Saturday, August 04, 2007

Touring the City


Jake and Mariah had requested that their visit to the farm be accompanied by a trip to New York City. As unqualified for the position of New York City tourguide as I think that I am, I became the designated appointee for this trip. I am not sure that I gave a tour, but I can say that we successfully ate a good lunch (important!), took a ferry to Staten Island to show off Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, navigated the very hot subway system to see the Empire State Building, ran up 5th Avenue to St. Patrick's Cathedral and ran back down Park Avenue to make it on the train for the return trip home. A tour guide should do more than say, "Look, there is the Empire State Building." But the only detail that I thought I might venture about the objects of our viewing was the chemistry of oxidation of copper on the Statue of Liberty. I decided that was not of general interest. Another good indication that I was not created to be a NYC tour guide is demonstrated by the fact that instead of walking backward to face my tourists, I led the way while Caleb held onto my skirt (it was a little hot for holding hands).

While the sights were classic, the element of deepest interest for my tourists were the people. Particularly unique were the subway preachers that accompanied our subway cars for the ride and said really loud things like, "This train is n'ending, but there's another train a'coming."