New York City - The Rest of the Story & More Pictures

New York City is not too bad once you get to know the routine and the city.  The hardest part is trying to figure out which subway to take to get you from Point A to Point B. With the help of Chris, who has lived in NYC for almost six months, we were able to accomplish this fairly quickly.  Taxis are another story.  We took a cab from the airport to Chris' apartment when we arrived in NYC, back to the airport when we left to come back home and a couple of other times during our visit. All taxi drivers are different in their attitudes, friendliness, and driving abilities. You constantly hear horns honking and breaks squealing as you are riding in a cab.  One incidence, that gave us a good laugh, was when we were catching a cab to take us from Ground Zero to Greenwich Village.  Chris always sat in the front seat and Julie, Wade and I always sat in the back seat.  Chris, Julie and Wade had already gotten in the cab, so I handed Wade my cane and proceeded to get in the cab.  I had one foot on the floorboard, one foot on the street, one hand on the top of the cab, the other on the open door.  For a second I thought I felt the cab move, but the next second the cab was leaving the curbside without me.  My hands slipped off the door and roof of the cab, and my foot slipped out of the cab as the cab drove away.  As the cab pulled away, I yelled "hey you're leaving me".  I could hear Julie and Wade yelling at the cab driver "wait you forgot mama/mawmaw.  The cab driver stopped the cab. Luckily, I only had to walk about 10 steps to get in the cab.  We were all laughing except for the cab driver who continuously was saying "you alright mama, so sorry mama, hope you alright mama." I told him I was alright and that we needed a good laugh and he had sure given us that! We chuckled all the way to Greenwich Village and the cabbie turned off the meter once we got to Greenwich and drove us around so we could see Greenwich Village and decide which place we wanted him to drop us off.  In addition to mama being alright, I guess he wanted to make sure mama was happy too!

Another funny story happened in Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum. At the very end when people are exiting the museum there is a hallway where wax figures of the  band NSYNC are on one wall and a girl was standing on the opposite side taking a picture of the band.  Everyone that came through including me waited the longest time for this girl to take a picture.  The gestures and faces of the people waiting for this girl to take her picture were priceless. Chris and I had already slipped by the girl taking the picture and was waiting for Julie and Wade.  Finally Julie and Wade show up and like the rest of the people stop because this girl is still taking pictures of NSYNC.  They wait at least a couple of minutes before Julie makes a facial expression indicating "what's taking this girl so long to take a picture?"  A few seconds later she makes a motion with her hands indicating "take the picture!"  Finally, Chris and myself could no longer contain ourselves so we finally told them she was a wax figure.  Everyone exiting the museum (including myself) was fooled by this and did as everyone else: stop and wonder after a minute or two "What's taking so long to take a picture lady?" Almost everyone had to be told that the picture taking lady was wax. Finding out made people laugh at themselves and wait and watch as others were tricked the same way they had been tricked.  To me that was the best display in the wax museum.  I wonder if security cameras are focused on that spot and how many laughs security must get everyday watching that security camera.

There are other stories but these were the best two that I wanted to share with you.  I'm not sure where my next trip will be but as soon as I know I'll post another blog so you can keep up with me and my travels. In the meantime, here are some new pictures of New York City.




How they park cars in NYC




Ceiling in wax museum



Julie's friend in wax museum (not wax)

The closest we got to going into lady liberty's crown

Wax Museum tribute to 9/11

Julie trying out for the Rockettes

Me and my Fab Four (Beatles)



We followed the Yellow Brick Road



Run, run, the Hulk is after you

Ferris Wheel inside Toys R Us store

Subway station mural

Apple Store

What Ground Zero will look like when completed