Tiny Tourists
You know what I'd get rid of from New York City if I had one choice? Tourist groups, although bedbugs come in a close second. I had fantastic plans all laid out from Friday to Sunday (mostly involving a glowing screen, the couch and lots of pizza and beer), but all that was laid to waste when my Uncle saddled me with chaperoning a flock of his visiting friends and their families from Atlanta.
If you think passing through JFK is a pain, then you should try waiting for someone on a late Friday afternoon. And then finding that the 'someone' consists of a group of 8 adults who know squat all about NYC, and as a bonus, they brought along a motley bunch of tiny kids of varying shapes and sizes. Cabs were out of the question, so I conned them clambering onto the Airport Service Express Bus, and promised to meet them in Manhattan.
They were booked in at the Wolcott, which is pretty much the best you can get out of New York hotels as a visitor, especially during the holiday season. Its located centrally a few blocks from Rockefeller Center, and is quite cheap for the facilities on offer. Course, my entourage was driving the counter clerk nuts with their questions and instructions, and I fervently hoped the ground would split open and swallow all 17 of them, never to be heard from again. But that wasn't going to happen, so I now have to plan for a tour which includes all the kiddie attractions in New York.
Friday evening was a total disaster, because in my enthusiasm to make them take part in the New York experience, I made them take the subway to my Uncle's home in Queens. Big mistake. Took a couple of hours to locate and herd the entire flock safely in Queens, since one half of the group got seperated and lost somewhere along the way, and I was in Queens with the other half.
Anyway, Saturday, in addition to the usual tourist haunts and Central Park, I'm planning on taking them to the American Museum of Natural History, the Children's Museum of Manhattan and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which just re-opened after a massive overhauling, and which I wanted to see too. I think maybe if there's time after the Statue fo Liberty, we'll spend some time in Coney Island, so they can see the Aquarium. Sunday, they want to do Niagara. NYC's gain is Buffalo's loss...
