Fun and Adventure with Sylvia - Part 2

So I said that the train trip into Manhattan was a bit of an adventure because - of course - we took the train. We also happened to be heading into Manhattan on the day before Thanksgiving. When they called the Wednesday before Thanksgiving one of the biggest (or is it THE biggest?) traveling day of the year, I had no idea they also meant rail travel.... We had decided not to stress about catching an early train and thus got on the train maybe at about 1 p.m. To our amazement the train was packed!! Fortunately we had bought our tickets about an hour earlier so we did not have to stand in the looooong line for the ticket machines in the station! I had never seen it so packed!! It was primarily due to all those students going home after their last class (yes, we were catching the train from the Stony Brook station which is right on the edge of our campus). Oh joy....

As we piled into the double-decker train (as I call it), we grabbed a couple of empty seats - me several rows in front of Sylvia. Sylvia told me later that she was glad I had reminded her to bring her iPod to listen to as the girl next to her started yakking away on her cell phone in a really loud voice. At the transfer point, Sylvia started to make her move to get off. Of course, as the more experienced Long Island Rail Road passenger, I told her to wait until most of the people had gotten off so we could get off towards the end. That would help us in getting a seat on the next train because the train we transfer to comes on the same track - so essentially we were getting off, standing there a couple of minutes, and then getting back on a different train facing the same direction. "Aaaah. I see now what you meant," Sylvia affirmed as we got back on the train bound for our New York City destination. We watched as the train very quickly became standing room only.

Then we got to where we were supposed to get off....BUT, we decided to go one step further into Penn Station....since it was closer. I don't know what it is about my conscience, but I felt like we were guilty of a petty crime just because we were holding tickets only to Jamaica (in Queens where I usually catch the subway) and decided to stay on the train which then made an express run into Penn Station in the middle of Manhattan. Of course we always had the option of paying the conductor who usually came around to punch tickets. But I felt a brief moment of struggle knowing we were not getting off at the point our ticket declared us to be getting off; besides, no conductor had come by to punch our tickets at all. I stared down at my blemish-free ticket and pondered; then I watched all the people get off the train and a few get on. Oh what the heck! I threw caution to the wind - ha ha ha ha ha, such heavy risk involved here you know! - and we went to Penn Station, uneventfully.

That day we went to Macy's - the 9-story, one-block long Macy's here in New York. Sylvia was overwhelmed at the availability of merchandise, and the size of the department store, not to mention all the people who were there shopping; yes, the day after would be the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for which I'm sure tons of people decided to come and spend Thanksgiving in the city. This "preview" of Macy's was what was the deciding factor in our chickening-out on Black Friday.

After Macy's we were exhausted and hungry. But we thought we'd go to Serendipity. Have you ever heard of it? It was featured on Oprah (so Sylvia says since I don't watch that show), and it was also in a movie called "Serendipity" with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. We had tried to go there twice on a prior trip to New York, but we didn't make it inside as the wait was 2 hours!! So determined and hungry, we set out for Serendipity, visions of food and frozen hot chocolate in our heads. When we made it there, we discovered that it was.......CLOSED FOR RENOVATION..........!!! I was soooooooooo upset. Apparently the 3rd time was not a charm; in fact, we basically struck out. Dejected, we walked around the corner to find an alternate source for dinner. Ultimately, we found a great restaurant and had a delicious dinner before catching the subway, to the train, back to Long Island (with our tickets punched this time by a conductor). Nonetheless, we lamented about our inability, yet again, to eat at Serendipity.

But let me tell you something I found out AFTER Sylvia left (and I forgot to tell her...silly me). Perhaps our inability to eat at Serendipity was serendipitous.... I heard something from a friend so I did a little searching on the internet. Apparently as recent as the week before we went there, Serendipity (well it's called Serendipity 3) was closed down after failing its 2nd health inspection. This is a direct quote from the article (found here - oh you have to skip the ad):

" 'Both inspections revealed rodent and fly infestation and conditions conducive to pest infestation, including stagnant water in the basement,' the department said in a statement. An inspector spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings, flies and more than 100 live cockroaches, the department said."

EEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!! So I no longer lament the fact that I have never eaten there! How serendipitous!!! I do believe there is a God watching over me. Heh heh.