On Tuesday, June 21st, my wife Christine and our two children, Madison (age 14), an
d Carson (age 11), boarded an 11:30am Delta flight from Atlanta to
LaGuardia Airport on Long Island. From the airport we took a traditional yellow cab with a cab driver that liked to use the gas and the brake simultaneously during rush hour traffic. The four us hardly spoke alternately looking at the awe inspiring New York skyline and bracing for the expected, but never happened, rear-ending of the car in front of us.
We happily and safely arrived at the
Hilton Garden Inn Times Square a
t the corner of 8
th and 49
th, just around the corner of Times Square and the Theatre District. We quickly learned the
HGI was in a great spot being within walking distance from Times Square, Theatre District, Rockefeller Center; Central Park, and shopping in either direction on 5
th avenue or 34
th street
We were all hungry and we passed
Carnegie Deli, which our friends the
Hannon's recommended, on the cab ride to the hotel, so after dropping off our luggage, we walked there for a very late lunch. We were warned in advance that the portions are huge, but we
weren’t prepared. I order the ‘Woody Allen’ and I was able to nibble on the leftovers that we brought back to the hotel all during our vacation.
Now that we were fed and checked in the hotel, Christine and I have a tradition while on vacation, that the first thing we do is take a tour of the city to get our bearings and determine the things that we would like to do.
The Grey Line with their red double
decker buses has an office right across from the street for the
HGI on 8
th, so after dropping off our luggage we got a two day unlimited pass. We then boarded at stop one right in the heart of Times Square for our two and a half hour downtown loop tour.
The Grey Line offers hop on hop off services, but we stayed on the full two plus hours, seeing Time Square, Theater District, Macy’s, Times Square, Empire State Building, Flat Iron Building, Ground Zero, Greenwich Village, Soho, China Town, Little Italy, Battery Park, Statue of Liberty (very brief glance), United Nations, Waldorf, Rockefeller, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, then back to Times Square. The two and half hours go very fast and you are really not seeing the wonderful sites on NYC and not
rea
lly experiencing them.
Don
Soucy, who I work with, took his family to NYC for vacation the week before us and
luckily for us he shared his detailed itinerary, that included the sites, restaurants,
broadway plays, and recommendations. This was tremendously helpful including recommending going to the top of
Rockefeller Center versus the Empire State Building. I want to say a big thanks to Don and his family for sharing their information.
After the bus tour, we decided to walk back to Rockefeller Center go to the
Top of the Rock. By now it was nine o’clock at night, and we got to see New York at night on a clear night. Simply wow, walking around the Top of 30 Rock.
After a great first day, we walked back to the hotel to get some rest. On the walk back, we
couldn’t resist and we got some late night slices of pizza at
Famiglia Pizza just outside of Times Square.
On Wednesday morning, the bad news was that Carson had a headache and he was throwing up. The good news is that our first event was later in the day, the matinee of the Broadway show
Spiderman, ‘Turn off the Dark’. Knowing that Carson can get sick quickly and get better quickly, we got him some ginger ale and he was able to fall back asleep while Christine watched Wimbledon Tennis on TV and Madison did
facebook on her lap top.
I decided to take advantage of the three of them in the room and take a run in central park. I walked the half mile to Central Park, then started my four mile jog as soon as I entered the park at Columbus Circle. My iPhone came in handy with both my google maps app to get me back to the hotel and my
runmeter app to track my route and speed. It was a very relaxing and slow run. Check out the map of my route. Even though I was in Central Park for the first time, it was still
familiar because of all the movie scenes of the bridges, ponds, miniature sail boats, central part zoo, the rocks, and the baseball fields. Amazing that the oasis of Central Park is right next to the asphalt jungle of NYC.
When I got back to the hotel, Carson was waking up and luckily feeling better so the four of us walked to 42
nd street to see
Spiderman in the
Foxwoods Theatre.
Spiderman is the
most expensive and troubled play to open on
broadway. The play was even stopped and partially re-written due to bad reviews and actors getting hurt
performing stunts. Luckily for us we saw the rebooted
Spiderman2.0 and it was fantastic. The affects and stunts, were very impressive with
Spiderman flying into the audience and amazing background effects. We had great side balcony seats with the four of us sitting together on dining room chairs versus the traditional stadium seats. I definitely recommend
Spiderman for kids, teens, and both U2 and
Spiderman fans.
After
Spiderman, we
didn’t have any plans and the four of us discussed all the options of what to do next. Because they are in the same general location, we decided to go with Carson’s Dylan’s Candy Bar store first and then Christine’s Serendipity3. With my google map app, we started the roughly 2 mile walk from
Spiderman to Dylan’s. Walking the streets downtown New York is simple because the streets are a grid but you can still be overwhelmed with the sky scrapers, traffic, history, street vendors and sheer volume of people walking the sidewalks with you.
By the time we arrived at Dylan’s we were hungry, tired, and sensory overload, tensions were high and I am going to share a heated family discussion of Dylan’s or
Serendipity3. Luckily for me I was semi-prepared because on the flight up to NYC, I read an article in USA Today by Kim Painter on
‘Family trips can be peaceful, even with teens in tow'. The article reminder me that kids are going to whine and complain on long family trips.
We
hadn’t had lunch yet and it was 4pm in the afternoon. The kids also
didn’t expect the two mile walk and the complaining started very quickly during our walk and kept building all the way to
Dylan’s. After getting out a lot of emotions, calmer heads finally prevailed and we decided to eat at
Serendipity3 first, then go to Dylan’s.
Serendipity3 is very small and very popular. At 4pm there was an hour wait for us. By the way the wait only added to the kids argument of going back to Dylan’s to eat candy for lunch. But I had read a blog that said the
Serendipity3 wait is usually not as a long as predicted and 30 minutes later we were seated. During our late lunch Madison, said one reason they were frustrated is that her and Carson didn't know what we were going to do next or how long it would take to get there.
Christine wanted to go to
Serendipity3 for their famous frozen hot chocolate. The kids and I were happy to eat real food like salad, wings, and burgers. Reading their menu I quickly noticed that they have a
$1,000 sundae, that you have to order two days in advance. I asked the waiter if anyone ever orders and he said they get one every other week for birthdays, usually sweet sixteen’s and special events.
Now that our stomachs were full and minds calmed, we walked backed to
Dylan’s and what an amazing Candy store. Madison shared with me the story of Dylan’s, the daughter of Ralph Lauren, who wanted to build a candy store like Will Wonk and Chocolate Factory movie.
When we left Dylan’s it started to pour, so we decided to try and ride the NYC subway. There is a station right outside of Dylan’s, Subway: N, R, W, 4, 5, 6 to 59
th St/Lexington Ave. This did not go well, as after buying subway passes and entering the subway, we were quickly overwhelmed. It was 6pm, so we were in the midst of rush hour, express train announcements, and multiple levels of subway. Having lived in Boston and riding the T, I knew the down side of getting on the wrong subway car. After 20 minutes of switching levels / platforms, reading multiple subway maps, and not finding someone to help us, we decided to exit the subway and get a cab.
We exited the subway on the other side of the street and by the time we exited it stopped raining and we walked back to our hotel.
On Madison’s advice of know what we are going to be doing, when we got back to hotel we mapped out the rest of the trip, with each of us making recommendations on what we wanted to do.
On Thursday, we started the day with a walk to Times Square and we took the Gray Line bus tour to Ground Zero. We walked around the former World Trade Center twin towers site and future
Freedom Tower, and 9/11 Memorial. The area is in full construction mode with over 3,000 workers on-site. Amazingly, as we were walking around ground zero, we ran into our
Kennesaw neighbor Steve Crook and his son Thatcher.
After Freedom Tower, we took a recommendation from Don
Soucy to have lunch at
Grimaldi’s Pizza right under the Brooklyn Bridge. We debated walking over the Brooklyn Bridge or renting bikes but because it was raining we took a cab to
Grimaldi's. We had to wait about 30 minutes in line before getting seating at
Grimaldi’s but it was more than worth, as the t-shirt says, ‘A Pizza, You Can’t Refuse’. If you do go to
Grimaldi's, please know they only take cash and luckily for us Christine brought her purse.
After lunch, the rained slowed and we
walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge. For me, this was my favorite part of trip. It is spectacular with amazing views both of the city and the bridge that you can only see by walking.
After Brooklyn Bridge walk, we walked to Battery Park to take the ferry to
Liberty Island and the
Statue of Liberty. The ferry has more unbelievable views of the city. After docking, we walked right into the statue and up to the platform. The original flame is in the base of the platform and the guide let us know they stopped letting tourist walk up the flame in the sixties. I asked if we could go up to the crown but you need a reservation which runs about four months out.
The view from the platform and walking around Lady Liberty are breath taking. The Star of the base is the former
Fort Wood. Walking into the base there is a display case with the actual Liberty Bike by Orange County Choppers. It is worth the time to take the ferry to and walk around the Statue.
We took a cab back to the hotel and walked to John’s Pizzeria in the theatre district. We got there around 8:30pm which is after the theatre crowd leaves so there was only a 10 minute wait. Unfortunately for John’s, their pizza wasn’t half as good as Grimaldi's, however, the family conversation was fantastic.
After dinner we took a stroll through Times Square and we went to the M&M store, which is three full floors of candy and M&M stuff. We walked back to the hotel, another great day in NYC.
For Friday, we started with a bike through central park. We rented bikes just inside the Columbus Square entrance and we did the full bike around the park, which took exactly an hour. What is great about biking is that you can cover the entire the park, the down side is that biking is not allowed on the majority of park’s paths, so after biking we walked through some of the most picturesque bridges and paths including the famous
Bow Bridge;
Belvedere Castle; and the
model sail boats pond.
After Central Park we walked over to Rockefeller Center for a tour of
NBC Studios. I recommend getting tickets in advance because there are a limited number of slots each day. We visited three studio sets including Saturday Night Live, Sunday Night Football, and Dr. Oz. However being summer, none of the three were active. Even though they were not active, it is still impressive to see real TV sets. It is amazing how small the sets are especially SNL. They have three small sets right next to each other and then a pull out stage to do all those live skits. For only $20 a person, NBC Studios Tour is worth the time and it only takes an hour.
After the tour, we took a hotel recommendation and we ate dinner at Vynl’s (
http://www.vynl-nyc.com/) on 9th ave. It was like a fancy chili’s with good food and my favorite part was the back of each menu had the old 33 record albums. Mine had the classic The Police album on one side and one hit wonder Boy George on the other.
On Saturday, the last full day of our trip, Madison had wanted to go shopping, so her and Christine went to 5th Avenue including Forever21, H&M, and Abercrombie. Carson and I relaxed in the hotel until lunch, where on Carson’s recommendation, we had lunch at Rink Restaturant right in the center of Rockefeller and where the skating rink is in the winter.
When the four of us met back up in the afternoon, we went to Madam Trousseaus Wax Museum on 42nd street. Madison and I had a blast at the one in Los Angeles and I knew this one would be fun too. The wax museum is a little expensive at over $30 a person but we had a blast getting pictures with movie stars, singers, athletes, and presidents.
After Madam Trousseau’s we went to Wicked. What an amazing musical. I grew up watching Wizard Oz every Thanksgiving and Wicked is an amazing, funny, thought provoking, and complex story that doesn't taint the kids story of the Wizard of Oz. The actress that plays Glinda, The Good Witch, was absolutely fantastic.
The next morning Shaun Priest and family flew out of LaGuardia, to end our amazing family NYC trip.
The
only three true job interview questions are:
d Carson (age 11), boarded an 11:30am Delta flight from Atlanta to LaGuardia Airport on Long Island. From the airport we took a traditional yellow cab with a cab driver that liked to use the gas and the brake simultaneously during rush hour traffic. The four us hardly spoke alternately looking at the awe inspiring New York skyline and bracing for the expected, but never happened, rear-ending of the car in front of us.
t the corner of 8th and 49th, just around the corner of Times Square and the Theatre District. We quickly learned the HGI was in a great spot being within walking distance from Times Square, Theatre District, Rockefeller Center; Central Park, and shopping in either direction on 5th avenue or 34th street
lly experiencing them.
We exited the subway on the other side of the street and by the time we exited it stopped raining and we walked back to our hotel.
PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) versus just firing. I have a saying, "You have to earn the right to fire an employee", and a PIP is part of the process. Additionally, you have a new team and there may have some future sales superstars with leadership and direction.
