Holiday in NYC 2013
Matt Seinberg

Every year or so, we like to take the train into New York City and see the holiday sites, like the tree in Rockefeller Center, Macy's display windows, and Times Square. The day was a little chilly, but with everyone bundled up, we got on the train.

Marcy and I always pay full fare for the train, but for the girls I buy the kids fare, which is only $2 round trip. However, that's only for children up to 12, and mine are 13 and 18. We also took Michelle's boyfriend with us, who is almost 17. There was no problem on the trip into the city, but on the way back, they got a conductor who must have been in a bad mood, because he asked their ages and charged them the full fare. Of course, I had to pay them back. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Penn Station was a madhouse, and we couldn't wait to get out of there. Seventh Avenue wasn't much better, and we had to make a quick stop at Citibank to get some cash. I also had to call my radio friend, Art Vuolo, to talk to him about a project we are working on. Marcy kept trying to rush me off the phone so we could hit the mean streets of Manhattan again.

We made good time to Times Square, and I got to take some really good pictures. The Hershey Store looked amazing from the outside, what with the neon and big screens showing all the brand logos. We stopped in the M&M Store, as Melissa wanted to get one of her favorite flavors, Dark Chocolate Raspberry. She ended up spending over $8, and most of them are gone a day later. You can imagine how happy her mother was with that.

The next stop was Rockefeller Center, which always has a wonderfully decorated holiday tree. Michelle and Ryan wanted a picture in front of the tree, so I took that. Then I wanted a family picture in front of it, but Ryan couldn't figure out the camera, so a very nice, attractive blonde woman took it, and then I took one for her family. I'm sorry I didn't get one of them with my camera.

We then parted ways with the teenagers, and hopped on the subway at 50th Street to go down to the Chelsea Market at 14th Street. There was no way we were going to walk 36 blocks in the cold.

Have you ever tried to navigate the New York Subway system? Even though I had an app on my phone telling me where to go, it doesn't tell you to go on the other side and downstairs. You actually have to read signs to get to the right place. After that, it's easy.

We make it to Chelsea in good time, and find the market right away. From the outside, it looks big, but inside it's small. It reminded me of the Quincy Market, in Boston, but not as big. I thought there would be more food stalls, with lots of goodies.

The Food Network is located in this building. Unfortunately, there were no scheduled tours at this time. It would have been fun to see where many of our favourite shows record.

We left Chelsea and walked to Eighth Avenue, hoping to find a good place to eat. I wanted to go to Patsy's Pizzeria on 23rd Street, where we had eaten previously, but Marcy wanted something different. We passed the Chelsea Square Restaurant and decided to stop there. The food was okay, not great.

From there we walked back to Herald Square and ventured in to Macy's, at Herald Square. It was crazy! Marcy wanted to visit The Cellar, which is all household stuff. Luckily, they also had bathrooms down there. I must say, for such a nice store, the men's room was awful. The sinks were cracked, tiles on the walls and floors were also cracked and it wasn't clean.

It was so crowded I couldn't wait to get outside. We took that time to look at the display windows, which were truly wonderful. The windows on 34th Street told the story of Virginia and her letter to the newspaper asking if Santa was real, and the 6th Avenue windows were all about a boys dream about the holidays.

It was almost time to get back to Penn Station, so I texted Michelle and told her to meet us at the Dunkin' Donuts upstairs. When we got down to the railroad, the gate was packed. This was the last off peak train, and everyone wanted to get home.

We found seats, and collapsed into them drinking our coffee. When I got home, all I wanted to do was relax, and put the heating pad around my aching knees. It was a long day, but everyone had a good time. Maybe next year we'll plan a little better and catch a Broadway matinee, with half price tickets from the TKTS booth in Times Square.