Observations

After our trip to New York City, I have a few observations.

We discovered that New York is extremely dog-friendly. Particularly on our morning and evening walks, we would meet lots and lots of dogs! We were also surprised at the number of large dogs, as it seems they would be harder to have in a small Manhattan residence. That's where my observation comes in. Manhattan dogs are not like normal dogs. They're very cool, don't get me wrong. They're just not normal. Here is the dog from my earlier post.

They just squat right on the concrete sidewalk! Often without sniffing or anything. That was an interesting sight. It wasn't disgusting - just interesting. Not only the pooping, though. Dogs don't chase things in Manhattan. This is obviously a huge relief to their owners. Very rarely when walking through a park would you hear a dog barking at a squirrel. Oh, which brings me to the squirrels. They were weird, too. They just walk up to you hoping that you're going to feed them, although I didn't see a single person feeding them all week! This one crawled into another person's stroller. When she looked to see what happened, she found a nut buried by the squirrel! Weird

Also, I noticed that all strollers in NYC have to be Maclaren or even more expensive. That was interesting.

My favorite thing about Manhattan, and the entire metro area, I suppose, was that all of the neighborhoods (SoHo, the Village, etc.) were basically just small towns. Everyone knew everyone else and their business. You saw the same people every day. It was actually very tight-knit, it seemed. More so than a medium-sized Midwest city. I thought that was pretty cool. We made one particular friend at a McDonald's on 3rd Street that proved this theory. One day when I needed a pick-me-up big time, we stopped in for juice and Diet Coke (for Sophia and I respectively), but all the tables were full, so I couldn't get her juice mixed or my stuff back together. So I asked an older lady at a table by herself if we could join her. We sat down and had a pretty good chat! Then Sophia and I packed up and left. Well, we went back for breakfast on our last day and just happened to meet her again! She apparently came in there every morning and had her morning coffee. She remembered Sophia's name, and Sophia was so happy to see her that she walked over and volunteered a kiss! Again, she was in her element. Anywho, it was just an interesting thing to run into the same people daily in such a huge city.

The only time during the entire week that I felt unsafe in any way, shape or form, was driving to and from the airport. We had reserved a car service because of all our baggage and need for a family car. The drivers were very kind and got us where we needed to go, but I definitely was tempted to kiss the ground when we stopped! I may have felt a little unsure about crossing streets as well. All the taxis were pretty insistent that they get through the light. Sophia stopped commenting on honking horns (although we didn't once get honked at!) by the end of the trip.

It's easy to get lost and I have virtually no sense of direction. That statement says a lot. No particularly interesting stories here. Just a fact of wandering around a strange city alone with a map that is only accessible if I stop, put Sophia down or deal with her fussing in the stroller while I pull it out of my bag and try to determine where in blazes we are. I typically just kept heading the same direction until I saw a north/south or east/west street that I recognized and could navigate.

One very interesting thing we noted was how friendly people were in general to Sophia and me. Each time we got on the subway, people would offer their seats as I stood with Sophia. I felt bad declining their offers, but Sophia always complained when we sat. We were surprised at how people went out of their way to open doors or help us out in general. As I write this, I'm struck at the familiarity of the people we encountered on this trip and the hospitality of Atlanta in April. Hmmm. Maybe we just look particularly helpless, or maybe small children and young mothers are rare in big cities. Something to think about.

That's about all I can come up with at the moment. I plan on posting my favorite pictures of the trip some time soon. Let me know if I haven't covered something.