New York City Trip - Day #4

It was snowing outside when we woke up. We decided to walk to Central Park.  It was so beautiful with all the fresh snow on the ground.  We walked around for a bit and took a few pictures, then hailed a pedi-cab to take us to Radio City Music Hall.

We took pictures with Santa, and then with a Rockette!  She was so tall our heads only came up to her shoulders. We had fantastic seats!  I dare say the best in the house. We were front row on the balcony, facing center stage.  The show was awesome, my favorite numbers were the New York sightseeing bus, and the nativity.  They had live camels and donkeys.  It was beautiful. The whole time watching the show, I just couldn't believe how lucky I was to be in New York City with my mom at Christmas watching the world famous Rockettes!

After the show we took the scariest subway ride of my life.  We wanted to visit the hospital where my mom was born.  We walked to Grand Central Station, and took the 6 train uptown towards the Bronx.  The train was so crowded I had a claustrophobia attack and freaked out.  If I could have gotten out of there I would have.  We were stuffed in there like sardines.  We didn't have to hold on to the hand rails because we were held up by other people.  We befriended an older lady who was getting off at the same stop as us.  When we got off the train she told us to be careful, not to stand around with our phones out, and not to look like we were lost.  We were lost and decided the best thing to do would be to hail a cab and have it take us to the hospital.  We got in and told the driver the address and he kicked us out!  We ended up asking a local guy shoveling snow how to get there and it was only a block or so away. I guess the cabbie didn't think he'd make enough money for it to be worth his while.  We took the short walk to the hospital and got some photos.  I wish we could have gone to the apartment my mom lived in as a baby, but we didn't feel safe enough to walk that far, and we couldn't hail a cab. Afterward, we grabbed a steaming hot slice of New York pizza.  Delicious! 

We didn't have other plans for the day, so we went back to the hotel and just hung out for a while.  Mom searched and searched online for a ferry or water taxi that was open and finally found a tour we could go on.  It was far downtown and late at night.  I was really worried about how we'd get there and back, but mom had her heart set on seeing the Statue of Liberty up close, and this was our only chance.  We decided we'd pay for a car to drive us there and asked the hotel clerk to book the car for us.  We left for dinner and came back in time to catch our car to the tour, but the hotel clerk informed us they were unable to book a car.  She had one of the hotel staff go out with us to try and hail a cab.  After 15 minutes we were finally able to hail a town car.  I don't think he was legit, but he got us to where we were going, waited for us to make sure we were at the right place, and gave us his cell phone to call if we needed a ride back.  The water taxi tour was worth it.  What a beautiful view of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty!  Again, we befriended some people on the tour and we ended up walking to the subway and riding back uptown with them.  I'm so glad we found them.  It was a long, dark walk to the subway station and I'm glad we didn't have to go it alone.

We returned to the hotel and started packing our bags for the trip home.

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