New York City!!... Get A Rope.

Buds and I are writing separate recollections of our day in New York City. We'll publish simultaneously and see if different eyes saw the same sights.

If you were a person who watched television in the '90s, at least in the Midwest, you know this commercial.

I never suspected growing up in my town of 3000 how much I would love big cities. NYC is no exception.

I caused a bit of confusion, receiving messages from several of you asking, "You are in New York City?!?!"

It all came about because Buds is able to think outside the box. We spent several days in Nashville with our nieces (post on that later), and when we made our plane reservations, Buds noticed an option that would take us home with a connection in Newark, offering a 12 hour layover. "Let's spend the day in NYC!" Buds said.

That's the kind of crazy thinking I love.

Brother Z kindly drove us to the Nashville airport at 4'ish a.m. for our 6:15 flight. We got into Newark around 9:30, and began our quest to get into the city.

Turns out, it isn't so easy as one would think. The positives were that we connected with two other families who were on the same quest, and the other two dads kept updating us as we gathered information collectively; also New Jersey made all public transit free for the Labor Day Weekend, which was a nice treat.

We took a bus, a train, and the subway and finally ended up in the city. (Honestly, we took a leap of faith with the other two families and hopped on a train and assumed we would end up in the city eventually.)

Buds had discovered that we could show up at the box office for the only show with a Thursday matinee, "The Great Gatsby" at noon, and if they had "rush" tickets available, we could get them for $40.

We had time to stop at a diner and enjoy breakfast.

The timing was perfect for eating, then walking down to Broadway to see if we could get tickets!

We were second in line, and tickets were available!

We had about an hour until the doors opened, and the most important order of business was to ditch our backpacks. Buds found a website called Bounce.com. We had a little difficulty figuring out where to go to drop the bags off, but it gave me a chance to visit with a kind security guard who gave us a quick rundown on the street organization in NYC. (I love how freaking helpful people are.)

You might not be the trusting souls we are, but we were glad to drop our bags off at this gift shop and have faith that they would tuck our bags in the back and they would be there when we returned.

So long bags. We hope to see you again in a couple hours.

We had time before the theater opened for seating, so we wandered down through Hell's Kitchen. We love to walk through neighborhoods, gaze at houses, and dream of life options.

We stopped to get a coffee at a little coffee shop, and two tall, lithe folks walked in. They chatted with the baristas and one barista asked, "What show are you in again?"

"Carousel," they said. "We were working all morning with the new leads."

Snippets of life like that bring me such joy, but that was nothing compared to what was coming.

As we walked in the doors of the theater, Buds said he thought we might be near the front, and he was oh so right! We were not just near the front, we were in the front row!

Although we were off to the side, the action always seemed to move to center stage to make it easy for us to see everything, and I actually loved getting to see backstage when the side curtains had to be opened for large set pieces to roll in and out, or the multiple cars had to drive onstage.

I have read the book, so there was an impending feeling of sorrow, knowing what was coming, but the music was so powerful, and being close enough to see the tears streaming down Nick's face, not to mention the spittle flying out of some mouths...it was immersive.

After this emotional outpouring, we were ready for a deep breath, so we walked back and picked up our backpacks, then headed for our 5 p.m. dinner reservations at a Thai restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, Pure Thai Cookhouse. It was the perfect spot to regroup for the last outing of our 12 hour NYC day.

The High Line is a new linear park built on the remains of an elevated train in lower Manhattan. Buds had read about it, and though we were feeling a little draggy, there was no way we were missing this.

I was glowing over seeing Gatsby, Buds was shimmering with excitement as we walked in this fantastic use of space. Protected from cars, no bikes, not too noisy, beautiful gardens, shared art, and lots of people strolling and chatting, and enjoying the perfect weather together.

Just in case you wondered, you can rent a 3-bedroom apartment at 507 West Chelsea for $13K, or a studio for $3600. Here's what you get for that $3600:

By the time we had walked a fair amount on the High Line, we were pretty spent and ready to figure out how to get back to the airport.

We decided in the interest of expediency and sanity, we would hop on a bus at Penn Station that would take us directly to our terminal at the airport. It was a relief to settle on the bus and let the wonderful, experienced driver work her way though the Lincoln Tunnel and on to the toll roads that would get us where we needed to go.

The flight home was late getting out, but we eventually pulled up in the taxi to our very own front porch, greeted by our dog and our two eldest. It was great to be home.

I could move to NYC tomorrow, but Rochester suits us just fine for now.