Events of Friday, November 19, 2010

          Wait, why are we getting up at 6:30 again? This was my first thought when I was awakened this morning at the crack of dawn. Then it all came back to me, our plan for today of going to an RV repair shop and arriving there at 7 o’clock, catching a bus, catching a subway, and so on and so on. We dressed, did our hair, finished our packing, and managed to be on the road fairly soon. We arrived at Gerber RV Truck & Bus at precisely 7:01, not bad for a family who badly needs some sleep. After delivering our RV to the workers there, we walked about a mile and a half to the nearest bus stop. Arriving there just as the bus was ready to leave, we had to run as fast as we could and yelled, “STOP, STOP!” until the bus driver opened the doors and let us in. We boarded the bus and found our seats. We read, tried to sleep, and ate our breakfast until our bus finally arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The Subway station was about four floors beneath us, so we followed the signs and descended into the underground. After buying our tickets, we rushed down more stairs just in time to catch a train in the direction of Uptown.

          Three stops later we were able to leave the crowded subway near Central Park, and, after a short walk, we found ourselves in a world totally different than the rest of New York City. Instead of the hustling, bustling, smelly streets of New York City, we were now on rather empty paths surrounded by fall colors, duck ponds, scenic views, and history. We saw the bench where Holden Caulfield, a character in the book Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, sat and said the famous line, “Where do the ducks go when the pond freezes in winter?” Well maybe it is not very famous, but sort of famous. While we’re talking about movies and books, we also saw the pond in Stuart Little in which the model boats were raced, the playground in the Fudge series, by Judy Blume, where Fudge jumped off a structure and lost his two front teeth, and we could not have gone to Central Park without thinking of one of our favorite movies, Enchanted. If you’ve seen it, you might recall that Giselle (Amy Adams) walks through Central Park with Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and sings the song “That’s How You Know”. Of course, you can’t just walk through the park and see the place where it is filmed, and not sing some of its songs, so Lindsey, Caitlin, and I sang and dance all through the park. If you’re interested, I’ll point out other spots shown in Enchanted that we saw along the way, but right now, we are still by the pond with Holden Caulfield, but we feel that it is time to get moving. So we said good-bye to Holden, and headed up the path.

          We hiked up the path and came to the Chess and Checkers House, where Ben thought there was a life-size chess board. Unfortunately this was not so, however, outside of the chess and checkers house were about fifty tables with chess boards arranged in a circle around the house. Since it was too cold for chess, we obtained a nice map of Central Park and were on our way. Soon we found the Dairy Visitor Center. We were on a quest for restrooms, but did not find them there either. When Central Park was first built, there used to be a dairy here with lots of cows, but it doesn’t exist now. A placard outside told us that we were in the “children’s portion” of the park and back in the day mothers could buy milk for their children there. Finally we found a nice restroom by the children’s playground. The playground was closed, but we were surprised to see that it was all concrete. We then strolled over to the carousel building, a fifty-seven horse carousel. That’s only the horses, 57 does not include the ostriches, tigers, carriages, and many other animals found on this large carousel. However, we found that it was closed, so we walked to the Literary Mall. The Literary Mall is where statues of famous authors, such as Shakespeare, are found. After the Literary Mall, we walked through a tree-lined path in which the scene with the elderly men and women and the wedding took place in Enchanted. Then we walked to the fountain in which the final scene of the “That’s How You Know” song took place. In the movie at this plaza everyone is dancing, turning cartwheels, doing flips, and it is a grand finale. But now, a lot of different things were going on. Musicians were playing, songs were being sung, pictures were being taken, and it seemed as if some sort of film, that was totally different than Enchanted was being recorded. As part of the set for the film, there were two couches and a table with roses on it, right in the middle of the plaza by the fountain. We sat down by the water, for the fountain was near The Lake, and it was not long until ducks crowded around us, begging for food. We did not give them any, but they did get a lot of pictures taken of them.

          We pondered over our map, but, not finding anything, decided that we wanted to see Balto, the famous sled-dog of Alaska. My parents had seen this statue on their last trip to New York City, and we knew the general location, but we just couldn’t seem to find it! Finally we crossed the road and found our hero Balto, ready to save the sick children of Alaska. The true story of Balto says that there once was a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska. This was in 1900, and, although many machines now existed, no machines could match the harsh January winter of Alaska. For years, strong men and strong dogs were depended on, trusted, and used. Once again, they would have to trust them. Quickly, a relay of dog teams along the present day Iditerod Trail was organized. The serum, or the medicine, arrived in Nenana by train, and the 400 mile relay began. The serum was passed from driver to driver, while the weather grew worse and worse. Gunnar Kaasen was supposed to be the second to last driver. If he had known how wild the storm was, he would have not chosen the inexperienced Balto as his leader. But Balto proved to be perfect, leading his team into a blizzard, and stopping his team at the banks of the Topkok River, saving his driver and his team from certain and instant death. When they finally arrived at the next stop, they found the driver asleep and absolutely no one else there. They decided to continue driving this sled, and, at daybreak the next day, the team arrived, frozen and exhausted from a 53 mile run. The serum was delivered in time and the Iditerod race now follows that path in honor of the sled dog relay. Balto died when he was 11, a hero around the world.

          Near Balto, there were some sunny rocks, so we sat down and had granola bars and other snacks. Then we entered back into the city and went to the big building of F.A.O. Schwartz, a huge toy store. We started on the third story and worked our way down. The great thing about it was there were lots of people working there and all of them just sat around and played with all the toys! I would love to work there! We danced on the big piano, played Frisbee with another employee, and watched someone fly F.A.O. Schwartz best inside helicopter. Downstairs, there was a person flying planes, but the cool things about these planes were that they always came back to you. Ben and I bought a packet of three of these planes, and are looking forward to playing with them. After playing to our hearts content, we exited this wonderful toy store.

          Now it was on to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Mom was talking to Dad, asking him about lunch, when I spotted the Sony Public Plaza, where we had had lunch on Tuesday. We entered the building, and found three tables, side by side. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and then headed to the St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a huge building that was built by the numerous Catholic Irish immigrants. It is the largest gothic style Catholic Cathedral in the United States. We walked around a bit inside, and then finished our walk to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. We had planned to catch the 3:30 bus, but we arrived so early, we were able to catch the 2:45 bus, with just a little bit of stress finding our gate number, bus number, etcetera. After walking a mile and a half from the bus stop, we arrived at our destination with ample time to pick up our RV. However, we found that it was not yet ready, so we shopped at the nearby A&P. Finally, our RV was ready, so after getting the propane tank topped off, we all hopped in and began the drive home.

          Once at home, we quickly prepared a taco dinner and sat down to eat with Oma Janssen and Michael. Michael, the intern student from Germany, had never had tacos before, but he enjoyed them immensely. Oma Janssen invited us to a high school performance of Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Caitlin and I decided to go. We loved the whole show, and arrived back at home, tired but happy, at 10 pm. We were in bed soon and hoping for a good night’s sleep, undisturbed and peaceful.