Our plan was to leave home at 6 a.m. on a Thursday morning and return on Saturday afternoon so our daughter could be at work that evening and we could attend a Christmas party that would be too much fun to miss. We had just returned from a week in Texas and had the pleasure of sleeping in our own bed for only one night. Our daughter had complained about being home alone and talked nonsense about hearing strange noises on the third floor. Surprisingly, we were awakened at 3:40 a.m. on that Thursday morning by "strange noises on the third floor".
At first, it sounded like a squirrel….then a mouse. No, not one mouse, it was mice…..and they sounded like they were having a track meet right above our bedroom ceiling. It was hilarious. I started laughing and couldn't stop. It was 3:40 a.m. and we were wide awake so my husband and I decided we might as well get in the car and start driving to New York. Good thing that we did because we ended up needing the extra hours. The trip was uneventful as we climbed the Laurel Mountains up to Somerset, and then down the S curves on the other side. Once we passed Harrisburg, however, we drove right into a blizzard. It was a complete white-out, snowing so hard I could barely see the road. The snow was coming down in record time and the road was covered within minutes. Since driving was slow and slippery, I decided we would exit the turnpike and find someplace to wait it out.
After a leisurely breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we cleaned the snow off the car and headed east into the snowstorm. It eventually tapered off, and by the time we were in New Jersey the roads were dry. We crossed through the Holland tunnel quickly enough, but spent the next hour sitting at traffic lights as we moved through the sluggish Manhattan traffic. We unloaded at our hotel, only to discover they did not have a parking garage which meant another 45 minutes to find a place to leave the car for the next two nights.
By the time we met our friends, it had been eight hours since we left home and taking Amtrak was sounding more and more attractive. (Our friends loved it, but said to make sure you upgrade to business class.) After hearty hellos, we headed off to Bryant Park and its makeshift village of wooden stalls with merchants selling their Christmas wares all around the skating rink. The joy of being in the city at Christmastime is that everywhere you look you see signs of the Christmas. For example, as we exited the park we strolled through the New York Public Library end enjoyed their decorations and appreciated the warmth of being inside.
Our next stop was the September 11 Museum where Mark had scheduled us for a guided tour. We were all amazed by the quality of the museum and the quantity of artifacts from the former World Trade Center. We stood in awe at the expansive wall of blue tiles which our guide explained was the artist's attempt to describe the hue of the sky on that clear September morning with each tile (one for every life that was lost) depicting a slightly different shade of blue. It was a very somber tour. Each of us had our own memories of where we were when the tragedy of that day unfolded and I imagine almost everyone visiting the museum felt the same way.
The rest of our trip we did all the touristy things people like to do in the Big Apple: walking around Times Square at night, window shopping on Fifth Avenue, stopping by Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas tree and catching a glimpse of the Today Show anchors, dinner in Little Italy, strolling through Central Park, fighting the crowds to see the Christmas windows at Macy's, brunch at Tavern on the Green. Most of all, we enjoyed the company of good friends and the Christmas spirit all around us.
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