LAST EDITED ON 09-23-13 AT 06:19 PM (EST)

New at posting but long time lurker -- especially love OT stories.  Thought I'd share my NYC weekend.

My sister had been wanting to go to NYC for years now, her dream finally came true when I agreed to go with her.  We booked a weekend package including travel to and from NYC, hotel in Newark, and bus/guided foot/boat tours.

We arrived in NYC on Friday around noon and our first activity on our first day was the Empire State Building.  As I am not a fan of heights, I told my sister I would wait for her outside.  She hemmed and hawed saying she wasn't crazy about heights either but I finally convinced her with this gem "you'll regret it ...".  Yeah, a real wordsmith, but it worked, up she went.  Busied myself watching the chaotic traffic, the near misses, the people (the jaywalkers especially fascinated me).  Realized it had been more than one hour since sis went up, started to worry but noticed people from our group were emerging from the building.  Okay, she'll be back in a few minutes.  Another thirty minutes go by and still no sis.  Is that someone from my group, yes, she’s giving me the international “come here” signal.  Oh oh, it’s my sister right?  Something happened?   She said yes, she fell down the stairs between the 81st and 80th floors and hurt herself.  She was in excruciating pain, foot and ankle swollen and all black and blue and purple.  With the help of my co-travellers managed to ensconce her on a bench in front of the Empire State Building.  Contacted the tour guide to view our options.  Go to hospital.  Sister vetoed that idea.  Take taxi to hotel at a cost of approximately 75USD.  Sister did not want to spend that kind of money (really? what?).  Third option was to wait on the bench until the tour bus was scheduled to pick everyone up at 7:30 p.m.  You guessed it, we spent more than 5 hours sitting on the bench.  Ran around getting food, went to the pharmacy twice, on my last run I realized I was jaywalking.  I was so proud!

It wasn’t a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon.  Sis and I spoke of our childhood, our lives, shared our secrets (some of them!).  I didn’t have the weekend I was expecting but I can’t say I had a bad weekend.

Stayed at the hotel on Saturday, at least they had a wheelchair we could use.  Nothing to see here.

Sunday morning the tour bus dropped my sister and I off at the Westin while the rest of the group toured central park.  I parked my sister in the lobby of the Westin, got her coffee from someone with the most amazing New York accent, ran to Times Square (wow) to the M&M store.  Returning to join my sister saw a tourist shop.  I wanted a tee-shirt to commemorate my trip.  Black tee, white lettering.  New York Fu***n City.  Bought it.

Had to go 2 blocks to the agreed upon location to meet bus and rest of group.  Sis decided she would walk (read lurch).  I noticed huge planters along the way and suggested she may want to lean against one to rest for a minute or two.  Sis decides to sit in planter.  Time to go, gets up, gum on a$$, a big wad of bright fluorescent green gum.  I laughed so hard and for so long.  Still giggling when I think of it.  Icing on the cake baby.

New York was cleaner than I expected.   I did not see any rats and I was looking for them.  New Yorkers were friendly and kind and helpful.  My sister and I plan on returning.

Arrived home, niece is there to greet us.  She came equipped with crutches.  Sis is slowly descending the steps of the bus, at the last step she reaches for the crutches and falls flat on her a$$ and on my foot!  Ayoye!

My sister spent 9 hours at the hospital on Monday, foot is fractured in two places. She is in a cast for six weeks.

Did I tell you we plan on returning.

• RE: Weekend in New York City,dabo, 07:32 PM, 09-23-13
  • RE: Weekend in New York City,Ottawa Girl, 08:55 PM, 09-23-13
    • RE: Weekend in New York City,jbug, 11:17 AM, 09-26-13
• RE: Weekend in New York City,tribephyl, 02:25 AM, 09-24-13
  • RE: Weekend in New York City,Ottawa Girl, 07:25 AM, 09-24-13
• RE: Weekend in New York City,kidflash212, 08:25 AM, 09-24-13
  • RE: Weekend in New York City,Ottawa Girl, 08:51 AM, 09-24-13
• RE: Weekend in New York City,kingfish, 09:10 AM, 09-24-13
  • RE: Weekend in New York City,Ottawa Girl, 02:45 PM, 09-24-13

LOL! At least it was a good time, eh. Shame she got hurt, NYC is such a dangerous place! Actually, the crowded areas are relatively safe but for the cutpurses, so they say. Next time send her up the statue.

LOL is right. I never felt in any danger. In fact one woman came up to me to say my wallet was on the bench and I should put it away. Wallet was in fact on a chain to my person, it was just a change purse.

I'll relay your statue comment to my sister. I'm sure she'll laugh.

On the bright side, I did get to see the outside of the Empire State Bldg and went through the Lincoln Tunnel. Kept thinking of the Stephen King novel The Stand, when Larry and Rita walked through the tunnel in total darkness with dead bodies all around. Ah, memories of NYC.

Never been to NYC - never plan to...
but glad you enjoyed it and shared with us.

And? ~~high five~~ to another Stephen King fan!

awww... I feel for her completely.

A couple of years ago I had made plans to take a month off of work and visit friends and family (and nature) in Washington State.
Week 1 was going to be with friends in a cabin on a lake.
Week 2 with my father's side taking a trip to eastern washington to visit a sister away at college.
Week 3 with my mother seeing shows, dining out and doing some shopping.
Week 4, me and 3 close friends camping at my property on the Stillaguamish river.

Night 1 of week 1, I fell down a flight of stairs and ended up breaking my foot.
Didn't have the heart or desire to end my friends trip early so I tried to just stay off of it for a day. Then my friends got too scared I'd done something really bad and we left and drove into Seattle to have it checked out.

Well, I spent the next 4 weeks either hobbling along on crutches or being pushed around in a wheel chair and every plan made needed to be altered to accomodate my injury. (Lot's of watching movies and not so much camping) Plus, when my vacation was over, I still had 6 MORE weeks in a cast and couldn't return to work.

I feel for your sister and hope she does get an opportunity to go back and have MORE fun. Mobile fun.

You were lucky you didn't hurt yourself worse than a bashed foot. Do feel bad for you though.

Called my sister to be told she was out, couldn't believe her stamina. She's a real trooper.

We have plans to go see the pandas at the Toronto zoo after her cast is off. She asked if I was sure I wanted to go with her! We have a history of things going awry when we travel.

And you didn't look me up for a peep meet because......?

Just kidding. Sorry your sister hurt her foot.

If you want to see the rats (although I've never before heard of someone coming to New York with an eye for rats) you have to go in the subway.

I'll let you know when I'm next in NYC. FYI I'm a big fan of brunch!

As for the rats, just call me weird. I'd probably squeal though.

LAST EDITED ON 09-24-13 AT 09:14 AM (EST)

Very nice. Hope your sister recovered. I don’t know her circumstances, but I hope she wasn't like some of the women tourists I've seen who go about hitting the top local attractions in foot wear completely unsuitable for sightseeing (which almost always involves a lot of walking and stairways), they dress in horribly unsuitable shoes to look good, not to walk or climb in. High heels are an almost guaranteed ankle sprain. It seems obvious but there are women who just have to wear their spikes when they go out and about.

I visited Paris with my sister, and she too was afraid of heights and loath to go up on the Eiffel Tower. I wheedled her into it and although she never could go out to the terraces (a bridge too far for her) she saw the city view, had a snack inside, and we spent a couple of hours up on the second level. Afterward she expressed glowing gratitude that I pressured into it. Just doing my duty as a big brother. The view and the experience, predictably, is worth a minor psychotic event.

You should post more. If you’ve been lurking then you know that you don’t need a standout experience or a deep thought in order to post. Many (myself included) post with no thoughts in our heads whatsoever.

And you might think about checking here next time you plan to go there, or anywhere, there are those among us (i.e. KidFlash in NY) who live there and might give you tips on planning you own self-guided tour. They might even volunteer to spend some time with you. It is worth gold to have a local connection when you travel.

My favorite way of seeing other places is just that, self-guided “let the winds take me whichever way my feet are pointed” tours,

Just post a "I'm going to (wherever) next week, any advice? Any peeps care to meet" thread.

Thank you for the advice. Will keep it in mind. I'll admit our tour guide scared the sh*t out of me with her cautionary advice. But it was all for naught, peeps were great. I stopped counting the number of peeps that stopped by to ask sis what happened. Luckily she loved to repeat it over and over and over again. I can't wait to return.

To note, both sis and I had on appropriate footwear, no heels and no fanny packs.