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Four of Us, Four Days, One Subway Card: Our NYC Trip

Travel

At the start of October, from the 2nd through the 5th, the four of us went to New York City. We drove from East Tennessee straight through. Planes were an option. We chose violence.

The New Jersey Turnpike has questions

Getting on the New Jersey toll road, I knew we were supposed to get a ticket. The machine just didn’t give us one. So when it was time to pay, I had to explain to a toll booth attendant where we got on. I did not know where we got on. She took one look at me, felt sorry for me, and gave me the lost ticket discount. That was also my first time ever driving into the city, so my nerves were already doing plenty of work before we got to the part where I had to guess.

Home base in Long Island City

We stayed in Long Island City, just across the river from Manhattan. It’s close enough that the city is right there, and quiet enough that you can actually sleep. The view at night didn’t hurt either.

The Manhattan skyline and the Queensboro Bridge at night from Long Island City

Walking through Long Island City on a sunny morning

One card, four phones, zero chill from Citi

My plan for the subway was clever. I put one shared card on all four of our phones so everyone could tap in on their own. Citi didn’t find it clever. Four taps from four phones at the same turnstile looks a lot like fraud, apparently, and that card spent the next several days throwing fraud alerts at me.

So we did it the old-fashioned way. At most stations we tapped one phone and passed it back down the line. It worked. It did not look smooth.

The subway itself was a lot of fun with all four of us, mosaics included.

A colorful glass mosaic on a subway station wall

Two shows, split down the middle

We split up for one night. Raelynn and I went to see Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden. Precia and Everleigh went to see Wicked on Broadway. Everyone came back happy, and nobody had to sit through the other group’s show.

Inside Madison Square Garden before the show

The Wicked stage before the curtain

A stroll through Central Park

We took a slow walk through Central Park, and it was the calmest part of the trip. People were painting, dogs were lounging and the San Remo was looking good over the trees.

Looking out toward Bow Bridge from a rock in Central Park

The San Remo towers above the trees

A painter at an easel in Central Park

People and a dog relaxing on the lawn near the water

Midtown and Rockefeller Center

We headed down to Rockefeller Center and wandered Midtown. Look up at Madison Avenue and East 51st and you get St. Patrick’s and a wall of towers in the same frame.

Madison Ave and East 51st St, with St. Patrick's Cathedral

A fountain in Midtown on a bright afternoon

Dumplings and a Woobles detour

We went to Chinatown for dumplings, which was the plan. Then we found a Woobles pop-up store, which was not the plan. We spent too much time and too much money in there. Precia was very happy about it, so I’m calling it a win.

A rainy day downtown

One day was all rain, so we leaned into it. We took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, which is free and worth every cent of that. The weather made it look a little moody. That’s fine. So were we.

The Staten Island Ferry terminal in the rain

The Statue of Liberty through the ferry window on a gray day

After that we headed to Ground Zero, by way of a quick subway oops that took us to Chelsea first. We figured it out. Eventually.

Coming up the subway stairs with One World Trade Center ahead

The memorial in the rain was quiet and heavy in the way it should be.

The 9/11 Memorial pool in the rain

The bagel question

Our New York bagel came from Liberty Bagels downtown, near the ferry. On the way home we stopped at Clinton Bagel Works in New Jersey, so we could say we had both a New York bagel and a New Jersey bagel on the same trip.

I won’t tell you which one I liked more. I’m not that reckless.