New York Again! Day 1

I am pretty content and excited to be sitting in Brooklyn as I write this! It is my second trip, but this time I brought Josh along due to a conveniently timed 4 day weekend, and it is his first trip.

I was not at all ready to travel again yesterday. I was still sore from my overexertion, absolutely wiped out, and had some awful trigger point pain. I was in "I just need to get there and sort it out then" mode yesterday.

So we actually started our trip right where I ended the last one less than 48 hours earlier. In the massage chairs on Concourse A at Denver International Airport. It was still a painful flight, and my seat would not recline at all, but we made it.

I had reserved a car from the airport to our friends house in Brooklyn, which is quicker than public transportation and cheaper than a cab. My driver was waiting for us at an island out amongst a million other black cars, and we were on the phone trying to find each other. I suddenly saw him waving a sign with my name on it as he was trying to weave to the curb. So I can check being picked up at the airport by a driver holding a sign with my name off of my bucket list.

Last night was just running out for some quick groceries and meeting the cats that we are taking care of. We really didn't come to NYC to have a vacation, our primary purpose is to love on Iggy and Circe while their mom is away playing. It is just a lovely lucky location for cat sitting!

Josh was not feeling well last night, and was even worse this morning. However we are in NYC, and there was no sitting in the apt binge watching Star Trek Next Generation all day. So in the early afternoon we headed for the subway. Originally we were heading towards Times Square, but then we decided to just stay on the subway and go to Central Park instead.

I think that my favorite moment of the day was when someone started a boombox and started dancing on the subway. That I have seen before, but the look of total joy and surprise on Josh's face was worth everything already. There were other performers who came later in the ride, but that dancer and Josh's glee will stick with me forever!

Central park! I just walked about 30 minutes of it while eating a hot dog last visit, so I was thrilled to really explore it. Of course...by bike. What was I thinking? It is not hot, but warm, and HUMID. I have fibro, and am out of shape. Those facts did not stop me from fulfilling another dream. (At a later point I will insert the 3 minute video from the handlebars of my bike!) Central Park is huge. I knew that, but let me tell you that the general bike loop is 6 miles, up and down hills. Whoa. We did not bike all of it, probably not even half.

We meandered, but I wanted to see the castle. So it took some searching, and climbing and descending stairs walking our bikes, but we found it!

This is part of the spectacular view our search was rewarded with.

Me made it to the top, look at my flushed cheeks!

I really wanted to see Strawberry Fields (The John Lennon Memorial) on this excursion too, however we got quite turned around in the park, rode quite far in the opposite direction, and then had to bust butt to get the bike backs on time. (I should add that in our turned-around-ness we went to 2 WRONG bike return spots before having to make our way back to the correct one, that had my ID on hold. City Park is HUGE yo!)

The train ride home had no dancers or performers, but we did have a pug in a stroller, whose human mother took a lot of pictures of while it looked bored. That was picture worthy!

We were too pooped to even go out for a full meal, so we are happily eating the soup we picked up "just in case". That was mom planning, wasn't it?