Off Topic: A Family Trip to NYC

As a last hurrah for the summer we took the kids up to New York City this weekend; they’ve never been to the Big Apple before and we thought it was time. Trying not to overschedule we limited our agenda to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. If time allowed we’d take in parts of Central Park, and if the opportunity presented itself, a play. In our care (and kid) free years, Mr. J and I used to go up to New York, usually around our anniversary, and take in a museum and a play. We’d stay at the Hotel Edison and see whatever we could get tickets for at the TKTS booth. By letting fate make our theatre selection we saw some excellent performances that we would never have knowingly picked.

I was in charge of making arrangements for this trip and the Edison was booked up by the time I checked; there were no weekend seats for the plays I thought the kids would like. We ended up at a chain hotel that was a few blocks away from a corner of Central Park. They had quoted me a price of $209 for the night over the phone, which didn’t seem too bad. However, when I signed in the registration said $249, which I assumed included tax, etc. Nope, the final tally Sunday morning was $279. I think we really got hosed there, especially considering that the cold water didn’t work in the sink and the shower was hinky, so next time around I’ll start much earlier and hope for the Edison.

We drove to Trenton and left the car in the garage there ($24.00 from mid-morning Saturday to about 4 p.m. Sunday) and took New Jersey Transit to Penn Station. If you try this, ask how old kids have to be before you have to buy a ticket for the. On the trip up I bought tickets for everyone from a machine (2 adults for $17.00), and on the trip back (2 adults tickets from a teller at the window for $23.00, no idea why the difference), and discovered the kids could ride free. Live and learn.

Admission to the museum was $40 for 2 adults. As a note of caution, be aware that you can’t check luggage at the museum. Our plan was to avoid going to the hotel until we could get into the room (3:00 p.m.), so we took our one bag with us. This proved to be a mistake. We went through the Egyptian gallery, the Mayan exhibit, Renaissance and Modern Art before the kids were “arted out.” In the household division of world knowledge, Mr. J has all of art (along with all things scientific, Shakespeare, and Spanish), and he would gather the little Janes before selected paintings and explain why it was important and tell them they would see it in a lot of textbooks. We spent far too much money in the gift shop.

The day was overcast to start with and got colder and wetter in the evening. No one wanted to wander through Central Park in drizzle and it was too cold to go to the rooftop hotel pool. Since we didn’t have play tickets Saturday night we ended up staying in our room watching a movie. I thought it would be too scary for the kids but was outvoted by everyone else. This may have been the little Janes’ favorite part of the weekend.

Sunday we woke up early and took public transit down to Battery Park to catch the Circle Line boats to the Statue and Ellis Island. Entry to the parks is free, though you need timed tickets to get into the Statue of Liberty. The boat ride out is $11.50 per adult and age graduated prices for kids. Usually in late August a cruise would be beastly hot but today, with a chilly breeze and occasional rain, it was bracing. I wish we had brought jackets (not to mention long sleeves and more than one umbrella). Nonetheless it was a pleasant trip with great scenery. The kids really enjoyed it. We had to go through security to get on the boat and through more stringent security to get into the Statue. You walk through something that looks like a metal detector, but isn’t. It blows puffs of air on you. Mr. J assumed that there were “sniffers” in the gate to detect particles of suspicious substances the puffs of air loosened, but we have no confirmation of this. Some people were visibly startled by this. The park service employees were marvelous. The young man who gave us an introduction to the park was very enthusiastic and one ranger, whom I saw manning three different positions while I was there, a Mr. Morse I believe, was also exceptional. If we are going to look at people on the public payroll who work for very little and manage to do without car allowances or per diems, let’s consider park rangers. I’ve never met a park ranger who didn’t seem to really love his or her job. Just thought I’d throw that in. (I found a Pennsylvania pay schedule dated 2000, which gave the starting salary as $25,000 annually. After 28 years a supervisor could earn $50,000.)

The kids raced through the Statue but enjoyed it. Back to the boat and then on to Ellis Island. The exhibits were interesting but geared for either more studious or older children than the ones in my house. Back to Battery Park, public transit to the hotel. It was really raining by then so we splurged for a taxi to Penn Station. Trenton. Home.

All in all, it was a good overnight trip, other than lapses in patience by parents and some excessive spirits by the kids (the two may have been related). We hope to go back once a year or so. With taxi fares, etc. we probably spent around $500. It could have been done for less if we had shopped around for hotels, shown more restraint at the museum gift shop, and asked more questions about train fares. Next time we’ll know better. I had been doing some preliminary new sofa shopping but that’s kind of down the drain now. However, in my book experience is always a better purchase than things.