A New York Minute...or how to survive Manhattan on 60 seconds of sleep

Day 1:  This is my fourth trip to New York and each time I have traveled here, I have taken the red-eye flight. I now understand the terminology. Nancy got about one hour of sleep and she was the lucky one. Diane and I slept for about a minute...total. I don't know; maybe it was the seat that only reclined 2 degrees; maybe it was the turbulence over the Rocky Mountains that made me fearful the rest of the flight. All I know is when I walked to the back of the plane EVERYONE was asleep under coats and sweaters looking like they were filming a glorious mattress commercial. I was envious of their slumber and wished I was more like my husband who can fall asleep sitting anywhere.


We hit the ground running. The fun started with a shuttle ride from JFK. It looked like a clown car with all the luggage and the 43 people in it. The ride was interesting as lines on the road seem subjective to most drivers here. Horns were blaring and breaks squealing. Luckily we were the second group dropped off. We checked into our apartment and headed out. Just like all fine New York apartments, this one comes with a doorman. Not one in a fancy coat who opens the doors for you, but one of the crazy variety. He was a very friendly old guy who found out that we were from California. He went on to tell us his life story and about visiting California 20 years ago. He even showed me pictures of himself when he was a little boy that he kept in a baggie at the front desk. Now every time we walk by the desk, we try hard not to make eye contact but to no avail...he talks to us anyways. He kind of gave us the heebie jeebies last night as he was not at his desk...he was walking down OUR hallway with a million keys in his hands. We were worried that maybe he made a visit to our apartment when we were out. Luckily, he has the weekend off! We covered most of Manhattan that day. We went all the way down to Battery Park to gaze at the Statue of Liberty across the water, (kinda like Chevy Chase looked at the Grand Canyon in the movie, Vacation), visited Ground Zero Memorial, went to Times Square and finished the night with the view from the top of the Empire State Building...all on NO SLEEP. By the end of the evening when we were in line for the elevator at Empire State Building, we felt like we were at Disneyland at midnight and our kids just wanted one more ride. By the time we rode the subway home and walked the few blocks to our place it was past midnight. We turned in around 1 am and we all slept like rocks.

Day 1, on our terrace...I felt as tired as I look.  This is a bad, funny picture!

I am too old for the red-eye but I know I can sleep when I'm dead....and this almost killed me. See you tomorrow.