Looking toward Lower Manhattan,  Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty on a hazy day.

I know, I know. I apologize right up front. I’ve been lagging far behind in my ABC-Alongs. It’s a lot harder than I thought to come up with something. Plus, I like to do entries that coincide with what is actually happening in my life now, and what’s blooming in my yard now, and well, like my life now. My good friend Carolyn wrote to tell me that although she enjoyed the Queen Anne’s Lace entry, she felt that I had royally screwed up my ABC-Along because now what was I going to come up with for Q? I guess I’ll just tackle Q when I come to it.

So, with what’s happening now in my life as a guideline, what could be more timely than our trip into New York City last week?  We went in for the Walking with the Dinosaurs event at Madison Square Garden. We took the train in early to do something we have meant to do since moving here two years ago: visit the Empire State Building.

As you can imagine in high tourist season, lots of other people had the same idea. We stood in line; we went through security, we stood in line again—all before even getting to the ticket office. Here is a shot out the window while waiting in line.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad. We made it from the beginning of the line to the elevator in about 30 minutes. Our elevator made it from the bottom to the 80th floor in less than a minute. The floors didn’t register as 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh no. More like 10, 20, 30, etc. As I watched we scaled ten floors at a time in about 5 or 7 seconds. Straight up. No stopping. whizzzz! When we stopped I felt dizzy and off-kilter. Very strange indeed.

We thought we were there, but alas, no. Another line awaited us and at the end of that we had a choice to climb the six flights of stairs to the Observatory on the 86th floor or wait in yet another line for the elevator. We opted to do stairs. The numbers on the landings told us where we were. I swear the 85th floor went on for two floors instead of one. Finally we were at the top with a crush of people vying for spots at the rail.

Here are views from a short person’s perspective. ( I was also trying to be artsy at the same time. ) I could have shot through the barrier but chose not to. Each shot is looking out from a different direction.

We didn’t tarry long gawking at the view. We figured we could come back in the low tourist season and not have to deal with the crush of people. We made our way back down, but this time took the elevator between the 86th and 80th floor instead of the stairs. The ride down was just as disorienting in equilibrium as the ride up, and I found myself staggering out of the elevator doors like someone who has had too much to drink. I have to admit that I had visions of “what if” flashing through my brain as we barreled downward at such a dizzying speed. What if the cable broke? What if the elevator suddenly stops and we’re trapped in here with little to no air flow? I do tend to an overactive imagination at times. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about any of that since before I knew it we were back down to the main floor.

Walking with the Dinosaurs was awesome but I won’t go into that here since this post is not about that. If you have the chance to see it, do so, you won’t regret it.

There you have it: “N” is for New York (City).