A Chance to Play Tourist
As much as I hate moving from state to state, it has afforded me the opportunity to see many things and places in this country I might not have seen had I lived in the same place all my life. We even make a point of trying to see things that many locals may take for granted. If we hear about something that peaks our interest, we try to go check it out.
For example, as I’ve mentioned on this blog before, there were so many things to do in Chicago that we really took great pleasure in heading downtown on the train or by car when we lived in the southeast suburbs. In the seven years we lived there we visited most of the museums, the aquarium (one of my favorites), Navy Pier, and of course, Sears Tower. We also spent several occasions shopping on the Magnificent Mile and even attended one Broadway Show while it was on tour in Chicago. It is truly a city with a wide variety of entertainment. I always looked forward to our trips downtown.
Things were no different when we lived in Connecticut. We were so close to New York that it was easy to find things to do in New York City, the hard part was traveling into the city, it’s so congested and filled with one way streets. The first time we went, my husband drove. He found his way down there with the help of a good map (this was pre-GPS) and even found his way into a good parking garage close to 5th Avenue and all the shopping. From then on, anytime we went to the city, we drove the exact same route and parked in the exact same garage. We didn’t want to take any chances on getting lost! Have you ever driven in New York City? It’s absolute bedlam and the streets are filled with crazy drivers, not just the taxi drivers either! It’s wild!
New York City is quite a bit more intimidating to me than Chicago, it’s just so much bigger and more crowded. We did have a blast though finding the Empire State Building and Time Square. These are places that you always see on T.V., so it was so awesome to get to see them in person. We even stood outside to the studio where David Letterman tapes his show. We shopped a lot and my favorite was F.A.O. Schwarz, probably because my daughter was so little and it was fun being in that huge toy store with her.
I think the only thing that I had really wanted to do while we were living out there was to do a couple of the sightseeing tours, particularly the tour to the Statue of Liberty. I never did see that statue and I really wanted to.
I never want to miss out on something like that again, so I’ve signed up for the Trusted Tours and Attractions newsletter to keep me informed and give me ideas of things to do. By the way, if you sign up for the newsletter by May 31, you’ll be entered to win a $150 iTunes gift card. Just think of all the music you could listen to on your next vacation!
