<p>
</p>
<p>But you can still pay as much or as little as you like, even in the “full price” lines. At least, I didn’t have any trouble paying less at the Met the last time I was there. When did this change go into effect?</p>
<p>Best free entertainment in NYC: walking. It’s one of the world’s great walking cities. Lots of great walks: Tribeca/Battery Park, Downtown/Financial District, Greenwich Village/East Village, SoHo, Chinatown/Little Italy, Garment District, Chelsea, Midtown, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, etc., etc. Gallery-hopping is also great free entertainment if you’re into that sort of thing, and it takes you to some interesting corners of the city. The Flower District, W. 28th St between Avenues of the America’s and 7th Ave is a riot of fresh foliage—and free to look at! </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/nyregion/28stop.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/nyregion/28stop.html</a></p>
<p>Some museums also have free or pay-what-you-wish days or evenings:</p>
<p>Friday: MOMA (free 4-8 pm), Whitney Museum of American Art (6-9 pm pay-what-you-wish), Morgan Library and Museum (free 7-9 pm)</p>
<p>Saturday: Jewish Museum (free all day), Guggenheim (5:45-7:45 pm pay-what-you-wish)</p>
<p>Sunday: Frick (11 am-1 pm pay-what-you-wish)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.goldstar.com%5B/url%5D”>www.goldstar.com</a> offers free membership and lots of free or extremely cheap events from music to museums to comedy</p>
<p>Just checked the weather, and now the highs will be in the low 60s. The weather looks absolutely gorgeous. But this is difficult weather to pack for. Hmmm.</p>
<p>Don’t overpack or overdress. I definitely don’t think you will need a long coat if the forecast is correct but I do think you might want to keep your neck protected from NYC breezes in some way. I went in to the city for a short museum and walking visit today. It was not as warm as it is expected to be this weekend but still pretty mild. I was very comfortable in worn-out and thus lightweight corduroy pants, cotton turtleneck, lightweight poor-quality cashmere cardigan (buttoned) and lightweight cashmere-blend blazer. Lots of people wearing jeans, clogs, all sorts of outwear, and so on (as usual).</p>
<p>I would have wanted to wear a lined raincoat tonight if I had to walk outdoors. It has been raining and was windy this evening.</p>
<p>Weather forecasts in the NY metro area have been astonishingly inaccurate the last couple of week but for now there is supposedly a 0 to 10 percent chance of rain for the next few days. But who knows.</p>
<p>binx, remember to leave room in your suitcase for your purchases!</p>
<p>Ha! I’ve actually thought about that. Don’t really expect to buy anything, but isn’t that when you find the perfect whatsit? I’m taking a bit of snack food in my suitcase - either to stave off my own hunger, or to leave with S. And I figure I will at least have that bit of room coming home.</p>
<p>If worst comes to worst and I need to bring a lot more home with me, I can buy a cheap cardboard suitcase - I’ve done that before. I even think that the Buddy Passes will let us check a bag without charge.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve packed: black dress pants and dark blue jeans. Assortment of tops - light weight sweaters and knits, long white blouse, a tank and a dressy tee if there’s a heat wave. Probably double what I need, but I just can’t decide! Black Clarks. Will wear either my brown dress pants or my brown jeans - can’t decide. Will wear them on both travel days. Jeans are more comfortable, but dress pants look nicer. Will wear brown Oxfords. Considering tossing my brown trendy Sketchers in the suitcase - but 3 pairs of shoes for 5 days seems silly. </p>
<p>Will carry my new black trenchcoat. It seems really heavy now, but it will be great against the wind. (Will look for a nice scarf in NYC.) I’m repacking the contents of my little purse into a larger purse, and will put a cloth shopping bag in it as someone recommended above, to carry my coat when I don’t need to wear it.</p>
<p>I have such a long list of things to do today - including printing out my booklet of all your tips!</p>
<p>binx, have a great time!</p>
<p>Echoing the previous poster–have a great trip and enjoy the city (and your son’s company too of course).</p>
<p>And tell us all about it when you get back home!</p>
<p>You know I will!!!</p>
<p>We’re waiting…</p>
<p>(Just joking…assume you’ve been busy…hope the trip went OK)</p>
<p>What an awesome trip!</p>
<p>I had no idea NYC had such beautiful weather. Absolutely gorgeous every single day.</p>
<p>Day 1: Flew stand-by. Got on flight, but just barely. Good flight, though. Got to hotel at 2:00 - they let us check in early. Stayed at Comfort Inn Midtown. It was a very nice hotel - Great breakfast every morning, too. </p>
<p>We called our S from the airport, and he said to come to his apt and he’d fix us lunch. We were between subway stations, so we decided to walk up to 50th. But the uptown portion was closed. So we walked further, up to 59th - and on weekends there are no uptown trains there, either! Argh. So we took a downtown train to 42nd street, but we took a “wrong” train, and had to go several blocks over to get an uptown train. It took us a long time to get there! At that point, we decided to go ahead and buy a weekly pass, since it seemed our “track record” 
wasn’t going to be too good.</p>
<p>For lunch, S fixed us ramen noodles with a can of chicken and frozen veggies, and garlic bread. And for dessert, mashed banana with cinnamon. He gets his cooking skills from me. 
It was good!</p>
<p>He served us in random dishes, partially melted by the dishwasher. I taught him how to turn off the heat dry function.</p>
<p>He had a gig that night, so H and I went to the Guggenheim. Saturday nights are “pay what you want.” The line stretched half-way around the block, but moved fairly quickly. We paid $5 for the two of us. Most of the students were giving a dollar. The man in front of us laid a coin on the counter. So we felt generous!</p>
<p>The exhibit was Kandinsky. It was interesting, but it was also interesting watching the people examining the works, and listening to various conversations about the pieces. The museum itself is great for modern art because you can see the pieces up close, then go up a half a level (round the spiral) and see them from a distance. We especially enjoyed the permanent exhibit of famous pieces, though. And we were intrigued by the piece called “Memory.” It was a huge rusted-steel oval shaped piece (looked like a submarine) that filled the entire room - wall to wall and floor to ceiling. So you could only see it through various openings. The idea was that you can never see a memory completely and totally at once, and looks different from different vantage points. One spot opened even to the interior, which was very dark and faded away to nothingness!</p>
<p>There was another exhibit that looked like a spill of gray sludge, with the rag still there. A whole room for it. Really ugly, and I didn’t “get” it. H said they have to warn every new janitor to not clean it up. My cynical self wondered how much they paid for it.</p>
<p>We walked back to the hotel along 5th Avenue. [Edit: No - I forgot! We walked all the way down to 34th to go to KMart. Bought S some shelves for his apartment (he has piles and piles everywhere). H commented that KMart was pretty empty. I said, "Who goes to Manhattan to go to KMart on a Saturday night?]</p>
<p>(Day 2 up next! But my saga is not going to be as thrilling as Oaklandmom’s trip!)</p>
<p>Day 2: Met S for church at 9:15. I love his church. Music this day was with a brass quintet (including a couple from the NY Phil. No dearth of talent in NYC.) Interesting sermon on what it means to be wealthy.</p>
<p>From church, S left to practice, and we went to the “Pay what you want” at the Frick. No lines here. Another impressive collection. Vermeer, Turner, Van Dyke. S met up with us toward the end.</p>
<p>We walked to a little restaurant a few blocks away, where we met up with VeryHappy and her darling H who is undoubtably the source of her name! They drove some distance just to meet up. We ate outside - such a beautiful sunny day. S thought they were really nice, and they thought S was “adorable”.</p>
<p>After lunch, S had a rehearsal, and we went back to the hotel to rest. Then S met up with us, and we took his new shelves to his apartment and helped him set them up. Got my weekend call into D, and referreed some sibling teasing between her and S. We ate supper at a great little deli near his apt. Huge subs for $5. </p>
<p>Day 3: We spent the morning walking around China Town. We bought D a parasol, and bought S some china bowls to augment his melted plastic ones. Rested a bit at the hotel, then spent the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History. Except we accidentally took an express train, and went way past our stop. So we had to take a second train the other direction. So glad we got the weekly pass! To compensate for the mistake, we were entertained by a couple break-dancers on the train, doing amazing things in a tiny space. </p>
<p>H had never been to that museum (I was there when I was 11 or so). My feet were in agony, so I spent a lot of time on benches while H looked around. We met up with S at a pizza shop for dinner. Ate outside again - like being in Germany - with much more traffic.</p>
<p>Day 4: We went to the MOMA gift shops in the morning. What fun! Bought S a poster for his bare walls. [MoMA</a> Store - Boccioni: Dynamism of a Soccer Player](<a href=“http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Boccioni:%20Dynamism%20of%20a%20Soccer%20Player_10451_10001_49713_-1_11508_11509_null_shop_]MoMA”>http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Boccioni:%20Dynamism%20of%20a%20Soccer%20Player_10451_10001_49713_-1_11508_11509_null_shop_)</p>
<p>Met S for lunch at Olympic Flame restaurant, a fav of S’s. Went to the subway station to go up a few blocks, and accidentally ended up on a downtown train instead. Still not sure how that happened. We followed the signs for uptown… Three times we took wrong trains!</p>
<p>Walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum. S recommended the cross-town bus, but it was a shame to not be outdoors in this weather. The museum was huge! We focused mainly on the American/European artists, and the European sculpture. Also saw the Vermeer “Milkmaid” currently on loan there. H explored a few more areas, like the Samurai collection, while I sat on a bench and massaged my feet.</p>
<p>Back to the hotel to rest a bit prior to S’s recital. Recital was amazing. S did such a fantastic job with a difficult program. We were so happy to be there for it. We met his teacher and some of his friends. We also met a man who teaches music at an inner city school. S goes there each week to teach a student. The teacher brought that student and his brother. We were impressed with the teacher’s dedication! </p>
<p>We took a group of S’s friends back to the Olympic Flame for dessert afterward. S seemed happy - pleased with his performance and relieved that it was over. He met us early the next morning for breakfast, and hailed us a cab to take us back to the airport. Came home to wind and rain, courtesy of Ida. We really had a great time in NYC. Thank you for all your tips and insight, which helped us so much. </p>
<p>I’m sure I’m leaving important stuff out. Need to go start reclaiming my routine.</p>
<p>It sounds like a wonderful trip; thank you for sharing it.</p>
<p>Weather was unusually nice for Nov last weekend…so you were very fortunate.</p>
<p>You really did a lot. Congrats on what sounds like a wonderful trip…and there’s still more to do when you come back in the spring!</p>
<p>So nice to hear about your trip— as a long-time New Yorker, it’s refreshing to hear a visitor’s perspective. And the lunch your son made you — so thoughtful and adorable!</p>
<p>What a great trip Binx! Glad to hear your son is doing well. We are taking an audition trip to NYC in January (making it a mini vacation too) and will use some of your entertainment suggestions. FYI, I have taken that Express train past the Museum of NH too. How embarassing but we were not the only ones that time either.</p>