I ♥ NYC - Coney Island

One of my favorite movies from the 80s is the movie "Big."  Starring the much-unknown-at-the-time Tom Hanks, it's about a 12-ish age boy who is tired of being a kid.  So he and a friend go out to Coney Island where they come upon a Magic Wish Machine.  Tom's character puts a coin into the machine and makes his wish to become, well, big.   Everyone who is anyone has seen this movie and knows what happened next.

Ever since I first saw that movie I have wanted to go to Coney Island.

I've wanted to go there and find that creepy mechanical red-eyed gypsy woman machine, put a quarter in her, and make a wish that I  could be....small.   Hey, if it worked to make Tom Hanks BIG, then why can't it work to make me SMALL?

(Oh, how I miss my youth.)  

(I just turned 43 last week.)

(Forty-three!)

(Sigh...)

Anyway, that isn't the real reason I've wanted to go to Coney Island.  Because I think that whole movie was really just made up Hollywood stuff.   No one can realistically put a quarter into a machine and wake up the next morning 2 feet taller and 100 pounds heavier!

Duh.

(Actually, I recently found out that I can indeed wake up 50 pounds heavier and I don't need a magic machine to do so.  I just have to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday and, somehow, I wake up the next morning 50 pounds heavier.  Or somewhere close to that.)

Frankly, I've wanted to go to Coney Island because I've seen pictures of it throughout my life and just thought it was SO COOL that an amusement park was built right on the beach! 

So on our recent trip to NYC, John and I made the subway trip out to C.I.  Of course the amusement park was closed for the winter, and it was all very quiet and, in a way, a little eerie.   But I loved it. 

Remember that New York City had just received the biggest snowstorm since 1969.  Or maybe is was 1996. Regardless, it was a LOT of snow.  Because of this, I had no idea the treat that awaited us at Coney Island:

An ocean and a beach.  But not just any beach.  This was a beach covered with SNOW!   With a snowman built right on the sand!  I have never seen that before and it was so. very. cool.


 

Apparently, Coney Island is the home of the world-famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held on July 4th of each year.  Who knew?!  (Not me, but I don't really keep up with hot dog eating contests.)

So, in case anyone lay awake at night wondering how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the next hot dog eating contest, well, no need to lose any more sleep.  Just check out the gingantic digital countdown board that will keep you updated, second by second.

Check out the contest details here.   It is very entertaining to read about, especially the "Rules" section.



Contestants have just 10 minutes to completely consume hot dogs with the bun ("HDBs" in hot dog lingo).  Condiments are optional.  It all started in 1988 when Jay Green ate 13 hot dogs!  In TEN minutes!  Holy cow, Jay, you da' man! 


However, that is nothing compared to reigning champion Joey Chestnut who holds the record for 68 hot dogs consumed in 2009.  In. Ten. Minutes!   Check it out...

(I am a wee bit disappointed in Joey.  What happened to him in 2010?  Hello!  He only ate 54 HDBs!  That's 14 LESS than the year before!  Sheesh.  Sorry Joey, my opinion of you just dropped about 7 notches.)

Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a length (I took that sentence straight from the website - I don't usually use the word 'granularity' - not even quite sure what it means.)

There will be deductions for any HDB debris left in the mouth.

Only a few months left to prepare, people.  Anyone?  Anyone?

I ♥ NYC - Central Park

John and I were laying in bed late last night, talking about....whatever.  You know how it goes. It must have been midnight when he leaned in close and said to me, "I love you, honey."   I thought for a few seconds then responded with, "Oh sweetie, I really love.....New York City."

It's true.

I really said that.

So that posed the question - Why am I so in love with New York City?  Why is it that can I go there over and over and never get tired of it?  Why is it that I was just there last week and I already can't wait to go back again? 

You would think that 4 trips there in the past 4 years would be enough for, say, the average Joe. Well, I may be average but my name is not Joe and apparently 4 in 4 is not enough for me.

John was a good sport about my "love" answer and so he helped me compose my list of What Maryanne loves about NYC:

   

* Endless exploring - I can walk and walk and walk, day after day after day, just exploring the city.  There is so much to see and so much I haven't seen!  The architecture.  The museums.  The bridges.   The little secluded bakeries and antique shops.  The neighborhoods full of Brownstones and flea markets full of vintage loveliness.  I love just going to some random area of town and seeing what is there.  I always end up finding something magical.

* The diversity - I. Love. Diversity!  I come from a place where there isn't a heckuvalot of it.  I love that, in New York City, there are so many different kinds of people, with different colors of skin, who speak different languages with all sorts of accents.  I love that people can just be who they are and not conform to any one "look."  I LOVE that I don't see "Utah hair" on top of every woman's head!  Oh boy, do I ever love that.

* The Metro - I find The Metro absolutely fascinating.  How in the HELLO did they dig all those tunnels under that ginormous city?!  Where did they put all the dirt?  How many rats really live down there?  Holy cow.  It's unfathomable.  It's genius.  And I have found The Metro is the best way to see the diversity that I love.  I could sit and ride The Metro for hours on end, just watching....people.

And the entertainment on The Metro - top notch!  On this trip alone we were serenaded on one train by some Spanish guys with guitars and sombreros -"Eyyye-yie-yie-yie," and all that good stuff.  While on another train we had some "Harlem-looking homies" who turned up the rap on their boom-box, and then cleared the isle so that they could jam, spin, and twist on their heads.  AND for the finale one kid flipped over the hand rail that hangs from the ceiling!  It was awesome.  Got that one on video. :)  

Another beautiful man played his saxophone on the platform so that we could have some lovely music to listen to as we waited for the M train.  Oh, and there was the guy on the other platform with the accordion. I LOVE the accordion.  My dad used to play the accordion.  Yes, fine artists there in those NYC subways.
(Isn't that where Billy Joel started out his career?  I swear I read that somewhere.....) 

* Broadway - I love stage theater.  Always have, always will.  And can I just say...Spiderman was THE BOMB!

* Church - Yes, church!   I adore going to church in New York City.  We go to the same one every time we visit - the Morningside Heights Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (125 Columbus Ave., Metro stop - Lincoln Center).   It's like our little adopted ward.  They meet in the same building as the temple and I can honestly say that there HAS NOT BEEN ONE TIME that we have attended that we didn't walk out of there saying, "Wow.  Wow.  And Wow."   Just amazingly spiritual and uplifting.

* Central Park - Three of these four times that I've been to NYC has been in the winter.  However, when I went with my sister's-in-law (year before last) we went in May.  I remember going to Central Park with them and saying, "Oh my!  Central Park is GREEN?!  I always thought it was gray," (since it's always gray when we go in the deep dark depths of winter).   I can honestly say that I love it gray.   And I love it green.  And when we went last week it was WHITE.  I'll take it in any color.  I just love Central Park.

* Food - Okay, here goes.  The food.  THE FOOD, PEOPLE!   In my conversation with John last night,  I think we spent the longest time talking about the food.  It sounds lame.  It sounds shallow.  It sounds petty. But I will admit that possibly the biggest reason I love New York City is the FOOD!   Oh. My. Cow.   Where, oh where, do I begin?
Let me just say there is no bad food in New York City.
And, we discovered a new eating joint this time - The Shake Shack.   They are rated to have the best burger in the entire city.  And it's a big city!  The burgers were awesome.  Along with burgers they have fantastic crispy crinkle fries, shakes and custard.  Yes, custard!  I will shout it from the rooftops that eating burgers and fries and custard from The Shake Shack is like being in a brief, yet sublime, state of Utopia.  It's insane. Srsly.
Then there's Pommes Frites.  We can't ever leave NYC feeling "fulfilled" unless we have eaten the frites at Pommes Frites.  Good golly.  A little bit of authentic Belgian Frite heaven plopped right in middle of New York City.  Served in a traditional cone with any and every kind of dipping sauce imaginable.

Okay, so that's as far as we got with my "list," then someone fell asleep.   I think it was me.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I took a lot (A LOT!) of pictures on this trip to happiness.  I've decided if I wait to post them until I've poured over all of them, then they will never get posted.  So I'm going to take a chunk at a time, choosing one "love" for each post.

Today I am starting with Central Park.  The day we went to Central Park, the city had just received 15-18 inches of new snow overnight.  It was a winter wonderland.  The schools were closed due to the snow and people were off of work.  There were people sledding, joining in on random snowball fights (which John did), ice skating at Wollman Rink, and snowmen being built everywhere!

Coming Home

Who goes on vacation for only FOUR DAYS and takes 804 pictures?!

Me, that's who.

That means I took, like, 201 photos a day!

I think I'm out-of-control.

Regardless, I am pleased that my trip to NYC with my boyfriend has been well documented (probably a bit over-documented, but that's the beauty of digital photography, right?).

But until I can find 43 1/2 hours to pour over those pics and get some posted here on my blog, I'll tell this little story...

Along with being pleased with my 'shutter-pressing-happy-finger', I was also pleased to return home and find that I actually had been "missed" by my children.  I was beginning to wonder if anyone had noticed I was gone.  I reminded the little ones, as we left the house for the airport last Wednesday, that I was only a phone call away.  Adam, with tears in his eyes, said, "Really? I can call you any time?" to which I assured him he could call me at any time.  He seemed relieved and I wondered if I would be regretting those words when my cell phone rang, while in New York City, at 3 a.m. only to find a weeping 6-year-old on the other end, "Come home, mom, pleeease come home.  I miss you sooo much!"

Well, it didn't happen.

Not only did I never get a call at 3 a.m. but I also didn't get one at 3 p.m.  Or at noon.  Or at bedtime. The entire time we were gone I got only one call from home.

It was Raegan telling me there was a Girl Scout standing at our front door and did I want to buy any cookies.

That was it.  It was all about Girl Scout cookies.  Not about missing mom or dad or checking to see if we were okay amidst the monumental amounts of snow which had been dumped on us and all of New York City.  Not anything like, "Are you okay?  Are you snowbound?  Are you wet and freezing and trapped deep underground in a snow-stalled Metro train in the rat-infested New York City subway system?  Mom and dad, WE LOVE YOU!  WE MISS YOU!  ARE YOU OKAY?!"  

No.  The one phone call was all about cookies.  

And, although we did indeed miraculously survive the record-breaking NYC snowstorm ("We haven't had snow like this in the City since 1936!" uttered to us by a man with a thick Bronx brogue), we came home and found that we actually had not been forgotten by our children.   The kids had made a 'welcome home' banner and strung it across our bed, complete with darling hand-drawings and a balloon where "Happy Birthday" had been crossed out and "We Love You" and "Welcome Home" had been written in its place.

It was adorable.  And I felt much better.

I'm still trying to figure out what those things are in the "M."  I think they are Chocolate Covered Orange sticks, which are one of my favorite treats of all time.   I only get them on Christmas, and this year I got 3 boxes!  In one day!  And I ate all 3 boxes in 3 days!

A box a day....it works for me.




Thanks guys, we missed you too.