NEW YORK CITY - 2005

Tuesday, August 9 (Day 1) - Michael and Karen arrived at my apartment at 4:30 in the morning. I met them in the garage. We drove to the airport. We left Nashville at on Delta Flight 5405 at 6AM. This was Michael's first time on a plane, a good thing about this trip. We hustled to change planes in Cincinnati and arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York City at 11:31AM. We caught the airbus to lower Manhattan. Our first day was rough. I had a hostel waiting. It was bad. Michael did not want to stay there. He spotted the Empire State Building in the distance, and we started walking. The Empire State Building is at 34th Street & 5th Avenue. It was built, 1930-31, and the architecture reflects the period. It is shaped like a pencil. There are 102 floors. The observatory is on the 86th. The line was long, I told Michael the story of how I came here in the Army. It was a cold, windy night. My Army hat blew off. I chased it around the observatory deck until I caught it. We looked down on Manhattan as I had years ago. 20,000 buildings can be seen. New York is a a study in buildings and architecture. We saw the Hudson and East Rivers. We hit the streets looking for a hotel. We came to the entrance of Central Park and entered it. Joggers were running. I told Michael we were getting in deep, and we retraced our steps. We found Times Square. Michael was elated. It dawned on me how much Times Square meant to him because of seeing it so much on television and in movies. He seemed to take pictures from every angle. Night fell. We were turned away from several hotels. We went into TGI Friday's. The Yankees were playing the White Sox on the Yes Network. We watched part of the game and talked about staying up all night. We went looking one last time and found the Portland Square Hotel. It was a miracle. The room was small but clean and quiet. Best of all, it was right around the corner from Times Square and the Palace Theatre where we had tickets for the Broadway show. Nothing is cheap in New York. I tried to keep expenses under control while doing what we came to do. Michael brought his cell phone and stayed in touch with his mother and friends. People were everywhere. You dodge them. Horns blow. Cabs whiz by. It is an effort to cross streets and get around. Michael and I stayed close. We had a flexible plan which we adjusted as we went along. We walked for long stretches. We sat and rested. Michael said he was overweight. This was a chance for him to work off some pounds and for me to fight arthritis. Wednesday, August 10 (Day 2) - We made our way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx by train. Yankee Stadium is located at 161st & River Ave. I got tickets by email, $52 total. We were in the upper deck. Reserved tier. Section 28, Row N, seats 15 & 16. We were down the third base line toward left field. The game took up a large part of Wednesday. It began at 1:05pm. I wanted a day game so it would be daylight when we hit the street. The New York Yankees played the Chicago White Sox. This was good, traditional American League baseball. The Yankees lost, but the main thing was that we experienced a game at Yankee Stadium. There were a few leftovers from the great team of the 1990s: Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Pasada, Mariano Rivera, Tino Martinez and manager Joe Torre. Yankee Stadium itself was the star of the show. I noticed the big NY behind home plate and the facade in the outfield. I remembered how Mickey Mantle came within inches of hitting one out. I gazed at the bullpen and could just see the edge of Monument Park from where we sat. The Yankees' dugout in on the first base side. We roamed through shops which sold Yankees merchandise. Thursday, August 11 (Day 3) - This was the day we cracked New York. We rode the subway to Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero. Ground Zero was fenced in. We walked around the perimeter. It was a solemn site, not unlike Pearl Harbor. It was not emotional at this point, but we wondered what it was like being in the city on that day. Freedom Tower is being built. It is America first since 9/11. Michael pointed to a cross. From Ground Zero, we hoofed it to Wall Street as I did in 1984. Wall Street is the financial center of the country, and Michael wanted to see the New York Stock Exchange. It is where stocks are bought and sold. NYSE lists 2800 companies with a value of $20 trillion. It has the largest trading volume of any stock exchange except NASDAQ. This is an education for Michael. Federal Hall is across the street where George Washington was inaugurated. Michael got pictures of Washington's statue. He got one of Trinity Church. Wall Street got its name from the wall the Dutch built to protect themselves from Indians. The British took New Amsterdam and renamed it New York in honor of the Duke of York. We moved toward Battery Park. A German girl took our picture as we ferried to the Statue of Liberty. She was from Hamburg, and we talked about The Beatles and the Star Club. Michael and I spent an hour on Liberty Island looking up at the green Statue. His Liberty pictures are post card material. I was doing this for Michael and derived satisfaction from that. He was seeing New York City for the first time. It will benefit him. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French. It was done by the sculptor Bartholdi and commemorated French support during the American Revolution. Lady Liberty holds a tablet reading July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. Her right arm is straight up. She holds a torch. There are 7 spikes in her crown representing the 7 seas or 7 continents. The Statue's official name is "Liberty Enlightening the World." Battery Park is so named because of big guns which once defended Lower Manhattan. We returned to the room to rest as I was was tired. It was a hot August day. I could not drink enough. Water fountains were not to be found. I secured the tickets for All Shook Up which I got from Ticketmaster by email. The show was at the Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway. I remembered the address because it was the year of Shakespeare's birth. Off we went. We were in the balcony. The theatre was ornate, and an usher told us it was about 100 years old. All Shook Up combined the music of Elvis Presley with the plot of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was a fun show. We exited the theatre about 10:30PM and went to our room for our last night in the city. Michael had to see Trump Tower, and we found it. It is residential, and its condominiums are for the rich. Donald Trump is a real estate developer and Michael's hero as a business major. I took a picture of Michael against the backdrop of Trump and his wife, Melania. Michael bought shirts at Brooks Brothers. The clerk told him Trump's assistant came in the day before. We passed Rockefeller Center and got pictures of Prometheus and Radio City Music Hall. We slipped in the NBC studios shop. We ate at the ESPN Zone and saw a nasty collision between two baseball players. ESPN stands for Entertainment Sports Programming Network. Friday, August 12 (Day 4) - On our way out of town, we stopped at New York University. Washington Square Park sits on the edge of NYU, and we saw the arch. We entered a book store, and Michael compared their business books to MTSU's. We got to Kennedy Airport with time to spare. We ate at Chili's Too in the airport. It was a straight flight to Nashville. We arrived on Delta/Comair. Karen met us at the airport and dropped me off at Vanderbilt. I had it in mind to take Michael to the main sections of the United States: south, up east and out west. Daytona Beach was the trip south. New York was the trip up east. Las Vegas will be west. I now see my early trips to New York as preparation for the trip with Michael.
Contact: jim@jimcolyer.com