets are free so the demand is high. Well, we just happened to pass Delacorte Theater where the box office is and I walked up and asked if there were any tickets left. A handful were left, so we got two.

By then it was time to check-in so we walked back to the hotel. Our room was fine. I had booked a Junior Suite for the price of a regular room so we actually had a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bath. The building was built in 1902 and the facade has been declared a historical landmark and can't be touched, but the inside has been redecorated--especially the bathrooms which have lots of marble. We were on the 11th floor but didn't have much of a view....basically our windows looked right into the windows of the next building. But....if you leaned out the bedroom windows just right (yes, the windows opened!) you could see the Hudson or East River (I forget which). We dropped our bags in the room and headed out to get something to eat. So many choices! We had falahfels (sp?) and walked along Amsterdam Ave looking at shops until it was time to head back to the park for the show. We ended the long day in Central Park watching "Two Gentlemen of Verona" in the outside theater as the sun set over NYC. After the show, on the way back to the hotel we stopped for coffee and a shared piece of strawberry cake. Meanwhile, my children were waiting on that horrible, horrible storm. I am a bad,bad mother.

After we got back to the room, I ended my night as I would end each night of our stay....calling the kids and watching the news while nursing my poor blistered feet.