We got up Sunday and took an Uber to the Westchester church of Christ. They were a very friendly group of Christians. We enjoyed worshiping with them. They were in the process of expanding their building to handle their growth which is great for them. It’s always wonderful to meet fellow Christians wherever we go in the world. We took an Uber back to the hotel to change and head for the city.
Our plan for the day was to visit Central Park. We took the train to the Marble Hill Station (as recommended by Google Maps) and walked one block to catch a subway to the station closest to Central Park. Imagine our dismay to find out the station was closed for the weekend. We then decided to walk to the nearest subway station. Each one we reached was closed. We finally found one that at least was attended and he pointed us to the nearest open station. I knew absolutely nothing about the neighborhood we were in and felt a bit apprehensive. Josh told me not to worry and to try not to act like a tourist. We finally got to an open subway station and got to the Central Park area.
We were starving by now. I had scoped out a place called Gray’s Papaya that was close by. It was a no frills hot dog shop that had good ratings. They had a recession special that would give you two hot dogs and a cup of papaya juice for 4.99. On the way there, we passed an apartment building that had several people gathered around it taking pictures. I didn’t think much of it til Josh said “The doormen had ‘The Dakota' on their jackets”. I realized then what it was. It was where John Lennon lived and was murdered in front of in 1980. I made sure we got a picture of it on our way back to Central Park. The hot dogs were great as well as the papaya juice.
We entered Central Park and first got to Strawberry Fields – the memorial to John Lennon. We then walked around seeing various sights including Cleopatra’s Needle (a big obelisk originally from Egypt), statues of Han Christian Andersen and the tea party for Alice in Wonderland. We went inside Belvedere Castle as well. We just wandered about after that then decided to look for the carousel. I haven’t mentioned that the park is huge. It’s funny to see something like this in the middle of huge bustling metropolis. It’s 843 acres in size. We had to wander around a bit to finally find the carousel. I actually even talked Josh into riding it with me.
We knew what time the next train left Grand Central for our station, so we decided we wanted to see two more landmarks before we got there. We ran and got to Rockefeller Center to see the Atlas Statue in front. We also managed to get to Trump Tower and see the front of that. We made it to Grand Central with time to spare (running most of the way). After getting to our hotel (from our uphill walk), we just stayed at the hotel and ordered in.
You’d think we’d seen enough of New York City? Not by a long shot. In my next post, I’ll let you know what famous place we went next and then what I got to see when I foraged out on my own to the city.
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