New York City Spring Break

After leaving Grand Central Terminal, we decided to walk over to the United Nations building. To us it was just another location on my tourist map, but to others it serves as the headquarters of "an international organization that aims at facilitating co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity" (courtesy of the Wikipedia.) We walked by and considered taking a tour, but we didn't really care because both of us aren't into politics. We also wanted to go back to Central Park and check it out again.

Central Park was a good distance away. We would have walked, but we decided to take a taxi because we had yet to ride in one during our trip out here. Much like you have to ride a trolley while you visit San Francisco (which I didn't do when I was out there in May 2005), it is your responsibility as a New York City tourist to see the city from the back of a taxi cab. I got yelled at by the taxi driver for failing to properly hail a cab. He said that he barely even noticed me waving. He gave us a quick lesson about hailing a cab (he says that you almost have to throw your body out into the street to grab their attention) and some other New York tidbits. He was a very nice person, and I tipped him well for the knowledge and also for getting us to our destination in a timely fashion. If only everyone else in the service industry could be 1/2 as nice as this man, then this world would be a much better place. My NYC cabbie stereotype is now forever changed...

When you share a cab with someone, it is customary to split the fare, but since we were family and heading to the same location, I picked up the check. I had a lot of extra money for this trip because I wasn't expecting the majority of the expenses to be paid for by my Dad/his company. Jenny and I enjoyed the brief time that we rode in the back of this yellow beast, and I was amazed at how fast he got us to Central Park. Now I completely understand how Samuel L. Jackson was able to get across town in 17 minutes in Die Hard 3. It's not hard, you just have to drive like a maniac.