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"Return to New York": Part Three
8 years ago
Reuniting at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, my brother Glenn and I resumed our trip around Manhattan. (Glenn told me about the great time he had, seeing planes, boats, and submarines on board the Intrepid, a.k.a. the Air & Space Museum. And I'd told him the great time I had, seeing my friend 
Joe Strike for the first time in several years.)
We walked east towards Times Square, when Glenn recognized the building known as One Times Square (formerly, the Allied Chemical Building), and wanted to take a picture of the pole at the top (where an illuminated ball would drop on December 31st, ushering in the New Year). Of course, I'd tried to refrain my bro from using his smartphone to waste his shot...
"This is the back of the building," I'd told him. "The ball dropped at the front."
Sure enough, when I'd led Glenn to 43rd Street, he saw said ball (and the year '2017' beneath it) at the top of the front of One Times Square, and finally took the picture.
While in the area, there was a live demonstration of martial arts (tai kwan do, karate, etc.) by a number of juvenile students. And nearby, several tented kiosks were set up to promote the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea - including one that had a pair of costumed version of two of the impending games' mascots (a brown bear and a white tiger), which I took pictures of with my disposable camera. (And believe me, if you've ever visited Times Square, it's a helluva lot better than the poorly designed costumes of such familiar characters like 'Mickey Mouse', 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Elmo', etc., wandering around for tourists to have a 'photo-op' with!)
From there, my sibling and I began to walk down Broadway - deciding not to take the subway, but to go all the way to the Freedom Tower on foot...
Eventually, Glenn began to show signs of hunger - having not finding the time to eat anything while at the Air & Space Museum - so we found a pizza parlor halfway between Times Square and Herald Square, and ate a light dinner (two slices of pizza apiece and iced tea). We even sat at a table next to a TV, tuned to the ABC affiliate; so, we got to watch "Eyewitness News" while we dined (just like the good old days, when we both lived in Elmont, New York, and watched television in the den while eating).
Continuing our lengthy stroll down Broadway, we'd passed by (the flagship) Macy's Department Store, the Flatiron Building, and the Farmer's Market in Union Square. I'd made a brief stop at Forbidden Planet - a comic book store I used to frequent on past trips to Manhattan (during the 1980s and 1990s) - while Glenn checked out a vinyl record store just around the corner from it. Then, we began to zigzag down side streets in Greenwich Village - passing through Washington Square Park (where Glenn took pictures of the park's symbolic archway, and a squirrel on a bench (I was able to coax over, by wiggling my fingers). Then, we walked through SoHo and Little Italy - and we saw some interesting new structure built in lower Manhattan - including an apartment complex that looked like it was built with pieces from a game of Jenga!
Finally, we arrived at our intended destination, the Freedom Tower. We first took (respective) pictures of the "9-11 Memorial" - a giant square hole where one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood (complete with the names of the nearly 3,000 people who perished on that tragic day). Then, we'd entered the 1,776-foot-tall structure itself, paid our admission fees, went through a 'security point', and took the elevator to the observatory floors. Long story short, the view from there was absolutely spectacular! (Although, that day, the skies were a tad overcast, to the point that we could barely see the NY skyline only as far north as midtown Manhattan.) We went around the perimeter of the lowest floor, taking pictures with our respective photographic equipment.
The most surprising view was northbound, when we each saw the bright lights of the billboards from Times Square - not realizing, until that very moment, that we actually walked all that way down to the Freedom Tower, mere hours ago!
Eventually, we took the elevator back down to ground level, and prepared to walk to the nearest subway station, to catch an 'E' train back to Penn Station... when we'd discovered that it began raining outside! Luckily, a building employee gave us instructions on how to get to a lower level concourse plaza, leading to a subway platform where the 'E' train was at its starting point. It was an equally long walk, but (at least) we didn't get wet.
On the way to the subway station, we saw a replica of Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel" ceiling painting in the lobby of the plaza, and a floor mosaic work of art with a giant eye surround by various stars in the midst of several constellations.
We caught the 'E' train just in time, as we were starting to be surrounded by a plethora of noisy male passengers - some of them wearing tank tops, while others were 'topless' altogether.
"They must've been playing 'Shirts vs. Skins' at a nearby basketball court," I'd thought to myself.
As it turned out, it was a large group of gay tourists, who were in town for the annual "Pride March" (that was scheduled to take place in the 'Big Apple' on Sunday, June 27th).
Getting out at our Penn Station stop, Glenn and I went to the L.I.R.R. section, to catch our train back to Wantagh. I was walking well ahead of my sibling to get to the necessary platform. (He's the more physically fit of the two brothers - doing morning exercises in his Margate, Florida condo - and yet I was further ahead - having had previous experience taking long walks in Manhattan, when we were still living in Elmont, New York back in the 1980s.) When I'd turned around, Glenn wasn't there! I was worried that he got lost; so I stood in the lobby outside of the platform, and hoped that he would find his way back to me...
As it turned out, he stopped off at a concession stand to buy two bottles of Smart Water® - one for himself and one for me - to keep us both hydrated. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the main word on the plastic bottle - Sparkling - which meant that the water was slightly carbonated (and even had electrolytes). Glenn completely forgot that I'd stopped drinking carbonated beverages back in 2001, when I had an angina attack from eating coconut shrimp, washed down with cans of Coca-Cola®. (I'd given up soda and shellfish since then.) We got into a big argument as a result...
"The water may be 'smart', but not YOU!" I'd yelled at Glenn...
We sat quietly, opposite each other on the L.I.R.R. train, for the duration of the trip to Nassau County. After our sister Rhonda picked us up at the Wantagh station, we began to tell her about our respective New York experiences - leaving out the last-minute disaster at Penn Station. Eventually, Glenn and I would laugh at that moment, as we would begin to get ready for the next exiting episode of our return to New York: namely, the wedding of our niece Corynne and her groom-to-be Hector...
(To be continued...)
Joe Strike for the first time in several years.) We walked east towards Times Square, when Glenn recognized the building known as One Times Square (formerly, the Allied Chemical Building), and wanted to take a picture of the pole at the top (where an illuminated ball would drop on December 31st, ushering in the New Year). Of course, I'd tried to refrain my bro from using his smartphone to waste his shot...
"This is the back of the building," I'd told him. "The ball dropped at the front."
Sure enough, when I'd led Glenn to 43rd Street, he saw said ball (and the year '2017' beneath it) at the top of the front of One Times Square, and finally took the picture.
While in the area, there was a live demonstration of martial arts (tai kwan do, karate, etc.) by a number of juvenile students. And nearby, several tented kiosks were set up to promote the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea - including one that had a pair of costumed version of two of the impending games' mascots (a brown bear and a white tiger), which I took pictures of with my disposable camera. (And believe me, if you've ever visited Times Square, it's a helluva lot better than the poorly designed costumes of such familiar characters like 'Mickey Mouse', 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Elmo', etc., wandering around for tourists to have a 'photo-op' with!)
From there, my sibling and I began to walk down Broadway - deciding not to take the subway, but to go all the way to the Freedom Tower on foot...
Eventually, Glenn began to show signs of hunger - having not finding the time to eat anything while at the Air & Space Museum - so we found a pizza parlor halfway between Times Square and Herald Square, and ate a light dinner (two slices of pizza apiece and iced tea). We even sat at a table next to a TV, tuned to the ABC affiliate; so, we got to watch "Eyewitness News" while we dined (just like the good old days, when we both lived in Elmont, New York, and watched television in the den while eating).
Continuing our lengthy stroll down Broadway, we'd passed by (the flagship) Macy's Department Store, the Flatiron Building, and the Farmer's Market in Union Square. I'd made a brief stop at Forbidden Planet - a comic book store I used to frequent on past trips to Manhattan (during the 1980s and 1990s) - while Glenn checked out a vinyl record store just around the corner from it. Then, we began to zigzag down side streets in Greenwich Village - passing through Washington Square Park (where Glenn took pictures of the park's symbolic archway, and a squirrel on a bench (I was able to coax over, by wiggling my fingers). Then, we walked through SoHo and Little Italy - and we saw some interesting new structure built in lower Manhattan - including an apartment complex that looked like it was built with pieces from a game of Jenga!
Finally, we arrived at our intended destination, the Freedom Tower. We first took (respective) pictures of the "9-11 Memorial" - a giant square hole where one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood (complete with the names of the nearly 3,000 people who perished on that tragic day). Then, we'd entered the 1,776-foot-tall structure itself, paid our admission fees, went through a 'security point', and took the elevator to the observatory floors. Long story short, the view from there was absolutely spectacular! (Although, that day, the skies were a tad overcast, to the point that we could barely see the NY skyline only as far north as midtown Manhattan.) We went around the perimeter of the lowest floor, taking pictures with our respective photographic equipment.
The most surprising view was northbound, when we each saw the bright lights of the billboards from Times Square - not realizing, until that very moment, that we actually walked all that way down to the Freedom Tower, mere hours ago!
Eventually, we took the elevator back down to ground level, and prepared to walk to the nearest subway station, to catch an 'E' train back to Penn Station... when we'd discovered that it began raining outside! Luckily, a building employee gave us instructions on how to get to a lower level concourse plaza, leading to a subway platform where the 'E' train was at its starting point. It was an equally long walk, but (at least) we didn't get wet.
On the way to the subway station, we saw a replica of Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel" ceiling painting in the lobby of the plaza, and a floor mosaic work of art with a giant eye surround by various stars in the midst of several constellations.
We caught the 'E' train just in time, as we were starting to be surrounded by a plethora of noisy male passengers - some of them wearing tank tops, while others were 'topless' altogether.
"They must've been playing 'Shirts vs. Skins' at a nearby basketball court," I'd thought to myself.
As it turned out, it was a large group of gay tourists, who were in town for the annual "Pride March" (that was scheduled to take place in the 'Big Apple' on Sunday, June 27th).
Getting out at our Penn Station stop, Glenn and I went to the L.I.R.R. section, to catch our train back to Wantagh. I was walking well ahead of my sibling to get to the necessary platform. (He's the more physically fit of the two brothers - doing morning exercises in his Margate, Florida condo - and yet I was further ahead - having had previous experience taking long walks in Manhattan, when we were still living in Elmont, New York back in the 1980s.) When I'd turned around, Glenn wasn't there! I was worried that he got lost; so I stood in the lobby outside of the platform, and hoped that he would find his way back to me...
As it turned out, he stopped off at a concession stand to buy two bottles of Smart Water® - one for himself and one for me - to keep us both hydrated. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the main word on the plastic bottle - Sparkling - which meant that the water was slightly carbonated (and even had electrolytes). Glenn completely forgot that I'd stopped drinking carbonated beverages back in 2001, when I had an angina attack from eating coconut shrimp, washed down with cans of Coca-Cola®. (I'd given up soda and shellfish since then.) We got into a big argument as a result...
"The water may be 'smart', but not YOU!" I'd yelled at Glenn...
We sat quietly, opposite each other on the L.I.R.R. train, for the duration of the trip to Nassau County. After our sister Rhonda picked us up at the Wantagh station, we began to tell her about our respective New York experiences - leaving out the last-minute disaster at Penn Station. Eventually, Glenn and I would laugh at that moment, as we would begin to get ready for the next exiting episode of our return to New York: namely, the wedding of our niece Corynne and her groom-to-be Hector...
(To be continued...)
Tebby1988
~tebby1988
sometimes we need to return to certain places
