Concrete Jungle Make You Feel Brand New

I know what you're thinking. Where did I sit?

The bike attachment appeared to be made to carry two adults. So there we were. Three deep on a bicycle built for two. Our poor driver seemed to put so much effort into pedaling (uphill the whole way) that he seemed a little confused on how to get to our hotel. I know we circled the block around the theater at least once.

In Times Square, we found ourselves in the middle of a bumping car parade. For whatever reason, this was the time when our driver decided to actually obey a traffic law and stopped at a red light. We were completely surrounded by tricked out cars in neon shades from lime green to magenta. They were all leaning to the left or right and most of them were lunging up and down. We had a clear view into the car to our left, and I wish we hadn't. I leaned back into the cart and tried to avoid eye contact with everyone. The playbill in my lap was suddenly very interesting.

At this point, I realized that Mary Beth was actually leaning out of the cart with her iPhone trying to take some pictures while commenting loudly, "Oh my gosh, do yall see that car??" The men in that car were close enough to reach out and snatch her phone (or us). Did I mention that their window was down? Meredith and I were hissing and pulling on her coat, ordering in our best big sister voices that she GET BACK INTO THE CART RIGHT THIS SECOND.

I was afraid. Why was traffic not moving? Why did our biker boy decide to rest right then in that spot? Maybe he was too afraid to weave through those cars like he had been doing all night. I would not have wanted to anger anyone driving one of those cars either. Finally we wrangled MB back into the cart and started moving (and breathing) again.

After surviving another frightening experience, we were hungry (remember we passed on Sbarro earlier in the day). Meredith asked our cyclist where was a good place to get pizza in her best caveman lingo: “Hungry. Pizza." He suggested Sbarro. We cracked up. He took us instead to Ray’s. He insisted that we wait in the cart while he took our order and went inside to fill it. How kind of him! This guy was getting a big tip. As he started pedaling us back to the Palace, we thought he might need a little encouragement to get us all the way there.

Thanks to the mood music, he managed to cycle us all the way to the hotel. And it turned out that he had included a generous tip for himself in the price of the ride.

Saturday was our last day. Sadness. We had a lot to fit into our final day, so we got up sort of early and got ready to hit Central Park while MB totally redeemed herself and brought us Starbucks. I definitely took more pictures in Central Park than anywhere else. I wish we could have spent more time there. We saw Strawberry Fields, Bethesda Fountain and that beautiful, wide walkway that you always see in the movies where the trees are hanging over either side like a canopy. I will try to just pick a few faves:



Side note: Meredith and MB had tons of fun dressing me, fixing my hair and doing my make up every day. When Jack was looking at my pictures, he asked me about my outfit, "So, um, was that something you actually...wore?" Yes, Jack, I actually wore that.


At the fountain, we could hear music and singing coming from a nearby tunnel. We were really impressed by this group, the Boyds for Praise Company. Siblings that sing beautifully together.



From the Park, we walked a few blocks and hopped on the subway since we were pros at not wanting to take taxis. On to Greenwich Village where MB and I bought matching necklaces

and Meredith bought everything else we saw.

We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the Village and met a really nice couple who were more than happy to suggest some good shopping sites. We spent the afternoon shopping and even ventured into Chinatown for only as long as it took to walk a city block. Mary Beth bought a purse out of a garbage bag, then we decided in the interest of safety, we should probably head north. We weren't sure if we were in Little Italy or not, but we needed to rest our feet, so we stopped at an Italian place for an appetizer and some energy drinks. We had to get refueled for our grand finale, which deserves a post all its own.