The day we left for New York

We had to get up bright and early to catch the 3:00 a.m. bus to Chicago as our plane was leaving at 6:45. I love flying by the way. If you’ve ever been to O’Hare airport you know how big it is. It’s always a long walk from where you check in to where you board the plane so you want to give yourself plenty of time to get from point A to point B. Once we boarded and were on our way I couldn’t wait until we got there.

I took this picture of the city from the plane with my Ipod.

The tall building you see in the center of the picture is Freedom Tower which is  at ground zero and is still under construction. I won’t go into that anymore right now but will talk more about it in another blog.

We landed in LaGuardia around 10:00. I have to say that I was pleased to find out that LaGuardia isn’t anywhere near as big as O’Hare is.

Bill’s girlfriend Kathy, who was born there and grew up in New York, met us at the airport. She said it would be cheaper to hire a car to take us from there to her apartment in Brooklyn so that’s what we did.  Otherwise I guess we’d have to take buses and the subway and change several times before we would get to her place.

She lives on the 6th floor in this building. The best part is is that it has an elevator. I guess the apartment she had before she bought this one didn’t and she lived on the 8th floor there. So needless to say, I was thankful that she moved lol.

Her apartment is nice, small but nice. It’s a one bedroom but she has a hide-a-bed that I slept on and William slept on a portable air mattress so we were comfy.

There is one thing that I didn’t like about her place and it’s a big one for me. When I walked into her place and after we got settle in I went to pull her blinds apart so I could look out the window. You guesed it? All I could see was another part of the building and a direct view into another apartment. Needless to say she keeps the blinds closed at all times lol.

I have to be honest here. I think I could live just about anywhere, there included. But! I could not live in an apartment where I couldn’t sit by a window and look out. I just couldn’t. I’d also have to have a balcony so I could sit out and enjoy the weather. That would be a must for me.

I felt so closed in and penned up while there that I would go out and go across the street and sit on a park bench for a couple of hours. I usually did that every morning while they were still sleeping and after we would get back home from our sight-seeing trips. I would walk down the street to the corner store in search of coffee lol. She doesn’t drink coffee so for survival sake I had to find it somewhere. I’d take my coffee and walk across the street and sit and people watch. Prospect Park is right there across from her building too so I would take walks in the park sometimes as well.

She lives in a nice neighborhood in Brooklyn and I felt safe. I think I saw every race and ethnicity there on my walks and coffee breaks. I was surprised to see so many people with dogs. Some with 2 or 3. They must all take their dogs to obedience school because I never once saw a dog bark or growl at another dog or person the whole time I was there. It has to be hard to have a dog and live in apartments like most people there  but it seemed to me plenty do.

We went out for dinner at a place called Johnny Mack’s that night. It is a typical neighborhood place with good food and friendly faces. I wish I’d taken pictures inside while we were there but I was too excited being with them that I didn’t think of it. We did take these photos though.

 

We drove around a bit after dinner and made our plans for the rest of the week. I must say, they were very gracious hosts and was willing to do anything and everything we wanted. I think I might have worn them out though because I wanted to keep going and going lol. I’m the type that I want to see and do as much as I can while I’m there and they did everything they could to make that happen for us. I usually have a must do list when I travel and this time was no exception.  I’m happy and grateful to say I was able to check off everything on my list for this trip. 

Stay Tuned. The next blog will be about Ground Zero at the the 9/11 memorial.