A day of adventure in NYC! (Part 1)

Happy 2010 Friends! I'm not saying this is a "resolution," but I hope to be better about sharing stories and adventures this year...I continue to be amazed with the people I meet flying and the stories my passengers (and crewmates) share with me. For those of you who have flown with me, you know that on all my flights I ask a "Random Question of the Day" (and have even begun to be known as "The Question Lady" by some of my frequent fliers!). Although often related to food, these questions have been the jumping-off-point for some really fun and fascinating conversations with people. It contributes to the high level of JOY I find in my job...Thanks to those of you who participate! You may not realize what a gift this is for me on a daily basis.

So. Yesterday my almost-13 son and I took a spontaneous day-trip to NYC. Some things you should know before I get to the story are: 1) I have only used my travel benefits to go to Missouri so far, 2) I had only visited NYC once before and was not allowed to ever step foot outside the car and 3) I have a very poor sense of direction. Oh. And 4) I'm not really as spontaneous as I like to believe I am, so this was a BIG step for me. That being said: the day was a huge success and provided me (and my son) with a bag-full of memories I'll cherish forever.

The day would most likely not have happened without the input of one of my favorite Facebook friends, John Williamson. (Thanks John!) John regularly posts links and articles regarding a myriad of topics and shares his wit with friends around the globe. I always look for his stuff first, because he's smart, funny and always interesting. So John posted a link about a Samurai exhibit going on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Now, many of you with sons in Parker's age-range might have shared my glassy-stare as their young boys have explained all-things-warrior to them. At least I hope you can relate to my smiling-nodding-I-don't-get-the-fascination perspective? Anyway, I knew when I saw the link that Parker would love this...Long story short: I looked into it a bit and realized we had two days to catch this exhibit before it would leave NYC. We listed for the first flight out the following day (I had to have help even with this step. Thank you, Roger.) to return on the last flight home the same night. (A potentially stupid move.) I wish I had been able to capture the look on Parker's face when I asked him if he'd like to miss school to go to New York for the Samurai exhibit the next day...What does Visa say? "Priceless!"

AND HERE. WE. GOOOooo!

Up at the you-know-what-crack-of-dawn, Parker and I set off for the Big Apple. I really had no idea what we were doing, but I was hopeful I'd be able to pull it all off while being impressively-cool as a mom and frequent traveler. A technicality: being a flight attendant is not necessarily the same thing as being a "frequent traveler!" (Confession: I pretty much just go where Crew Scheduling tells me and follow the guys with stripes when we get there...)

Security lines were fine. My son was impressed that Mom seemed "popular" at the MSP airport as we were greeted by co-workers in such a big place full of strangers.  I sprung for McDonald's breakfast at the airport and had my son in a very happy place...The flight was on-time and smooth. We had no problem getting on. Hooray! Our first major success! We landed at JFK and I had my organized-little-self armed with a subway trip planned on the MTA website. Cool. This was easy. Note to assuage my guilt about pulling Parker out of school for the day: I'm confident he learned more just on the subway than in a whole day in the classroom! (No disrespect to my son's fine teachers...) There were people from every country on Earth, I believe, on our ride. Pick a language, any language, and I'll bet you we heard it there. And HATS. What's up with all the hats in NYC!? Fancy ones, simple ones, fur ones, ones with the stickers still on them (Minnie Pearl had nothin' on some of those kids). Warm ones, ethnic ones. It was high entertainment at times. All while trying to look like we had a clue about what we were doing and where we were going. (Watch the eye contact. Hold onto your stuff. Stay with me.) We were also very surprised at how friendly and helpful the people we met were to the Obvious Tourists. Did the upside down map give us away? hmmm. It didn't take long to abandon any hope or concern about disguising our status, which was futile anyway.

Emerging from the depths of the subway into a bright and crisp day in Manhattan, I was almost overwhelmed with how special it was to be able to do this as a day trip. "We're on the corner of 71st and Lexington! Look in this window! Look at that bread! Check out all those cabs!" Really, I embarrass myself sometimes. Good thing Parker is used to me. "Parker! We're on Madison Avenue! Parker! We're on Park Avenue! Look! The French Embassy!" ("Mom, what's an 'embassy'?") "Parker! Look! Hot dogs!" (Really? Did I really say that? Yes. Yes I did. There's much to be said for unconditional love.)

There's the Metropolitan! Yippeeeeee! We're really here. We really did it! The exhibit was wonderful. A lot of swords. I seem to not have a strong eye for differentiating between them all, but Hey. I tried. Parker could tell. How does he do that? My favorite parts were the armor and the saddles. Incredible works of art. How could these masterpieces be functional? huh. There was a stooped-little-old lady on the same path and timetable as we were. She was delightful. She was almost electric in her enthusiasm. I was as fascinated with her as the exhibit. I made sure to point out to Parker that "That's gonna be me, someday!" He didn't seem surprised (or even horrified. whew!). Did I mention I love this kid!? He's an old (and patient-with-me) soul. To backtrack a bit, to get to the gallery with the Samurai exhibit, you have to go through other galleries. I was like a kid in a candy store (Sorry for the cliche). My neck hurts today from all the gawking. I guess I forgot that Parker really hasn't been to many art museums in his life yet. I forgot to give him any warning about "nudity." And penises. Lots of  'em. Sculpted ones. Sketched ones. Painted ones. "Penises on Parade", it seemed, as I viewed the museum through his eyes (And I must credit that title to him.) "Mom, why was it okay back then to paint these people with their clothes off? Why did they do that?" Ummm. It seems I need to spend a little time on Art History with my kids? Note to Self: Do that. Initially, when figuring out if we could even do this trip in a day, I was concerned that we wouldn't have enough time to enjoy the exhibit when we arrived. Not to worry, my son seems to "museum surf" like his father: he's a "flitter." I, on the other hand, am a "systematic and thorough reader." At first, this was a source of frustration for both of us, but we were able to discuss it and agreed to dismiss each other's museum-styles as acceptable. Another success, in my opinion.