It's a Hell of a Town

Note: This blog fell apart over the last two weeks. Why? Partly, it's Blogger's fault, since it was down for a solid 24 hours before we left on our trip. Partly, it's our hotel's ridiculous $25 PER DAY fee for Internet usage. And, partly, I needed a break. But now we're back. Here's what you missed:

Free, on-street parking in Manhattan. It can be done.

I love New York. Never thought I'd say that. Growing up in the Midwest, it sort of scared me. Plus you heard people say things like, "Too many people" and "Not enough space" and it kind of gets in your head that you wouldn't possibly like New York.

I love New York. TW and I headed down about 10 days ago. We were going to the Dominican (meh) and flying out of JFK offered a nonstop option. So we spent a leisurely Saturday in New York. No, really. It's possible.

We left our hotel around 11:30 a.m. and headed for China Town. We procured some free on-street parking. And we walked three-quarters of a mile to Wo Hop, a little hole in the wall at the edge of China Town that happens to be Zagat rated.

No joke, I was one of the tallest people in China Town.

Weird, I know. Been gone two weeks and it takes me all of four paragraphs to mention food. Our family is funny. We're adventurous only to a point. Last fall, I met my aunt Sue (Flo's sister) and cousin Brianne in NYC. We went to Wo Hop for lunch. Sue, who lives in Florida, has been twice since; I've been once. Moral: Try something new, then never try anything else.

TW isn't a big Chinese fan, but she took one for the team. Then we bought some luggage. Here's the thing about China Town: Luggage is really cheap there. A big suitcase that Kohl's would charge $90 for is $50. And we probably got ripped off.

So there we are in China Town, leftovers in hand, walking back to the car in crowded streets with a suitcase in hand. Just a typical day in NYC. The car was still there when we got back, which is always a bonus. And then we decided to press our luck.

Car still there!

Specifically, Amy encouraged me to press our luck. The Brooklyn Brewery isn't exactly a favorite of mine, but it was just over the river from us. Why not hop a train and go over?

We got off on 9th Street. The brewery is on 11th. Perfect! But, as we walked through a residential neighborhood, it didn't look right. Then we ended up at a Lowe's at the address the brewery was supposed to be at. At which point TW produced her iPhone.

It turns out, there are two 11th Streets in Brooklyn. Zany, right? The fun part was getting to the other 11th Street. I was ready to give up, but TW insisted we hail a cab. After a few blocks of walking, we were in the back of a cab. With a cabbie who had no idea where we wanted to go.

This was amusing. It got better when the cabbie pulled out a GPS and asked me to input the address of the place. The coup de grace, the high point, really, was the cabbie then would not follow the directions of the GPS. So, I ended up leaning forward and telling him "Go straight. Left at the light. Left here. Yep."

It took us a half hour to go six miles. That's not a reflection of New York traffic. That's all cab driver. We showed up at the Brooklyn Brewery and made an unhappy discovery. There was a line to get in. But, joy of joys, Brooklyn Bowl was right next door. It's kind of a famous bowling alley because: A. They have live music on Saturday afternoons; B. They have craft beer and good food. We sat at the bar and I enjoyed several Greenpoint Brewing concoctions. Then we walked to a subway line, made it back to our car, back to our hotel, and the Dominican Republic the next day. There's really nothing to say about the Dominican. It was fabulous. I sweated a lot.

A few days later, we were back in the Northeast and I stopped sweating. Our GPS has live traffic updates, so it went beserk getting us out of the city during Friday rush hour. I went on highways, interstates, beltways, parkways and throughways. I'm pretty sure I drove through Michael Bloomberg's front yard. We drove by the Bronx Zoo and a bunch of pretty lakes. Six hours later, we were home. I wonder when we can go to New York again.

Our resort was pretty nice.