Upper and Lower West Side Story**

Our weekend fun with TJ and Michele continues...

On Labor Day, we took TJ and Michele into New York City.  I recommend going to the city on a holiday because street parking is free and there is a good amount of it available.  Since we were planning to travel to several parts of Manhattan, we decided to park not too far outside the Lincoln Tunnel, so we made it in and out of the city pretty quickly.  We basically used the subways to travel from the far north to the far south side of Manhattan.  We pretty much stayed on the west side of town, thus the title of this post.

Mark and TJ on the Subway

 Our first stops were Times Square and then Ground Zero.  After that, we went to the High Line Park.

Mark and TJ at the High Line

This was the second time Mark and I have been to the High Line and of course, we had to visit La NewYorkina.  If you live in or close to the city, you have to try these popsicles!  They are so delicious, fresh, and refreshing.  Instead of tasting like sugar, they taste like the actual flavor you choose.  Last time I got cucumber-lime, this time I got coconut.  The vendor has this salty chili powder that you can sprinkle on your popsicle--I know it sounds weird, but it really brings out the flavor of the popsicle.  I forgot to take a picture of mine, plus I wanted to eat it right away because it was really hot outside, so the above picture is from the vendor's website. 

From the High Line, I saw this random billboard--I think it makes a good point:

We walked most of the park, had lunch at an Irish pub, then went to Central Park.  I proposed the idea of a pedicab ride because I think it's a good thing for tourists to do and an efficient way to see a large part of the park.  I've done the tour from the south part of the park twice, so I wanted to see if they had pedicab tours of the north part of the park.  We took the subway all the way to the north end of the park and found out there are no pedicab drivers there.  Boo.  Well at least now I know.  Pedicabs are only available at the South End and essentially, all the tours are the same.  So I did the tour for a third time, but it was still fun.  Not quite sure if I would do it a fourth time.

If anyone is planning on doing this, know that you should pay $20 per person.  They'll try to sell you higher prices and give you reasons why they can't do it for $20, but I've found that they'll all do it for $20 a person if you stick to your guns.  One time I tried to bargain to $15 a person but it doesn't seem like any of them will do it for that price.   

This is the last post summarizing our Labor Day weekend.  We are so grateful TJ and Michele came to visit us and it was wonderful to spend time with them!  Mark and I have been blessed with several life-long friends and we are thankful to have them in our lives!

**Mark helped me come up with the title of this post so I must give him credit for creativity.  Other options he came up with were Monday in the Park with Tony, Start Spreadin' the News, On the Town, and My Kind of Town.