We had just triumphed the big scary subway on our own, and now NYC was in our hands… and as luck would have it, over the next two days we’d be hooking up with friends that new the score WAY better than we ever could…
NYC 4 – Chelsea Flea Market, 9/11 Memorial, and meeting dear friends
Today we did NOT have to worry about getting lost.
I was finally going to meet Susan from Homeroad. Susan’s been a long time online friend, sharing my love of junk. And when she heard I was venturing to NYC, she hopped on a train with her tour guide worthy daughter Kerry, and within a hour, was sitting downstairs in our hotel lobby.
Honestly? I had played with the idea of seeing her on Long Island, but we were just too new at the subway thing… and I couldn’t comprehend learning the train thing on top of that! Maybe next time…
I’m so glad she came our way. It isn’t every day you get to walk the streets of a world famous city with a blogging buddy!
Susan was EXACTLY like I had imagined. She looks way younger than she claims to be! I’ve never heard her voice before and it was perfectly her. It’s pretty amazing how personalities do shine through via online typing.
But she brought a bonus along… her very streetwise daughter Kerry. Which made our whole day an absolute breeze! So nice! Thank you a million times over, Kerry!
The first thing Susan did was hand me a New York license plate, with a true Homeroad touch… in white.
What a cool idea!
The BAD made me chuckle, and think of all the now funny drama we had experienced thus far on this trip.. a broken camera on top of the Empire State Building, getting lost a bazillion times… and so much more. It was perfect!
Before we head out, I wanted to take Susan through this nifty store located near our hotel in the Flower District.
This place was amazing. It had props like you would not believe.
“… numnumnum…” (patooey!)
Seriously… this bun looked 100% real.
Can you imagine having one of these faux cakes sitting around? This would be horrible… I’d die of hunger… or go buy real cake!
You could find anything here. From twine, burlap, ribbon…
… and these super cool bark covered planters. It was seriously a dream come true for those that stage or decorate. If the prices had been a little lower, I would have carried some stuff home.
We didn’t really have set plans on what to do, so first things first, we went out for NYC pizza.
Oh word guys… pizza in NYC is like NO other. It’s traditionally thin, but anything with veggies on it sent me through the roof. Delish! It’s just a combination of their cheese, sauce, the works. It’s just different.
Honestly, I’d return to NYC just for this alone! It hurts to zoom into this picture… LOL Anyone know what makes their pizza so amazing?
So anyway, knowing that Susan and I are both junkers, I have to give my boy and her girl credit. They put up with us taking on the Chelsea Flea Market, which was just a few walking blocks away.
The Chelsea Flea Market is on the smaller, quaint side, which was a nice change for a city like NY! It was located right beside a historic church that had JUST burnt down. I think we were lucky it ran!
This picture carries the true essence of how NYC made me feel, dwarfed against the tall buildings. You really did kinda feel like you were walking in between long, tall hallways wherever you went.
You have no idea how badly I wanted this NYC road and cars toy. But it was too big and bulky to take home on a flight. Drat. But it sure was cool!
I just loved these wooden bowls. I’d have one of each if I could.
Check out the porcupine nail spines… I want to make one! 🙂
I loved how all this stuff had such a neat rustic patina to it. Aren’t these masks as an entire wall grouping fab? Now I want masks…
And then JACKPOT. That little metal tin with the lid came home with me for about $8 I think. You’ve actually seen it in THIS post with my blue door redo.
I also picked up a few other small things such as antique keys.
We had fun! And it was super cool to carry home some authentic junk from NY.
Next up, we decided to see Grand Central Station. Susan and Kerry go to NYC quite often, so they were very kind to accommodate my curious desires.
Please don’t ask me what we were pretending to do here. It may have had something to do with the machine eating up one of our subway tickets. Naturally.
Susan, do you even remember? We’re in our 50’s… we don’t really have to remember…
But no worries… Kerry totally knew how to get from point A to B. It was WAY more involved than staying just on my fav #1 red subway. I just grabbed Susan’s purse so I could be nosey and stare everything down without watching where we were ‘suppose’ to go. The only way to travel.
And then we were there.
Grand Central Station, you are BEAUTIFUL!
Oh the immense space. And detail. And marble. And brass.
Can you even believe those ticket windows and lights?!
It truly was a stunning place to take in. And yes, it was very, VERY big. The network of subways all connecting to one place had me REALLY GLAD Kerry was with us! It was crazy compared to my little itty bitty #1 red line.
And then just like that, Susan had to go home. Pout.
Lemme tell ya, these subway / train goodbyes do not linger! You hop on, and BAM. You’re gone. You’re gone even before it registers in your head, and you haven’t even said a full good-bu…..
By the time we sped a million miles an hour back to our own hotel, I needed to chill in front of our corner Starbucks. I needed things to just STOP so I could absorb what just transpired way too quickly. I ordered a large Pike, and sat outside on the sidewalk (on the ground… why are there no chairs?) and mulled over what a unique day we had just enjoyed.
Susan and Kerry, I am SO very grateful you took the time to come out.Thank YOU for making it so easy to finally meet up in one of the coolest cities in the world! And you’re as nice AND beautiful as I imagined you would be!
– – – – –
The next day, we were treated to one more day with someone that knew their way around. My dear friend Miriam from Hometalk and I have worked together for some time. We’ve also met up on several occasions. Do you remember when she came to my house? How about when Hometalk hosted me over at Luckett’s? And more. We have quite a history!
Well, to be able to meet up with Miriam in her own home town was beyond anything I could dream up myself.
Our plans for the day led us first through the upscale district of Soho.
Soho is STUNNING. It’s filled with high end shops galore. And the buildings are so gorgeous.
It had such a sweet, quaint feel to it compared to the high rises where we were staying. I could see some of the more unique NYC character seeping out.
We went through a few high end shops, but when my boy’s eyes started to glaze over, it was time to head to his deal…
There’s my girl! It was like having my own personal tour guide. How lucky were we?
And then in no time, we were at the 9/11 Memorial.
The memorial area was so beautiful. The grounds are among a park like setting, set against the high rises.
The water is generally turned on both memorials, creating waterfalls, however one was turned off likely due to the high winds.
Touching the beautifully carved names made you feel more of a real connection to what transpired that fateful day.
This is the Freedom Tower, or One World Trade Centre. It’s the 4th tallest building in the world. I hadn’t realized until now that it has an observatory for viewing the city.
The presence was massive.
From the reading I’ve done, it looks as if this is something you’d want to book ahead of time.
Same with the Statue of Liberty. If you’d like to cruise closer to her, booking a private tour before you go is a must. Or you can take the free Staten Island Ferry, but apparently you don’t get as close up as most would like.
We bypassed this one this round. Just not enough time to do it all. Which is fine. Need to leave something for next time, right?
The grounds around this side of town are amazing. Very park like. We had dinner in one of the main buildings, where you entered a large food court.
I can’t remember if this was the place we ate at or not, but one of the coolest things that NYC does is make fresh salads on demand. You choose your ingredients, then they chop it up right in front of you. Can’t get much fresher than that! And it was delish!
I will never forget our dinner. Miriam and I had these incredible salads, and my boy with his scrumptious NYC pizza. I could barely stand it… when he ordered, I was salivating over a veggie covered one, and Miriam INSISTED on buying that for me too! Oh how she spoiled me so!
We sat in this booth right beside a massive picture window overlooking a park. It was the most wonderful dinner EVER.
And once again, yet another very tough ‘until next time’ was had, and we parted ways.
We are now down to our very last day in the city, which, back to normal, comes with draaaaamaaaaaa. It wouldn’t be a Funky Junk journal without it!
Where are our friends when we need them?! 🙂
That’s next!
Here’s a short video seeing the hot spots in NYC within 4 minutes!
OMG your pictures are amazing! It was so great to finally meet you my friend. I wish I could have stayed longer! It was a fun day I won’t soon forget, let me know when you are back in town and I will tell you about the train (not the subway), the train! LOL xo
Hi, Donna
I read the other post where you told about getting lost in NY and how you couldn’t get any reference points and I kept thinking that NY isn’t such a hard city to navigate. Try Rome, for instance, where there are no parallel streets.
Then it hit me. It’s probably the lack of an horizon that threw you off. When we are in the country or in a less dense city, we navigate by the horizon, but in dense cities, like NY or my home”town” Sao Paulo, we can’t. In places like these, you have to learn the place by small reference points, like store fronts, subway stations, street corners. It’s a complete paradigm shift and learning to do this would not be obvious or easy.
Once you learn, you navigate the place whichever way it requires without even noticing, but yeah, the first trip is a nightmare. And Rome, Rome does require a GPS.
That is not to say that I didn’t get lost on my first trip to NY and walked for hours. I ended up having amazing conversations on that day with the people who helped me find my way. New Yorkers are much nicer than the reputation they got.
My goodness what a wonderful time you continue to have. You’ve reminded me of a blogging friend of mine who lives in Denmark, who went to the UK for a weekend…while I just happened to be there too! It’s just so lovely meeting someone in real life who’ve you’ve built a relationship with over years. I get to do that again this August. A friend from the Netherlands is heading to London and I’ll be in Oxfordshire at the same time. She’s part of my art challenge group, (not sure if you pop over to my blog, but we’ve been going for a few years now), so I’m super excited to be able to give her a hug.
Thanks for sharing your New York experience, I enjoyed seeing it all,my next trip is to SOHO
I Love New York, also my friend who has lived there all her life is my tour guide
Janice
How fortunate for you Janice! I can see why you love to go… you know what to do!
OH MY what a chance of a lifetime. I still remember that day and seeing the 2nd plane hit the second tower. I called my daughter right away because she is in the military and yes she was in lock down and would be deployed.
The memorial is a beautiful reminder of how precious life is.
You did a great job of showing the memorial through your camera eye.
THank you
Hi! Veronica sent me over .. i wish i had known you were in town, i work in the World Trade Center and would have been happy to show you the view from up on the 43rd floor .. no insanely obscene charge like the one they have to look out from the observatory .. and you had dinner (?) in Brookfield Plaza’s food court .. they have the most interesting selection of restaurants there … Brookfield used to be called the Winter Garden, its situated between two of the American Express buildings and the glass roof was only slightly damaged when the towers fell .. next visit, let me know and i would happily show you around downtown as well as uptown where i live across from Riverside Park and a short walk from Central Park!
What a kind offer Daryl, thank-you! And thanks so much for the added info on the food court name… our dinner was truly fab!
Donna, the pizza! When I went back after being absent for 16 years I took my boys to a pizza store. I said to them, the stuff you are eating in Greece is not pizza. It was such a happy memory for me and the kids love their pizza, just like your boy. I think it’s the thin crust which makes it special. And of course, New York is full of Italians. Grand Central is a marvel. Did you know that there are walkways on those tall windows? And if you look up you can see the twinkling lights of the galaxy.
Thank goodness you had Susan and Miriam to help you otherwise we would have had another fun adventure. Or is that in the next installment?
love your “journal” entries. i just got back a week ago from NYC!!! it was awesome! i cannot wait to go back! we went for my boyfriend’s sister’s high school graduation but for bonus days, we went to the One World Trade Center and Coney Island. had THE best time. i was able to ride the subway train, ride in a city cab and ride in a city bus for the first time!!!
Oh, I want to go to NYC so badly! But I want to go with someone experienced, or I’d spend my whole trip wandering around instead of getting to see anything! Thanks for taking us along with you.
Haha, well, maybe be smarter than me, and go take a tour of some sort. I debated, but felt I could handle it on my own. Still not positive that was the right move! LOL
I live approximately 45 minutes from NYC in Connecticut. I very rarely go into the City because I don’t know my way around. When our son worked in the City I knew how to leave Grand Central and walk to Times Square (he worked for MTV) but he transferred to LA so now I never go in. I was on the train one time and a very sweet lady showed me how to take the subway but I was terrified. I’m glad you had a good time.
I am loving this! I’ve wanted to visit NYC for years. Finally my daughter and I just might make it this fall!!! But being from a small town in New Mexico it’s a bit overwhelming ( ok ok a lot scarey!). But after reading yours posts I think I can do it 🙂
Thank you for taking us along.
Fabulous trip, I will be hungry for NY pizza now for at least a year.
So nice you could meet up with friends that knew there way around.
The next time you go I want to meet up with you, I’m serious and eat pizza.
You are making the best memories with your boy, you are a really good mom.
Haha, I want to absolutely CRY when I see that pizza picture! Oh well… time to look for something else I can’t live with that’s a little more accessible! haha! Do you live in the NYC area, Patty?
I feel your pain haha, I get the same feeling when I look at that picture.
No Donna, I don’t live in NYC area. I live in Kentucky, but it is not a big deal to hop a quick flight to NYC.