Guest Author - Brenda Potter Reynolds

Even though I’ve lived in New York State all of my life, I’ve never been to New York City. (I can hear the shocked gasps now!) Never fear, I recently ventured into the city – lower Manhattan, to be exact.

My husband and I went to NYC with my brother and sister-in-law, who live in Phoenix, AZ. My 14-year-old niece was also along. Other than my husband, none of us had ever been to the Big Apple before.

The first thing we did was to hop on a tour bus. We chose Gray Line, which has double-decker buses and “hop on, hop off” tours. We started with the downtown loop, which stopped at the three attractions that we most wanted to see – the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, and the Statute of Liberty.

On the bus, we managed to work our way to the top deck. We got off in Chinatown and walked a few blocks to Little Italy for lunch.

Chinatown was bustling, with vendors hawking purses, t-shirts, jewelry and just about anything else you could imagine. Little Italy smelled just heavenly! I was looking for two specific restaurants; Paisano’s or La Mela, recommended by visitors in our forum NYC but hunger overtook us, so we just picked one.

We ate at Positano Ristorante – what a good choice! I had the best lasagna that I’ve ever had, and even though no one would let me sample their meals, they pronounced the Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Parmesan, and Spaghetti simply delicious.

It was raining lightly when we got off at the Ground Zero. When we walked back to the bus stop, a bus pulled up with the top-deck riders clad in white plastic rain ponchos. It looked like a choir group was riding the bus.

When we got on the bus, tour guide handed me a rain poncho. “No way,” I thought, and I handed it to my husband, who slipped it into his bag.

Several minutes later, though, when the sky looked like it was going to dump on us, I regretted my decision. My husband hurriedly pulled the extra raincoat out and helped me get it on.

Not a minute later, it poured. The lower level of the bus was full, so there was no question of going downstairs.

Luckily, we had a good group. The tour guide was a good sport and even stayed up on top with us.

Soon the water began to build up on the floor. Whenever the bus went slightly uphill or downhill, we got our feet washed by a c-c-cold three inches of water.

We took the bus back to the visitor center and got our car, eager to get back to the hotel and into some dry clothes. The Statute of Liberty would have to wait.


Resources

While planning our trip to NYC, I used NY & Company. Their First Time Visitors page is excellent!

Gray Line New York offers several different tours, starting at $20.

Positano Ristorante offers excellent food and the prices are reasonable, too! This little restaurant has had good reviews from the New York Times and the Zagat Survey, among others!