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I brought my family to Washington D.C. and New
York City (NYC) for our annual Spring Break
vacation last week. It was a fun trip for us and for our kids as well.
We left Los Angeles for Washington D.C.
on Friday April 2nd from LAX. My brother-in-law picked us up
at the airport and we headed to his home in Virginia to rest for the day. In late
evening, we had Peiking Duck for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. My
wife was there before. She loves the Peiking Duck so she recommends us to
visit the same restaurant again.
On the following weekend, we went to D.C. area to enjoy the Cherry
Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom is at its peak at this time of the
year in D.C.. Not surprisingly, a lot of tourists
were there for the same purpose. Parking was a challenge for us but we
were later told riding the subway was equally challenged. The subway was
packed with people pouring into D.C. area. When we were in D.C., we also
visited Washington
Monument commonly known
as “Stone Pen” among the Chinese community. We also looked at the White
House, the Pentagon and Lincoln
Memorial from a distance due to heavy traffic and parking space
limitation.
My brother-in-law family was back to work and his kids were back to
school during the week of April 5th. We decided to explore New York City by
ourselves. It took us about 4.5 hours to go from D.C. to NYC by bus. The
D.C. bus station is located at D.C. “Chinatown”
area. D.C. Chinatown is a bit unique compared to other Chinatown
in the nation. There are only a handful of small scale Chinese
restaurants left in “Chinatown”. The
majority are Western restaurants and shops. However, since they are in Chinatown area, they have Chinese characters next
to their store name. The first time I see Star Buck Coffee, Bed Bath
& Beyond, Pizza Hut, D.C. NBA basketball team arena in Chinatown.
We arrived at NYC in the afternoon on Monday April 5th.
We took the 18-seat mini bus to Flushing, also known as the New Chinatown. We had some snacks at Flushing
and back to NYC Chinatown for dinner.
When we last visited NYC in Christmas of 2004, we stayed at Midtown
near Time Square. This time, we decided to stay at Lower
Manhattan for a change. After checking in our hotel and
settled our kids, we took a walk to explore the immediate neighborhood
near our hotel. Chinatown, Little Italy are within walking
distance. Little Italy
is a bit more crowded at night. The reverse is true for Chinatown.
On Tuesday, April 6th, we took the subway to Battery
Park and took the ferry to the Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty. The crown
tickets were sold out up to July so we could only look at the Statue of Liberty from the
outside. We also attended a walking tour hosted by the park ranger to
understand more about the history of the statue.
I always want to see the New
York Stock Exchange building in person and I
had a chance to do just that on this trip. The guided tour to see the
trading floor was canceled after the 9/11 event. It is hard to imagine
such an ordinary building is controlling one of the world largest stock
markets. It is interesting to notice a lot of tourists taking picture
with the bull statue one block from the NYSE building. I was told the
tourists want to touch the bull so their stock portfolio will enjoy a
bullish run.
Leaving the Financial District, we visited the Seaport Historic
District on the east side of Lower Manhattan.
This site is similar to Pier 39 in San
Francisco but less crowded. At night, we had
Italian food for dinner in Little Italy near our hotel.
We checked out our hotel early Wednesday morning and headed to
Garment District near Time Square in Midtown for shopping. Time Square is
almost a 24/7 crowded place with people, people and more people. We
visited Macy’s store, the self-claimed world largest store. It occupies
one full block in Garment District. It is an 8-story building bordered by
35th Street
to the north, 34th
Street to the south, 7th Avenue to the west
and 6th Avenue
to the east. It even has restaurants inside the department store. We were
done shopping by noon
time and headed to bus station for our journey back to D.C. ending our
3-day 2-night trip in New York
City.
During our NYC trip, I let my kids take the subway to familiarize themselves
with the other means of transportation besides private vehicles. It was a
lot of walking and they handled it pretty well.
I remember one of my teachers once said she needs to go to NYC at
least once a year to “charge” herself just like
a battery needs charging. I didn’t quite understand what she said then
but after 2 trips to NYC, I kind of figuring out the reason. I was told New York is a city
that we either love it or hate it. I guess I am on the love side of the
equation. I love New York and I will be back to “charge” myself whenever
I have a chance.
Dennis
Phan 潘家墉
Los Angeles, California,
U.S.A., 18 April 2010
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