May we recommend Comfort Inn?

I'd love to stay in really really nice hotels when we travel but don't choose to spend our hard earned money that way when there are cheaper options. But I'm also not happy staying at the rock bottom places cuz they're often too grubby and creepy. We've stayed at Comfort Inn several times and have found them to be comfortable, clean and reasonable. Here's a ringing endorsement for the one in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan. We enjoyed gobs of towels, lots of hot water, a pillowtop mattress, free breakfast (all carbs and nothing hot but enough to get us going in the morning) and a great location.

Sun Country Airlines - we like them!

We've heard good things about Sun Country from friends who fly a lot and now we can say we like them, too. Planes were clean, staff reasonably friendly (especially on the trip to JFK), tickets prices were the cheapest, breakfast sandwich was tasty and flying in and out of HHH was divine. They'll be my first choice from now for domestic flights (watch for their stock price to soar on this news as we fly about .34 times per year). They're locally owned too. Dan thinks I should look for a job there and I think he might be right.

So embarrassing!

Dan and I were so embarrassed to walk in the Hall of Human Origins and find ourselves represented there (see picture).

Subways: NYC vs London

Because I live in Baldwin WI population 2300 and shop in the suburbs of Saint Paul, I don't have much to do with subways on a day to day basis. But I can't imagine getting around here any other way.
Subways are easy because they're an abstraction; they're distilled so all that remains is the essence of getting from one place to another.
We used the Tube in London a lot when we were there in 2006. Here are a few points of comparison:
Pricing: NYC wins - $2 gets you anywhere anytime. I don't remember all the details about the London experience, but I remember not being able to ride before 9 in the morning and having to buy extended passes when we went to the Zoo.
Signs: London, hands down. Every stop and every train had large maps with the line laid out like a beaded strand. There was never any question where you were or where you were headed. In New York, it's easy to know where you are - I love the mosaic markers - but I find the descriptions to be cryptic. Plus I miss the 'Mind the Gap' warnings.
Cleanliness: a draw. How they keep either system reasonably clean is a mystery, but they do.
The feeling of safety: NYC; maybe because our London base was in the seedy neighborhood near King's Cross Station and maybe because one morning when we were going into the station we met people pouring out of it because of a security clearance and maybe because I was traveling there with two tweens and here with two adult men, I feel safer on the subway here.

Downtown

We spent Sunday 'downtown', in the lower end of Manhattan. Well, mostly. Dan and I spent a couple minutes under the Brooklyn Bridge because we missed our stop. We were following a map that didn't have enough detail and we knew something was wrong when the train went on a long fast curve. It didn't take us long to get turned back around. We picked up an official map with all the stops clearly marked, the first chance we had.

We attended Palm Sunday service at Trinity Church. A beautiful building and a beautiful service. The highlight was the Passion Story sung by five men. The low point was when Dan's phone rang during the service. The lady in front of us immediately checked to see if it was her phone and I very selfishly wished it was...but afraid not. We wanted to crawl under the pew!

We didn't stay for mass because Joe and Heather were meeting us. While we were waiting for them we strolled around Wall Street - saw where George Washington was sworn in as our first President and where Alexander Hamilton was buried.

We were staying dry despite the persistent drizzle so decided to take the ferry out to Liberty Island. I took some pictures but the windows on the boat were so filthy I doubt they'll turn out. We also took some fun shots on the island with Lady Liberty in the background.

Back on Manhattan, we ate tasty street vendor hot dogs (protecting them all the while from aggressive pigeons) and rambled up to South Street Seaport. We poked around there but it was mainly chain stores and rather grubby so I was happy to move on to Chinatown.

On the way we stopped at Strand Bookstore. What a great place to shop! It was clean and well organized.

No chain stores there but still plenty grubby which I expected. Everywhere you looked there were cheap watches and rip off handbags for sale. Add this to the list of things I have zero interest in. We ate at a really bad restaurant. I didn't order much; I sensed the food would be bad when the waiter brought tea in a dirty pot and motioned we were to drink it from our water glasses. Please! No nice handleless cups?!? The egg roll I had tasted like it was hatched last Easter and the soup was dirty broth with some shamefaced vegetables.

Do I sound all whiny and disappointed? I didn't feel that way at all. We had fun being together walking and talking and being places we've never been before.

We walked our feet off

We were all over the place yesterday. From JFK (of course) to Heather's apartment in Brooklyn, to our hotel room in Chelsea, to Chelsea Market, to Central Park (including the Dacotah apartments and Strawberry Fields). We walked all along 5th Avenue and down to the Empire State Building. The weather was perfect - partly sunny but no wind (until we reached the 86th floor) and maybe low 50s for temp. Everything has gone smoothly and Heather makes getting around in this crazy sprawling place seem like a breeze.
Today, we're going to Palm Sunday worship at Trinity Church. It's the oldest congregation in New York and is located near the World Trade Center site. So we'll spend time down there and then...who knows?

Where we're staying

Comfort Inn Chelsea (NY329)
18 West 25th Street , New York, NY, US, 10010 | Phone: (212) 645-3990 Fax: (212) 633-8952