East Coast Trip

I am just back from a trip to New York and CT to visit family. We've been dealing with ill health of parents for many years. With one remaining, it is still sad and stressful at times.

Many of the New York and New Haven area radio stations set the soundtrack of my growing up in the 60s. This time out my sister and I visited the Savin Rock Museum, a place that celebrates the setting of where we grew up. Savin Rock is on the Connecticut shoreline in West Haven, the former home of a grand amusement park which existed from the early 1900s till 1968. It's now a shorefront and a boardwalk, but the memories are well preserved.

I begin and end my trips with overnight stopovers in New York City to regroup, break up the long travel duration and to know I'll make it to the airport on time on the way back home.

Man, I love New York.

I've been there more times since I left the East Coast than when I lived in CT only 75 miles away. I love the city's energy, media coming at you from all sides (a bit like the Tom Petty song "Jammin' Me", admittedly) and watching the tons of people do their thing, trying to get from point A to point B. Most interesting is the juxtaposition of the well to do side by side along the streets of the homeless and destitute.

I went out in the early evening and sat in Bryant Park for awhile, just watching people chill, read, chat, relax, whatever. I do remember a time when New York seemed sinister and unsafe. Though I do instinctively keep my hand on my bag when I walk, I feel safe and unthreatened as I walk the streets (my main way of getting around the city).

My usual hangout, the Museum of TV and Radio, was closed when I was in town so I couldn't go there this time. However, Virgin Megastore on Times Square is fast becoming my favorite place in the city. I told a worker there that they needed to have a dance floor in the store—because every time I go there, I want to dance. The closest I come to that is walking rhythmically throughout the store's three levels. If ever one place in New York captures the city's pulse and spirit, Virgin Megastore is it.

And ever still, the best place to eat in New York is any of the hot and cold buffet delis you can find.