I’ve been down in the DC area for 8 years now, which is about 5 longer than I’d expected, and I use visits by family and friends to give me a refresher course in what needs to be seen around here. In DC it’s real easy to become inured to things that are such icons to so many people…I ride my bike past Iwo Jima and Arlington Cemetery all the time, and try to stop every once in a while and just sit/walk/chill.

I have a standard loop I take visitors on when they come down. G’town for the sights/food/beer, then down along the Lincoln Memorial where the crowds are, to the FDR memorial which is outta the way a bit, where the breadline statues remind you of the hardship that weighed on our older relatives, but never quite crushed them. Then the WW2 memorial, which reminds you of what finally dragged people out of their Hoovervilles, but at the expense of so damn many.

Makes you realize that times are tough, but man oh man, they have been much worse back in the day. So, long as you’re from somewhere, or you live somewhere, there’s plenty to do and see that don’t cost a buck, and you can always take advantage and look back someday and say, “I’ve been there- it’s great.”

Been: Ziegfeld Theater (coolest place to catch a movie). Intrepid (before it was refurbished). South Street Seaport.

[46] Carnegie Deli. Pastrami sandwich on toasted rye, with mustard. Sandwich about the size of Barry Bonds’s head. Amazing.

I’d love to actually retrace some of the old Revolutionary War stops, going all the way up to Kips Bay in the Bronx, where George Washington made his borderline suicide ride, as David McCullough so vividly describes in “1776.”

Great post, Alex.

One place I absolutely have to check out is the “new” Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse here in the Bronx. To think that sooo much history took place there and it became a boarded-up rat hole (you could smell it every time you walked by) for years before someone finally restored it, wowzers…

the Guggenheim, Shea (too late now!), the Apollo, Carnegie Deli, Flatiron Bldg..

on last trip though I DID get to see (allegedly) the spot where John Gotti had one his henchmen garroted for some small infraction..in Bay Ridge Brooklyn at this old Mom & Pop hardware store, the owner (somewhere between 75 and 690 years old) told me that the vacant lot rond the corner was a favorite spot for John Gotti to “take care of things”..know idea if he was pulling my leg or not but loved hearing the stories..

this thread makes me miss NYC!

These are in no particular order, but you get the idea…

Accumulate vacation time
Rent black Cadillac DTS with heated and cooled seats for seven days – $500 [User rating: Wow!³ Nobody hits or stops a Caddy!]
Drive from home in Nashville to Times Square and check into Comfort Inn (14 hours) – $2200 [User rating: Trip was fine and without incident. Small room, but recently remodeled, clean and very comfortable.]
Park next door for the week – $350 [User rating: Not as bad as I thought it would be]
Carnegie Deli – We ate there throughout the week. Ordering To-Go rules all! – $200 [User rating: Wow!³]
St. Patrick’s Cathedral – Free [User rating: Wow!³ It's spectacular, with Faith or without! Must See]
Spamalot on Broadway – $250 [User rating: “It’s only a model.” Wow!³]
Peter Luger’s – $225 [User rating: Meh, don’t bother! I can get a better steak at home. Mantle’s is superior.]
Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island – $100 [User rating: Big Green Lady on well kept island / Must See]
Empire State Building – $100 [User rating: Expensive and no access to very top, but 88 floors is still way the hell up there and amazing! Also, Must See]
Mickey Mantle’s – $250 [User rating: Wow!³ Must See]
Peking Duck House – $225 [User rating: Wow!³]
Visit wife’s “home office” in Elmwood Park, New Jersey – Free [User rating: You gotta do what ya gotta do…]
Yogi Berra Museum – $20 [User rating; Wow!³ Must See]
Museum of Natural History (They had no roller-skate rentals…) – $100 [User rating: T-Rexes and Stegosauruses sure were big! Wow!]
Tavern on the Green – $300 [User rating: Wow!³ Must See]
New York Yankees versus Baltimore Orioles – $120 [User ratings: Yankee Stadium and Monument Park – Wow!³ Must See/ New York Yankees – Bleh!]
Gas – $300
Cabs – $200 [User rating: Great with open windows, not so great without]
Subway – $50 [User rating: Wow!²]

Total $5K reimbursed to wife for visit to “home office” in New Jersey – [User rating: Wow!³]

No rain, no mess, no violence, no traffic (NYC is cake compared to Atlanta, L.A., and Miami), and no worries, but Joe Torre and the Yankees stunk! I challenge anyone who has never been (hell even you locals) to do better than that during a week in Manhattan!

“Always look on the bright side of life!” Insert appropriate whistle here…

Diane, I’ve been to Studio 54, but to see a Broadway show, not back in the disco days.

How true, how true….

I’ve been to the Bronx and C.P.Zoos, Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, and both versions of Yankee Stadium and at least two versions of Madison Square Garden.
I’ve skated at Rockefeller Center (native New Yorker – a Christmas routine with my younger DD.) and Wollman Memorial (different name now?).
Played hide ‘ n’ go seek in the Museum of Natural History and saw each monthly show at the Hayden Planetarium for years. Been many times to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, Whitney, Guggenheim and Frick. Also the NY Historical Society, Crafts Museum, and the old Museum of Science and Industry.
Been to the 1939 and 1964-5 World’s Fairs, the old Thalia theater – the only place where foreign films were shown when I was younger, the Empire State and WTC observation Towers. also, Radio City Musical Hall many times, Birdland, Basin Street, Blue Note, the Vanguard, but not the Apollo.
Climbed all the stairs 3 times at the Statue of Liberty (twice as a kid, once when guiding DD and English visitor).
Took a curtain call at Lincoln Center concert hall (a story in itself!)
That’s (more than?) enough for now.

(Yep, I’m a nerd …. but I’m cute, funny and know some baseball)

(psst …. more cat pictures please Alex)

I haven’t been to the ORIGINAL City Hall subway station … the one at the loop of the Brooklyn Bridge Lex stop … the one they only allow you to see on those subway museum tours.

THAT’S what I really wanna see.
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?5:979

(yup …. I’m a subway geek too)

Since I arrived in this country after the event, I watched the Bucky Dent 1978 game. It was still exciting 20 years later.

And I have never been to Radio City.