Manhattan

Well, it took a bit of urging from Ellen, and tour guide help from Karl, but we spent Sunday in Manhattan. Karl's here - I picked him up at the Philly airport on Saturday - and Ellen had urged us to go to New York. I dithered, being nervous about the whole undertaking, but then gathered my courage and decided a train in seemed like the way to go, so I didn't have to worry about driving and parking and all. Having heard from several people at the office about how easy it is to get to the City and navigate around, and Paul's been asking for a train ride, the train was the way to go. Thankfully, Karl is a great tour guide, even in a city he'd never been in before! He navigated us through Penn Station, and I had already decided to take a taxi to our rendezvous with Ellen, Daniel and the grandkids at the American Natural History Museum near Central Park. I'm not sure why, but the City wasn't as overwhelming to me this time as it was last May on the bus trip in with the press association. It was mainly invigorating to me this time.

We toured through the museum. Seth is so much fun - the grandkids always behave pretty well when I'm around, it seem to me (or perhaps I just ignore any misbehavior) but I think Simon, in particular, behaved. We agreed the Denver Museum of Natural History is as nice as this one, albeit a bit smaller. After the museum, we took the kids to Central Park, where, despite the chilly weather, the kids played. I can't believe after all that walking through the museum, they still had the energy to play. However, Karl, Paul and I had quite a bit of energy, as after Ellen and the gang headed home, we walked all the way to Penn Station! That's 50 blocks. And before someone says, "they are short blocks" I'll give you that, but we were still walking for basically 3 hours. With side trips to Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral, taking in the sights! Stopped in a deli for a break, and later at a Barnes and Noble. Karl just led us, with occasional peeks at the map. I would say that the only down side was that the train was extremely crowded and Paul was very tired by the time we hit the train about 6 p.m.

We're back to the Baltimore comparisions, but pretty much, I felt way more secure in New York than I did in certain places in downtown Baltimore. And, the City is set up in a much more routine fashion than Baltimore. Gee, once you've lived in Baltimore, all else seems nice. Karl says he likes New Jersey better than Baltimore and that we're better suited here.

Get this - today, Karl went back into the City by himself. Ellen predicted that's what he'd do. He wanted to see Soho and Greenwich Village. By about 3 p.m., he was out of money and ready to come home and pretty tired. He's a pretty remarkably self-sufficient young man, for someone who just turned 21. Now, he has all the tasks ahead of getting a decent job, and being more stable, but there's time for that. Just like J.P., I'm all in favor of him getting out, doing different things, taking chances.