Scenes from New York

When I told my brother we were coming to visit, the first thing he asked me was whether The Wife had been to New York before.

I said she had, and he asked what she had done on her first trip to the Big Apple. I told him she had done a lot of the typical tourist stuff. He said, “Oh, good, then we don’t have to go to the Statue of Liberty.”

Apparently, when you live in New York and a lot of your out-of-state relatives visit, you end up seeing a lot of the same attractions and standing in the same lines.

I’ve ridden the Staten Island Ferry to and from Manhattan dozens of times, and I still look to see the Lady in the harbor every time I go past. It’s one thing the French actually did right. (Remember Le Car? What a joke.)

Best Statue of Liberty moment: July 1986. My mom, my brother and I went to Battery Park early in the morning and camped out all day to get good seats for what was, at the time, the largest fireworks display in North America. There was an amazing parade of ships in New York Harbor for Lady Liberty’s 100th birthday.

Worst Statue of Liberty moment: Two years later, a couple of friends and I stood in a ridiculous line for hours and walked all the way to the top of the crown. Guess what, it’s hot, it’s cramped, and you can’t see much. If you go to the island, the best part is walking around on the outside and seeing the statue up close. The museum inside also is excellent.


Here is me, the Statue of Liberty and a lot of bird poop. I am the one on the far right.

Here is the first animal we saw at the Bronx Zoo. Sadly, it is fake.



Best part of the Bronx Zoo: Tiger Mountain.

The worst: Sparsely populated, outdoor penguin exhibit.



Several wild creatures landed on me during our trip to the zoo. This would be a much better story if they had been something more terrifying. I was a butterfly magnet that day. (There is an orange and black butterfly on my hood.) Coincidentally, we bought an actual butterfly magnet. It’s on the refrigerator.



Here is The Wife in front of an advertisement for "Saw II" in the New York subway. Horror fans will be glad to know that the flick, directed by The Wife’s cousin, was scarier than the subway.



We went to see the movie opening night. About the time I was thinking I hadn’t seen a really bloody scary movie in the theater since high school or college, The Wife hammered that thought home.

“You know, we are probably the oldest couple in this theater,” she said. “In fact, you are probably the oldest person here.”

See, it was scary.