Charlotte’s had many memorable events so far in her life and we can now add “First Visit to New York City” to the list. I had no preconceived notions that Charlotte would remember anything from this first trip. At nearly sixteen months old I’m simply impressed when she can remember the word “dog” but I thought for sure there’d be some instant reactions and impressions walking along the High Line, seeing penguins and bears in the Central Park Zoo, and observing Times Square’s chaos. Maybe not.
We drove up to Jersey City on a Tuesday afternoon to take the PATH to Manhattan (I could write a separate blog about taking this approach to visit). Before hopping on the subway Charlotte took in her first glimpse of the lower Manhattan skyline. There’s a certain excitement associated with seeing that skyline whether it’s your first or hundredth time.
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Path drops you off at the World Trade Centre Oculus where I instantly became thankful I had a backpack to carry Charlotte from the PATH station to the subway station.
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I’m not going to take the time here to state what I don’t like about New York City (again that’s a separate blog entry) other than to say it’s somewhat difficult to find a place to eat in Manhattan. The good places are overrated. The bad places are bad. In past recent trips I’ve patronized the old-school places in Manhattan, select establishments off lists from searches like “Oldest Bar in Manhattan” or “Classic Manhattan Restaurants”, etc. I’ve nearly reached the bottom of those lists. This is a specific Manhattan complaint.
For Charlotte’s first meal in NYC I had one Midtown trick remaining in my travel hack bag – the Westway Diner. A diner where a certain Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David met late one night and hatched the story for Seinfeld. Charlotte and I ordered an egg salad and a tuna salad sandwich in honor of Seinfeld. Good sandwiches. Good meal to start the trip. Who needs the Manhattan hype restaurants when Westway is still slinging out the best egg salad sandwiches.
For Charlotte’s first meal in NYC I had one Midtown trick remaining in my travel hack bag – the Westway Diner. A diner where a certain Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David met late one night and hatched the story for Seinfeld. Charlotte and I ordered an egg salad and a tuna salad sandwich in honor of Seinfeld. Good sandwiches. Good meal to start the trip. Who needs the Manhattan hype restaurants when Westway is still slinging out the best egg salad sandwiches.
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The next morning we caught a subway to downtown to check out Little Island, a Barry Diller vanity project, sitting in the Hudson River at the southern end of the Highline. We haven’t been to NYC since COVID and Little Island was the one major new attraction that had opened since our last visit. What can I say about Little Island? It’s kind of cool. Nice views of Lower Manhattan. It’s a nice complement to the Highline if you walk to the end. I’m not sure it’s a destination in and of itself. I’d put in the same category as NYC’s other recent new attraction, the Vessel. It’s nice to check out once, not sure how soon I’ll visit again. Charlotte enjoyed walking up and down and around Little Island so that counts for something.
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On to the Highline. Which I haven’t visited in years. Which I’ve stayed away from because of crowds. But on a Wednesday in late May. With no crowds. It’s as great as ever. I’ve always been jealous of this urban revival project – always angry and disappointed that Philadelphia couldn’t quickly replicate a similar public works project. I love how the Highline snakes and winds through high rises. I love the views. Charlotte took an instant liking too. No crowds meant she had free reign to walk wherever she wanted. Linger to smell the flowers. Watch 10th Avenue traffic drive past. I feel like Manhattan is at its best when you can find a pocket where the city feels like it is all your own – that in a space with millions you’ve found your own personal sliver to enjoy. With no crowds, the Highline is that space.
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For lunch we ate a hamburger from P.J. Clarke’s, one of the options on the “Classic New York Restaurant” lists. The restaurant has been around since 1884 where everyone from Buddy Holly to Nat King Cole has enjoyed a burger. P.J. Clarke’s can now add Charlotte Hamill to their list of patrons.
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To Central Park. I was expecting Charlotte to have an “oh, wow” reaction to Central Park but once we reached there, you appreciate how large Central Park is and that there’s not any singular point at which Charlotte could focus on for an initial lasting impression. We headed to the Central Park Zoo, which surprisingly takes up a relatively large footprint on the southeastern side of the park. Despite that size, there’s relatively few animal exhibits in the park – there’s a sea lion pool, a penguin pool, a bear pen, a jaguar pen, a red panda pen, a tropics area, and a monkey pool/pen. The enclosures are nice, they are well done, there’re just not a lot of them. And if the animals aren’t moving around a lot like in the case of the sea lions and jaguar, then there’s not going to be much to see. Fortunately, the penguins did not disappoint. Charlotte got a chuckle each time a penguin glided past in the water. I think she wanted to jump in the water with them.
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On to the bears. A bear fully cooperated with the photo taking but Charlotte either didn’t see the bear or didn’t appreciate how lucky we were that the bear decided to come up close to us rather than hide in the shade or take a deeper dive into the pool. She seemed more interested in the people looking at the bear than the actual bear. Which is probably a good summary of our zoo experience – Charlotte’s favorite animal? The little birds on the bench outside the Central Park Zoo.
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The red panda got a few chuckles too as the active one raced around its pen – a bit like Annie when she’s going through a zoomies sprint. I'm not sure she could see the monkeys sitting on the rock. I could barely see them.
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The next morning, resigned to the fact that Charlotte would both not remember this trip nor like to have any major impressions from seeing iconic sites, I did a photo blitz through Times Square and Rockefeller Center so that we could look back in forty years on Charlotte’s first New York experience.
At 8AM on a Thursday, Times Square was surprisingly quiet, although overall I thought the City still had a buzz, still had crowds that while maybe not at pre-pandemic levels, were not indicative of a City in decline; certainly not in the dire straits that Right Wing media pundits would have you believe. Was Charlotte amazed by the Times Square lights? Did she just want to eat her English muffin in peace? We will never know but the photos looked good.
At 8AM on a Thursday, Times Square was surprisingly quiet, although overall I thought the City still had a buzz, still had crowds that while maybe not at pre-pandemic levels, were not indicative of a City in decline; certainly not in the dire straits that Right Wing media pundits would have you believe. Was Charlotte amazed by the Times Square lights? Did she just want to eat her English muffin in peace? We will never know but the photos looked good.
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Rockefeller Center had some sort of a weird DJ dance event going on where people listened and danced to music on their headphones for a chance at three-seconds of screentime on Good Morning America. A quick backpack photo in front of Radio City Music Hall.
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We headed to a bagel place on the Upper West Side. Waaay too crowded. Then to Daily Provisions, a much-hyped breakfast place. Good Everything Croissant. Otherwise just a big ugh. Typical Manhattan. Time to head home.
