Sam’s choice for his senor trip was New York City. We headed up to the Big Apple just before Easter.
So what did you do in New York???
We rode the subway and stood in lines.
And somehow we squeezed in a few more things. Like a visit to Ellis Island where Sam & Jack search for any record of a handful of ancestral names that we knew from family stories.
We did the Empire State Building at night.
We took in a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and could have stayed much longer, if not for a tight schedule.
We stopped by (can you say “stopped by” if you stood in multiple lines just to get in?) the 9/11 Memorial and paused to reflect.
We rested our legs in the Rose Reading Room in the NYC Public Library.
Did you see a show????
Yes we did.
Jesus Christ Superstar was brilliant and sensational and the audience really did erupt. Newly opened on Broadway, there was a buzz in the crowd and it was a fantastic way to spend Maundy Thursday.
Before the show we ran into someone who was a huge part of Sam’s childhood. We couldn’t resist the photo opp.
What did you eat?
Nothing fancy or too expensive. Hands down, our favorite meal was 99cent pizza on 5th Avenue, just one block down from the Empire State Building.
Where did you stay?
Funny you should ask. We’re pretty cheap when it comes to paying for hotels, and therefore, Manhattan for a family of 5 is not the place for us. We searched high and low for accommodation before our trip and discovered a place in Brooklyn that was a house renovated into guest suites. Score. Reading the reviews, it was clear it was a residential neighborhood in the Jewish part of Brooklyn. No problem for us.
So as we drove into Brooklyn that first night, and turned down Avenue J, we entered a whole different world that would be home for the next 4 nights. It was 9pm and people were bustling up and down the avenue, in and out of shops, as you would expect in a big city. However, the busy sidewalks were full of Jews, mostly Hasidic Jews. At first it was “Look! It’s an Hasidic Jew!... oh, there’s another one!” This was just a completely foreign sight to us as we drove down the street. The sight didn’t grow old as we drove a couple of miles down the main road.
The sense that we were in a different culture continued when Dave found the kosher instructions on the microwave in our suite. And then there was our complimentary breakfast – meal vouchers at the Bagel Hole.
By Friday we realized that Passover was beginning at sundown. No more Bagel Hole for breakfast, and no maid service for the rest of our stay…
Saturday evening, we returned to our hotel a little earlier than the other nights. We were exhausted after three days in the big city, and were looking forward to finishing our Eater story we had been reading through. Chelsea found The Ten Commandments on TV. We settled in to read and then watch Moses.
Eventually, the guests downstairs (we were on the third floor) became louder and louder. It was getting kind of annoying – kids were running wild, and it sounded like chaos. Dave decided to walk downstairs and ask them to keep it down. He was gone a short bit and when he returned he confessed that he decided not to say anything. Why? An entire Passover feast was being laid out, and guests were arriving. “What was I supposed to say?” he said, “Could you keep it down, we’re watching Moses on TV.”
The moment wasn’t lost on us. Saturday evening, these families were remembering when their God brought them out of captivity. Sunday morning we would be observing the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
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