This guy in front of the wax museum may have made a good park guide (?)
I roomed with Candace from Beth Fish Reads; she and I hoped to visit a few bookstores on Tuesday morning, before heading to an early afternoon meeting. I planned the itinerary to start at Kitchen Arts & Letters, a specialty cookbook store on the upper east side. You’ll never believe it when you read this post, but I used to work in the travel industry (and this tale may be reflect why I no longer do!)
We were to take the subway to 86th street on the west side of Central Park, cross over to the east side, and walk a few blocks up and over to Lexington and 93rd. Piece of cake, right?
Well, we managed to purchase metro cards at the kiosk (bonus! $23 value on the card, for only $20 … you know how I love those ‘gifts with purchase!’), to get on the correct subway line, and exit at 86th Street. So far, so good.
We dutifully got in line behind a school group crossing the street, headed into the park, followed a path that seemed to cross from West to East, walked a few blocks and realized we weren’t on Lexington.
IPhone maps to the rescue! Kind of. According to the GPS in the phone, we were still on the west side of the park! This sad fact was easily confirmed by a glance at the street signs. West 86th should have been our first clue.
No problem, we thought. We’d just grab a bottle of cold water at the local deli, and traverse the park again, it was a nice morning for a walk we told each other. After strolling for a while (and chatting, and stopping for photo ops), Candace said “I don’t want to be alarmist, but isn’t it taking us longer to walk across the park than it did the first time?” She had a point, so we agreed to follow the signs to the nearest exit.
Have you ever been trapped in Central Park? It would have been easier to find our way out of a hedge maze at Hogwarts! As we rounded the top of the rise near the park exit, we joked “if we’re on the west side again, we’ll just take a cab.” No joke – we were still on the west side, we had walked down 17 blocks from 86th to 69th Streets, but hadn’t managed to cross the park!
Feeling a bit red-faced about my apparently nonexistent sense of direction, I tried to make up for it by confidently hailing a cab. So, after what should have been a $2.50 subway ride and a short (15 minute?) walk, we paid another $12 for a cab to take us up and around the park to our destination. That hour-long walk in the park was an added urban adventure.
Now, you’re expecting me to tell you all about the bookstore we visited, Kitchen Arts & Letters, but I’m going to hold that for a separate Spotlight on Bookstores post (such a tease!). Suffice it to say that I think they carry every current cooking title, and that the owner/manager Nach Waxman is incredibly helpful and gave us step-by-step directions to get back downtown.
Here’s a great tip Nach shared that may save your sanity one day – there’s a subway shuttle that runs between Grand Central (west side) to Times Square (east side). It just goes back and forth all day long, allowing harried people like me to get from one side of town to another, and to transfer from one subway line to another. The only trick is that you have to follow the gray circles with an S in them; it’s not as easy as it sounds, the trail led up and down staircases, around corners, and through a tunnel. I half expected Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street to pop out and start singing a song about S as we searched for the signs!
And that, my friends, is why the idiom “a walk in the park” no longer means something that’s easy and predictable. Instead, when I hear that phrase, I’ll think of walking in circles with Beth Fish, trapped forever on the west side of Central Park. Maybe I should adopt a bench to commemorate the hilarity!
Sounds like you had a wonderful adventure getting lost in NY!
Sounds like you had a fun two days in NYC! THanks for sharing your adventures (I am in the process of moving just outside NYC and timing didn’t allow a trip this week).
Enjoy your weekend, Mari
OK, so note to self. If I ever am lucky enough to hang with you in NY, I shall make sure I have an app with a compass!
What a great story this (mis) adventure makes
I can’t believe Nach Waxman is still there! I am fairly certain he helped me when I would visit on a fairly regular basis in the late 1980s
Still snorting about this!!!! Maybe you should try my normal philosophy for directions — go opposite what your gut feel is! I’ll be nice and not mention the “few” times I experienced your general confusion about directions!
Great story, Dawn, and well told! You had me laughing all the way through. In your defense, those twisty roads in Central Park are confusing!
Hope you enjoyed your bookstore adventures –
Sue
YES, I’ve gotten turned around in Central Park! So much so that, intending to head for 59th Street, I somehow ended up on the west side near the Natural History museum! It was when i first moved to New York, and it was a beautiful fall Saturday, so I didn’t really mind, though. But it’s one of those crazy New York City stories that people tell each other!
You 2 really are very adventurous. I admit, I was LOL when reading this post, but mostly because I’d be likely to end up in a similar situation in NYC…..not very NYC savvy I admit.
LOL! Hey, we needed to walk off some those New York City meals! You all can’t imagine the combination of hilarity and letdown when we realized that we just could *not* get to the east side. And — naturally — we had one of those cab rides from hell just to make life more interesting.
The bookstore is soooooooooo worth the trip. Perhaps I’ll hop a metro bus next time.
Sounds like you had a fun time in the city – I didn’t make it to BEA (despite living here) due to issues at work but did make it to BookBlogger Con on Friday and it was great!
Don’t worry about getting lost in the Park – it has happened to me too – crossing east-west it can be easy to stumble on to a wrong path and get turned around. When I used to run in the Park, I limited myself to the loop since I figured if I ran in one continuous circle I wouldn’t be able to get lost!
At least you have a great story to show for the adventure!
Ha ha, well at least the walk in the park was fun, even if it took longer than you meant.
I too have been lost in Central Park. Particularly in the Ramble, the heavily wooded area in the middle where you can’t even see the city on the outside! I’m just glad you all made it out!
LOL! Loved this story.
the Ramble is not the best place to be lost…
but yes, it is very easy to get lost in Central Park. and to forget you are in the middle of NYC
OMG! I would have freaked out. Claustrophobia would have reigned supreme trapped in a giant urban park like that.
Sounds like it worked out in the end though. I’m interested to see the different bookstore spotlights. I was only able to get to Books of Wonder (which is awesome for the kidlit/MG/YA reader) Tuesday evening but it was great!
sounds like trying to follow my husband when he’s insisting that he knows where he’s going!
omgimoommitreggg
Laughing Dawn – oh that is a great picture!!!! So fun meeting you at BEA!
This sounds a great deal like my misadventures in Central Park with Anna and The Girl as we sought out Strawberry fields and completely missed it on more than one occasion! LOL
I wonder what you would put on that plaque for the adopted bench!
I was just going to say what Serena said! That park sure is confusing.
You guys are hilarious. Now I understand why you told me to leave breadcrumbs (or was that Candace).
I can’t believe Julie and I braved the subway with you after hearing about sense of direction. This will be a story for the ages!