All that you have is your soul (Tracy Chapman).

Friday 28 October 2005

Friday in Manhatten

This was the day I'd been really looking forward to - sharing Wondrous Manhatten with my eldest daughter.

We started off by going down to Battery Park (West Ferry) to see the Statue of Liberty. We ended up seeing quite a few of them! The real one however stood as gallant as ever, welcoming the world to this incredible country.

As Emma Lazarus famously writes (and this is inscribed on Lady Liberty herself):

"...Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Back on the Subway at the Staten Island Ferry station to 59th Street (#1 line). We got out at Columbus Circle and made our way to 59th Street and 5th via a lovely walk in Central Park to F.A.O. Schwartz (where else) - Dassi was truly enraptured...but not as much as when I took her around Tiffany's. The expression on her face - the wonder she exhibited whilst looking at the unearthly gems is already etched into the depths of my memory. To be there with her as she looked in increasing disbelief at each gemstone was to be at the dawn of creation. I have never been more in awe at being a parent.

The rest of the day pales in comparison. Lunch at Jerusalem 2 Pizza Parlour on 6th and Broadway, capped with the necessary spending at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square (and this was after I put back three DVD's too!) and a quick dash to Penn Station for the 3:03 back to Woodmere (via Jamaica).

I appreciate that the above description will make no sense at all to anyone who's never visited Manhatten. If however you have, I hope you've shared our journey and added some of your own memories of the island.

I've showed Dassi my little corner of New York.

Now, it's time to go home.

2 comments:

I'm not even supposed to be here today said...

I'm caught up now, I think! I have been to manhatten. I want to go back. I was only 13 years old the one and only time I visited, but I felt the pull and it's one that has never left me.

Tiffany's huh?? I often tell my daughter that college is mandatory for her... she will need to pick a lucrative career to afford all the luxuries that glisten and sparkle.

Being a barefoot, down to earth mother, I assure you that my daughter and I are very different.

The Scribbler said...

When we went into the elevator in Tiffany's, a woman looked at Dassi's FAO Shwartz bag and commented how lucky I was to be shopping at Shwartz's insead of Tiffany's!