NYC - Part II

The next morning, we headed out the door of the hotel and made a left turn. We were on the hunt for bagels.

My son had a requirement for New York: pizza every day. After our first day, he added something: a bagel every morning.

Yes: I realize it's a little odd to start a photoblog post about bagels and then not share any pictures of.... bagels... but hey, sometimes I just like to stay in the moment and not take pictures.

It's kinda like being at a concert. Something about a screen, whether it's a phone or a camera, being between you and the rest of life occurring around you almost creates this barrier or filter that can change your role in your own life.

Bear with me on this very brief philosophical tangent, please?

You are an active participant in your life. Putting a screen between your life turns you, however briefly, from a participant into documentarian. You're now looking at the scene around you with a different lens: wondering when an image or video is worth being captured, thinking into the future of how you want the image or video to look, how you want to present it on social media, and then, due to all these things going on, the gap between you and the life occurring around you widens and widens until you're almost able to totally separate yourself from the action and now it's like a movie set you think you can wander around and consider different angles of the same shot, blocking, colors, light, and the next thing you know you have a 10 minute gap of time you can't account for because your mind has drifted off to 30 different places...

No? No one else? Ok. Moving on.

So, that's why I don't have pics of the bagels. ANYWAYS...

We got our bagel sandwiches and as we were leaving the spot her said, "I liked the first place better. I guess I only want that place for bagels."

That's the kind of level of picky-eater-who-isn't-a-picky-eater I'm dealing with.

He'll eat pretty much anything, but imprints on places to get the food and doesn't like any place else for specific dishes.

It was cold. I mean: cold. I think it was the low 30s. It wasn't snowing, but there was a strong enough breeze at skyscraper-level that much of the snow that had been able to collect overnight in alcoves and balconies was being blown down the streets below. So, it was... well, is there a term for when snow is falling on you but it's not coming from the clouds above you? Because if not, there should be a term for that.

Because that's what it was doing.

We wandered our way to Grand Central Terminal, past the library, and into Bryant Park. It was a nice way to spend the morning, and all the Christmas decorations filled my wife's heart with the special kind of joy that only Christmas in New York can bring.

A sort of "the movies I grew up watching allowed me to create a fantasy about a moment I never really thought I'd experience and now I'm having fond daydream become a reality" feeling.

It's a good feeling to experience. I suggest it!

Another thing to experience? The amount of people seemingly EVERYWHERE!

It's one thing to be walking around downtown L.A., or maybe certain pockets of L.A. where tons of people tend to be. Shopping centers. Famous landmarks. Parks.

But on this day in Manhattan? By 10am the sidewalks could barely be seen. Streets were closed to motorized traffic to allow pedestrians free passage. You bump into people constantly that it becomes a chore to have to keep saying, "Oh shit, sorry!"

And maybe that's where the rude New Yorker stereotype begins. If you spend all day apologizing for bumping into someone or stepping on their shoes or otherwise invading their personal space, you'll spend half your day apologizing.

Ain't nobody got time for (all) that!

Every single person you see has places to go, people to see, things to do. Pleasantries fall by the wayside. It's just the way it is.

This is all to say that human behavior is easily adaptable to our surroundings.

Unfortunately for my son, this was the day walked without any destination in mind. From Bryant Park we walked around for a little while and then decided to walk to Central Park.

"It's not that far."

Famous last words.

The Home Alone fanatic in my wife was having the time of her life.

Not-so-fun fact: The Plaza Hotel (smartly) closes itself off to non-hotel guests during Christmastime because they don't want to be overrun by tourists kinda like how the Krusty Krab was overrun by anchovies in the first episode of SpongeBob.

So after learning about that, the Home Alone fanatic in my wife was not having the time of her life.

In my estimation, it was a perfect day letting the streets guide us. We walked and walked and walked and saw New York in a way we wouldn't have otherwise if we had an itinerary to follow and a mindset that didn't allow for flexibility.

We stayed out well past our bedtimes. But it was an excellent day of travel.

And then, as we were stepping through the door to our hotel room, our son said, "You guys, I don't feel good."

To be continued...