I didn’t say real blondes, but nonetheless, we came, we saw and we left…FAT!

By the pictures we posted, everyone kept asking us if our main intent of being in New York City was to eat our way through. Why else do people come here?

We would get a text from a family member asking us if we were going to The Met. our response was…we were headed there but we got sidetracked when we walked by Angelos Pizza. A friend of my daughter’s texted her and ask her if we were going to go see a Broadway musical. We were so excited to hopefully be a part of the crowd at Times square where everyone gathers to get last minute available seats to the shows. But as we walked by this great Middle Eastern restaurant that we had heard had the best hummus and spanakopita, we didn’t make it in time to get tickets.
We can proudly say that we ate in Little Italy, Hells Kitchen (which by the way is totally different from what I use to know as Hells Kitchen, which was my moms, because she got in such a bad mood when she had to cook), Manhattan and the Theatre District. My husband has promised to take me back in 2 years so we can experience restaurants in Soho, the Bronx and Juniors’ cheesecake in Brooklyn. Because Jaden was hungry after he finished with the concert, we even got food from a street vendor. We dined at a Japanese restaurant, my first. Loved it. Had the most awesome experience of dining one evening at Del Frisco’s across the street from Radio City Hall. Do not get me started on all the food we had at The Plaza.
Not only was our waist growing by the day, but our feet were so swollen our shoes were tight. I guess when you walk as much as we did, all the food goes to your feet.
The laughter and the memories that we bought back were priceless. I remember seeing a credit card commercial of two people taking a trip and the memories which were made. That is how we felt. Each day gave us so many new memories and so much laughter.
Our reason for going was that Jaden, our 16 year old grandson plays in an orchestra which was invited to play at Carnegie Hall last Friday evening, March 30th. Jodi and I were the ones who were so blessed to be given this trip by our husbands. So we packed our suitcases and off we flew to New York. This was Jodi’s first trip, so I wanted her to be able to see as much as possible.
They say (whoever they are) that your kids don’t see us for who we are and that they don’t want to see their parents aging. This saying became very real to me when we would come to a intersection and the light would say that we had 3 seconds to get across 5th Ave. Jodi would grab my hand and say, “come on mom, we can make it” and then run across while 35 yellow taxi’s were headed straight for us. Then there was the night when, after crying, seeing Jaden up on the stage at Carnegie and all the emotions that went along with the pride and excitement, Jodi tells me, “Mom, we only have 15,000 steps on my Fitbit, it’s only 11 p.m., let’s take Jaden to the Empire state Building” Thank God the Empire State building stays open until 2:00a.m. Why what if it didn’t and we would have been forced to go back to our room by 11 and get more than 5 hours sleep? She was always so sweet to remind me that we can always sleep on the way home and that she would even let me fall asleep on her shoulder, unless she fell asleep before me, using my shoulder as her pillow.
The last morning before leaving New York, we were so excited to wake up to a snow storm that had blanketed Central Park. Of course, we had to walk to see this amazing sight. As we walked the 2 blocks to CP, guess who stepped into a slush puddle of melted snow? Of course I didn’t have boots on so the rest of the morning as we took pictures, in the 34 degree weather, my socks had frozen to my feet. Don’t feel sorry for me, with them frozen, it helped me not feel the pain of the blisters that had formed on my feet from walking 17,000 steps the day before. On a normal week, I don’t reach 17,000 steps, much less a day.
But because taxi drivers had told us that we looked more like sisters than mother/daughter (yes, I know they were just going for a good tip, but at my age you take any compliment you get) and one taxi driver told us that the ride back to our hotel was on him, (we did finally find our credit card so we could pay him) We actually never took the wrong subway anywhere, with lots of help from the locals.
We were two blondes in New York, trying to see as much of New York as possible, via the subway. Scary thought. Learning the subway at the age of 67 was a little intimating. How do they even make those subway maps so small? We did learn that train Q doesn’t run on the weekends from Brooklyn. Thank goodness, train N & R do. But our cute little subway map didn’t tell us that or if it did, it was in such small print we couldn’t see it. Next trip I will remember to take a magnifying glass with me. The laughter, the experiences, and the memories gave us so much to be thankful. It was wonderful knowing that we could spend 5 days together and still leave laughing and already planning another trip.
Yes, the bond between mother and daughter is absolutely one of the richest blessings of life….the joy and laughter, the memories, the love…are all real, even if the hair color isn’t!