Riverside Park in New York

Despite living in greater Los Angeles, I am not a fan of big cities, so I've procratstinated visiting New York for the three years that my oldest daughter, Gina, has worked there.

I needed to take my youngest daughter back to Connecticut for freshman orientation and registration, so it made sense to fly roundtrip to New York and see where Gina lives and works.

Actually, we flew into Newark, where we rented a car from Budget and headed for the University of Connecticut. Despite being early evening, the traffic was light leaving the airport and most of the way through New Jersey. Then, following my Google map, we reached the outskirts of New York City, and the traffic became horrendous. It wasn't long before I regretted my cheapness in renting a Hyundai rather than taking the train to Hartford.


Google Maps estimated the driving time to be just under three hours, but with a quick stop for sandwiches at Duchess Burgers, we pulled into the parking lot at Nathan Hale Inn on the UConn campus four and a half hours after landing. Needless to say, I don't recommend the drive.


I enjoyed my time in the countryside, and on Friday afternoon we left for New York at 4 PM. Again, we stopped at Duchess Burgers, where the Angus Burger turned out to be quite good. We also took a quick spin around New Haven to see Yale, which after spending time at beautiful UConn did not impress me at all, and somewhere around 10 PM, I found what even George Costanza would have to admit to be the perfect parking space directly across the street from Gina's apartment building.


Gina buzzed us in, and we rode the little elevator up to the eighth floor. The little apartment Gina shares with her husband, Laszlo, is compact but comfortable, and she has lots of little homey touches, including a stack of the copper canister set that I saw every day at my mother's house growing up.


Gina and I woke up before Amy and Laszlo, had some coffee and headed out to Riverside Park, just a half block away from their apartment. It's a lot different than the hustle and bustle of New York I have seen on past visits. Lots of Manhattanites walk their dogs, and others like us just stroll along through the long, lovely park. We visited Grant's Tomb, and if you don't know, you can e-mail me to ask who is buried there.


We continued on all the way to about 125th Street, and then headed back to get everyone else up to explore more of Gina's New York.