NYC in the Summer

If you read this blog you know by now that I go into the city (and btw – there is only ONE “the city”) every winter and often in the fall. I go in more often but not that often in the summer. NYC is no different than central NJ in July & August – hazy, hot, humid. Of course there ARE exceptions. Last year we went into the city in the summer for the Interactive Van Gogh exhibit and my birthday. I never did finish blogging about that wonderful trip, did I? I got you on the ferry across the bay and never finished with the great walk down the East River to the restaurant. My bad. That was a FANTASTIC day.

My husband and I are both Senior Citizens which means we get to pay lower train fares. It used to be VERY expensive to take the train in – 2 or 3 round trip tickets cost more than driving in and parking in a lot. In addition there was no easy place on this end of the train trip to park. Now with the cost of gas, the high tolls, being senior citizens, and the new very convenient very large parking deck next to the train station, we’ve stopped driving in. A good thing too as they are discussing imposing “Central Business District” fees on motor vehicles, and that would include us trying to reach our favorite parking deck.

I work for an international company and so I have many coworkers who I’ve known for years but either never get to see in person or almost never get to see in person. One of these is the wonderful woman who is my technical support. She is fantastic and over the years I feel that we’ve become friends as well as colleagues. She lives in California, however, so we’ve only met 3 times over the last 10 years. A client was flying her in to NYC last week and we knew we had to meet.

Of course the day we were meeting for lunch was day 5 of the current heatwave, temperatures over 95F, the humidex (is that a word?) over 105. I didn’t care. 🙂 I found loose-fitting clothes, comfortable walking sandals, blocked my calendar and headed for the train. Getting the right train is always an interesting endeavor. We were meeting in midtown at noon. If I took the 10:40 am train I’d get in at 11:45 and would have only 15 minutes to make it 12 blocks uptown, which is about 3/4 of a mile. Hmmm. When I do my morning walk I average a little better than 3 mph. But not in this heat, not on crowded city streets, not in sandals, and who knows if the train would be on time. On the other hand, the train before that was at 10:17 getting me in at 11:15 – 45 minutes early, a long time to hang at the restaurant waiting.

Of course I opted for the earlier train and decided to do my traditional sight-seeing BEFORE lunch instead of after lunch. That gave me something to do with my time as well as freed me to go-like-crazy after lunch if I wanted to catch a train back home without having to wait 30 minutes or more. Penn Station NY is much improved but not THAT much. 🙂 I got out at 32nd and 7th and headed uptown. I had a lot of friends to see. I made my way to 5th Avenue & 42nd to see Patience and Fortitude.

I checked my watch but I thought I could make it up to 30 Rock and Prometheus and still make lunch on time at Carmine’s on 44th between 7th & 8th. Walking a bit faster despite the heat I trekked up 5th. Ah, home sweet home. There was a time, gentle reader, when I worked for RCA, and 30 Rock was the RCA building and I was up there regularly. I couldn’t get a good angle for a shot of the entire promenade so I started walking to Prometheus. I loved the fountains in the middle of the promenade and was delighted to see the rocking horses!!!! Oh my! I really wished I had time to get on one and take a selfie. 😦 But time was pressing. Hastened to say hi to Prometheus – you can see I was less than careful with my camera angle. Then off to 6th and 48th for my traditional photo of Radio City Music Hall. The plaza in summer is much different than in winter. Now I knew I was going to be late – but only by 5 minutes. Indeed I was less than a block from the restaurant when my friend texted me to say she was there. I said “go in, I’m right behind you.” I was – sweaty and disheveled but I was there! The waitress was lovely and brought me some paper towels so I could mop up. 🙂 Lunch was wonderful! We started with fun summer cocktails, the lunch was delicious, and the company superb!!! And I made the 2pm train home – got to Penn Station as the train was boarding. Now THAT is timing!