I LOVE working a guide dog.  Even though I am a good cane traveler, my worst day with a guide dog is exponentially better than my best days with my cane, especially in unfamiliar places.  I need to remind myself of this, even as I realize that we are all – dog, husband, myself – slightly overwhelmed by all the sights, smells, people, and new experiences.  We will get into a groove, and it WILL get better… and it did… culminating in what might be a legendary story for the trip.

One thing that I have noticed while I have been here – and the couple of other American cities that I have been in – is that people will not necessarily reach out and pet Jenny (though I have gotten that), but they will stare at her.  This does freak her out, and ultimately puts me on edge.  It’s just a weird quirk that I have noticed here.

We purchased the New York Pass at a discount months ago, because almost everything we wanted to do was included in the pass, and it would save us a ton of money while letting us do things we might not otherwise wish to fork over admission fees for.  Since Ben and I both love boats, we decided to take advantage of the All-day Access Pass for the New York Water Taxi, but since it was running on a 90-minute schedule we decided not to get off the boat, but just take pictures from the windows and the decks.  We got pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, and learned a lot of cool facts about new York City – like if Brooklyn were to break away and become its own city, it would be the 4th largest city in the world.

Me and Jenny at Pier 45

Looks kind of like Vancouver’s Sea bus, but different

The main immigration hub for decades until jet travel

First transportation after Ellis Island

Bring me your tired, your weak etc.

Jenny didn’t like the boat much, which ultimately culminated in our disembarking, going down the dock, and her leading me smack into a door frame.  We had a little “chat” about this, the Halti went on her nose, and on we went to the Intrepid.

The Intrepid was a cool experience, not only because it was, well, the Intrepid, but because they had a completely accessible guidebook.  If I had gone completely by myself, I had tactile maps that would have enabled me to both navigate the museum and learn about the exhibits.  In addition to the tactile maps, there was a pen that I assume read bar-codes in the book, which would let you trace the map and find out where you are, and read you the signs by the exhibits as well.  I have never seen anything so instantly accessible to me in my life, and I didn’t have to even ask for it!  The admissions crew mentioned it to us… I wish more museums had such awesome services!

Facing the bow of the ship

The original ship’s bell

Super awesome accessible map book

After the Intrepid and lunch, we had some time to kill, so we went down Broadway and did some souvenir shopping.  We talked to one shopkeeper who told me the rent for the Subway sandwich shop around the corner – half his store’s size – was $28,000 a month.  Our mouths just fell open!  We couldn’t imagine such high rents for anything!

Since we still had time, we went to Discovery Times Square, where we took a quick look at the Body Worlds exhibit.  I remember when it came to Edmonton, and there were protests and boycots… I can’t remember why, and now that I have gone to the exhibit myself, I don’t understand the major protest fuss… it’s bodies; we all have them, we all should learn about them and what we do to them and how they break down.

Then we got insanely lost trying to find our tour guide for Inside Broadway tours (we did find him).  Tom, our guide, was terrific!  He laughed with us, at us, cracked jokes, did some awesome singing, and even got to say hi to Jenny, who I took off harness at the end of the tour… she went NUTS playing “Doggie for Mayor”.

Jenny with Tom and me

The show we’re seeing on Tuesday is playing here.

I think here might be a good time to explain about the traffic here… IT IS NUTS!  At some spots – both before and on our tour – we had to jaywalk, squeeze between cars, or do other insanely crazy things that go against all instincts for self-preservation.  Jenny was NOT comfortable with this, even at one point trying seriously hard to pull me down the street and over to the corner.

Even before the Broadway tour, our feet started to HURT!  We decided to be lazy, went back to our B&B, and ordered Chinese food while Jenny passed out on the floor… but the day wasn’t done!

I am either brave, foolish, or some combination thereof, but I purchased a ticket for Jazz at Kitano for the Friday night show.  Ben is not a jazz fan, so I decided to go alone.  I looked up the train route on the MTA web site, and hoped and prayed I wouldn’t get too lost walking from 42 St to Park Avenue… my friends have told me that I am brave, so I’ll go with brave… but I didn’t feel brave at all!

That walk started off badly.  Jenny seems to struggle finding the corner near our B&B, so I walked several blocks while listening (and doubting) my GPS tell me that I was on the wrong street, so we went back and had to find the corner, which we ultimately did.  The rest of the trip to the Subway went off without a hitch; Jenny even took me directly to a box where I could swipe my card, and we JUST made it on the train.

I started to get nervous once I got off the train at 42nd street, but Jenny got me to the steps.  We got a bit disoriented, but I heard someone use the door to get toward street-level, so I directed her that way.  We made it up to W 40 St entrance, and we were off and walking.  The crowds, even at 9:30 at night, were HUGE – partygoers, tourists, even young kids.  Jenny nearly effortlessly guided me through them, around them, beside them.  I kept on walking until I got to W 38 St, which is where I thought I needed to be… and we walked, and walked, and walked.  I started to get nervous when we passed where I thought we should be, because my GPS kept on telling me we were going to go to E 38 St… but I decided, trust the dog, trust the GPS, ASK PEOPLE!

I did end up making it without incident, and squeezed in to the show just before it started.  The staff at the Kitano was incredibly attentive without being invasive, asking how they could assist… it was a wonderful experience!

I ended up sitting with a friend of Scott albertson, leader of the band.  The club was VERY anti-talking during performance, so we chatted a bit between songs.  The jazz was blues-influenced, with old standards and new interpretations.  As a special guest, a young girl played the piano on one song, and the saxophonist came back from the first set to stick around and play with her on the second one – she is 12 years old and plays the piano wonderfully!  The whole show was a great experience, including birthdays and that Robbie Burns song that you sing every New Years Eve and can’t get out of your head.

Turned out that all the people sitting at the table beside me were either band members or friends and family related to them.  They heard my story about walking from Times Square, thought I was sooooooo brave, and said that Scott would give me a ride back to the hotel.  I SO accepted, and wound up riding back with half the band!  Jenny was a big hit at well, staying calmly (asleep?) during the whole performance, but she did say hi when we got to the hotel.

We all fell into bed, exhausted after a day that didn’t start out so great (I have a massive bump on my forehead to prove that), that ended up terrific.  And now… for tomorrow!

We got up early this morning and prepared to face the day, unpacked the rest of our things, drank Ben’s kick-you-in-the-teeth coffee, and had breakfast in the cafe at our B&B – I enjoyed the waffle-iron frittata, and Ben loved the French toast.  We could have spent hours talking to Kipp (our innkeeper), who has had many careers – actor, furniture maker, playhouse owner, and probably a zillion other things we haven’t gotten to yet.  I honestly think I could spend a month talking to him about life experiences, from Hurricane Sandy to building furniture to thoughts on pride of residence… oh, wait, we did that this morning!

We left Jenny in the room to rest and recover for an hour or so, so that we could locate the Subway stop(s) closest to our B&B.  We got our Metro cards, and decided to take a train ride just for fun.  We took the E train to Penn Station, and got off to see where Madison Square Gardens is, and fulfilled our desire for hot dogs from a street vendor.  I got a chili dog that leaked everywhere, no matter how straight I held it… thankfully we had a ton of napkins!  Then we picked up a couple things from a pharmacy, which is where we heard our funny quote of the day.  I keep forgetting that American money includes pennies, and I made a comment about that; the cashier was surprised that we didn’t have pennies.  Ben showed her a toonie and told her it was worth $2 in Canada.  Her response was priceless: “That’s $2? Here, that’s a souvenir!”

We made our way back to our B&B, called friends and families to wish them merry Christmas, rested a bit, and then Ben went out to take some pictures.

New World Train Centre skyline

Greenwich Street facing south from Canal Street in black-and-white

We have been looking forward to a holiday lights and movie sites bus tour since we first heard about it.  The normal meeting spot was closed today, but we met up with Max, our tour guide, across the street, after enjoying lamb gyros and pretzels from street vendors for dinner.

Cool globe at Columbus Circle

Poor Max has a hideous Christmas sweater!

It was an interesting way to see the city, but unfortunately traffic in some areas was insane, Jenny decided the little tiny spaces on the bus floors were GREAT for scavenging (aided by a spilled bag of jellybeans), there were too crying babies on the bus, and Max (our tour guide) only have a finite number of movies and trivia questions to choose from to fill the time.  We ended up at Macy’s, where Ben took this great picture of the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building in Christmas Colours

We caught the train from Penn Station, where thankfully Jenny had mostly gotten over her case of the munchies (thank goodness for the Halti!!!) and arrived back at our B&B, where we are planning tomorrow’s itinerary.  On the docket?  New York Water Taxi, The Intrepid, and the Inside Broadway Tour!  This will be our first time using our new York Passes, which (according to our calculations, will get us in to see a ton of attractions we are either too inexperienced or cheap to take advantage of without it 🙂

Well, we arrived at our B&B about two hours ago, and are both absolutely exhausted!  Even on the best of days, air travel is exhausting for many people… we are both wiped, feel disgusting, and really just wanted the opportunity to sprawl as much as possible.

In preparation for this trip, we purchased MuttMuffs for Jenny, as the past couple of trips she has not been a great traveler.  We won a contest that provided us with two Roam Mobility Sim cards so that we can call and be reached while we are here, and we made sure we had talk, text and data plans at the ready so that we can keep in touch with friends and family.  And exchanging money? Yeeeeesh! I have never in my life had to fold money before; Canadian money includes Loonies ($1 coins) and toonies ($2 coins), and the new $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills are made of a plastic-feeling material that includes braille symbols that can help someone who is visually impaired identify their money immediately (even our previous currency had these markings).  Here, the money is paper, with no markings, and the smell gives me a contact high (is it the ink?)  Thankfully, I have folded my bills into cool different shapes which thankfully were not held up at the airport…

I have mixed feelings about traveling in airports with my guide dog, but thankfully Jenny has matured sufficiently in the past six months, and handled security with the professionalism she possesses.  Our first flight, to Denver, was a bit of a gong show; we sat very close to the front of the plane, and Jenny was very very cold.  Even though I used her jacket as a blanket, it was still too cold, too confined or too loud for her on the plane, and she nearly vibrated the whole flight.

Once getting to Denver, we had a bit of a problem.  Jenny was giving me all the signals that she needed to go outside, but the animal relief area was both outside security and at the far end of another terminal, and we only had less than 1.5 hours to get to our next flight (cane users thankfully don’t ever have to deal with this…).  I tried to improvise a “pee-pad” in a bathroom, and she wouldn’t go… she turned around in circles and just sat down; I could see the wheels turning in her head, thinking “Well, this is a very very bad idea…”  This ultimately resulted in a dog that desperately had to relieve, no where to do it, and a hope and a prayer – or several – that the 3.5-hour flight ahead would be as uneventful at the end as it was at the beginning.

But I didn’t need to worry; the plane departed and landed on time… and without incident.  There were several extra seats, so we did a little bit of musical seats amongst our row, which enabled Jenny to have the space in front of two seats – mine and the one in the middle!  I know some people who wouldn’t accept this, but why cut off my nose to spite my face?  And anyone who is not sure their dog will benefit from MuttMuffs – they have earned their keep FOR SURE!  Jenny used to always sit up and squirm during takeoff and landing… today, NOTHING!

We landed at Newark, and Jenny was pulling SO hard on the harness – a typical “take me out now!” sign.  Thankfully, there was an exit door right by the baggage carousel where we found a great patch of grass for her to happily answer nature’s call.  As soon as that was done, she was a very very very calm dog, taking me back to my husband, who unfortunately ripped an unimportant zipper on our duffel bag when carrying it off the carousel.

Then… the organized chaos of the Passenger Pickup area of Newark Airport.  It was honestly crazy… there were attendants constantly yelling “If you’re not dropping off or picking up, get out of the way!” and I could tell that this had been said multiple times every day.  We chatted up one of the attendants, and he said that he uttered that phrase “all day, everyday.”  Our hired car picked us up and got us to our B&B, talking about driving in the city, his homeland (India), asking questions about Canada.  My favorite line – just based on his tone – was “I don’t like the south of India… it is WAY too hot! (emphatically) I am from the north! (quickly)”  I doubt I can adequately convey the humor of it, but it was just so priceless!  In the 30 minutes in his car, I heard more horn-honking than I do in a month back home.

Upon arrival at our B&B, we were met by the innkeepers, Kipp and Margo.  Once we got inside and started to settle, the first thing they asked was if they could say hi to Jenny.  Normally I wouldn’t, be OK with this, but Jenny had been in work mode for 12 hours straight, including air travel, so I took off her harness and let her go.  She ran up the stairs and played “Doggie for Mayor”, promptly endearing herself.

Since then, we’ve ordered and eaten New York-style pizza – unfortunately the delivery driver didn’t want to accept our groupon, but did in the end – watched cheesy game shows, and unpacked our suitcase.  Jenny is now fast asleep on her blanket on the floor beside my bed, and we will live to face our first full day in New York City!