Our first view of The Big Apple was while exiting the bus station and seeing the larger-than-life sign of the one and only New York Times building just across the street.
We caught a direct coach from Toronto to New York. My nerves about the unknown with my two high school teens in tow morphed into awe. Was that THE New York Times Building?
Being the good mom that I am I wanted to get us set up in our hotel room before anything else so I decided to hail a taxi.
You know… New York style.
Hailing down the yellow cab in front of The New York Times was surreal for all three of us. We were a little Canadian family seeing New York City for the first time after all.
The centre of the universe awaited us.
My daughter, 13 and my 17-year-old son couldn’t hide the excitement in their eyes.
Our taxi dropped us off at our hotel, about a 20-minute walking distance from Times Square.
It was a little old building with an even older and worrisome elevator. The foyer consisted of one podium and a sleepy security guard who lazily pointed us in the right direction.
When we arrived at our room and opened the door of our budget hotel we were greeted with the twinkling lights of The Empire State Building.
Well… perhaps it was the reflection of The Empire State Building on the generic brown glass building directly across from us. But make no mistake, it was a view nonetheless.
We were a little in awe of that twinkling reflection I must admit.
We dropped our luggage, bolted out the door and decided to take the stairs, as they felt much safer.
The lonely majestic staircase was about 5 feet wide with cracked marble flooring. We followed along the Mohagany winding banister down three or so stories to the ground floor and strolled past a new security guard out to the street.
It was about 8:00 pm and we were Times Square bound.
I seemed to know how to get there, we just followed down one street until we came upon those big lights.
It was a fun stroll, just a mom and her two excited teens on a hot muggy evening sometime in the late summer.
We could see the lights from a distance, but nothing prepared us for when we arrived.
We were mesmerized and stunned by the glitz and glamour of it all. Every direction we turned looked bright as daylight. Times Square surpassed our imaginations.
It was an iconic moment we won’t forget. And the shocking crowds pushing from all around us made sure we would remember.
Times Square, we discovered, after 8:00 pm was officially a mad-house. The crowd seemed chaotic. It was like nothing we had experienced.
I led the way through the mass horde of tourists holding my daughter tightly in front of me with my son directly behind us holding my shirt.
Within two minutes or less of entering the mayhem, we were separated from my son.
I couldn’t see him for all the much taller people crowding and pushing around us.
Those few moments escalated into a panic-ridden hour.
On our way to Times Square, I thankfully set us up with SIM cards before we hit the mad crush and bright lights.
The only thing… his phone didn’t seem to be taking my calls.
He called his dad, my ex-husband, in fear and frustration and told him he was lost in Times Square.
His dad, how can I explain this, is very protective of his kids.
Lucky me… my ex was able to call me and tell me where our son was, the son I lost in Times Square within 5 minutes.
My son ducked into a hotel, however, somehow he…. ended up locked in a staircase and couldn’t find his way out. Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
With my frazzled and less than charming ex-husband on the phone with my son and a family friend now on the phone with me all helping to direct us, we were finally reunited, traumatized and frustrated by the big city of New York and each other.
My son was angry with me, my daughter was angry with my son, my ex-husband was furious with me… the family friend was bewildered by it all, and I positively hated myself. It was a great old time somewhere off the strip of Times Square on our first evening in New York City.
We found out it was a Man-Baby that distracted the hell out of my son which is how we separated.
The man-baby is notorious in Times Square. He wears a realistic bald mask configured to his head, he’s smaller in stature, hairless and wears a real diaper shaking an oversized rattle.
His freaky, life-like mask gives him this psychotic angry baby frown. He looked so realistically like a psycho baby it was frightening yet alluring at the same time. We couldn’t take our eyes off him.
We were lucky to see the man-baby as we departed the mayhem back to the safety of our little old hotel room.
We dragged ourselves back, exhausted from our first hour of The Big Apple that never sleeps.
Once we returned, we set up our wifi, admired our view of The Empire State Building a little more and ordered New York Style Pizza of course.
We silently relaxed, tuned into our phones as the TV didn’t work and turned in early.
We couldn’t wait to see what Day 2 in New York City brought!
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
 |
 |
 |
 |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com
