NYC Day 2: St. Patty's Day

First impression: The city that never sleeps is NOISY!  Sirens multiple times in the night, a burst of honking horns some time after midnight, shouting at 4:30, besides the miscellaneous bumps and traffic noises all night long. I miss my silent woods! Although someone suggested that it might have been St. Patrick’s Day revelers. Besides the noise we were cold. The thermostat was set to 64. Once I got that adjusted it was better. We were using our coats as spare blankets. What a pair of country bumpkins!

Bob was at his rehearsal, but the rest of us met in the lobby about 9 when we picked up the wheelchair Bob had rented for Mom. While we gathered, I enjoyed the murals around the walls.

This classic hotel does not have breakfast, so we headed toward the parade route and looked for a place on the way. The coffee shop where we ended up had green bagels for the day.

A doorman stopped Kirsten as we passed and told us there was a dedicated place for wheelchairs across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, so we headed there. I’m not sure we ended up in the right spot. It seems it was a VIP section where we needed passes, but they let us in. A great spot to see dignitaries. The only draw back was all the press who got in the way of our shots. But one—Gabe Pressman (60 years with NBC here) interviewed Mom. Not sure we will be around to catch the evening news, but I expect we can find it on the internet.

It is a cool parade—all bands and associations marching. There were a handful of high school bands, etc., but pipe band after pipe band, each in a different plaid. Steve would have hated it! There are a lot of police or fire groups. Some soldiers, all wearing sprigs of olive.

One of the dignitaries outside St. Patrick's was Cardinal Dolan. Nan was esepcially excited to see him since he is formerly of St. Louis.

We met a lot of interesting people in our VIP section. The man who made room for Mom to get up to the barrier turned out to be a former corrections officer whose son's high school graduation will be at St P. His son was marching in the HS band and Dad had promised to "embarrass" him by yelling in this his senior year. The son has just been accepted to St. Bonifacio's. Half way through the only other wheelchair arrived with a sweet man named John who was clearly intellectually challenged since he had no since of appropriate time to hold hands when greeting someone and loved petting Kirsten's fur coat, but he talked to everyone and remembered names.

On our way to the parade we saw the fire department lining up. Later we were told they carry 300+ American flags, one for each of the firefighters who fell on 9/11. Even though our feet were cold, we had to stay to see the firemen. They stopped right in front of us.

By the time they passed we were cold and hungry. Found a fabulous soup place on the way to Central Park. Mom and I shared a large New England clam chowder.

Nan was anxious to see the John Lennon memorial mosaic so we guided our steps in that direction. I had downloaded the app with a map before we left home which kept us oriented.

We took turns pushing Mom. The snow from the storm earlier in the week has not all been cleared away. Sometimes pushing was a challenge. Sometimes wading through the melt was a challenge. 

Getting directions from a friendly New Yorker

While we were awaiting our Uber cars to go to supper, one of Bob's choir texted him to ask if his mom was from Cambridge, MN. She had just seen Mom on the evening news! (She's at 1:10 on the video.)

We went to dinner at a noodle chop in Chinatown. Delicious and cheap. We were pretty late for our reservation. Traffic was so bad in this area around Times Square that our first Uber driver gave up and cancelled on us. We were enough for two cars. The other had already walked a few blockes for an easier pick up so they got there well ahead of us. I downloaded the app and paid for our ride home. So easy. We'll probably use this to get to JFK since the shuttle from the hotel charges a full person for the walker as a third piece of baggage.