City That Never Sleeps

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

This photo was taken from the red stairs atop the tkts building at around midnight on a Thursday. Yes, I did say MIDNIGHT. Golly! Lookee at all them there people! The most action you see at midnight on Vashon Island is a raccoon going medieval on your garbage can. Now there’s a sight to see.

Don’t be fooled by the picture below – it’s not the sun that is lighting up the Square, it’s really the 12 million LED lights beaming from the advertisements above. It is a spectacle that can only be appreciated if you are there. Trust me. The whole American-Eagle-6-story-LED-extravaganza is comical in itself. Paige kept saying, “THAT SIGN IS RIDICULOUS. THAT SIGN IS RIDICULOUS.” Then like a mosquito flying towards the light she said, “Lets go inside!”

That night we had dinner at 10pm (7pm west coast time). Much to our dismay, the restaurant we chose to eat at had a wait list at that hour! Desperate to eat, I had weak moment and thought we might as well dine at Olive Garden (scandalous!) rather than wait another 30 minutes. To my horror, even Olive Garden had a wait list at 10pm. I never heard of such a thing!

After dinner we walked around like two country bumpkins in the Big Apple – gawking at the crowds. More people were out and about in an 8 block strip than the entire population of the island we live on. The last time a crowd converged like this on Vashon was when they threatened to build a bridge to the island. Hoo-boy. I hear the pitchforks came out that day.

Obviously, I didn’t bring the right lens – everything is a bit out of focus because of the slow shutter speed and my wobbly hands. Photos don’t do the Square any justice anyway – you just can’t comprehend the scale unless you are actually there. It is absolutely incredible to look at – the buildings, the signs and the people. It is completely overwhelming but not in a scary way. The most frightening thing out there is knowing that everything is open till 2am. If you have a hankering to get that knit scarf from H&M in the middle of the night – YOU CAN! As you can imagine, this place is dangerous for a mother with a teen-aged daughter. Dangerous, I tell you.

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Lower Manhattan

Monday, September 6th, 2010

If I were to tell you that there was a place that had bagels, Chinese food and cannolis just blocks from each other – you might scream and run for the hills because obviously you have died and gone to heaven. Well let me tell you – THERE IS SUCH A PLACE HERE ON EARTH. You don’t have to die, you just need to go to Lower Manhattan.

Paige and I took the A train to Canal Street and proceeded to have our minds blow up all over again. In comparison, Times Square looks like Disneyland on crack compared to Lower Manhattan. There is this kind of garbagy, sweaty, gritty stink that hovers in the air. I like it.

Paige and I only had 3 objectives for our Lower Manhattan field trip – cannoli, bagel and dim sum. And if you ask Paige, our fourth objective was to shop in the Lower East Side around Delancey and Orchard streets. I wish I could say that we checked everything off the list but alas, we did not. Searching for the world’s greatest cannoli became vexing in itself because every store in Little Italy has a sign that says, “WORLD’S BEST CANNOLI.” In desperation, we got a cannoli off of a street cart. Bleech! Soggy shell. I should have know better. I have yet to find a better cannoli than the one I had at Fratelli’s Bakery in Vancouver.

We fared much, much better with the bagel situation. If you are ever in New York City, please stop at Russ and Daughters in the Lower East Side and get “The Mini.” It’s just about the perfect size for a late morning snack. We had ours at 3pm and it was still delicious. The kind of “delicious” that makes you sad because you don’t live in New York.

As for dim sum? Well we never made it. When it’s 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity, the last thing you want to do is hang out somewhere that has rolling steam carts inside.

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NYPD

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Oh Lord. Do you not think that these guys are the most adorable New York City police officers? Look at them, all doughy in he middle. They are the physical manifestation of what comes to my mind when I think of the NYPD. Cops either look like this pair or they look like Ice-T, a la Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Insert a doughnut and some coffee and we are golden. You can almost hear their New York accent from looking at them.

I am not sure how one gets Times Square duty. It seems that except when people are trying to plant car bombs, it’s a pretty good gig. That is, if you don’t mind getting your picture taken a gazillion times a day. There was a line to get near these two! A line, I tell you! With a police officer! I never heard of such a thing. When I was Paige’s age, I never wanted to step near an officer. Police = “the man” = bring a brother down = bad. Obviously, Paige is much smarter and likes to stay on the right side of the law. Right?

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